Gloria Allred : L'avocate des Femmes

I went into this doc with trepidation because I had always considered Gloria Allred to be a brash, loud-mouthed feminist, who had nothing to say that didn't make her money.

Unlike at least one reviewer here, I can admit to being wrong AFTER actually watching the film. Gloria Allred is a fighter, and yes, she does appear on TV a lot, but there is a deeper purpose in it. She is laser focused on women's rights and getting her message out to the general public, so that change can be achieved.

The documentary takes us through Gloria's fight and even some of her early life, but you can tell by watching that she doesn't really consider herself part of the story. As I said, LASER-focused on other women.

To be honest, it's stunning to me that Allred is still very necessary in 2018 America, but she clearly is. Anyone who can look objectively at what's happened in and to the country in the past two years knows that. There are some that won't see it and that's to their detriment. Truth truly does set us free!

So, no matter what you currently feel about Gloria Allred, watch this doc. It was well worth my time, is well put together, and I can almost guarantee that if your opinion of her has been formed from listening to others, your opinion will be changed.

'SEEING ALLRED': Four Stars (Out of Five)

A documentary about woman's rights attorney Gloria Allred, and her continuous battle for equality. The film follows her as she relentlessly takes on powerful personalities in pop culture, as sexual assault allegations in the media become more and more frequent. It was directed by Roberta Grossman and Sophie Sartain, and it stars Allred. The feature is also yet another original Netflix release, on it's streaming site. I found it to be a well made and effective documentary.

Gloria Allred is a women's rights attorney who's famous for taking on rich men in powerful positions (often celebrities), and defending the women their accused of violating. She was born in Philadelphia, into a Jewish family, and became interested in the civil rights movement as a graduate student at New York University. Her legal career has spanned four decades, and this movie focuses (especially) on her attempts to take down Bill Cosby.

The film was pretty educational for me. I had heard of Gloria Allred, but I didn't know that much about her prior to watching this movie. I really respect her passion and conviction for such an important cause, and I think the film does a pretty good job of illustrating how affective she's been for the women's rights movement. It's definitely worth a watch if you're interested in the subject.

Far too reverential a treatment for one of the most monstrous people in American public life, a rabid ideologue grown wealthy and famous through the exploitation of the real and imagined suffering of others.

The film is well made in every department but asks none of the difficult questions you'd want to see asked, never once scratching the surface, accepting the narrative and worldview presented by Allred as the only one possible, and so ends up being little more than a journalistic puff piece and largely pointless. The only questioning voices came from three-second long clips of Allred's cartoon depictions in The Simpsons and South Park.

In 2018, the presentation of oneself as a victim is the surest path to power, money, and fawning adoration, and Allred has this down herself impeccably. But both on an individual and societal level, this is a terrible way to live, and the identity politics she is ticking the boxes of at every opportunity throughout this documentary is eating away at both our culture and our future like a cancer.

There is a great documentary waiting to be made addressing the hysteria and insanity western society is presently consumed by, and the role played by Allred and her ilk in both initiating and exacerbating that hysteria, but this sadly is not it.

The tone of reverence for Allred lost me 30 minutes in... she's a monster.

2/10/18. Watch this. At this time in American history, we all need to be reminded that women like Gloria Allred made it possible for women to be believed and heard and have their day in court. She grew up in a time when women had very little say if something terrible should happen to them. That is the reason why women who were sexually harassed and assaulted never spoke up or reported what happened to them. In this era of #MeToo #TimesUp women and men as well have been empowered to speak up, not just "their" truth, but the truth of horrendous behaviors that left them less of a person. Allred lived through it all, from leaving a marriage to a bipolar man, to being a single mother, then getting raped on a date, getting pregnant and almost dying from a back alley abortion. She took these experiences and made it her mission to make sure women who went through what she went through would be heard, believed and have their day in court. It is people like Allred who made it possible to level the playing field that allowed women to speak up and reveal secrets that have damaged their mental health and lives. Thanks to her, women can finally say #MeToo and #TimesUp. Thank you, Gloria Allred. We need more women like you!