Mercury 13

Listless and artless and toneless. Nice artwork though.

5/4/18. Interesting to watch, from a historical perspective. it is sad and a tragedy that these women didn't get a chance to go into space because of the sexual discrimination at the time. Reasons for denying them the chance now seem totally preposterous. However, the interviews of these women probably could have been done better.

Interesting documentary. Liberals will be angered at the way these women were treated and inspired by their courage. Far right wing conservatives will be angry because they are knuckle-dragging reactionary maniacs. My takeaway is quite different from both American camps. I can't understand why these women continued to be patriotic to a society that treated them so badly and why they were somewhat disappointed when the first woman in space was Soviet and not American. I also question the sincerity and inclusiveness of the American bourgeois feminist movement. Documentaries like this point out the injustices of the American capitalist system, but they do not question the fundamental injustice of capitalism itself and of America's backward and reactionary nature. The Americans only did anything remotely progressive because the Soviets embarrassed them and they were forced to by their example as well as by burgeoning social movements and organized labor in the US.

This was a brilliant documentary of the Mercury 13. Women who fought to become a part of the NASA astronaut training program but were ultimately denied due to unrealistic standards.

I am a giant space nerd. I have visited every space vehicle museum in the US. And only now did I learn about the Mercury 13. These women. These amazing women who wanted nothing more than a chance. A chance to see space and be a part of the journey.

This documentary is amazing. And if I was a teacher or in charge of education standards I would make every student watch this along with the Mercury 7 story.

What is so wrong with telling the whole story.

****PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU PASS JUDGMENT**** I've said it many times before, if Netflix does anything right, its the incredibly well made original documentaries and docu-series. As a history buff I enjoyed it, as a man raised by a feminist mother I found it harsh and hateful towards men. With incredible historical footage, well structured stories of the bad ass women's early lives and their work as pilots, questions about sexism of the time and how these women faced it. I definitely enjoyed this documentary, but I watched it with a person that had a problem with it. My mother was a bra-burning feminist of the 60's and 70's, and she told me she found the whole description of NASA as "a good old boys club" to be insulting, because she worked with the NASA branch in our city. She told me she found it offensive because the men didn't do this out of hate, that's just how history was, and there no reason to be angry about it, because as the documentary shows these amazing women and how they changed how women were seen in the workforce.

So putting aside the harsh and semi-hateful attitude towards men, as I said, the film, like other Netflix documentaries, is incredibly well paced and put together, you are taken along on a ride through the history of women pilots both civilian and military, from WW2 WASP's to the women in this documentary. The film calls into question the natural sexist state of the 1940's and 50's and how it was changed through the changing perception of what women were capable of. Not only the story was an interesting one, but all the archival footage was truly incredible to watch. From the female WASP's of World War 2, to the women plane racers of the early 50's, to the Space Race of the Cold War. All of the footage was very well preserved and a true treat for this history fan. All in all it was another great Netflix documentary, though some will find the insults about men in NASA to be insulting, like my feminist mother did. But I liked it, a lot!