Here’s to the ‘Crazy Ladies’ A new STARZ series reveals the shocking truth of one
A new STARZ series reveals the shocking truth of one woman’s failed fight to expose the Watergate scandal. Why was it so easy for powerful men to dismiss her as “crazy”?
Mail
There is a phrase, in mental health circles, used to describe instances when a patient tells a story so far-fetched, so seemingly delusional, the therapist dismisses it—only to discover later that the patient was telling the truth. They call it “The Martha Mitchell effect.”
Who was Martha Mitchell? One of the first people to publicly blow the whistle on Watergate, before even The Washington Post made history by exposing the scandal. Only, instead of being heard or celebrated, Mitchell—who was married to the head of Richard Nixon’s reelection committee—was widely dismissed as “crazy.”
It’s only now that Mitchell’s tale is set to get the attention it deserves. A new STARZ series, “Gaslit,” starring the A-list likes of Julia Roberts and Sean Penn, retells the male-dominated Watergate story from Mitchell’s perspective, even recounting her claims that she was kidnapped and sedated to keep her from calling the press.
Journalist Ellen Goodman’s 1976 column in defense
of Martha Mitchell
“She saw that it was up to her to tell the truth, and she paid a big price,” said Ellen Goodman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who wrote a fierce column in defense of Mitchell upon her death in 1976, four years after Watergate broke. The column, published in The Washington Post, appeared under the headline “Tribute to a ‘Crazy Lady.’” According to Goodman and her column, the lack of power women held at that time meant those who were brave enough to tell “the wrong truth” were routinely undermined with the word “crazy.”
“There’s a cast of characters like Martha who I think we have to tip our hats to and not just let them go into that good night and be forgotten,” Goodman said.
According to cultural commentators and historians, that cast of characters—”the Crazy Ladies who… refused to stay in their places,” as Goodman’s column has it—dates back much further than the 1970s.
“An image of women as hysterical—emotional, out of control—has been with us for millennia, and has been used to deride women’s opinions and discount their legal testimony,” said Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, professor emerita of History, American Culture, and Women’s Studies with the University of Michigan, and author of the book “Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America.”
Research suggests “hysteria” was the first mental disorder attributed specifically to women—back in the 19th century—though descriptions of women as “crazy” as a result of their hormones and anatomy date back to the second century BC.
It was perhaps only when women began demanding equal treatment in society and under the law that the term “crazy” was more thoroughly weaponized. Case in point: 19th century women who stood up to domineering husbands were frequently “diagnosed” as crazy by the mental health establishment and committed to asylums, ostensibly until they began conforming to more natural, feminine behavior.
Perhaps one of the most famous instances of this was Elizabeth Packard. A 19th century women’s rights advocate, she was confined to an asylum by her husband for, as she put it, defying “all domestic control.” Packard only won her freedom three years later in a landmark legal case, Packard v. Packard.
Martha Mitchell’s story followed an eerily similar narrative around 100 years later. Originally from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, when Mitchell moved to Washington, D.C. with her husband, John—a former law partner of Richard Nixon who went on to be his Attorney General—she quickly became a colorful, beloved character on the social scene (though many did not agree with her highly conservative views). Mitchell frequently dished D.C. gossip to reporters and appeared on talk shows, for which she earned the “affectionate” nickname, the “mouth of the south.”
Julia Roberts and Sean Penn as Martha and John Mitchell in “Gaslit”
But, as “Gaslit” shows, Mitchell’s candor would eventually cost her. When burglars were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters, Mitchell suspected her husband and the president had played a role. She tried alerting the media and was swiftly punished. The public narrative around her abruptly shifted. The Nixon campaign painted her as a mentally unstable alcoholic. They spread rumors that she was crazy.
“Language has power, and stereotypes and other cognitive shortcuts are so baked into how our brains operate that we may not realize how powerful they are,” said Stephanie Shields, Professor Emeritx of psychology and women’s studies at Penn State University. “Crazy,” she said, has long been a thoroughly ingrained and enduring way “to call into question women’s rationality.”
“Language has power, and stereotypes and other cognitive shortcuts are so baked into how our brains operate that we may not realize how powerful they are.”
Stephanie Shields, Professor Emeritx of psychology and
women’s studies at Penn State University
Sadly, using the “crazy” label to undermine women who dare speak truth to power persists, such as in the case of female celebrities who call out powerful men in Hollywood.
But some insist things are now changing for the better.
“One thing that has changed is the prominence of women in the public sphere,” said Smith-Rosenberg.
Casting Julia Roberts as Martha Mitchell suggests that, 50 years after Watergate, Mitchell is finally considered the heroine of her story
Smith-Rosenberg added that, these days, there are simply more female judges, legislators, business leaders and journalists than in previous eras. With more women in positions of power, it is less likely those who speak up will be instantly dismissed. In recent years, women whistleblowers have been at the root of some of the biggest shake ups in government and corporate society. More and more, they are being believed.
Perhaps the biggest indicator that things are changing, Goodman said, is a show like “Gaslit.” Previous cultural expectations of women meant that, “Even when Martha died in 1976, it would have been hard to cast her as a heroine,” Goodman explained. Society at large back then simply wouldn’t have accepted that someone like Martha could be anything other than “crazy” or “ditzy.”
Finally, 50 years after Martha Mitchell tried to lift the lid on the Watergate scandal, she is being cast as the heroine of her story.
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