Netflix's 'Mercury 13' Examines NASA's Early Prejudices
Joey Haar — April 20, 2018 — Pop Culture
References: arstechnica
After the success of the film 'Hidden Figures' and the widespread awareness surrounding the #MeToo movement, Netflix's 'Mercury 13' is a new documentary that delves into some of the women who suffered from longstanding prejudices of the past. The film looks at the 13 female candidates for NASA space missions in the early 60s, striving to understand what prevented them from making history alongside their male counterparts.
Though NASA's astronauts were all men, it's interesting to note that one of Russia's first cosmonaut's was a woman: Valentina Tereshkova. But while the USSR seems to have had relatively forward-thinking ideas about gender, the US was firmly entrenched in a patriarchal ideology, and that is made clear thanks to the interviews and archival footage surfaced throughout Mercury 13.
Image Credit: NASA/Netflix
Though NASA's astronauts were all men, it's interesting to note that one of Russia's first cosmonaut's was a woman: Valentina Tereshkova. But while the USSR seems to have had relatively forward-thinking ideas about gender, the US was firmly entrenched in a patriarchal ideology, and that is made clear thanks to the interviews and archival footage surfaced throughout Mercury 13.
Image Credit: NASA/Netflix
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