Film Review: Netflix’s Mercury 13 Shows The Cosmic Cruelty of Sexism

SYNOPSIS: Mercury 13 is a remarkable story of the women who were tested for spaceflight in 1961 before their dreams were dashed in being the first to make the trip beyond Earth. NASA’s ‘man in space’ program, dubbed ‘Project Mercury’ began in 1958. The men chosen – all military test pilots – became known as The Mercury 7. But away from the glare of the media, behind firmly closed doors, female pilots were also screened. Thirteen of them passed and, in some cases, performed better than the men. They were called the Mercury 13 and had the ‘right stuff’ but were, unfortunately, the wrong gender. Underneath the obsession of the space race that gripped America, the women were aviation pioneers who emerged thirsty for a new frontier, but whose time would have to wait. The film tells the definitive story of thirteen truly remarkable women who reached for the stars but were ahead of their time. A Netflix original documentary directed by David Sington (The Fear of 13) and Heather Walsh.

I said it with Children of A Lesser God, and I say it with Mercury 13; do not be so easily fooled by privileged persons that talk about diversity because, more than likely, their conversation is not moved by conviction and does not lead to action. We saw it most recently with Starbucks, a company that prided itself on starting race conversations, but calls the police on black men waiting for a friend on their premises. Now, you may not see the correlation between these works and situations but I do. Whether it is fear that someone will harm you or fear that they will succeed over you, when you have the power, do you destroy them just to feel safe?

I felt so enraged with Mercury 13 that I cried. I HATE when someone messes with another person’s dreams. In some ways, that is the cruelty of social injustice; it assures that individuals are cut off from achieving their dreams, happiness, and best version of their self because a small difference is treated as a disability. As you watch a group of women supersede tests and build hope off the promise that, if they work hard and do well, they will be included in Project Mercury, you gain a sort of Shakespeare effect; you know the ending, but you really wish it was not so. The 25 women trying for Project 13 did amazing, even better than the “old boys” and went on national television to prove that women no only have minds, but they have visions and desires for themselves. You cheer as they conquer tests and the snide prejudice of men who cannot fathom a FEMALE IN SPACE! Yet, it was all for nothing because they were never going to be included.

I feel like crying while writing this review because, thanks to the perfectly paced and placed images and interviews with the women who ran for Project Mercury, you feel like you are watching the brightest bulbs be extinguished. When you play with someone’s hope, knowing you will do nothing to make it reality, you are 100% cruel. Hence, you feel for Janey Hart and Jerrie Cobb as they try to combat the decision to ostracize them from Project Mercury because they are women. Yet, of course, they are undermined and contested by men such as American Hero: John Glenn. Yet, it is the betrayal of Jacqueline Cochran that is most striking.

You see it all the time with #MeToo: women turn on women. Jacqueline Cochran, though a fierce aviator, did not make it into Mercury 13, which bruised her ego. Thus, when Mercury 13 became Mercury 7 and a solely “boys club”; she betrayed the women, in a hearing, that stood with her in trying to get into the program, and made the same plain, but damning arguments as other men in claiming women had no business in space. This argument “no business” is used all the time. Women have no business getting an education. Women have no business having a job. Women have no business going out at night and having fun with friends. Women have no business having friends; the latter being important in feeling Cochran’s betrayal. The women competing in the program were her friends, comrades, and the ones that most understood her oppression. Yet, the key to maintaining an oppressed group is not simply us vs. them but also them vs. them.

No woman fights for equality without thinking and desiring that all women achieve and access their very best: socially and spiritually. Yet, women and who do not fight for women’s equality are promoting and allowing other women to stay in their very least. The argument of whether you should a feminist is not simply whether you you believe women are equal to men or are lesser. In Mercury 13, the argument is whether a person that dreams of flying and believes their happiness is in the sky should be tethered to earth because they are a woman. See Mercury 13 On April 20.