Elizabeth Moss has been receiving massive acclaim from the media for the subtle message she had sent the patriarchy with her Emmy Awards outfit, but most of them leave out her subscription to Scientology, a religion rampant with abuses against women.
Moss' stylist Karla Welch posted a photo of one of her shoes with the word "Off" written on the sole. The post came equipped with the caption "You'll have to guess what the other shoe says...our note to the patriarchy #teamresistance."
Moss went on to win "best actress in a drama series" for "The Handmaid's Tale," a show about a dystopian world where women are slaves forced to bear children for their male keepers. Media outlets fawned at the subtle jab and wrote puff pieces celebrating the destruction of the patriarchy, but most left out a very important detail.
"The Handmaiden's Tale" star is a subscriber of the Church of Scientology, an organization littered with abuses towards women. The show has been hailed as a benefit to reproductive freedom by activists all over the country with some even wearing the show's iconic costumes during protests.
The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife. The sad truth is that Moss' religious beliefs coincide with a set of ideas that have been historically terrible to women. In the book Scientology: A New Slant on Life, the religion's founder, L. Ron Hubbard wrote:
A society in which women are taught anything but the management of a family, the care of men, and the creation of the future generations is a society which is on its way out
Unfortunately, there's more and in the same book Hubbard also wrote the following passage:
The historian can peg the point where a society begins its sharpest decline at the instant when women begin to take part, on an equal footing with men, in political and business affairs, since this means that the men are decadent and the women are no longer women. This is not a sermon on the role or position of women; it is a statement of bald and basic fact.
If that doesn't paint enough of a picture things get worse... much worse. The Sea Org, a wing of the church, strongly advocates against procreation and as a result has been accused of forcing members to undergo unwanted abortions. Several women spoke out about the practice in 2010, and several high-profile defectors have backed up that claim.
Even more sinister is the case of the church's current leader David Miscavige, and the virtual disappearance of his wife Shelly. In an ironic report by Vanity Fair, one of the same outlets fawning at Moss, the story of Miscavige's absent wife is chronicled. It was also reported that defector Leah Remini had become so worried about Shelly that she had filed a missing person report.
At this point, it's pretty clear that there is some hypocrisy going on. Hollywood has an issue with the patriarchy but often seems to leave out the real instances of it if it'll fit the narrative.
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