On the Basis of Sex (2018)

This film celebrates Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a heroine of modern legal feminism, constructing a narrative where every distinction between men and women is presented as unjust discrimination. The problem is not telling the story of a woman who faced real obstacles in her career — that is legitimate — but rather that the film uncritically adopts the ideology underpinning Ginsburg's work: the denial of the natural complementarity between men and women. The screenplay presents the elimination of legal distinctions based on sex as an absolute triumph, without acknowledging that men and women, while equal in dignity, are naturally complementary and not interchangeable. The narrative reduces every difference to 'social prejudice' and celebrates the idea that roles can and should be entirely fungible. What makes the film most effective — and therefore most problematic — is its appeal to genuine justice. Ginsburg did indeed face real discrimination. But the work uses that historical discrimination as a springboard to validate a vision of the human being that goes much further: the idea that men and women are identical in nature and function. For families with well-formed discernment, it is an exercise in skillful propaganda disguised as an inspiring biography. Not recommended for young people without clear discernment.