From an outsider's perspective, one may think that ABC's latest series The Astronaut Wives Club is about the lives of seven American astronauts, who skyrocket to fame (pun intended) when they get selected as NASA's legendary Mercury Seven. But, underneath the surface lies a much more powerful and interesting concept regarding the female characters, and their ability to steal the spotlight from their superstar husbands. On this series, the men may think they're in the driver's seat, but it's the women who are really running this show (even if some of them don't know it yet). Leading the charge is none other than the fiercely feminist Astronaut Wives Club character Trudy Cooper (Odette Annable), who is by far the most likable and relatable character on the show.
While the rest of the wives seem content to let their desires and dreams take a backseat to that of their husband's needs (thinking that somehow, the men deserve it more), Trudy refuses to go quietly into submission. For example, when Louise caught her husband, Alan, cheating, she let it slide without any real repercussions. However, when Trudy's husband, Gordo, cheated, we find out that she divorced him. "Being a modern wife means challenging your husband to be better," she preaches to the others. For her, being treated as lesser than her husband is not OK, and neither is accepting their misdemeanors without consequence.
And even though she's agreed to play along with the idea of still being married so that Gordo doesn't get kicked out of the program, it's important to note that she's doing it just as much for herself as she is for him — maybe even more so. Unlike the others, Trudy dreams of going into space herself, instead of simply standing idly by on the sidelines. Granted, Trudy's under no false impressions about how difficult it'll be for women to get the same treatment as men, career-wise and elsewhere, but that's not stopping her from trying to do her part — and, in turn, "launching" the series into an up-close look at the core of feminism in the '60s, before it really had a voice.
Let's just hope the other ladies follow suit and stick up for a concept that, at the time, seemed rather out of this world. (You're welcome for all the space puns, by the way.) #TeamTrudy!
Images: Cook Allender/ABC (2)
