“Ask E. Jean”: “Feminism’s Answer to Hunter S. Thompson” Speaks Out in New Documentary

Meeropol resists making Trump the focus of her film, having found a much more interesting main character in E. Jean Carroll herself. Dubbed “feminism’s answer to Hunter S. Thompson” by The New York Times, she built a career as a gonzo journalist, someone who excelled at entering strange social situations and bending the goings-on around her like gravity around a star, then writing about it. Her bubbly, acerbic wit shines through in every article she writes.

Influenced by the likes of Dear Abby and Ask Ann Landers, Carroll had wanted to be an advice columnist all her life. When she got a foothold selling stories to magazines, that childhood dream could finally blossom. From stories about Fran Lebowitz camping to tales of college fraternities, she says in the doc, she became “the go-to person at Esquire to cover bizarre sexual [and] gender stories.”

As the conscience for generations of American women, Carroll had a front-row seat to the country’s cultural metamorphosis. “If you ever want to know the pulse of America, read an advice column,” she says. “It’s not necessarily in the answers — it’s in the question.” Carroll noticed recurring anxieties among her readers about sexism in the workplace and men’s pushback to the feminist movement.