I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaack!: Fleabag and Feminism

It’s time for me to bite the bullet and come back. I finished my Masters Degree two months ago now and since then I’ve been watching a lot of television. However, since writing my dissertation I’ve had a totally different perspective, that of a “Guilty Feminist”. If you haven’t heard of Deborah Frances-White and her podcast, “The Guilty Feminist” then you are missing something that’s about to become a global phenomenon. DFW’s modern take on feminism has changed the way I think about the world, about patriarchy and misogyny.

 

The media and television have a huge influence over our lives and we just don’t think about it as much. Take for instance how we perceive women on screen: in a piece written by men, women are often framed beautifully, but there is a peeping tom quality when we see a woman naked on screen, or in any sort of vulnerable position. She is there for the “visual pleasure” (see Laura Mulvey’s work on that topic!) of a predominantly male audience.

However, times are changing. Writers like Phoebe Waller-Bridge want to show you what women are really like from their perspective. The only way you’ll get a true insight or perspective of a woman is from a writer who actually identifies as a modern woman with insecurities and opinions that female audiences can identify with.

Fleabag changes the camera’s relationship with women to one that’s consensual. This was the premise of my dissertation: the character of Fleabag played by Waller-Bridge herself breaks the fourth wall to invite an audience to see her side of the story, to watch her enjoying (or not enjoying) sex, to watch her break down and expose her human nature. However, everything you see is on her terms! It is consensual, she knows you’re watching and she’s OK with it. She is not a pleasant character, she’s not that likeable, she can be a shitty character, but her admitting her awfulness is endearing. What woman do you know is perfect? It’s the patriarchy that dictates that women should be some sort of mysterious, ethereal vision of perfection. I know plenty of men AND women who cannot bear to see the realness of women on television and that’s simply the influence of patriarchy over what we enjoy watching. Feminism is supposed to make you feel uncomfortable because it’s about changing the way you think.

We need more television like this, one that reveals the darker, more human nature of women. Representation is key. Women are always trying to live up to some ridiculous notion of what the media tells us to do. Men don’t go around trying to be perfect, a lot of them have heroes in the form of violent rebels like Pacino, De Niro and James Dean to look up to. Why can’t a women aspire to be like Fleabag: she says what she thinks, she does what she likes, she ultimately feels terribly guilty about it but that’s ok, we’re just like her in many ways.

If this sounds interesting to you, then do watch Fleabag, the entire series is available on BBC iPlayer and Amazon Prime. And if you can get to the cinema to watch an Encore of her National Theatre Live performance, go do it, it’s incredible!

Anyway, I’d love to write more on this but I’m going to try and write more posts about the television I’m currently watching. Follow me on twitter or Facebook for some more of my ramblings about what I’m watching. I may start a new instagram account just for TV, but I’m not sure yet, let me know your thoughts!