Much of the TV I grew up watching dealt heavily in feminist themes. I was addicted to “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” before I turned 10 and Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom” (yes, I’ve always loved journalism content) had a slew of powerful (albeit poorly-written) women.
Despite this early exposure to progressive television, it wasn’t until I was 16 years old and watching reruns of “Veep” when I finally heard the quote that perfectly summed up what it’s like to be a woman today. It came from Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ character, Selina Meyer.
“No, no, no, I can’t identify as a woman!” She screamed in frustration. “People can’t know that. Men hate that. And women who hate women hate that, which, I believe, is most women.”
Yup.
In “Veep,” an HBO comedy series that just began its final season, “Seinfeld” alum Louis-Dreyfus plays a woefully incompetent U.S. vice president (or “veep”) who just happens to be female. Her gender is not the focus of the show, nor is it a guiding moral, nor is it a political statement. For the most part, it plays almost no role in the show’s plot.
Until it does, and then it hits you like a ton of bricks.
In one such instance, Meyer gets called the c-word by someone (well, as it turns out, everyone) in her cabinet. In another, she is groped by a politician’s husband. These are issues that a male politician would not face, but they are not the whole show. They happen, they’re dealt with and they essentially disappear from view. So is life, and so is being a woman.
Meyer is an antihero. While she is the protagonist, her morals are questionable at best. We shouldn’t sympathize with her, but we do. She is — and I am prepared to be raked over hot coals for this opinion — a female Don Draper.
Draper cheats and lies. He is generally a lousy father and often pretty sexist. And despite all this, there are thousands of men who not only adore Draper, but actually want to be him. Audiences actively rally around him with a forgiveness that female characters are rarely afforded.
