Fleabag
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Introduction
Fleabag is a black comedy television series (British) that was written and created by Phoebe Waller. It is a show which features a young woman who goes through different life experiences in London, as she struggles with the death of her friend, the constant negative attitude of her Godmother, and also the death of her mother (Pankratz, 2018). With the experiences that Fleabag has gone through, we can see the ever-changing roles women are going through in modern society and how those roles have affected their decision-making in society.
Women ever-changing Roles
From this TV show, we are able to see the main character Fleabag and her friend Boo being the owners of a guinea-pig themed café that was located in London, from this we can see clearly that the role of women has changed here because in the past most of the business was being owned by men and women who were successful in starting up a business were very rare. The café is seen to be struggling, and Fleabag decides to apply for a bank loan; and when she goes to meet with the bank manager, her effort of trying to get a bank loan ends fruitlessly after the bank manager realized that she was trying to use sexual favors to get him to swing his decision.
This aspect can be clearly seen that women play can play a different kind of roles to get what they want even if they are successful in certain areas; Fleabag had already established herself as a woman of worth in the society. But when the bank manager saw that she would scoop so low to try and use her sexual prowess to lure the bank manager into favoring her, the bank manager ended up denying her the loan. But when we take a look on the side of Fleabag, uncharacteristically she was not flatting with the bank manager, meaning the bank manager might have misinterpreted her non-verbal cues and thought that she was using her sexuality to get a loan.
This showed how men viewed women, men view women as people who like using their sexuality to get what they want in the society even though in some cases that is not always true. Even if a woman is successful men will always see women to be sex objects even when it is not the case. When Fleabag went with her sister Claire to the treat where a woman centric-event was taking place, she ran into the bank manager who was there to learn how to be a better man following the sexual harassment scandal he had at work. This clearly shows that he was the one who had misinterpreted Fleabag’s behavior, Fleabag was able to share her desperate unhappiness with him as she advices her on how to be a better man. This shows how the role have changed since women used to confide in men for comfort and advice.
Fleabags godmother has a very rough relationship with Fleabag, we can see that when Fleabag pushes her to the wall she sometimes end up slapping her so hard in the face. Her godmother undermines her at any chance she gets by talking ill about her job, relationship, appearance and even her dead mother (Simmons, 2020). This is a role which has clearly changed especially in a woman’s perspective, because women are supposed to be people who bring family together they are supposed to be the comforter of the household. But Fleabag’s godmother is a total opposite of what we expect from a woman, she thrives when Fleabag suffers and doesn’t even care that Fleabag’s father is there watching all she is doing.
The role have also shifted as we see that instead of Fleabag’s father being in charge of his household the godmother whom she moved in with is the one who makes major decisions in all areas. She is the one who is holding the most power in their relationship, since he pretended that he was not in a position to lend Fleabag money to finance his struggling restaurant but later we found out that they had bought a house in France. This clearly showed how women who in the past were controlled by men have reserved the role and they decide on many things when they are in a relationship. Before the end of season one we can see that we can see Fleabag contemplating to step in front of the traffic due to depression that she is experiencing in her life in general, the bank manager happens to be in the café when she is crying and contemplating about that evil thought.
He asks her the reason why she is crying, Fleabag admits that she has emotional distress and guilt, but the bank manager tries to comfort her by telling her everyone makes mistakes and a person needs to just hold on and never give up in life no matter what kind of situation he or she is in. She confides in her and finds comfort during that process, here we can see the role of women have changed since earlier in the show the bank manager had confided in her when he was trying to be a better man but now she is the one confiding in him (Darling, 2020). When Fleabag met with Boo’s ex-boyfriend she feels very guilty since she is the woman he cheated on Boo with, this is something that makes her feel very much depressed because at one time she is Boo’s friend and at another time she is sleeping with her boyfriend. It clearly shows how roles here are changing rapidly and she somehow contributed to the demise.
References
Darling, O. (2020). “The moment you realise someone wants your body:” neoliberalism, mindfulness and female embodiment in Fleabag. Feminist Media Studies, 1-16.
Pankratz, A. (2018). TV Sitcom Fleabag: How to Be a Funny Feminist on Television. Or Maybe Not. Hard Times, 102(2), 146-155.
Simmons, W. J. (2020). Bad Feminism: On Queer-Feminist Relatability and the Production of Truth in Fleabag. Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, 61(1), 32-46.