How Two Great Comedy-Drama Series Led By Women: Fleabag and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Approach Discussion of Gender Inequalities and Female Hardships Today

This post contains spoilers for Fleabag and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Fleabag and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel are two of the most hilarious television series that I have ever seen. Both series were written by women and have a woman in the lead role. These are the aspects of the show that I greatly admire. Both shows deserve all the praise that they have gotten and continue to receive from fans and comedy lovers from across the globe. 

Fleabag (2016-2017) is a show written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge that has gotten 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Waller-Bridge also plays the lead role of a lonely woman in London, England, who we only know as Fleabag. The other characters in the show only refer to her as “she,” “her,” or “you.” Fleabag struggles to accept the help and love that she needs so desperately after the death of her best friend Boo. The comedy style is eccentric, raw, blunt, and dry-witted. Fleabag uses comedy to cope with her loneliness, grief, and lust for sex. At times, she will glance directly at the camera, and share her true thoughts or point out moments where she is hiding her laughter, doubts, or fears from the other characters. The audience is able to know exactly how Fleabag feels without any restrictions. 

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017-2023) is a show written by the amazingly talented Amy Sherman-Palladino, and has received a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. I remember watching the last season when it came out, and being so sad that it was actually over. It’s pretty crazy how that was just about two years ago now. Anyway, this show is set in New York during the 1950s, and follows Midge Maisel as she navigates the trials of love, being a mother, following her dream of being a famous comedian, and obtaining the respect and admiration that she fervently strives for. This show is witty, headstrong, bursting with life, color, and extravagance.

Both shows take different approaches to shedding light on the protagonist’s desire for sex and power, the injustices against women and the gender inequalities that continue to persist today, also their unique stylistic and comedic mechanisms illustrate these important issues for women in the present day.

Fleabag incessantly jokes about sex, admitting to herself while on the toilet that she’s “not obsessed with sex. Just can’t stop thinking about it.” Sex is what causes just about every problem that Fleabag encounters. It is what eats away at her unceasingly. It is what led her best friend to accidentally take her own life due to the infidelity of her partner, which also involved Fleabag herself. Sex is what Fleabag continually strives to obtain from men. It is what upends her relationship with her on-again-off-again boyfriend. And it is the reason why she cannot be with the Priest that she falls in love with. Fleabag wants to be truly loved, to have something deeper than a mere sexual attraction to another person. Moreover, her loneliness, her grief for her late mother and best friend, and the emptiness that she feels from her sexual encounters sends her spiraling into turmoil. A few people are slowly able to bring her out of this darkness, which are her father, her sister Claire, and the man she loves but cannot have, the Priest.

Additionally, the power that Fleabag longs for the most is not to be admired by people, nor to have control over the men she encounters, but it is rather more of a right that most people expect, which is to be respected. She simply does not want to be shamed and degraded for how she lives her life. There are many instances in the show when Fleabag is slut-shamed by random men on the street; disrespected by the men she has intercourse with; she is even doubted by her own sister and father, who at times seem to not believe her, or even like her. There is a moment where Claire does not believe her sister when Fleabag tells Claire that her husband kissed her while he was drunk at Claire’s birthday party. Claire is unable to believe what her sister claimed at the time “because of what she did to Boo” (by sleeping with Boo’s boyfriend), which led to Boo taking her life unintentionally. Fleabag is also harshly and most notably disrespected by her stepmother, who does not seem to like Fleabag and her likeness to her late mother. 

However, Fleabag also seems to want some control over love. Her relationship with her sister is rocky, but they love each other greatly. Fleabag works on strengthening this relationship as the show progresses, but it is not easy because of how cold, independent, and awkward Claire can be. Fleabag manages to eventually gain the love and support of her family as she navigates the darkness in her life. However, she can never seem to grasp control over her romantic interests. Fleabag falls in love with the Priest who would be officiating the marriage between her father and her stepmother. The desire that Fleabag has for the Priest seems different and more powerful compared to the desire she had for other men. The Priest also falls in love with Fleabag but aligns his loyalty and morals with God. He decides that he cannot continue having a romantic relationship with Fleabag because he is not allowed to have premarital sex as a Catholic priest, and he does not believe that he can control his desires. One of the most powerful lines from the show is when Fleabag tells him that she really loves him, to which the Priest replies, “It’ll pass.”

Fleabag uses a very unique comedy style that is raw and blunt. We know every thought and emotion that Fleabag feels, even what she chooses not to say to others in order to spare their feelings. However, she can also be brave enough to speak her mind, and is willing to stand up for herself whenever someone really hurts her. An example of this is when Fleabag went to get a loan for her struggling café. During the interview she went to take off her top because she felt awkward and hot, and ended up accidentally revealing her bra to the bank manager she was meeting with. The bank manager assumed that she was trying to flirt her way towards getting a loan for her café, which led to them exchanging sexual slurs. This awkward exchange can be seen as humorous in a way, but it is also sad. Fleabag is in a vulnerable position, and tried to gain aid to save her business but was immediately combated with the presupposition that she would use sexual favors to obtain what she needed. She did not intend to flash the bank manager, but she was scolded and slut-shamed right away for that mistake. 

Sex and power are also major themes in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel show, especially because Midge navigates the entertainment industry during the 1950s. Many of Midge’s jokes are sexual. This gets her in trouble when she starts building her career as a comic because high-class and/or male audiences were uncomfortable with her “unsavory” comedic style. However, this edginess and her growing confidence to speak her mind, and talk about the female body, sex, and awkward issues that women deal with daily, are what lead to her standing out and being successful. 

Midge’s drive to obtain power is very arduous as she attempts to be a female comic known by the entire nation, even the world. Sometimes, when Midge arrives to meet the organizer of the event she will be performing at, she gets comments on how she looks more like a singer than a comedian. They say she doesn’t look funny. Those men think that women cannot be funny if they are beautiful. They think that women have to have a goofy or odd appearance in order to be funny, which is absurd. Midge exclaims angrily in an episode from Season 4: “And I know that’s life. Shit happens. You should be a bigger man and just let it go. Well I’m a women so fuck that!”

Another instance of Midge having trouble with men in the entertainment business is when she is offered a job as a writer for the Gordon Ford show. She doesn’t want to be a writer, but she takes the job anyway just to get her foot in the door. The other all-male writers for the show don’t embrace her warmly right away. Midge has to prove her potential to the men. But it’s not enough for her to show the men that she can be just as funny as them, she has to show them that she can be even funnier than them, better than them in a way that doesn’t damage their egos too much. That is how Midge can achieve her dream in the patriarchal-dominated period of time that she lives in. To make matters worse, Gordon Ford constantly flirts with Midge. Midge takes a chance and asks if she could have a spot on his show, but Ford maintains that the unchangeable rules of his own show prevents his writers from appearing on the show as guests. This frustrates Midge but she persists. She is eventually allowed an interview on the Gordon Ford Show as a writer, but Midge does not settle for this and the scripted lines she is told to say. Instead, she goes to the center of the room, grabs a mic, and starts telling some amazing jokes. This is how she gets her big break, and is able to become a big-time comic. 

This show has many beautifully crafted scenes. The episodes are often colorful, extravagantly organized, and accompanied with some music, like scenes from a classic musical. The show further enforces its periodicity as the elements of the 1950s are ever-present, very pleasing to the eye, and joyful to see. The comedy style of this show overall is very witty, and bold. The protagonist Midge, however, appears a bit more confident and obsessed with her appearance and success than Fleabag. Midge’s obsession with her appearance seems to reflect the pressures and strain of the beauty standards and expectations imposed on women at the time. When Midge is still married to Joel in the first season, she was primarily a housewife, taking care of her two young children. When she and her husband went to bed, she would wait until he fell asleep, then quietly rush to the bathroom to wash her face, and put on makeup just so when her husband woke up, she would look flawless. 

Many of the wives in this show are housewives, which further relates to the gender roles of the past. Midge will often make sharp jabs at issues such as the unfair standards women were held to, how arbitrary gender roles can be, or the toll that toxic masculinity takes on people, especially on the men themselves. The fact that women watching this show today can understand, and feel the frustration that Midge feels about these unfair social norms and injustices proves how past injustices and gender inequalities are still occurring to some notable extent today. 

Both shows are lighthearted portrayals of the very real and serious hardships and struggles that many women face in the modern world today. Fleabag takes place in modern-day London, England, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel takes place in New York during the 1950s, yet the mistreatment and disrespect towards women have been experienced by women all over the world for centuries, and still today sadly. Women of affluent countries like the United States are fortunate to have the right and freedom to an education, work, speech, and so on. While the rights of women in third-world countries are restricted, for instance, women in Afghanistan are still not allowed to pursue higher education. Women are seen as less than men, so they have their rights restricted. This should not be allowed to continue. Mistreatment of women has occurred for much too long. Most people are self-aware enough to realize this today. Every woman deserves to be treated fairly. To be treated as equals to every other man and to every other woman.