Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast #40 on #MeToo Depictions in TV and Film

These sto­ries are all heav­i­ly watched, which means they’re enter­tain­ing: The 2019 film Bomb­shell (about the pre­da­tions of Roger Ailes), Apple TV’s The Morn­ing Show (about a dis­graced anchor), and Net­flix’s Unbe­liev­able (about report­ing rape) and 13 Rea­sons Why (about teen sui­cide result­ing from sex­u­al assault). But what’s “enter­tain­ing” about sex­u­al assault and harass­ment? What makes for a sen­si­tive as opposed to a sen­sa­tion­al­ized por­tray­al?

Eri­ca, Mark, and Bri­an con­sid­er which sto­ries work and why. How much diver­gence from true events is allow­able in Bomb­shell or Con­fir­ma­tion (about Ani­ta Hill)? By hav­ing char­ac­ters inter­pret their sit­u­a­tions (Eri­ca gives an exam­ple from the show Sex Edu­ca­tion), are writ­ers essen­tial­ly telling audi­ences how to feel about their own expe­ri­ences? Should cer­tain depic­tions be ruled out as poten­tial­ly trig­ger­ing, or is it good to “bring to light” what­ev­er ter­ri­ble things actu­al­ly hap­pen in the world? Should shows delve into the psy­chol­o­gy of the per­pe­tra­tor (maybe even treat­ing him as a pro­tag­o­nist), or must the mes­sage be whol­ly and unam­bigu­ous­ly about the vic­tim? 

• “Hol­ly­wood Taboo: A Review of Bomb­shell” by Spencer Haga­man
• “Meg­yn Kel­ly, Oth­er Fox News Accusers Dis­sect ‘Bomb­shell’ In New Video” by Greg Evans 
• “Unbe­liev­able Has Deliv­ered a Rare Hon­est Por­tray­al of Rape Sur­vival on TV – It Should Be Our New Blue­print” by Har­ri­et Hall
• “13 Rea­sons Why a Con­ver­sa­tion About Rape Cul­ture Is as Impor­tant as One About Sui­cide” by Alia Dasti­gir
• “Yes, ‘The Morn­ing Show’ has a #MeToo prob­lem. That’s the Best Thing About It” by Mered­ith Blake
• “The ‘13 Rea­sons Why’ Graph­ic Sex­u­al-Assault Scene: Did the Show Go Too Far Again?” by Kevin Fal­lon
• “We’ve Seen Sex­u­al Assault on TV Before—But Nev­er Like This” by Jes­si­ca Radloff
• “TV’s Reck­on­ing with #METOO” by Emi­ly Nuss­baum
• “From Har­vey Wein­stein to the New #MeToo Movies, True Jus­tice Still Remains in the Realm of Fan­ta­sy” by Mary Eliz­a­beth Williams
• “The Progress and Pit­falls of Television’s Treat­ment of Rape” by Mau­reen Ryan

Here’s that weird scene where Jen­nifer Anis­ton and Bil­ly Crudup sing on The Morn­ing Show.

If this top­ic is too depress­ing, check out our episode #39 from last week about what to watch on TV dur­ing quar­an­tine:

Learn more at prettymuchpop.com. This episode includes bonus dis­cus­sion that you can only hear by sup­port­ing the pod­cast at patreon.com/prettymuchpop. This pod­cast is part of the Par­tial­ly Exam­ined Life pod­cast net­work.

Pret­ty Much Pop: A Cul­ture Pod­cast is the first pod­cast curat­ed by Open Cul­ture. Browse all Pret­ty Much Pop posts or start with the first episode.