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Women to Watch: Powerful Female Characters on Television

By Ally D’Antonio ’20

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TV Show: Good Girls Revolt (2016-)

Network: Amazon

Seasons: 1

Actress: Joy Bryant 

Background Information: 

On Oct. 28, Amazon Instant Video released a new original series about women working at a news magazine who decided to sue for equal treatment in the workplace. While the magazine is titled News of the Week, it is based on an real event that actually occurred at Newsweek, where workers filed a similar suit. There are many things that make this show work besides the main cast, although they are all fantastic. There is the strong presence of feminist themes throughout the show, and the basis in actual events going on at the time it is set (1969-70). 

The quality of writing makes the characters seem real and based in their time without seeming to detached from our modern world. But above all else, the performances of the many women who star in the show: other than the three mentioned below, there are many more characters who get their own stories, being developed into real people with their own problems outside of the realm of the show. However, the three mentioned really make themselves into well-rounded and new characters who are never boring to watch. 

Why you should watch: 

All of the women on this show are different. They have different wants, desires and personalities, and there is never a box that fits them all. First up is Cindy(portrayed by Erin Darke) who starts the pilot as a newly married woman, content at working at News of the Week for a year before she starts a family, all with the permission of her husband. Through a complicated series of events, she realizes how discontented she is with her life, her husband and her place in society. She starts a lawsuit to be allowed to write at the magazine she loves so much. Her arc is one that looks familiar, as on the surface it is one we have seen before; a woman married to the wrong man who wants something else out of her life. 

However, this is not something that Cindy originally wants. Initially, she wants to be happy with her husband. She does not want to believe that love is a lie. She goes through a lot to realize that just because life is not perfect does not mean that life is not well. A big help in her journey is her lawyer, Eleanor Holmes Norton(portrayed by Joy Bryant)who was the actual lawyer for the women of Newsweek. She is depicted as brutally honest and a no-nonsense kind of woman who wants to use these women and their case to set a precedent for all other women who are working in lower-paying jobs with no chance of advancement. She is not given enough screen time for a real plotline of her own, but her subplot that shows her as a working expectant mother shows that you can be a feminist, a mother and a wife. 

Lastly is Jane (portrayed by Anna Camp) who has the most surprising arc, starting off as a woman who wants nothing more than to avoid being a career girl and [spoiler] evolving into the face of the equal opportunity lawsuit. She goes through phases, trying to be a perfect girlfriend, a perfect employee, and then, trying to stop trying to be perfect. She discovers that what she wants is not to just be a mother or a wife, but to be her own person, with her own life. She takes control, goes against what she has been bred for and forges her own path.

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