Female empowerment? No, just feminist revenge porn
The multi-talented Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who is both writer and star of the hit TV series Fleabag, also developed and now produces the much-lauded TV drama Killing Eve, the second series of which is due to start next month. Appearing on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show at the weekend, Waller-Bridge was asked if she felt Killing Eve had escaped censure for being too violent because it was by and about women.
She replied that, although it was important for viewers to be shown violence against women, people were “slightly exhausted” by seeing women being brutalised on screen. “Actually, I think seeing women be violent — the flipside of that — there’s something instantly refreshing and oddly empowering.”
Really? Should violence ever be “refreshing” or “empowering”? Surely violence is to be disapproved of, whether used by men or women?
Much art is by its nature transgressive, exploring the forbidden in human nature and activity. And of course there’s a dark side to women, just as there is to men. But is this really what women’s equality has now come down to: #MeToo for psychopaths?
A new era of female empowerment? Actually, it just feels like feminist revenge porn.
To read my whole Times column (£) please click here.
