Shows shed new light on familiar violations
The shows: Transparent, Season 4, Episode 1; and One Mississippi, Season 2, Episode 1 The moment: Was I molested?
On Transparent, Ali (Gaby Hoffman) flashes back to when she was a preteen. Her Uncle Jerry coerces her to hug him. “Why are you being so shy?” he asks. “Are you not proud of your new body?”
Other voices chime in. “It’s just a hug, Ali! It’s not like he wants to smush up against you to feel your breasts!” He smushes her. “See, it’s no big deal!” the voices say.
On One Mississippi, neighbour Beulah (Carol Mansell) tells Tig (Tig Notaro) that when she lost a shoe at her debutante ball, the “gentleman” who helped her find it was “all the while moving his hand about my figure — feeling my bosom, grabbing my derriere.”
Tig looks concerned. “Well, it was a long time ago,” Beulah says. “It was a real Cinderella story.”
It’s been reported that Notaro is using this storyline to call out her ex-pal Louis C.K. on how he mistreats women. But every woman you’ve ever met (and many men, too) has stories like these, occurrences that exist in that liminal space that abusers know how to finesse: It feels like something wrong is happening to you, but the person doing it is so subtle or confident or “sweet” that if you object, they make you feel like you’re the one in the wrong — too sensitive, no fun.
It isn’t only women showrunners like Notaro and Transparent’s Jill Soloway who are telling stories from that space. But we’re sure hearing a lot more of them now that more women are running shows.
Transparent and One Mississippi both stream on Amazon Prime. Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on pop-culture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday.