Good Girls Revolt Gone

By: Emily Cross

Good Girls Revolt, if you haven’t heard, is a recent Amazon show based on the real-life tale of a group of women who sought equal and fair treatment at the news magazine they worked for in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. All thirteen episodes premiered on Amazon on October 28, 2016, but Amazon cancelled the series on December 2, exactly five weeks later.

This cancellation is a bit suspect, considering Amazon doesn’t release their viewing statistics to the public. By all accounts, the show was doing modestly well with a decent amount of press coverage and social media buzz. Amazon, apparently, thought differently. According to several reports, Amazon Studios head Roy Price didn’t care for the show or watch it. Maybe I’m being a bit naive, but if your job is to promote and cultivate shows for your studio shouldn’t you be watching them? Good Girls Revolt creator Dana Calvo gave an interview to The Hollywood Reporter after the series’ cancellation in which she pointed out that Price “asked us to refer to the characters by the actors’ names because he didn’t know the characters’ names.” That doesn’t sound like a studio executive who is doing his job to me. Calvo has been pretty outspoken about the series’ cancellation and Amazon’s decision. She publicly tweeted that no women were involved Amazon’s decision, understandably frustrated.

It’s a widely-known fact in the television industry that there are very few women running studios and making programming decisions. The impact of which is considerable. Because men are making these decisions, they are more likely to develop shows that put forward their point of view. Thus, cutting out important shows like Good Girls Revolt. It’s worth saying that the industry is getting better and more women are being hired at higher levels, but it’s not happening quick enough, or often enough.

Perhaps the most frustrating part about the cancellation of Good Girls Revolt is that it was a show that featured women of varied backgrounds and lifestyles and told a story that women around the world can relate to: the fight for the right to be taken seriously. It’s a story that has manifested in real life in the past few months with the election and inauguration of Donald Trump and subsequent protests. On January 21, 2017 women around the world marched in protest of the sexist and misogynistic tendencies of Trump and his administration, much in the same way the women’s movement of the 60’s and 70’s marched in protest of the sexist and misogynistic policies of their time.

Good Girls Revolt’s main character is Patti Robinson (Genevieve Angelson), a researcher at the fictional News of the Week magazine who has dreams of becoming a reporter, but can’t because the publication doesn’t hire women reporters. Inspired by the women’s movement and a chance encounter with civil rights lawyer Eleanor Holmes Norton (Joy Bryant), Patti decides to file an official discrimination complaint against the company. She spends most of the first season rallying other researchers around her to strengthen the complaint, which is announced in a press conference in the final moments of the season. A second season presumably would have focused on the personal and professional repercussions of filing such a complaint and could have been a model for our present situation: how did these women have the strength to push and push and push for change until it happened? Did they have moments of doubt? Did the people around them support them? With these women on television (if Amazon can be considered as such), the women of 2017 would be able to see their struggles personified. The importance of this cannot be overstated. Television is a vital part of our culture, by presenting the values we hold dear and the issues we need to discuss.

Not only does Good Girls Revolt focus on the women’s movement, but it is one of the rare television shows that portrays other stories that women can identify with uniquely. Secondary storylines include researcher Cindy (Erin Darke) discovering her sexuality outside her marriage, head researcher Jane (Anna Camp) overcoming her societal guilt for enjoying her job, the girls raising money so that secretary Angie (Dayna LaBelle) can get a much-needed abortion and researcher Naomi (Frankie Shaw) dealing with issues that require her overseas husband. All of these, and the myriad of episodic storylines that often see the female researchers not being taken as seriously as the male reporters, are important for women to see. Oftentimes, when a woman experiences discrimination or tough situations like these she feels guilty and blames herself. She blames herself for not being good enough, strong enough or assertive enough. This is a situation we see time and time again and can only be fixed by showing women that they are not struggling alone. Seeing these struggles in the media can only help women. It might even help some men understand what women face on an everyday basis. Sure, these characters are facing their struggles in the 60’s and 70’s, but I guarantee you that similar, if not the same, fights are being fought every day in 2017.

Outside of the show itself, the cast and crew of Good Girls Revolt are teaching us the value of feminist media. Cast members Genevieve Angelson, Anna Camp, Erin Darke, Jaime Andrews and creator Dana Calvo have all been championing the women’s movement and the general protest against President Trump on social media. While they are not the only Hollywood people to do so, it’s nice to know that they not only prioritize feminism in politics but also in media as well. The same can’t be said for other high-profile Trump detractors.

We need media like Good Girls Revolt to teach us about the women who came before us. The women who helped advance our society to where it is today. The women who fought tooth and nail because they knew they weren’t being treated fairly. The women who risked their lives and their safety for a world they would never get to see. We need these women to give us strength for our fight and to give us hope for the future.