The Queen’s Gambit Is The Xanax Prescribed to The Anxiety in Gender Equality
I am impressed by Netflix’s marketing campaign and content strategy.
With 16% unemployment rate in women in the US in March 2020 and continuing >10% until August 2020, the TV show The Queen’s Gambit gave the audience a dose of Xanax for their anxiety in struggling for equal success among two genders.Before the pandemic, there was no difference in unemployment rate men and women at legal work age.
The show was released in October 2020 during the pandemic when the unemployment rate of women was consistently 20% higher than men for 6 months in the US .
The pandemic hit women in their career way harder than men in the US.
- We are anxious about our career growth after being layoffs.
- We are anxious about gender pay equality even we still have jobs.
- We are anxious about being ugly when we had way too many Zoom meetings.
Netflix created an easy way out during the historical crisis of Covid-19. Netflix’s content strategy team finds the perfect design of a new drug that treats my anxiety.
- a character with flawless makeup
- her effortless success from talents without failure
- her surprisingly huge amount of money from chess competition without sophisticated finance management skills
- her addiction in alcohol and drugs spark inspiration in her career
It was such a waste of time for watching the whole series during Thanksgiving.
She almost never failed
This bugs me most.
The pilot was so poorly written that she almost never fails both in career and her personal life.
- She experienced minor failures in chess competitions, but she can improve her chess without attending any professional training. She did not spend long hours in practicing with peers. This is far from the reality of how a professional chess player grows.
- She never experienced any consequences after treating everyone around her poorly with her incredibly rude attitude.
It reminds me of a saying that
some people stop growing into a more mature person since 16 years old.
The whole story does not fit the history background of 1960s Midwest. Women experienced way more obstacles and unexpected failures in their professional careers out of their control in 1960s than 2020.
Remember what Ruth Bader Ginsburg said about her job hunting in New York during the 1960s?
Even she attended Harvard Law School and graduated from Columbia with a JD, not a single law firm hired her in New York. Her success does not come from sitting at home and looking at the ceiling as the story of The Queen’s Gambit. She worked for longer hours than her peers and prepared the case with much amount of work required to present at the court.
I can’t ignore the history of the 1960s to enjoy The Queen’s Gambit.
What would be a more interesting story for The Queen’s Gambit?
I expect the character developed some self awareness. I also expect the script writer to show us her suffering from the consequences of her lack of empathy and compassion to people around her.
Alcohol and drug addition leading to success is unacceptable
Netflix invested a lot in producing CGI about chess moving on the ceiling after she took some drugs in the orphanage. It was surprising that the shows continue this pilot again and again. Eventually her delusion leads to improvement in her career??!!
Does the show try to promote the idea that teenage girls’ drug addition is totally inspiring ??!!
Oh God.
A better example about genius is the Oscar-winning movie A Beautiful Mind. It tells us maths genius John Nash’s struggle in her mental issues. He lived in an imaginary life happily during his Phd study in Princeton. Later he spent years in fighting schizophrenia with medical professionals and his family. He made mistakes from his delusion. He suffered the consequences of his behaviors. He took a long way to maintain his mental sanity to obtain a teaching position at Princeton.
The Queen’s Gambit promotes taking drugs and having visual hallucinations?!!
She was never in debt even she does not manage her finance
The last few episodes of the show give another dose of treating our anxiety with her buying her adopted parents’ house in the Midwest. Even though her mother managed her finance, the character never experienced any finance loss in her whole story?!
The ride to success of any women in any fields is always bumpy.
Stacey Abrams, Georgia House of Representative, gave a TED talk about her career in politics. A lot of people advised her not to run for the office because she was in debt. She did not let her debt stop her ambition in fighting against voter suppression towards African American in Georgia.
J. K. Rowling, the writer of Harry Potter series, relied on the UK welfare system and suffered 7 years of depression. During those 7 years, she finished writing the Harry Potter series in Edinburgh. She was rejected by 12 publishing houses for her 1st Harry Potter book.
What would be a more interesting story?
The Queen’s Gambit shows us she made some mistake in buying the house. The character finally learns how to work with people from different fields.
Summary
The road to gender equality in the professional world is not as straightforward as The Queen’s Gambit. I will NEVER recommend this TV show to my nephews or nieces for any inspirations of feminism.
In 1960s the US achieved a lot of milestones to protect women’s rights. The story of The Queen’s Gambit could have hundreds of opportunities of combining the character’s chess story and 1960s US history together.
Quite a lot of my female friends recommended the show to me.
I suffered lots of unexpected difficulties during the pandemic this year, but character is not relatable to me at all. Sitting at home with alcohol and drugs won’t bring inspiration and success to my screen. People fail, stand up and keep going thousands of times before the society can make a small step forward to gender equality in the professional world.
There is never an easy way out for gender equality.
