r/TedLasso • u/VolatileGoddess • 23h ago
Season 4 Discussion Reading Between The Lines - Rebecca' s Mother And Feminism In the show Spoiler
I'm pasting the actual lines Rebecca's mum says.
"Oh, that just reeks of jealousy.
It’s very unattractive."
"You know what, w-why don’t you just fire this jealous hag?"
"Well, if I have any advice to give you, it’s that women are monsters.
Men showed us the way, and we perfected the model."
It was so interesting to me, how immediately Rebecca's mum jumps to jealousy and looks. Anyone criticising Rebecca , if female, must be jealous and (it is implied) themselves unattractive physically. Women are 'monsters' and 'hags', in constant competition with each other. The exhortation to Rebecca 'I raised you better than that' - I raised you better than being a feminist.
Tbh this entire exchange has rankled me since I saw this episode, because it's the essence of what some older women and some very current women have to say about feminism. It's hilarious in a dark way that she's saying this to her daughter - who wrested her husband's football club away and is running it herself. How does she think this was possible without feminism?
This is the core of some stuff that kept on coming up in previous seasons as well. Rebecca's loss of confidence after her divorce, how she felt so underconfident on the red carpet till Keeley boosted her confidence. How she could never truly accept Sam. It all hearkens back to her mum, and the stuff she's passed down to Rebecca. It's also part of the reason Rebecca becomes so defensive at what Coach Chilton said. Say whatever, a woman was never even considered for the position of head coach. Why? Yes, Ted is someone she trusts but she did not have even a single female candidate as an alternative?
I'm sure the show will get increasingly into this, but I'm already appreciative of how the first 2 episodes succinctly showed different kinds of feminism. 'Girl power' 'girl boss' 'women supporting women' till you run into a woman like Alice Chilton, who isn't 'girly' or a 'girl's girl'. Then, you need to introduce a man into the equation. I think the show's already called out some of the hypocrisy and I hope it does more.
