What does “The Good Wife” Teach Us About Female Entrepreneurs?

In Season One of “The Good Wife,” Alicia Florrick, wife of disgraced politician, Peter Florrick, stands at the podium next to him in a pose we’ve seen far too often in real-life politics: that of the stoic and silent spouse as he apologizes for his misdeeds which include, in this particular case, sleeping with prostitutes in a sex scandal that is only outweighed in repulsiveness by his corruption trial.  We watch as she battles with the fallout from his actions, both financial and personal, and those women who’ve dealt with a cheating spouse, or know another woman who has, empathize with her internal struggle to do what’s right for her children and herself.  In my case, there was also, I admit, the morbid curiosity of what might make a woman like Alicia tick. Why would a beautiful, intelligent, successful-in-her-own-right woman like Alicia “stand by her man,” who has proven himself to be nothing more than a very greasy ball of sleaze? If it’s not for the reflected power of being the spouse of such a public figure, if it’s not for love, as pathetic as that might seem, then, what’s it for?

We never really find out. But as for the rest of what we learn, well, I think the above publicity shot for the series says it all. The photo of Alicia, seated while holding hands with two men, standing over her, her cheating husband on the right, her lover (and boss) on the left.

 

Alicia is a woman who graduated from law school, and is purported to be, by one of the male characters on the program, “the smartest student in her class” at Georgetown. Yet, in the series she’s rendered paralyzed and helpless for a time by the realization of her husband’s perfidy. Okay, I can forgive that portrayal. Being betrayed rocks our world, no matter how competent and intelligent we are. Then, she cries when her children can’t see over the mounting bills that she may not be able to pay because she’s been out of the workforce for 13 years. Too true and I can accept that depiction too. But when we watch as her daughter, a girl barely in her teens, frets and worries over her mother, feeling that she’s fragile, that I just can’t forgive. Role model to growing daughter (and other young women who might be viewing) much?

 

The Alicia character is then offered a job as an associate lawyer at the law firm of her former lover, who’s not hiring her because she’s needed there, or because the notoriety of her name will do his firm any good, but because he still has the hots for her. She takes the job and I can forgive that too, because so far, it’s all too realistic.

But the writers lost me when in the midst of her still trying to prove herself at said firm, she embarks on a affair with the former lover, while still married to the sleaze bag who’s now in prison. That’s TV, and I guess I can forgive that too. But then, she hides her relationship with her lover from her children because it’s something that makes her feel “guilty.”  Ah, sexual guilt.  Is it written in because that’s the way women feel, or because that’s the way we’ve been conditioned to feel? And does her lover feel guilty? Of course not.

Although clearly their relationship is deepening into something more than sex and said lover has more respect for her than her husband clearly ever did, her guilt causes her to break it off with him and we see her, walking through the hallways of the law firm, in full view of other lawyers, secretaries, the whole lot, crying. Boo hoo hoo.  A woman crying over love in her workplace, where she’s trying to earn a right to not only be, but show herself as capable. The shot cuts to the lover, who is of course sitting at his desk, cool and composed, despite being devastated. Because girls cry and boys don’t.

In the next season, when the husband is released, the writers depict her having horny, uncontrollable urges. The lover is now out of her life, so in her mind, who better to satisfy those urges than her now no longer incarcerated, but still not living with, husband? So they go at it standing up his campaign trailer. I’m now feeling a serious yuck factor going through me. Women. Can’t live with them, but you can, as Alicia says, “bang” them whilst standing up in your trailer.

Her personal sexual principles aside, the character further evolves to: 1) help her husband’s campaign. (He’s now back in office. And I’ll hand it to the writers there– that is a realistic depiction of our current political process if ever there was one)She does this by helping to cover up the discovery of a stuffed ballot box. She even utilizes their son, who has been shown to have more integrity than any other male on the show, with this endeavor.  2) conclude that her feelings for the former lover will get in the way of saving this so-called marriage of hers. She schemes behind the lover’s back, who is still her boss, to start her own firm with several of the other associates. She even steals some of his clients, including a despicable drug dealer who we see, a few seasons back, kill his former wife, the mother of his son, for attempting to divorce him. Dang. Hell hath no fury like an emotionally twisted woman. (And naturally, the drug dealer is black.)

At the same time that this character had originally aroused some sympathy in her fellow sex, Alicia falls prey to the Hollywood writing stereotype of the scheming, sexually motivated, cheating, emotionally over-reactive, lying business woman who’d be nowhere (or perhaps thinks she wouldn’t) if it weren’t for her very attractive genitals and the powerful men she’s able to lure in with them.

M own husband, bless his heart, says I’m taking a TV show too seriously that’s, through his eyes, “strictly for entertainment.”  But, though I want to state for the record that he is a loving, supportive spouse who applauds my courage and my business acumen, he’s never had to hear from his colleagues that he’s “too take-charge,” too “rough around the edges.” He has never been called into his superior’s office and told, “there’s nothing wrong with your office clothing. It’s very professional. But I feel you should know that on you it looks provocative. But you can take that as a compliment.” He’s never been called “a bitch” by a colleague. He’s never had to deal with the puzzled and sometimes even poisonous envy of another woman who, having the learned mindset of an Alicia Florrick perhaps, a woman who only knows how to achieve through connections, sexuality or an advantageous marriage, doesn’t understand a woman like me or what it is I’m doing to get ahead. How could she? In a culture with a media that promotes females to behave like this TV character, a woman who is climbing her way to the top, inch by slow inch, utilizing nothing but her talents, drive, honestly, forthrightness and integrity, is too often not only considered an anomaly, but an actual threat. Business can cope with an Alicia in the workplace because she fits into the majority of the male executives’ view of the women they come across in their work day. (Don’t bother writing to me to tell me that she doesn’t, because in my extensive experience, she does.)

Where do these cultural norms and mores come from? The things we read and the things we see in the movies and on the telly, of course. This series, while highly entertaining and popular, is not really something I’d want my teenage son or daughter to watch.

Now, with no deplorable, sexually rambunctious male in sight to come rescue me, I guess I’d better get back to work.