The Feminist Eye: Zoey's Extraordinary Missed Opportunity

Musicals are my escape. When the world feels crazy, I dive in and have them playing in the background while I work. And, well...the world is crazy right now. I like musicals in all forms, movies, live recordings, and TV shows. Right now, I am watching Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. I'm on season 2, episode 6, Zoey's Extraordinary Reckoning. 

This episode tackles the issue of racial bias in the tech industry, specifically on the lack of representation and the experiences of BIPOC employees. It focuses on Simon, a black man who heads up the marketing team at SPRQ Point. In the previous episode, Simon called out the company's blind spots. In this episode, the board wants him to retract his statement cause they feel he's the only one experiencing this. That is until Tobin, an Indian man on the coding team, posts his experience on social media, prompting BIPOC employees worldwide to come forward with their stories.

It's a great topic to tackle on the show and one that should have been. But here's the thing, the show overlooked one opportunity: Women in Technology.

The show was canceled after two seasons and aired a holiday special to close out plot holes. Maybe if the show had kept going, it would have gone there. However, the show's main character is a woman. To me, that meant this plotline should have been explored from day one. She was the only female coder on the team. Yes, her boss, Joan, was a woman, but her direct co-workers were all men. A few of them would make women-bashing comments anytime she and Joan had meetings together or went out for drinks. But it was never explored.

​Instead, Joan takes Zoey under her wing, making her team lead and promoting her to floor director when she leaves. That's great and all, women looking after each other, but where is the struggle. Zoey is a female boss in charge of a team of men at a technology company. In some of her conversations, she hints at a bit of misbehaving, especially in the beginning, but it's never seen. On top of that, while Joan refers to Zoey as her successor, she never talks with her about being a woman in tech, especially a woman of leadership in a tech company. Instead, they talk about Joan's relationships, first with her husband and subsequent divorce and then with her affair with a subordinate (which is so cliché, so don't get me started). 

Yes, race discrimination needs to be called out in the workplace, but so does gender, and for a show with a female lead, gender should have come before race. However, as I've always said, being a woman is a worse crime than being a man of color.