The Women Of 'Succession' And Reflections On Navigating Corporate Sexism

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🗓️ 22 December 2021

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

The HBO show Succession is compelling in part because it portrays a world most of us will never see: the backroom deals between cutthroat billionaires and their fraught family relationships. But the show's dark comedy also gives us insight into the world we all inhabit, and how that world treats women across a spectrum of relationships.

From entrenched sexism to performative feminism, writer Flannery Dean explains the different forms of misogyny on display in Succession.

(Note: Spoilers ahead for those not caught up on the latest season!)

Then, actor J. Smith-Cameron – who plays the character Gerri Kellman – discusses navigating through the toxic machismo of Succession's world, and how she made the role her own.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	There's a scene in the most recent season of HBO's succession that says a lot about what
0:06.0	the women in that series are up against.
0:11.8	For context, the show centers on a family, the Royes, and the giant media company Weystar
0:17.1	Royco.
0:18.1	It's run by patriarch Logan Roy, who's played by Brian Cox.
0:22.2	And due to a very public scandal and a federal investigation, season three finds Logan attempting
0:28.1	to step out of the spotlight.
0:35.6	So he taps the long-suffering senior counsel and usually the only woman in the room, Jerry
0:41.6	Kelman, to take over as interim CEO.
0:45.8	She's played by actor Jay Smith Cameron.
0:55.4	Now the Roy family has one daughter, Shiv, played by Sarah Snoke, and Shiv feels snubbed
1:01.5	by the decision, thinking it was her time to step up, which gets us to this scene.
1:09.6	Logan is arriving back to New York, and chooses to ride home from the airport with Shiv, who's
1:13.9	still upset about being passed over.
1:16.6	I want to get you in before the show holds a meet.
1:19.9	High level.
1:20.9	President.
1:22.7	Logan makes Shiv an offer.
1:25.0	What does it mean?
1:26.0	It means what have you wanted to mean.
1:29.3	Okay, so made up.
1:32.5	My eyes and ears shift.
	...

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