A comedy-drama series about three millennial besties working at glossy women's magazine Scarlet is the rage among young women in media as it focuses on female empowerment in the workplace. Sadly, this story will come to an end when the final season is released on Netflix soon, but for now, it's time to catch up with the first four seasons.
Inspired by former editor Joanna Cole's life at Cosmopolitan, this New York-based show provides a positive image of feminism in every episode. Unlike mean boss Miranda Priestly from the classic movie Devil Wears Prada, Scarlet's editor-in-chief Jacqueline Carlyle breaks the stereotype of the strong, assertive, powerful female leader by showing sympathy towards her employees when they go through tough times. She doesn't lose her temper when her writer, Jane Slogan, is suffering from the loss of her mom to breast cancer and could not finish a story on the BRCA cancer gene and ends up yelling at her boss in front of everyone. It's hard to imagine that such a self-confident, successful boss, in reality, would be kind enough to care for staff's mental health or become a drama mug for the pain Jane has tried to hide for many years. Also, Jacqueline doesn't feel threatened by outspoken and progressive younger staff members such as Scarlet's first black, bisexual social media director Kat Edison. There was a time when Kat's fresh ideas were shot down by her former male boss until Jacqueline encouraged Kat to speak her mind.
Seemingly, The Bold Type is an escapist media-world fantasy where female workers are supportive of each other and LGBTI people of colour are treated equally.
Even though this show presents an unrealistic expectation that female friendship across races, class and sexuality reduces work competition and power struggles, it raises awareness of social issues and human rights. In Season 3, the third episode Stroke Of Genius educates viewers about sexual consent as men like Scarlet staff writer Alex Crawford have no idea that their sexual behaviour disrespects their partner just because she doesn't say no out loud. This might give Alex's fangirls quite a shock as he has been portrayed as a good guy. However, a good guy is a genuine, brave person who realises his mistakes and accepts repercussions. Eventually, Alex takes full responsibility and confesses his faults in an article titled "I Am Jeff", which affects his popularity among female readers. This self-realisation is an incredibly powerful move to fight against a patriarchal society where rape culture still exists.
While The Bold Type features GirlBoss culture, it conversely illustrates the picture of perfectness and beauty standards. All the smart, independent, successful women in this series are cultivated as beautiful, tall and gracefully thin with a high sense of fashion like aspiring stylist Sutton Brady who gets a dream job and marries a rich supportive husband. However, the main female characters gradually develop to be more realistic and relevant. In Season 2, the episode Rose Coloured Glasses demonstrates jealousy and unnecessary competition among women in fashion. Sutton suddenly questions her talent and magnetic personality after being criticised by co-worker Mitzi that she got good assignments because she hooked up with Alex. She becomes awkward when working with male models. Fortunately, Jacqueline sees this red flag and gives Sutton a pep talk, boosting her self-esteem and bringing her back on track.
The series also introduces Tiny Jane's freelance madness and firing from Incite where she doesn't have an encouraging boss like at Scarlet, following Kate's decision to move from being the successful head of a social media department to a bartender because of her fight against conversion therapy. It also steps away from the idealistic feminist fantasy when Jacqueline the ideal boss becomes more vulnerable and dependent on Jane. She fears losing her job as board members decide to kill the print magazine and hire a new generation like Patrick Duchand to run the digital publication instead. However, she becomes herself again and finally returns to Scarlet after three bold women, Jane, Kate and Sutton, take a big risk in their career to climb over fences and steal copies. This situation hurts Patrick since he realises he could not earn loyalty and respect from his workers. Although he also fights against gender discrimination, he still lacks the leadership and respect for boundaries that Jacqueline always had. Apparently, The Bold Type perfectly encapsulates the iconic boss lady who never fails to empower their employees.
- The Bold Type
- Starring Katie Stevens, Aisha Dee, Meghann Fahy
- Created by Sarah Watson
- Now streaming on Netflix
