“It’s gone too far”: Narratives of sexual violence, #MeToo and post-feminism in the BBC miniseries, Rules of the Game.

Editors: CHADELLE, S. and BENOIT, L.

Publisher: TBC

Place of Publication: TBC

Abstract:

Rules of the Game is a four-part BBC mini-series first broadcast in January 2022. Set in what appears, at first glance, to be a benevolent ‘family’ business, it charts a succession of shocking revelations of institutionalised sexual abuse and a secretive culture that protects the perpetrators. Taking as her lead character, Sam (Maxine Peak), the company’s ruthless and decidedly unsympathetic COO, the writer, Ruth Fowler, offers a critique, not just of the structural nature of sexual violence, but also of the pitfalls of post feminism.

Sam’s philosophy is closely aligned with what Alyson M. Cole (1999:73) describes as ‘anti-“victim-feminism”’: a position that rejects an identity predicated on victimhood in response to the arguments for ‘power feminism’ proposed by Naomi Wolf (1993) and others. While seductive, however, this very neoliberal and individualistic form of postfeminist discourse is not universally empowering. It does not account for power structures, both visible and invisible, that limit women’s options. Even the substitution of a discourse of ‘survivors’ for that of ‘victims’, as Alison Convery (2006) has argued, while at first glance empowering, has the unfortunate effect of eliding both the process of abuse and its perpetrators.

Sam might, in another context, be viewed as admirable. She is an abused woman who has refused to be a victim. But burying her own experience of abuse, she has made a Faustian pact with her abuser and climbed the career ladder to a position of power within the firm. The disavowal of her own victimhood renders her unable to acknowledge or intervene in the abuse of other women – including her own daughter, who quotes her mother as opining that the #Metoo movement has ‘gone too far’. Ultimately Sam survives and triumphs, taking over the company from the morally bankrupt family of owners – but there is a sense that she has climbed the corporate ladder at the expense of her soul - and over the dead and defeated bodies of other women.

The series operates much like a Brechtian parable, pulling no punches with regard to its gender politics, and arguably paid a price for this in terms of ratings. After a lively pre-release campaign the first episode drew in 3.2 million viewers, while the second pulled only 2.5 million. Reviews and online comments suggested issues with the dramatic style but also with the uncompromising message and the unsympathetic lead character. The toxic, patriarchal culture of the firm was critiqued seen as exaggerated – and yet just over a year later women at the CBI alleged a culture that tolerated a range of activities from inappropriate touching to rape, with younger women pushed to drink to excess and drugs made freely available at work events – exactly the picture painted in Rules of the Game – while commentators note the role played by ‘invisible power structures’ (Fotaki 2023) in shaping both corporate culture and individual behaviours. In this chapter I will explore the ways in which the mini-series engages with feminist and postfeminist perspectives, with reference to textual strategies, context and reception.

Fotaki, M. and Pullen, A., 2023. Feminist theories and activist practices in organization studies. Organization Studies, p.01708406231209861.

Source: Manual