AMC’s new series Dietland got off to a less-than-admirable start in last week's premiere with its introduction of a murderous feminist group. It looks like it’s only going downhill from there. Now the show is digging deeper by proclaiming women are perpetual victims to violent, oppressive men.
The June 11 episode “Y Not” continues to mark the reign of terror brought by a radical vigilante feminist organization known as "Jennifer." Over the past few weeks, the Jennifer group has been kidnapping men accused of sexually assaulting or raping women and dropping them off buildings or out of planes to make a statement against the culture that supposedly let's men get away with crimes.
When a notable magazine photographer is the latest victim of the group, media mogul Kitty Montgomery (Julianna Margulies) struggles to maintain her company’s image and safety, especially when it is revealed that her company paid for the accused photographer’s legal fees.
Kitty becomes so desperate, in fact, that she contacts reporter Cheryl (Rowena King) asking her to reveal her source on Jennifer’s attacks. Cheryl eventually gives in after Kitty threatens to go to her boss, but she posits that Jennifer will eventually become old news anyway. Kitty then responds that the group won’t become old news because their cause will never be irrelevant.
Kitty: I want your source.
Cheryl: Kitty, if-- if I do that—
Kitty: You might save thousands of lives.
Cheryl: Jennifer's done. It's old news already.
Kitty: Oh, really?
Cheryl: Jennifer will be yesterday before tomorrow. Nothing ever sticks anymore. You get five minutes of outrage, three minutes of fear, and then everyone switches over to some cute goat video and it's "What were we talking about?"
Kitty: Jennifer's different. Mark my words. They won't stop until they've freed women from oppression once and for all. And that's never gonna happen. Men would rather destroy the world than let us rule it.
While Kitty doesn’t condone the group’s actions, it seems like she agrees with their cause. In fact, it seems like a lot of third-wave feminists would agree with Jennifer’s mindset of “ending oppression” for women, even though they’re willing to murder for it. Fortunately, no real-life group is on that level, not yet anyway.
The whole thing simply falls apart since it depends on us understanding that women in the United States, especially these women with clearly well-paying jobs and voices in media, are oppressed. Even worse, it requires us to believe that men are tyrannical oppressors who would rather die than listen to women. Hopefully, someday these writers can come out of Dietland and into "realityland" to realize that's nowhere near the truth.
