The Woman's Redemption Plot

You know the story: A previously maligned public figure gets an eight-episode empathy tour.

- By Kathryn VanArendonk

We are living in the golden age of the humiliated woman. For Hollywood, at least, what began as a trickle over the past few years has become a fire hose of reconsideration. Britney Spears, once a cultural laugh line, is actually a human caught in a terrible situation. Monica Lewinsky, once a cultural laugh line, is actually a human caught in a terrible situation. Janet Jackson is, you guessed it, a human. The same goes for Pamela Anderson, Lorena Bobbitt, Tonya Harding, Marcia Clark—all of them once objects of ridicule, now recentered in their own vindicating stories. To borrow from the podcast that helped define the redemption genre: You’re wrong about that woman.

This genre is about revisitation, emphasis on the visit, and its exemplars are period pieces first and foremost. FX’s series Impeachment: American Crime Story follows Lewinsky in the era of shoulder pads, the Drudge Report, and dial-up modems. For the New York Times documentary Framing Britney Spears, we’re whisked to the early aughts, awash in boy bands and sexualized teen idols wearing spaghetti strap body-con tanks. The towering achievements of Hulu’s Pam & Tommy are its costuming, makeup, and production design. It’s Pamela Anderson’s boobs and hair, the fuzzy CRT television by her bed, and the muttering conversation of the middle-aged male Baywatch producers around her, debating where to tape the red swimsuit onto her ass.