Why Isn't Anyone Talking about The Feminism of Severance?
Severance's women are modelling the female rebellion we need to combat the current "abuser's playbook" in politics.
Spoiler Alert: There are spoilers for seasons 2 of Severance + the current political power dynamic as classic abuser behavior.
The NYT just published On Severance, a Brutal Tale of Female Self-Loathing.
Yeah. Maybe. But that’s not where we need to focus right now.
Outies, We Must Move Past Navel Gazing
I get it. As Me-Too gave way girlboss collapse and Covid, women hit a pressure point. Many saw—apparently for the first time—how messed up our system was. We needed a period of discourse on how sucked dry we are. We needed to know it wasn’t just us. But let’s not confuse it with action.
The consciousness raising groups of the 70s turned into real collective and individual action. Today’s non-stop scroll just reinforces a depressing female narrative: imposter syndrome, we hate ourselves, we hate each other. If I took a sip of “mom juice” every time I read it’s exhausting on posts or comments, I’d need medical attention.
I’m exhausted by it’s exhausting.1 It’s as disempowering as the steady stream of US Abuser Politics news alerts (more on that later). It fools us into thinking we’re doing something by hitting like or commenting. We’re not.
Joy-i-fy the Resistance
While left-leaning women and the Democratic party are stuck in over analysis of why we suck so much, the “woman-o-sphere” is upping their game.
The rising influencers are cute MAGA moms packing in Costco, House Inhabit types in the oval office and rich girls living their best lives. The eye candy will have the same mind-changing effects that Peterson, Tate, et al had on men. Women will get exhausted by the exhaustion and drawn to the relief. To the shiny objects. To the performance.
Well, resistance can be loud and sexy, too, if we get up and move. How do you say Defiant Jazz in French?
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Which brings me back to Severance
Severance’s innie/outie dynamic certainly mirrors how women are conditioned to conform, shut down and mask to “succeed,” often at great cost. Personally, existentially and really, to the whole damn system and culture. News flash: No one here - male or female - is really OK.
Yet in this loudly anti-feminist moment, Severance has always been a quietly and compellingly feminist show to me - and I don’t see anyone talking about it.
The women of Severance are the ones actively challenging and breaking the system. Doing. And they are doing it with violence, bravery and decisiveness as well as fabulous art direction.
Helly R: Harness Teenage Rebellion
Season 1 Helly had the energy, the walk, the joy and the boldness of a rebellious teenage daughter. The bravery of a YA heroine. Or the brazen attitude of me, right after I graduated from college.
Helly R ignited all of Lumon toppling. Mark, Irving and Dylan were happy with finger traps and egg parties.
Helly’s about all about embracing conflict and pushing the envelope. But she does it with a winning energy, vulnerability and honesty—even charm—that’s full female warrior. We need more of this young energy to ignite us and push us through the flooded zones.
Gemma: Resist Inwardly Until It’s Time to Strike
In Season 1, she was “strange” Miss Casey. And we all know strange women do in this world.
Spoiler: not good!
A while back, I read that women are conditioned to police each other into conformity and men are conditioned for direct conflict. In episode 7 we saw Gemma fight seriously policed conformity with diabolical direct conflict:
Apologies for the mini-gif but this scene is strangely very hard to find online, despite the deep over-analysis of this show.
Despite years of sadistic, semi-sexualized torture enacted through performing female tropes—suffering 50s housewife, punished 80s career woman, stylized disordered eating, etc.—Gemma bides her time. Then strikes.
She isn’t broken, but we learned she once did break the weird doctor’s fingers.
She’s a model to keeping your inner game focused, clean and activated, then translating it into action. Not capitulation.
Cobel: The Angry & Unrepentant White Woman
Cobel is one of the rarest creatures in popular media: An Angry & Unrepentant White Woman. And even more rare, one that may actually prevail. I dare anyone to call Cobel a Karen and walk away unscathed.
Not only was her IP & life’s work stolen, it’s likely she was abused or even impregnated by Jame Eagan.
In victim-blaming circles, “But Why Didn’t She Leave?” “Why Didn’t She Report It” “Why Didn’t She Fight Back” are bleated out louder than a baby goat farm. Well, trauma bonding and dependence for starters—which is what we saw for Cobel in Season 1.
Season 2 reminds us there is a ceiling. After she got this gaslighting from Helena (the Regina George of Severance), Cobel called her a nepo baby. Then saw what was coming for her and got the hell out.
You know who peoples the postcard writing, the protests, at least in my part of the country? Older white women. Way older than Harmony. If you are discussing over dinner but find it hard to make a phone call or have a conversation, try a mid Atlantic accent and see if it’s more fun.
Of course, Helena is having her own awakening, pulling out of the conformity and control of the Lumon Industrial complex. She’s rebelling in ways that are hardly noble but are still contributing to the crumbling of the order.
Reghabi & Devon: Taking Care of Business
Reghabi may be all the way in on it, who knows. But she’s taking out enforcers with shovels and performing brain surgery while still being relatable enough to eat frosting as self-soothing.
Devon is the most grounded, least conflicted character on the show. She is really driving the momentum into the finale and is the only one who hasn’t been sucked into Lumon on any level.
Sometimes the important work is done quietly from the inside, or within our own social and family circles.
The T-Shirt is Still True: It’s Up to the Women
Lumon is a patriarchal capitalistic organization with the orderly aesthetics and disciplined serenity more akin to Mormonism or Scientology than MAGA’s garish chaos. But all show the classic patterns of abuse.
The patterns were always easy to see. Rally name calling to fundraising emails, podcasters to the DOGE missives. I’ve been convinced the most virulent adherents had abusive figures in their childhood/adolescence and respond to both the conditioning and the Pavlovian bow down to “authority.”
I could link a thousand gifs, visuals and quotes to these but I think you can fill in your own and see how they are showing up. We need to show up, too and not talk ourselves into normalizing or ignoring.
If you are lucky enough to know not these, here they are:
The Patterns of Abuse
Emotional & Verbal Abuse - Insults, lies, name-calling, humiliation, gas lighting, mindgames.
Seizing Rights - making all decisions unilaterally, treating others as servants or subhuman, acting like a king
Financial Abuse - cutting off funds, access to money, hiding or lying about financial information
Intimidation, Coercion and Threats - including harm and threatening legal action, threats of violence
Using Children as a Weapon or Shield
Isolating - cutting off access to friends, allies and support systems
Minimizing, Denial and Blame - including mocking and victim-blaming
Chaos - Creating an erratic and unpredictable reality with rewards and punishments, lovebombing and false promises in ways to keep others guessing and unsure.
Pushing boundaries - Classic groomer technique. Keep pushing accepted boundaries until what was outrageous is familiar. Violate old boundary. Normalize. Validate. Repeat. They aren’t called Edgelords for nothing.
Well-Behaved Women, Posting Isn’t Enough.
The bumper sticker told us well-behaved women rarely make history. Nor do they topple oppression or get out of abusive relationships.
I’ve barely posted in 2025 because the current reality requires we actually do things, whether it’s making calls, rebalancing our investment portfolios or building IRL connections. And frankly, another substack or marketing trend has started to feel really trivial.
The women of France reminded me that Pleasure Activism needs to come into our minds and spark movement.
Pink suits and paddles don’t do it.
We need a Defiant Jazz energy to power us through and attract more people to create change from the ground up because there’s not enough leadership and momentum. Not just in DC but in our communities and lives.
And YES it is freaking exhausting. All of it. Remember: that’s the strategy. Flood the zone with shit. Before it was DC, it was summer camp scheduling and dipshit bosses.
You nailed it!
I’ve been missing you! Great piece. Vive le France!