Mrs. Maisel Creator Has 'No Patience' For People Criticizing Midge's Parenting
Amy Sherman-Palladino responds to people who think Midge Maisel on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is a bad mom
Ever since The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel hit the Amazon streaming platform in 2017, a lot of people and awards shows have been taken with the delightful comedy series about a female comic in the late ’50s, however, there has also been an equal number of people who criticize the show for featuring a female lead who is constantly accused of being a “bad mom.” The show’s creator Amy Sherman-Palladino has heard your criticism, and she’s over it.
On the show, Midge Maisel plays a housewife who pursues her dreams of being a stand-up comedian, which leads to her divorce and her eventual success as a road comic. On the show, Midge isn’t super involved in her children’s lives — though it is heightened for comic effect — however, the children are hardly neglected as they live in a gorgeous penthouse Manhattan apartment with their grandparents.
Despite the fact that father characters on TV shows are never accused of being bad parents because they work too much, nobody can handle the fact that Midge represents a woman who just like, works often and sees her children less frequently than most people are accustomed to. Also, the show takes place in the ’50s… you know, the era when women did speed and called it a diet pill.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the show’s creator Amy Sherman-Palladino says she doesn’t give two effs what you think about Midge or her parenting skills.
“The main negative thing that I’ve been getting about Midge is about [her being away from her] kids, and I have no patience for that shit whatsoever. I never saw one person say dick about Don Draper in Mad Men not hanging out with his kids. So fuck that shit,” Sherman-Palladino said. “These kids have two sets of grandparents who dote on them, and they have a father that’s there all the time. If this woman has to go out on the road to make a living, fuck you if you have an issue with that. And I mean that with all the love in my heart.”
Also, complex women who may or may not be enthusiastic about parenting DO exist in the world and why shouldn’t television shows reflect that? When did we, as a culture, decide that only supermoms are allowed to be shown on television? First of all, how boring, second of all, how damaging would that be to real mothers watching who are already constantly bombarded with media images that reinforce guilt-inducing ideas of how they “should” behave. Also, if this show was called Mr. Maisel about a dad pursuing stand-up comedy, nobody would bat an eyelash when he works late at night and rarely interacts with his kids. So haters, you can zip it!
