Speak Up: Why Bombshell Tells An Important Story

About a week ago, my roommate and I decided to go see a movie. I had no personal preference in the matter so I let her pick the film. In the end, she decided that we were going to see Bombshell. And boy, it did not disappoint! I walked out of that movie theater with so many thoughts. With the recent Oscars, I decided to write this week’s article on my opinion of Bombshell. 

For those who haven’t seen the movie, here is a brief plot summary for some context: Bombshell takes place in 2016 around the time Donald Trump is running for president. The movie follows the lives of 3 women who work for Fox News: Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron), Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman), and the fictional character Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie). These 3 women, and eventually 20 more, help expose sexual harassment situations involving former Fox CEO Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) and other male staff members at the network. 

During the film, we see the dynamic of the Fox Newsroom both on and off the air as told through the network’s anchors. For instance, Gretchen Carlson (first woman to start the fight against Ailes) covered stories on her show The Real Story that didn’t fit Fox’s conservative views, stories like how makeup is used to sexualize girls in today’s culture and supporting the assault weapons ban that came up after the Orlando Shooting. Doing stories like this and not accepting sexual advances from Ailes caused her to be let go. Another aspect I found interesting was that Ailes had a strict dress code for the on-air women. They had to wear skirts of a reasonable color and the cameras needed to have their legs in shot. Scenes like these made me think more about Fox News’ conservative and sexist atmosphere. I find it interesting that Ailes fires Carlson for doing a story about how our culture today sexualizes women while he is contributing to that same culture. 

Going into this film, I had my own personal reservations. I grew up in a house where the only news channel we watched was CNN, a more liberal channel compared to Fox. So naturally, Fox News was seen as “fake news”. Also, there were a lot of discussions on campus regarding a certain segment released by Fox and Friends in which they misunderstood Mount Holyoke’s policy on professors calling students “students” instead of “women”. However, walking out of that film made me realize two things. First, while I do disagree with some views of Fox News, everyone has a right to voice their opinion even though it may not be the same as yours. Second, it’s always interesting to hear another person’s stance on a matter. I identify as a Democrat and I have a few friends who are Republican. I get asked by people why I’m friends with someone who has “those” views. I simply say I see more to them than that one thing. For Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson, Bombshell showed some scenes where they were booed and called mean names by non-Fox fans. While I do disagree with some of the statements that are made by these two women, I value the fact that they took a stand against a horrible man and empowered other women at Fox News to rise up. 

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