After about thirty minutes of parodic music videos, borderline hostile celebrity interviews, faux advertisements, and other sardonic sketches and bits, each episode of “Ziwe” concludes with the title cards of its distributors: artsy movie factory A24 and “Generation Ziwe,” a company whose only credit is the Showtime-produced variety show. Indeed, comedian Ziwe Fumudoh’s hit show embodies the cynical angst of the current generation.
A recent essay by Sophie Haigney in The New York Times detailed the decline of the feminist era heralded by the “girlboss” and the rise of the “bimbo” in its place. Haigney describes the bimbos of TikTok as sarcastic and ironic, whose tactics embrace dated stereotypes about women to argue that women needn’t be the pictures of professionalism and success in order to deserve rights. She describes the movement as a sort of antithesis to the previously dominant girlboss movement, defined by pantsuits, merchandise emblazoned with catchphrases like “The Future is Female,” ubiquitous images of female CEO types, and an obvious leader in Hillary Clinton. Recent frustration with the girlboss movement has pointed out its whiteness and, frankly, its cringeworthy attitudes. Ziwe, or at least the character she plays on her talk show, is an embodiment of these frustrations as she takes on many of the traits Haigney describes in her piece on bimbos.
Many of Ziwe’s segments have gone viral. In one, she asks feminist icon Fran Lebowitz what bothers her more: slow walkers or racism (Lebowitz essentially replies the former). In another, she reads the lyrics of WAP to another feminist icon and arguable girlboss Gloria Steinem. She made Phoebe Bridgers eat an “ally cookie,” which was a gingerbread man of a Black man who begged for mercy over voiceover; Ziwe points out that Blackness is not for consumption. This season included an interview with Tom Hanks’ son Chet, who in a highly insensitive conversation doubled down on his use of a Jamaican accent.
Ziwe shows a profound understanding of pop culture. In one music video, she observes the infantilization of female pop stars in a song called “Wet Diaper (Goo Goo Gah Gah).” In another anthem called “Baby Let’s Move On”, she equates the American flag imagery of many music videos with the erasure of the country’s genocidal history. Her frustrations with the political establishment and moderates are echoed in her conversations with figures such as Stacey Abrams and Andrew Yang (whose campaign for New York mayor tanked after he claimed, on “Ziwe,” that his favorite subway station was Times Square).
The list of poignant segments and moments goes on, but Ziwe frequently makes mainstream cultural complaints only whispered about on Gen-Z corners of Twitter and TikTok. The result is the combination of the bimbo project: he ironic exposure of culture hypocrisies through unflinching embrace of femininity.The girlboss conformed to masculinity and patriarchy to achieve equal status (e.g. the pantsuit). Ziwe’s set is decorated bright pink, and the host herself wears expensive and highly feminine clothing. Even in her interview with Fran Lebowitz, she observes the importance of “stupid rights,” or the equality of everyone regardless of how successful they are.
Ziwe, as Haigney would argue in her bimbo piece, reflects the end of an era for feminism and the rise of a new, more intersectional one. But Ziwe is also revolutionizing the entertainment industry. Celebrity interviews are no longer puff pieces and polite entertainment: on “Ziwe,” they are awkward and occasionally hostile. On “Ziwe,” elites are not safe but are held accountable: in a recurring segment, Ziwe asks her guests if they have any marginalized communities they’d like to apologize to; they then look into an “apology cam” and apologize. This effort represents the much broader conflation of feminist and leftist movements as “culture wars” dominate politics. In this sense, Ziwe demonstrates that pop culture and politics are no longer separate.
This cultural shift will likely be exacerbated after the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The decision ushers in a new era of culture and demands a new form of feminism. The moderate and conforming girlboss is no longer radical nor urgent enough to combat the oppression of the state. Ziwe illustrates that perhaps Haigney’s bimbo is. The time to care about the comfort of elites is long over; it’s time to interrogate even the most foundational aspects of our system. In erasing the difference between culture and politics and attacking the entertainment industry’s elites, Ziwe represents the start of that process.
New episodes of Ziwe will return later in 2022. Current episodes can be found on demand through Showtime..
Emmy is a big fan of all things TV and movies. Among her current favorites are The Matrix, Midsommar, Titane, and Fleabag. Catch her on Letterboxd @ewenstrup !
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