It's no secret that Layla enjoys a good show. It's also not surprising that Layla is a feminist with a penchant for female roles in entertainment. Her passion for art transcends bounds; however, she’s way more interested in artworks that heavily depict women.

Layla may not be old enough to recall the 1950s, pearls-and-meatloaf domestic antics in which women were trapped in TV shows or movies, but she’s old enough now to behold the roles that women are still stranded in many years later. It’s undeniable that women have been getting some of the freedom of expression that they deserve in not-so-recent but groundbreaking shows like Gilmore Girls, Charlie’s Angels, and Ocean’s 8. However, Layla still feels like the entertainment industry has a long way to go.

There is still a lot of room for women to be properly represented. Layla has been keeping an eye on none other than the famed Netflix in recent years. And while Netflix’s original productions have always been sort of hit-or-miss, there are some excellent female portrayals on the platform. Through many of their unique shows, they empower and tell the experiences of women. The issue, though, is the way the audience has interpreted those productions. Social media has enabled its users to post their Hot Takes online, consciously or subconsciously influencing other social media users.

Layla found out that there were two entirely different conversations when it came to male and female roles. Layla saw how people enabled male serial killers to be smart and good-looking. Meanwhile, female leads were always viewed as prudent and standoffish when they said no, and gullible and naïve when they said yes. Male fraudsters in true crime documentaries were commended for their intelligence, while their female counterparts were condemned for their vile acts. And hey, they’re both worthy of castigation, but a con woman’s wit is just as influential as a con man’s. Even victims weren’t spared from the audience's running commentary, who hold wakes for the male victim but wonder why the female victim couldn’t just, like, duck away from the swinging ax. It was like there are two utterly different sets of vocabulary for men and women when assessing their roles in fictional and non-fictional works.

Spoilers for the second season of Netflix’s You ahead.

On the 15th of October 2021, the third season of the psychological thriller, You, dropped. For those who haven’t watched the show, our protagonist (debatable) Joe Goldberg, is an anti-social, dangerous, obsessive, narcissist, and serial killer who got married to none other than Love Quinn, his love interest from the second season.

Tensions between the couple compound as the show draws out, and most of the audience found themselves divided between picking the lesser of two evils. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority swayed towards serial killer #1, Joe Goldberg, although his actions throughout the show were inarguably viler than Love’s.

Later by the end of October, Layla heard about the viral South Korean sensation Squid Game. The show, which was a critique of the barbaric lengths people will go to escape capitalism, featured the survivalist Kang Sae-byeok, the woman who robbed the lead, Gi-Hun, on the subway.

The last woman standing in the game received a lot of love and support from the audience as well as Layla. But it didn’t go unnoticed how Player 067 was rejected in the scene where characters were teaming up for the tug of war game, just because she was a girl and probably ‘weak.’

Flash forward to February 2022 when both The Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna came out, the former a true-crime documentary film and the latter a drama mini-series. They both tell the stories of fraudsters. However, when Layla paid attention to the reactions, it was a shock that a lot of people were not only defending but also stating how smart the male tinder swindler is. Some even were saying how dumb his female victims were to give the guy that much money.

On the other hand, people were calling Anna from Inventing Anna a fake social climber. They hated how the show was trying to victimize her– though Layla thought it was neutral. While the two crimes were somehow similar, it was very obvious how different reactions and vocabularies were used by the tinder swindler and Anna.

Only then did it hit Layla. Double standards exist even in people’s reactions and judgments of cinematic universes and fictional worlds. Love was Joe’s mirrored self, yet he was seen ‘trying to be better but hitting rock bottom and that’s okay!’, while she was seen as ‘impulsive and crazy.’

Layla believes we have to change the narrative, so change should stem from the inside to build neutral points of view. The same opinions, judgments, and words should be used for both women and men- achieving our keyword, Equality. So that next time Layla asks people which team they are on- Joe or Love, they’d say none! Because both Joe and Love are serial killers! And when people form their opinions on the drama fraudsters, they wouldn’t favor or praise the male - because they’re both swindlers and none of them should get away with it because of their gender or looks. And only then, Layla would know that justice was achieved in the reactions of people to the portrayal of females in works of entertainment.