In all the popular TV shows that advertise strong, female heroes such as Netflix's Godless, the script involving women seems to be written in the shape that it was once was for men but, in the wave of feminism drowning Hollywood, the new script writers seem to erase the male names in characters and then inserting female ones, showing the faux-feminism.

In Netflix's Godless, a show advertised in trailers that put a twist in the classic "Old West" trope. For starters, it is set in an 1800s New Mexico solely populated by women, and as the marketing campaign goes on, the show promises a feminist western with a deadly cast of powerful women, set in a town without men. However, what Scott Frank, writer of Godless, conveniently leaves out is the plot: a feud among Roy Goode and Frank Griffin, two men. This leaves a stereotypical Western-style show in which women are consistently left out and only play pawns in the blood feud among both men. Aside from women only being defined by their relationships with Gooode and Griffin, the show is littered with unnecessary rapes, violence against women, and female nudity. For example, in mutiple episodes the women mourn how every single man in La Belle (the town isn't even devoid of men, as showstopping trailers advertised. Instead, men are indeed scarce but in the positions of power among the town such as sheriff) takes advantage of them or plans to take advantage of them, a position that is pointed out through the rape scenes extensively littlered throughout for no other reason than men and their "desires". Another scene in the show that made me aware of how belittiling the power among women is in the show was the fact that nudity among females was used simply as eye-candy, not a symbol of empowernment, or something releveant to the plot. For instance, there was a scene in which a woman (a complete stranger for she was never introduced) rode a horse naked and the female residents of La Bellesimply chalked it up to her being crazy. This was the one scene and was never explained further, showing the faux-feminism in Hollywood and how it could be used to increase profit and fame.

Though many shows are full to the brim with faux-feminism for the sake of money, there will always be shows that demonstrate how women truly are: complex, strong, and brave. Some shows that are deft in exemplifying this are Big Mouth, Big Little Lies (Season 1), and The Handmaid's Tale. Though no show is free of faux-feminism, there will always be little highlights that truly incorporated what the feminist movement is really about: gaining equality with men through raw empowerment.