VEEP: How Selina Meyer’s mediocrity avoids undermining female leadership
From the very beginning, I’ve been drawn to VEEP for its raw, vulgar hilarity and candid take on American politics behind the scenes. What keeps me watching is its complex, flawed female characters who are allowed to fail without it reflecting on female leadership or competence.
VEEP follows the story of Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss), an aristocratic, self-centered Vice President who gets the promotion of a lifetime when the President steps down during his first term. In the Season 5 finale “Inauguration,” Selina loses her presidency in an increasingly improbable set of political setbacks first at the ballot box, and then in the House and finally the Senate.
Selina Meyer is the protagonist, but she is hardly a heroine. She is power-hungry and will sacrifice good policy for her own advancement. As a politician, she is not above intimidation and backroom dealing to advance her aims.
Selina’s position as the first female president and her relative vulnerability in a political climate that is hostile to female leadership is explored in the show. We are aware that she is unfairly judged by her looks compared to her male peers. In one episode, she is groped by the husband of the Finnish Prime Minister and refers to patriarchy as the “axis of dick.”
What makes VEEP’s portrayal of female leadership so special is that Selina has room to be mediocre and it never undercuts her ability to lead as a female politician. She operates in a corrupt world where a Vice President has to appeal the oil lobby to put together a clean jobs taskforce, and where a competent young intern takes the fall for a scandal way up the chain of command.
Like Selina, her Chief of Staff Amy Brookheimer (Anna Chlumsky), is far from perfect. In the pilot, she accidentally signs her own name to a sympathy card that is supposed to be from the Vice President. After becoming increasingly frustrated that Selina values the non-opinions of an old friend with no political acumen over her own reasoned proposals, Amy resigns during the party convention in an expletive-laden rant in front of the VP’s entire entourage. Throughout the series, it is repeatedly shown that Amy is incapable of taking a break from politics, even for a spa date with her sister.
And yet, it is also completely evident that Amy was born to be a Washington operative. She is extremely intelligent, knows the Beltway world inside and out, and thrives on the chaos of Washington political culture. I wouldn’t have Amy any other way.
Selina’s weaknesses — her disregard for working people, her unabashed hatred of the overweight and/or un-aesthetically pleasing, her dogged pursuit of power at any cost, whether moral or even legal — are presented as personal faults. Selina is a product of a political system that elevates the wealthy and well-connected and rewards corrupt behavior. Her disappointing actions are not a product of her gender, nor are female leaders portrayed as incompetent due to their femaleness. Female characters have the same potential in the VEEP universe to be anywhere on the spectrum from virtuous to corrupt, and are drawn as complex and interesting people.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the Season 5 finale when Selina, VP turned President, loses the election to confirm her position as President. After ties at the ballot box, then the House of Representatives, the election relies on a vote in the Senate. Former ally Tom James (Hugh Laurie) is expected to win and succeed Meyer. At the last moment, a dark horse candidate emerges and Laura Montez (Andrea Savage) is confirmed as the new President.
Not only does this avoid the situation of Selina failing as the first female president and being replaced by a man, but VEEP goes one step further. During her inauguration, it is announced that Montez has successfully freed Tibet, an accomplishment Meyer had coveted for her own legacy. Meyer is outshined by another, much more competent, female leader. In doing so, VEEP confirms Meyer’s weaknesses as hers alone. Her rise and fall are not the failure of a female presidency, but simply the rise and fall of an American politician.
At a time when the United States is seriously considering the possibility of its first female president, one embattled with scandal and intrigue at least as much as her powerful male peers, VEEP’s message is important. Women have the potential to be just as influential, groundbreaking and innovative as male politicians. They also have the equal potential to be out-of-touch and corrupt.
