Fleabag inspects the role of the self-proclaimed ‘bad feminist’ within a confessional monologue (16). Fleabag is a postfeminist text, working to consider what it means to be a contemporary woman navigating sexuality and relationships within a world of porn and one night stands - subsequently resulting in the destruction of many interpersonal relationships. The elements of Fleabag this blog will be exploring are the use of monologic, direct addressing style and the use of a female protagonist to examine the expectations within the patriarchy. These techniques are used by Phoebe Waller-Bridge to disarm and implicate the audience, whilst also displaying and inspecting the confusion and unfulfilled quality of Fleabags sexual behaviour in the context of contemporary society.
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Vulnerabilty and Feminity in Monologue
Fleabag reflects upon an intimate sexual experience by asking the audience; ‘do I have a massive arsehole?’ (23). The man on the other hand, thanks her with ‘genuine earnest’. He fails to recognise that her consent is her merely ‘[letting] him’ (23). Fleabag is apathetic and detached from the act, feeling indebted to him because he was ‘nice to [her]’ (23). The monologue is utilised here as a tool to bring depth to otherwise normal experiences - how she reacts is where the entertainment lies. Monologues can be described as ‘pure a form of theatre as it gets’, in which ‘there’s no hiding place’ (Stewart, 2013). This is an intensely vulnerable form, Fleabag sits in a dark room. Femininity and this form of vulnerability seem to work in conjunction with one another. An example of this form of vulnerability is Marina Abramović’s performance art piece Rhythm 0 (1974). Here, the woman is placed into the spotlight, and then acted upon. Stripped and dehumanised. As described in the video linked, when Abramović began to move, the audience fled, suddenly made aware she was indeed a person. Marina Abramovic on performing 'Rhythm 0' 1974
The body works as a medium in both Rhythm 0 and Fleabag. Fleabag takes nude pictures of herself, lifting her top in the bank interview and walks down the street expecting to be catcalled. There is an awareness of the body which is entirely female, which informs the text and the staging. Fleabag wears modest clothing and speaks with command and a lack of modesty; highlighting it is not her intention to be sexualised. Abramovic shows how quickly the audience will sexualise and abuse, when given the opportunity. Monologues emulate a sense of vulnerability, providing depth into Fleabags thoughts and actions, whilst also highlighting the danger for women in this space when the male audience is made uncomfortable.
Abramović, M. 1974. Rhythm 0. [Photograph].
Waller-Bridge, P. 2019. Fleabag. National Theatre.
Direct Address in Monologue
Waller-Bridge carefully balances direct address, able to go from casual to extreme in a sentence. ‘I send Harry a picture of my vagina. I text Lily. Still nothing from my sister’ (30), the short, sharp sentences indicative of the modern short attention spans - Fleabag shares openly with the audience and then shuts them out, just as quickly (Tasioula, 2023). The monologue in conjunction with comedy softens the intensity of what is actually being discussed; confusion informed by grief and guilt, which is then fueled by the reaction to hypersexuality by the patriarchy. This was described by Stewart as a ‘terrifying portrait’ of a woman who is reverberating the feminist movement whilst simultaneously being a self involved narcissist (2013). This type of reading however emulates how Fleabag was not supposed to be perceived - if she is a ‘terrifying portrait’ then it perpetuates the idea of ‘bad’ feminism and even criticises regular women and their dating patterns. Fleabag is anxious about her own feminism because her behaviour is so informed by the expectations of patriarchy (she complains she ‘can't even call herself a feminist’, 21). By directly addressing the audience during a monologue, the internal experience of the external display of a woman with seemingly questionable values is made to be understood to a far greater extent.
Gendered Understanding in Characterisation and Monologue
When people are charmed by the moment with the Tube Rodent, Fleabag describes it as ‘revolting’; charmed only by attention given to her (11). When performed by Waller-Bridge, it is clear that Fleabag is not attracted to him in the slightest, once again reflecting the apathetic quality of her hypersexuality.
Fleabag | Tube Rendezvous Clip | National Theatre Live
A man cups her vagina at a bar and she says he's ‘nice actually’ because ‘he buys [her] a drink’ (20). Her disgust towards intimacy is a reflection of her vision of sex and relationships, the ease in lack of attachment, informed by the patriarchy. Fleabag’s guilt and grief are what makes her female; she is haunted by Boo’s voicemail constantly playing, constantly aware of what she has done, even if the audience is not.
https://clip.cafe/fleabag-2016/answerphone-hi-is-boo/
Thus, she is humanised and the audience can relate to her comfortably. Subsequently, it is clear that this form of graphic monologue works primarily because Fleabag is a woman. A male protagonist would struggle to create depth in the description of their sexual conquests because that behaviour is normalised. The feminist language and perspective ‘constantly’ reminds the audience of how this expression of ravenous sexual exploits would be viewed if the person ‘delivering this monologue was a man’ (Stewart, 2013). An example of this is Chuck Palahniuk’s male protagonist in Choke, who also discusses sex with the same dejected manner as Fleabag. He says to his therapist ‘I want to fuck you so bad I can taste it’, utilising graphic and vulgar language to shock the audience (55). Although Choke follows a similar rhythm to Fleabag; being overtly direct and terse, the novel holds a differing sense of confidence because the narrator is male. He uses the monologue as a tool to report, there is no requirement of explanation for his actions. Men have the authority to claim an experience without justification. The gendered nature of characterisation is evident in Fleabag, which gives authority for the topics to be discussed on stage, to the audience in a direct manner.
'Precarious Girl'
Furthermore, the association of ‘precarious girl comedy’ with Fleabag and her characterisation is a reflection of a society uncomfortable with female hypersexuality in relation to emotional confusion. When Wanzo labels Fleabag as ‘precarious’, a word meaning ‘unstable, uncertain, unsafe’, it strips Fleabag of her legitimacy. Her intelligently crafted monologue fails to be taken seriously, as the word ‘precarious’ undermines not only her beliefs, but her experience and her ability to process her emotions through an intellectual lens. Dove-Viebahn puts it far more eloquently that ‘Fleabag’s refusal to conform even to viewers’ expectations of her performance instead embodies a resistant femme subjectivity’ (2023). Fleabag not being taken seriously is a reflection of the discomfort towards an open discussion about sex and feminism. She is belittled because she is a woman, rather than a person.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a directly addressing monologue and characterisation are used to emphasize the feminist tones of the text. The play has the potential to offend the audience, which works to challenge perceptions of the status quo (Park-Finch, 2024). The monologue invites the audience into the world of a woman who could be perceived as morally ambiguous. She's acutely aware of experiences and reactions in the cultural landscape, intrinsically connected to the idea of being the perfect feminist.
Works Cited
Abramović, M. 1974. Rhythm 0. Naples.
Berridge, S. (2011) ‘Unruly girls, unrepentant mothers: redefining feminism on screen’, Screen, 52(4), pp. 537–540. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjr045.
Dove-Viebahn, A. (2024) ‘Controlling the narrative, examining the self: The unruly femme subjectivity of Fleabag’, Sexualities, 27(8), pp. 1401–1414. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607231157072.
Fraser, E. (2019) ‘Fleabag, untethered intimacy and breaking the fourth wall’. GirlsOnTops. Available at: https://girlsontopstees.com/en-us/blogs/read-me/fleabag-untethered-intimacy-and-breaking-the-fourth-wall (Accessed: 2 April 2025).
Holzberg, B. and Lehtonen, A. (2021) ‘The affective life of heterosexuality: heteropessimism and postfeminism in Fleabag’, Feminist Media Studies, 22(8), pp. 1902–1917. doi: 10.1080/14680777.2021.1922485.
Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) Directed by Q. Tarantino [Film]. Los Angeles, CA: Miramax
McDonough, C.J. (1996) ‘Postmodern theatric(K)s: monologue in contemporary American drama by deborah r. Geis’, Comparative Drama, 30(4), pp. 555–557. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1353/cdr.1996.0034.
Palahniuk, C. (2001) Choke. 1st ed. New York: Doubleday.
Park-Finch, H. (2024) ‘Institutionalising the “bad” postfeminist: phoebe waller-bridge’s fleabag from stage to television’, in B. Worthy and P. Sheehan (eds) Adapting Television and Literature. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 43–61. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50832-5_3.
Stewart, S.E. (2013). A Review of Fleabag. Civilian Theatre. https://civiliantheatre.com/reviews/2013-3/fleabag/
Tasioula, E.E. “The Unruliness of Fleabag: A Tightrope of Intimacy and Distance.” Overtones 3 (2024): 31-6.
Waller-Bridge, P. (2017) Fleabag. Reprinted with revisions. London: Nick Hern Books.
Wanzo, R. (2016) ‘Precarious-girl comedy: issa rae, lena dunham, and abjection aesthetics’, Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies, 31(2), pp. 27–59. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-3592565.