Sex Education vs. Big Mouth
By: Alex Mell-Taylor
Tags: Abortion, TV Series, Sex Education, Big Mouth, Netflix

Big Mouth, and the Failure of Sneaky Feminism

The concept at the core of Big Mouth is a hilarious one. Focused on teenagers Nick Birch (played by Nick Kroll), Andrew Glouberman (played by John Mulaney), and to a lesser, extent female student Jessi Glaser (Jessi Klein), as they navigate the arrival of puberty, the show cleverly anthropomorphizes the concept of puberty in the form of hormone monsters that only the kids can see. These monsters (played by Kroll, and Maya Rudolph) give the kids the ability to have direct and hilarious conversations that cut to the core of teenage, though admittedly mostly male, angst. Maya Rudolph’s Hormone Monstress, in particular, has some of the show’s best one-liners, and it’s worth watching for those alone.

There is a lot of good here. The show is, by its very nature, sex-positive. For example, there is a scene where Jessi talks to her genitals, which are also anthropomorphized. I found it to be both informative and empowering; as her genitals say:

“Of course I’m not scary. I’m you, and I’m very fun.”

The show has some drawbacks, though.

For one, it comes from a very privileged perspective (all the principal writers are white), and that creates some obvious problems. There is a black character named Missy (played by Jenny Slate) who is from an interracial family, and the show never dives deeply into how that might lead to a different set of sexual issues than her whiter counterparts. There is also a depiction of a mentally-disabled character, Coach Steve (also played by Kroll) that I found to be quite offensive.

The biggest problem, though, has to do with the concept of sneaky feminism. If you are unfamiliar with the concept: sneaky feminism is basically an attempt to incept feminist concepts into a work without the audience being aware of it. In the words of Urszula Pruchniewska:

“A distancing from explicit notions of feminism was also used as a strategy to, paradoxically, advance the goals of feminism: through making the goals and values of equality more “palatable” by distancing themselves from the contested concept of feminism, these writers “sneak” feminism into their audience’s lives.”

It’s politics without getting “too preachy.”

In order to achieve this tactic, writers often have to diffuse the directness of their message so their (more conservative) audience doesn’t feel too attacked.

Big Mouth has moments of stunning directness deserving of praise (there is a song about body positivity in the second season that I love), but too often much of the show’s emotional moments are undercut by comedic gags. The plot is in service of the comedy, and that makes it hard to take Big Mouth’s more serious moments, well, seriously.

For example, if we were to judge the actions Andrew’s father Marty (Richard Kind) seriously, we would undoubtedly see them as emotionally abusive. Throughout the show he ridicules his son, calling him a “sex maniac,” a pedophile, and actively telling Andrew he doesn’t love him. We are supposed to view these moments as funny, and they are outside of the context of his relationship with his son, but within that context, they are abusive and flat.

When the show switches to more serious moments, it will sometimes use over-the-top action to break the tension. When Andrew “humps fronts” with fellow student Lola (also fucking voiced by Kroll) in episode six of season two (Drug Buddies) and then later breaks up with her, we are meant to feel like he is in the wrong. He used her for sexual gratification knowing that he didn’t like her, and the show uses this situation to draw a loose connection to the #metoo movement. The girl students stage a protest of him, and in episode seven of the second season (Guy Town), he gives a tearful apology.

That’s fine. I am all for nuanced conversations about sex, but the thing the show seems to forget is that Lola, upon being broken up with, breaks Andrew’s arm. Lying to obtain sex is not okay, but neither is aggravated assault. Are we supposed to just ignore this abusive behavior? The show certainly does. What behaviors do we take in context and what behaviors do we ignore? The show never bothers to explain, and that makes it really difficult to take anything said or done at face value.

Another character named Jay Bilzerian (played by Jason Mantzoukas) lives in utter poverty. His mother is negligent. His father is abusive. His brothers beat him up, and more often than not such abuse is depicted as funny. For example, we are supposed to think it’s hilarious that his brothers feed Jay and his friends' cum on a cracker (Jizzcuits), even if we are somewhat appalled by it. We are meant to think the sad, misinformed statements Jay’s character says (e.g. things like “I haven’t smoked pot since the third grade”) are funny, even though they are symptomatic of a pattern of abuse that I don’t find funny at all.

The tone is all over the place, and that makes it difficult to know what moments we need to embrace, and which ones to ignore under the banner of comedy. You, as a liberal audience member, might view the Planned Parenthood episode as a stunning political endorsement, but because it ends with Coach Steve speaking directly to the audience and saying “I can’t forget the liberal elite for their awesome agenda” I am left confused. I see that line as a joke, but it is possible for an audience member to take that statement seriously, and while I disagree with that interpretation, the show’s murky message doesn’t help prove that viewpoint wrong.

The message is too diluted.