Sexualities, Ahead of Print.
This article challenges conventions of normative femininity and popular feminism by examining the television show Fleabag (2016–2019) and the destabilizing tendencies of its unnamed protagonist (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), who insistently breaks the fourth wall, implying a form of narrative agency. However, her refusal and/or inability to conform to expectations around public decency, feminine norms, and heterosexual romance also betray a lack of narrative control. The show’s unruly framing and its dysfunctional narrator open a dynamic space for explorations of “bad feminism” (Gay, 2014), “fem (me)inine failure” (Hoskin and Taylor, 2019), and “toxic femininity” (McCann, 2020), while foregrounding a kind of femme resistance.