A Chat with Laurie Stone about "The Trouble With Fleishman, A Monologue"

Women of two different generations on the state of feminism and women's solidarity (or lack thereof) as reflected in streaming television and elsewhere in the culture.

Left, Laurie Stone; Right, Sari Botton

Readers,

This is an episode of the Oldster Magazine Podcast, of which I intend for there to be more, soon. It’s for paid subscribers. (If you’re not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one so that I can keep doing this work. If you can’t afford a subscription, email me at oldstermag@gmail.com and I will give you a complimentary paid subscription.)

This week,

Laurie Stone

’s thought-provoking piece of cultural criticism, The Trouble with Fleishman, A Monologue, garnered many responses and a bit of controversy in the comments.

Oldster Magazine strives to be an inter-generational publication, and I was thrilled to see (mostly) women of different generations discussing and debating the state of feminism and women’s solidarity (or lack thereof) as they’re currently represented on streaming television, and in the culture at large.

Stone and I are of different generations, and that has made for an interesting ongoing conversation between us. Her piece came about during an in-person discussion we had about Fleishman is In Trouble on Hulu in which she asked, “Why does feminism need to be reinvented every 25 years? Why does every generation need to do this again?”

I was intrigued by her piece, even though I had some slightly differing perspectives on the show and the structural and emotional challenges women still face despite three (or is it four?) waves of feminism. I was equally intrigued by some of the comments. And so I thought I’d invite Stone on for a conversation about it all.

Stone has since revised her piece. I’ve updated the original, and she has also posted it to her wonderful Substack, Everything Is Personal.