Dr Foster drama on BBC tv a brilliant portrayal of the modern dilemma facing women. Gemma stands for the best in women who actually have the wisdom and the courage to save life, save humanity from the devastation being wreaked upon it by the generations of men, blinded by greed and without the courage to face the truth about themselves, who are selling out and bankrupting our human species and the future generations. The pain caused to her by having to face the truth about this man, her husband, who did not understand what he was doing to destroy the beauty they had created together. She alone stood against the conventions of not upsetting people at a dinner table, in heart stopping audacity, in order to bring home the truth of what was happening. Her medical assistant pleaded she just didn't want to hurt anybody. But Gemma was a wolf, ferocious in her defence of the next generation, determined in her maternal role, while totally supporting her family herself, to the point of alienating her son, who just wanted a mother like other boys have. As women activists maybe we can't fulfill that picture book sort of mothering at this time when the world is burning, our priority as Gemma's, is truth and justice.
It's interesting that one of the most frequent criticisms has been that Gemma wasn't "likeable". And that she was irrational! That's why people didn't like her, cos she didn't play by the rules. She was unpredictable. She didn't even obey the law! To obey something above the law, like truth or life, is really challenging. And I guess it usually only happens in a crisis. Are we in a crisis??
