Recently, I sat down and watched Pam and Tommy (in its entirety, in two days). I had first heard about the show on Seth Rogen’s Instagram, where he did a couple of short, understated posts about the show (presumably a condition of his contract, as he’s not the type to self aggrandize, or maybe he was just really feeling those denim shorts—the world may never know). Anyway, I’m a bit averse to watching things that everyone tells me to watch, so it took me a little longer than most to get to it.
But, let me tell you, it was well worth the watch.
Growing up in the nineties (and by growing up in the nineties, I do not mean I was born before 1990, so I really don’t remember anything about the Pamela Anderson sex tape incident, as I would have been more interested in learning 2+2 and how not to pee my pants in school than in celebrities and their rights) means that I actually do remember the days when you had to dial into the internet. The days when the computer lived in the garage, and taking pictures required a camera (not the kind they put in phones).
That’s why, one of the biggest things that stood out to me as I watched Pam and Tommy was the nineties nostalgia. I’m not sure how much of it was done for ‘period’ accuracy (which, yes—we can now say shows based in the nineties are ‘period’ shows) and how much of it was done simply to evoke nostalgia. People love nostalgia, and it’s a clever entertainment tool. Nostalgia is like a warm, comforting blanket, reminding us of how simple, how warm, how safe, things used to be. But, as to whether or not the nostalgia was commercial or for accuracy’s sake, who knows.
Among the many, many dramatic plot points present in the series (I could go on and on—Pam and Tommy did an excellent job at humanizing the key players in the story) the one I think is most important is the reception Pamela Anderson faced. And I don’t mean just the backlash she faced from the sex tape (although that is a huge part of it) but the way she was treated by Hollywood (and the world) even before anyone had seen her non-consensually released sex tape.
In Pam and Tommy, Pamela Anderson serves as the figurehead for all women, everywhere, throughout the history of the human race. She is the representation of Woman—alone in a world designed to keep her down. And, the Pamela Anderson of Pam and Tommy is the perfect representation of the Hero in the classic Hero’s Journey.
Faced with a huge opportunity to leave her little home and go on a grand adventure, young Pam leaves everything behind, including the male influence who would have kept her in the cave with him forever, and discovers a wide open future fit for the likes of a Hero. Pam waits for no man to empower her; instead, she empowers herself, and uses her body to do it (which is her absolute right, as a woman, to do).
Yet, even as Pam discovers her own empowerment, and lifts herself up and out of the hole she was raised in (Pamela Anderson went through some pretty heavy shit as a child, shit that no child or young woman should ever, ever have to go through, so it’s pretty safe to say that she overcame a lot of trauma to get to where she was/is) she is put down, time and time again, by the patriarchy.
So, after overcoming a past that would have destroyed many others, and finding success in a hostile world, our Hero (Pamela Anderson) now finds herself faced, yet again, with an absolutely shitty situation that she must get herself out of. A situation she was put in, once again, thanks to the likes of a man (albeit one that seemed to act more out of sheer stupidity than conscious sexism).
The series makes many points, many of them valid and thought provoking. But the most important one is this:
Throughout the history of human culture, women have been trained since birth to concede to men, to allow them to do what they want with our bodies, and to know that our rights matter less than theirs. And, as if being a woman wasn’t bad enough, we’ve also been taught that the more sexual license a woman has, the more she acts like a human being with full fledged rights just like a man (the nerve!) the less she deserves.
I know there’s a lot of conflict over the fact that Pamela Anderson wants nothing to do with this depiction of her life, and I’ve thought a lot about that. Unfortunately for the Hero of any story, they have no control over who tells their story (in a few of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s words), and this was certainly the case for Pamela when all of this went down in the nineties. However, Pam and Tommy is a chance to tell the victim’s side of the story, and it’s a story that needs to be told.
Before, the story was told solely by the victor—Pam and Tommy is our chance to hear the story from the victim’s point of view, and because of that, it is important.
So, in closing, I’d like to say that Pam and Tommy should sound off as a cultural alarm for all of us. It should awaken everyone to the fact that the very same sexism and gender discrimination that beat Pamela Anderson down in 1996 is still beating down women today, and that needs to stop.
#Istandwithpamela
Brandi Allred
April 3rd, 2022