I really hope ‘Severance’ doesn’t fall back on this misogynistic trope

There are multiple fan theories spinning out of Severance right now, but there’s one I just can’t stand.

Major spoilers ahead for Severance season 2, episode 7.

In Severance season 2, episode 7, “Chikhai Bardo,” we finally explored the fate of Mark’s wife Gemma for the first time. Her death was faked, she’s been alive all this time, and she’s “living”, if you could call it that, on the testing floor of Lumon. She’s been severed into multiple versions of herself, all of whom are experiencing personal torture behind pristine white doors. One innie spends all her time at the dentist, one has to write thank-you cards during an eternal Christmas, and so on.

But we don’t know much about how exactly Gemma’s death was faked, beyond the fact that the burned body Mark thought was hers was not hers. How did Lumon kidnap her? Well, some viewers believe they didn’t kidnap her at all but that Gemma signed up for the experiments because she was desperate to get pregnant and she presumed Lumon could provide that for her. So, she devastated her husband and abandoned her friends on purpose, if you believe that theory. I, however, don’t accept that theory because it’s misogynist, and Severance is better than that.

There’s a tired old trope of the “crazy infertile woman”

Throughout history, men have been suspicious of the infertile woman. Many believed (and many probably still believe) that something so devastating as not being able to bear a child could cause a weak-willed woman to lose her mind. I recollect first encountering this trope in the famous 1934 play Yerma, which tells the story of a woman so desperate to conceive a child that she’s driven to murder. But that was then, and this is now, yet the trope persists. In an article written by Bev Herscovitch for The Bearing All Project, titled “We Need To Destroy The Trope Of The Bitter Infertile Woman,” she points out that the Netflix film We Have a Ghost also uses the trope of the murderous infertile woman as a vital part of its plot. In 2023! It’s such a lazy stereotype.

Gemma never murdered anyone in Severance, that’s true, but if she willingly faked her death, that still makes her cruel beyond words. Seeing what he thought was her burned body damaged Mark almost beyond repair. Why would Gemma do that to the person she loved? “Because she was infertile and wanted a baby” isn’t a good enough reason. Infertility doesn’t drive women to hurt their loved ones in such a cold way, and to steal a phrase from Irving B, Gemma was never cruel.

Some writers draw a line from infertility to inhumanity. Let’s remember one of the most famous cases of this phenomenon—Black Widow of the Avengers franchise. Joss Whedon came under heavy fire for having her call herself “a monster” because her ability to bear children had been forcefully taken away from her. I really don’t want Severance to destroy one of their best female characters with that same old cliché. I like Gemma, and I can’t believe she would prioritize the ability to get pregnant above her husband’s wellbeing and—if Lumon made it clear they would be experimenting on her—her own. It just doesn’t make sense.

So my fingers are crossed for a good, non-lazy, non-misogynist conclusion to Gemma’s horrifying arc. Severance has never let me down yet. I have hope.