ABSTRACT
Set in the San Francisco Bay tech-enclave, Silicon Valley follows a rag-tag group of male friends as they attempt to build their business and achieve the success they so firmly believe they deserve. The series has been criticised for its predominantly male cast, and has made several attempts to counter this – or at least paid lip-service to accusations of sexism. This essay views Silicon Valley from a feminist perspective, and examines the show’s presentation of masculinities and male failure; does the series celebrate the male underdog? Or does it reveal white male rage?
The main characters of Silicon Valley are straight men who revel in the gay jokes and verbal violence that are common amongst meninists and 4chan users. Despite the show framing its characters as beta-males who are shunned by women, its reliance on dick-jokes, misogyny and racism reveals an insecure nasty streak. By charting the gendered and profane language of the show’s male protagonists across its four seasons, this essay presents Silicon Valley as misguided in its attempts to present itself as anything other than sexist. By looking at its representation of female characters and the language directed towards them, this chapter makes clear that women are valuable in the series based on their physical attractiveness, or ability to aid the male leads. Rather than subverting or exploring inequalities in the tech industry, Silicon Valley replicates them, revealing a stringent white male privilege problem.
