By Andres Kogan Valderrama
HAVANA TIMES – A few days ago, I finished watching the Netflix mini-series Baby Reindeer, which is based on real events and tells the story of Scottish comedian Richard Gadd. Gadd writes the script and portrays himself, revealing his relationship with a stalker and the abuses and assaults he suffered at the hands of a well-known producer.
Thus, while the series might initially be interpreted from a psychologizing, bio-psychiatric, and moralizing perspective —about a person full of insecurities who was mistreated by various cruel, ruthless, and psychopathic characters with no empathy or remorse for the harm caused— there is a critical discourse behind it about what it means to be a man.
Therefore, beyond this depoliticized view of the series and the outstanding performance by actress Jessica Gunning as the stalker Martha, reminiscent of Kathy Bates’ role in Misery, Richard Gadd ultimately seeks to spark a political discussion about the construction of an unsustainable masculinity that affects not only women but also men themselves.
I frame it in these terms because the series is full of situations and feelings experienced by Richard Gadd, repeatedly challenging a type of masculinity that leads to self-destruction for men and the impossibility of living freely without constantly being pressure