Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

‘Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Stars: “Your Criticism Of Midge’s Parenting Is Sexist”

Rachel Brosnahan is aware of her character’s faults on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Now she wants to know — are you aware what your response to those flaws says about you?

Brosnahan and her on-screen ex-husband, Jewish actor Michael Zegen, chatted about the harsh criticism of Midge Maisel’s parenting skills on BuzzFeed’s AM/FM show this week.

“Most of the criticism in that regard has been leveled at Midge,” Brosnahan said. “And I suppose it’s because the expectation is that [her ex-husband] wouldn’t be as present and wouldn’t be around as much.”

“It’s not a show, really about Midge parenting,” she pointed out. “It’s a show about her following her dreams as a stand-up comedian.”

The Golden Globe winner brings up a valid point — it’s not a show about parenting. We also rarely see Midge eat or sleep on the show, but we assume that she does those things. So why does Midge’s relationship to her children bother so many of us?

The stars of the hit television show acknowledge the lack of parenting skills.

Image by IMDB

Both Brosnahan and Zegen argued that if the roles were reversed and the main character was male, haters wouldn’t take the time to point out the hands-off parenting portrayed on the hit television series.

“This hasn’t been a conversation that I’ve seen surrounding other shows with male leads,” she said, acknowledging the sexism. “So that’s been kind of frustrating.”

Zegen agreed with his co-star, while also acknowledging his character’s just as bad child-rearing ways. “Why don’t they ask that about Joel?”

Despite the criticism, Brosnahan says that she thinks Midge does deeply love her children — even if she doesn’t show it by giving them her entire life.

“I appreciate that this is a different kind of motherhood than the one I’ve seen,” Brosnahan said. “And for some people maybe is a more accurate representation.”

Let’s hope that Midge and Joel work out a more equitable parenting schedule in the upcoming season of “Maisel”. And maybe the rest of us should check our biases — like one of Midge’s wool swing coats or collared box coats — at the door.

Adrianna Chaviva Freedman is the Social Media Intern for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @ac_freedman

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.