In Netflix’s Ladies First, misogynistic businessman Damien Sachs gets transported to a world where women dominate the business world—and the world at large. Damien learns a valuable lesson about how to treat women with respect, but the satirical film is full of foul language and fouler behaviors.
Damien Sachs is your worst idea of who should be running a company. He’s something of a modern day “Mad Man,” rising through the ranks of the advertising company Atlas and interested in female coworkers (and women in general) only for the optics they provide, not their actual talents.
Now, if you were to ask this womanizing soon-to-be CEO what he thinks of feminism in the workplace, he’d reply, “Feminism is not a numbers game for Atlas.” But then he’d probably whine to his boss about how hard it is to be a straight male leading a company in today’s culture.
In fact, the only reason Damien just hired Alex Fox as Atlas’ first female creative director is because a client complained about the ad company’s complete lack of female leadership—and Alex happened to be the first woman on a list of promotion-eligible employees.
It’s possible that if Damien weren’t such a tone-deaf misogynist that Alex would have accepted her new position with grace. After all, she’s smart, talented and has 20 years of experience. And she could have used the opportunity to raise up other deserving women at Atlas.
But Alex wants to be able to make a difference at Atlas. And with a boss like Damien, she fears she won’t be able to.
Damien shamelessly flirts with female staff members, often objectifying them in unseemly ways. He comments on their appearances and makes crude remarks behind their backs (and sometimes to their faces). His assistant, Ruby, even keeps a running list of his worst comments in case Damien ever fires her.
Luckily for the women working at Atlas, that all changes when Damien gets clonked on the head (he walks head-first into a street sign) and transported to a world where women are in charge.
In this alternate reality, women are the breadwinners while men naturally gravitate toward domestic duties. Every major corporation is led by a woman. Every political leader is female. Even the pope is a woman.
But that’s not all. In this world, you don’t eat at Burger King or Five Guys, you dine at Burger Queen and Five Gals. Instead of scantily clad female models on billboards, it’s barely clothed men on display. And don’t even get Damien started on the waxing, skincare, diet and exercise regimens men undergo just so their wives will continue to find them attractive.
Damien wants desperately to return to his own patriarchal universe—not least of all because in this world, Alex is his boss. But first, he’ll need to learn the error of his ways and truly experience what it’s like for a man living in a woman’s world.
Ladies First effectively uses satire to demonstrate how many women feel about being objectified. Through his ordeal, Damien begins to understand the pressure put on many women in the workplace to look good (so that they won’t be ignored) but not too good (so they won’t be dismissed). Damien realizes that even at home, many women feel anxious about what they eat, what they wear and how the men in their lives perceive them.
When Damien sees women behaving toward men in the same way that he himself often behaved toward women, he realizes how inappropriate he was acting. When his ideas at work get ignored—or a woman takes credit for them—it’s like a slap in the face. And he comes to understand that Alex (both the real one and the one in this alternate reality) has actually worked very hard to get where she is and really does deserve her promotion.
As such, when Damien does find a way back to his own reality, he immediately makes changes. He promotes his own hard-working assistant, Ruby. He apologizes to several women whom he had objectified. And he uses his status to help build women up—particularly Alex—rather than hold them back.
In the real world, Alex says she took several years off work in order to focus on raising her child—a decision that she doesn’t regret. After Damien returns to the real world, he returns a dropped toy to a distracted mom, an action he certainly wouldn’t have bothered with before—which really shows just how bad Damien was before this whole incident.
As mentioned, the pope in Damien’s alternate reality is a woman. At a funeral, a female priest concludes a prayer with “in the name of the Mother, the Daughter and the Holy Ghost.” People respond “a-women” at the end of a prayer instead of “amen.”
As already stated, Ladies First uses satire to communicate some important points about objectification. Unfortunately, that mostly plays out in the extreme ways that men and women are treated in their respective universes.
For instance, in Damien’s real office, posters depict female models in lingerie, promoting a variety of products. In the alternate universe, nary a billboard flashes onscreen without it bearing a man posing in his underwear or his privates strategically covered by whatever food item or product he’s promoting. In both cases, the products being advertised have nothing to do with the sexualized imagery.
In the real world, Damien and his male colleagues outline a gratuitously sexual idea for an ad campaign, using ribald language to describe women. Alex tries to explain that women (whom the ad is targeted toward) won’t relate to such content, but the men ignore her. In fact, they take things a step further by suggesting the ad should end with men dressed up as women alongside the tagline: “So good, it makes men wish they were women.” In the alternate world, Damien sits in while his female colleagues verbally illustrate a near-identical campaign—only with male models instead of female. When one woman suggests a bottle should be shaped like male genitals, he tries to explain that men would never use such a product, but like Alex with the men, the women ignore Damien.
In the alternate universe, men are pressured to use oral contraceptives. This has resulted in “meninist” protests wherein men shout, “My sperm, my choice.”
In another example, we hear a rude remark about a woman’s “time of the month” in the real world when she shows frustration—and someone later says she can’t handle the pressure of her job because she’s too emotional. In the alt world though, we hear even cruder remarks about a man’s “time of the week.” It’s explained that men must masturbate at least once a week or else they’ll get very aggressive. So when one man similarly gets frustrated at work, a woman pushes a box of tissues toward him while another asks if he needs to handle the problem before continuing the work day.
In the alternate world, Damien elects to undergo a variety of beauty treatments, hoping to catch the attention of his female bosses and win a promotion through sexual favors rather than merit. (The implication being, of course, that women in the real world go to similar lengths.) The hair on his head and body gets dyed, waxed and plucked. He receives “penile fillers,” which cause him to walk wonky while he adjusts to the size difference. And he even goes to a store called “Victor’s Secret” to purchase male lingerie, many of which include testicular support cups. While there, the store’s male attendant asks if Damien needs help adjusting the undergarment. It’s not meant to be sexual, but it’s certainly not something most men would be accustomed to hearing.
Damien’s ploy works. After some relentless (and sexually explicit) flirting, the alternate-world CEO, Felicity, rubs his thigh during a business dinner. She then invites him to visit her home after hours. When Damien arrives, Felicity is wearing nothing but a bathrobe, which manages to show off a great deal of cleavage. She gropes Damien (off camera) and then instructs him to don a cowboy outfit that covers everything except his groin and rear. (Camera angles and strategically placed props cover Damien’s nakedness from the front, but we get a full view of his bare backside.) Damien is clearly uncomfortable in this garb, but he follows Felicity’s orders to dance around while she touches her body and makes exaggerated noises.
Elsewhere in the alt universe, Damien and Alex make out and start to remove clothing while rolling around on a bed. We don’t see any nudity, but the pair makes several sexual comments. The scene cuts to the next morning, where they each attempt to sneak out without the other knowing. Of course, they catch each other and wind up talking more about sex.
Elsewhere in the real universe, a woman wakes up in Damien’s bed covered only by sheets. Damien bids her farewell after explaining that he bought her breakfast and a change of clothes. He cheekily adds, “anything for the woman who took my virginity,” but it’s clear that this isn’t the first time. We indeed hear him bragging later on about several other women he’s slept with. (In the alternate universe, Alex is equally as philandering, inviting two men to join her for drinks at a bar.)
Before the film’s end, we see and hear many more examples of objectification of both men and women. The movie makes frequent use of double entendre and euphemism. We hear a variety of crude terms and discussions about male and female anatomy and sex. Damien sings a very explicit song about sex at what is supposed to be a work event.
We also see men and women in tight and/or revealing outfits. Damien works out in the alternate universe while wearing revealing outfits. And we see Damien shirtless in many other scenes, too. Women wearing bikinis attend a party in the real world. Men in the alternate universe talk about getting pectoral implants and wearing shirts that show off their nipples. (One man wears a sheer shirt to work.) A man in the real world allows a woman to go first on an escalator so that he can check her out. A woman in the alternate world rubs her body up against a man while riding public transportation.
Alex is divorced in both realities. In the real world, she and her child—who is trans and uses they/them pronouns—discuss how Alex’s ex dumped his previous girlfriend because she had the audacity to turn 30. In the alt world, Alex tells Damien that her ex “lied about being on the pill and knocked me up.”
Damien walks head-first into a pole and falls to the ground, smacking his head on the pavement. He later repeats this act on purpose in an attempt to return to his own reality. Eventually, he does return after accidentally slipping and hitting his head on the concrete once again.
A woman dies, presumably from a heart attack, during a sexual encounter. Another woman falls off a bar top after getting inebriated. Her colleagues hit her head on a door and several stairs as they carry her to her room.
A child’s teeth get chipped and bleed after a skateboarding accident. Some boys play with plastic toy guns. One of them purposely falls to the ground and starts crying, claiming that the other boy shoved him.
Someone drives her car recklessly. We hear a description for an ad that ties alcohol to violence. In the alt world, men are frequently criticized for being inherently violent (even if they’re not acting violent). In the real world, a woman says she’s going to carry mace while traveling with a man (though he understands her concern and even encourages her caution).
There are about 14 uses of the f-word, including one use paired in the alternate world with “father” instead of “mother.” We also hear six uses of the s-word, and once again, someone adds “cow” to the front end of that word in the alt universe rather than “bull.” Other profanities include “a–/a–e,” “a–ehole,” “b–tard,” “bloody,” “b-ll–ks,” “c–k,” “d–k,” “h—,” “p-ss,” “tits” and “tw-t.”
God’s name is misused around 15 times, and Jesus’ name is abused once.
People in both universes drink frequently. In fact, the client that sparks the whole Alex-promotion debacle is none other than the beer company Guinness.
Several work colleagues participate in a drinking competition at a bar. One gets heavily inebriated and starts dancing on the bar top.
When Damien returns to the real world and starts acting nicely, his assistant assumes he’s on drugs.
Given the content that’s already been outlined, it should come as no shock that this film is chock-full of derogatory remarks that are sexist and ageist. We also hear and see a lot of assumptions about both sexes—namely that men are violent and women are emotional—which are played up in this satire to demonstrate just how unfair those stereotypes are.
In the real world, Damien and his male colleagues interrupt and ignore women. They treat women very poorly. In the alt world, Alex and her female colleagues do the same to men. It’s rude behavior in either case.
Ruby, in addition to keeping a running tab on Damien’s HR violations, reminds him that he’s legally not allowed to ask her to break up with his girlfriends for him. She also buys his mom a birthday gift, since she knows he didn’t bother.
Someone purposely passes gas. Pigeons follow one man around, excreting fecal matter on him at regular intervals.
Characters frequently lie and manipulate to get what they want. Alex’s ex allegedly spends all his money on his new girlfriend rather than his child.
Ladies First is an odd little spoof to navigate.
First—and I cannot emphasize this enough—this is an incredibly crass film with a ton of foul language and fouler sexual content. Some people may watch this film and laugh heartily at the comedic extremes. Others may be deeply offended by what those same extremes suggest.
For instance, this film suggests that if women and men switched places, women would act exactly like Damien—that is, crude, crass, self-serving—because that’s how men act. However, I think many would argue that not all men are like Damien. And they’d be correct. Many would similarly argue that women would never act that way because women are the “gentler” sex. And again, they’d be correct.
But this is satire. We know (or should know) that women are just as capable of being jerks as any man. We know (or should know) that men are just as capable of being vulnerable as any woman. In fact, if you read Matthew 5, it warns us all against sexual immorality, drunkenness and fits of anger—not just men. Additionally, it also encourages us all to embrace peace, patience and gentleness.
Of course, Ladies First isn’t trying to talk to us about the Fruits of the Spirit. Rather, it’s trying to send a message that it’s not OK to treat someone poorly simply because of gender. But while that’s true, it doesn’t make this film any easier to watch: It’s still going to be an unbelievably profane and raunchy comedy.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
