LILY JAMES AND GENDER BIAS

JAMES ADDS TO BIOPIC SERIES OF SOPHISTICATED FEMALE ROLES

by PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Lily James continues her series of portraits of women facing gender barriers in the biographical film about a start-up cofounder and executive officer.

In Swiped (2025) James portrays Whitney Wolfe whose ambition is matched by her innovation in the multi-million dollar dating app industry.

Wolfe initially joins the company behind the dating app Tinder, before Tinder was called Tinder, and contributes the ideas that make the app a successful brand.

As cofounder, Wolfe receives push back from inside the corporation when another CEO is hired to copartner with the original owner. This gender based hiring results in Wolfe losing her initial seat as cofounder to one of assisting the new hire, who then takes credit for all her marketing ideas.

James shows how Wolfe was unprepared for what was to happen next, as the only female on the board of directors of the company, when she becomes smitten with the new CEO, known as Justin.

Justin takes credit for one too many of Whitney’s ideas though, and as a consequence, the relationship quickly unravels. The CEO does not take the break-up well and continues to try to control Whitney by intimidating her and by poisoning the male dominated workplace against her.

James also plays actress Pamela Anderson whose career gets turned inside out after her husband’s sex tape gets stolen, in Pam and Tommy (SERIES 2022). In The Dig (2021) James plays archeologist Peggy Piggot. And in Darkest Hour (2017) James plays Elizabeth Layton, the personal assistant to British Prime Minster Winston Churchill.

The all male culture prevails at Tinder to such an extent that when Whitney complains directly to the other cofounder and owner, she is told that she has resigned.

James shows how Whitney then plunges down through a personal crisis – as the bitterness of the reversal of fortune begins to dominate every hour of her day.

Director Rachel Lee Goldenberg has arced a spectrum of emotions from the adrenaline of success as a cofounder in a start-up company to the lows of being portrayed in public as a social pariah.

Whitney realizes that the problems with the dating app culture mirror the corporate environment. And as a result of her experience, Whitney creates Bumble, a female centric app that requires the woman to make the first move after a match is confirmed.

The film initially comes across as another biopic about a start-up that has success, and everyone gets share rich, but which then collapses, for one reason or another. But Goldenberg then brings in the reversal scenes showing how Whitney becomes lost in unemployment and then finds her way back to the top.

Bumble finds success in a niche market empowering women with a female focused dating app. But then a similar sex and gender barrier scandal hits the app’s parent company.

Whitney struggles with what to do because her experience with the owner is not the same as what the scandal suggests. In the end, Whitney chooses to support gender equality and speak out against workplace gender discrimination.