Three Women TV Series about Female Desire and Motherhood

Confessions Women are Usually Punished for Saying Out Loud

There are certain women TV series that don’t just entertain you, they confront you. They hold up a mirror and ask uncomfortable questions about womanhood, ambition, desire, and motherhood.

When I watched Three Women, I constantly argued with the characters, sometimes I felt ashamed liking it or not finding explanations to support main characters. I felt like I was intruding on confessions women are usually punished for saying out loud.

And that’s exactly why this tv series matters.

Based on the book by Lisa Taddeo, the series follows three women: Lina, Sloane, and Maggie, each navigating desire, shame, marriage, power, and identity. It is not flashy. It is not glamorous. It is not wrapped in witty Manhattan brunch scenes like Sex and the City.

It is raw. And arguementative feminist not in slogans, but in truth.

Desire Is Not a Male Privilege

What triggered me most is how uncomfortable female desire still makes people (including me) feel. When men pursue sex, it’s instinct. When women pursue sex, it’s instability.

Lina’s (played by magnificent Betty Gilpin) hunger for intimacy after years of emotional neglect in her marriage made me want to argue with her: Why are you asking permission to want more?

But then I stopped. Because how many women are raised to believe that wanting, sexually, emotionally, intellectually, makes them dirty?

Motherhood often intensifies this. A “good mother” is expected to be fulfilled by just caregiving. Passion becomes inapropriate, old dated.

But here is the liberating truth this series whispers: You can be a mother and still be a woman. You can nurture others and still crave passion. Your sexuality does not expire when your child is born.

If Sex and the City introduced women to owning pleasure, decades ago. Three Women goes deeper. It removes the glamour filter and shows the emotional cost of actually representing it in various stages of womenhood.

Parenting Pressure To Always be Above Mess

Sloane (created by gorgeous DeWanda Wise) appears confident, sexually liberated, composed. She seems like the fantasy version of empowerment. And yet, I kept wanting to ask her: Are you truly choosing this?

Positive feminism is not about performing empowerment. It’s about conscious choice. Many women today are told:
Be sexy, but not threatening.
Be ambitious, but not cold.
Be motherly, but not over consumed by it.
Be independent, but not alone.

It’s exhausting.

Sloane reminds that even power can become a performance if it’s curated to maintain approval.

And motherhood adds another layer. Mothers are often expected to demonstrate stability. To be morally consistent. To be above mess.

Shame Is Still the Most Powerful Cage

Maggie’s (by Gabrielle Creevy) storyline – young, entangled in a relationship that blurs power and consent, exposes something uncomfortable: society still polices female credibility based on sexual history.

I found myself frustrated with her at times. Then protective. Then reflective.

Because how quickly do we ask:
Why did she go there?
Why didn’t she know better?

Instead of asking:
Why are girls raised to confuse validation with affection?
Why are women taught to internalise blame?

This is where the show becomes deeply educational. It forces us to examine how shame shapes female development, especially in adolescence, but also in adulthood.

And for mothers raising daughters (and sons), this matters. We cannot preach empowerment and then subtly shame choises. We cannot teach independence and then reward only for order and normality.

From Sex and the City to Three Women: TV Series Focused on Modern Womanhood

Sex and the City told to women of our generation that we are allowed to want careers, orgasms, friendship, and Manolos without apology.

Three Women tells us wanting still has consequences, socially, psychologically, relationally.

And the real freedom, maturity and feminism tells us that our life does not belong to public expectation. Especially those that can not ever be satisfied.

Motherhood and the Second Self

One thing I kept thinking while watching Three Women TV Series was this:

How many mothers quietly bury parts of themselves?

The ambitious part.
The sexual and sensual part.
The reckless part.
The curious part.

Not because they stopped existing inside us. But because they no longer socially permitted.

Longevity has extended motherhood into decades. Women today will live long after active child-rearing ends. And yet we are still expected to compress our identities into this one role.

If you prioritize your career, someone will call you cold.
If you prioritize your children, someone will call you small.
If you prioritize your pleasure, someone will call you slutty.
If you speak your truth, someone will call you mean.

There is no configuration of womanhood that satisfies everyone. Be prepared to disappoint someone.

Watching Three Women TV Series reminded me that being yourself is not always glamorous. It can be messy, misunderstood, and isolating.

Positive feminism is not about proving we can do it all.
It’s about deciding what is truly ours to carry.

So here’s what I take from it: Be the woman who chooses consciously. Be the mother who models self-respect. Be the human who evolves.

Even if it makes others uncomfortable. Actually. Especially then!