I loved The West Wing’s Josh – 25 years on he’s given me the ick-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro

Josh was an easy crush (Picture: E4)

The West Wing is regularly heralded as one of the best TV shows of all time – and as it turned 25 this year, I would argue that’s definitely still the case. 

Except for one glaring issue that’s become increasingly apparent to me as I’ve got older – sexism. This is especially the case for one of the show’s most popular characters.

Josh Lyman, played by Emmy-winner Bradley Whitford, was easily one of my favourite men on television when I first watched the show as a teenager.

Smart, funny, passionately nerdy and (generally) brilliant at his job as Deputy Chief of Staff for President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen), Josh was an easy crush – even when he ended up horrifically hungover and wearing a fisherman’s suit at work after a raucous night out.

Then add to this some tragedy and plenty of guilt in his backstory over the death of both his sister when they were kids and his father more recently, as well as stellar acting from Whitford in the episode where Josh’s subsequent PTSD is revealed, and he’s immediately someone you can sympathise with.

There’s also his quick wit and neuroses that make him very much like the Chandler Bing of the show (always my favourite Friends character) – plus his long-suffering assistant Donna Moss (Janel Moloney) is clearly in love with him.

A fun, slow-burn possible office romance. Swoon.

I adored Josh Lyman (played by Bradley Whiteford) in The West Wing when I was young
(Picture: NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

Josh is also a master of former showrunner Aaron Sorkin’s famous walk-and-talk sequences, quipping a mile a minute as the camera follows him and his castmates through the warren of White House corridors.

The West Wing was a liberal haven and fantasy during the years of George W. Bush’s presidency, where Sorkin created a world filled with decent, idealistic people – more often than not compelled to do the right thing.

It also showcased a partisanship among characters from opposite sides of the political spectrum that would now be considered laughably rare: it’s unsurprising that fans have been crying out for a new version of the show, as well as (consistently) Sheen to run for President in real life.

However, I would not be the first to comment on Sorkin’s unfortunate proclivity towards sexism 25 years ago, as well as in more recent work like The Social Network’s (2010) shrill and underdeveloped female roles and The Newsroom’s (2012-14) lack of capable women.

Although I lap up anything he writes like the optimistic, banter-loving fan that I am, I can still reflect upon characters and relationships I previously saw through my young, rose-tinted glasses.

I’ve rewatched The West Wing again in fits and starts over the years, but it was New Year’s Eve last year when I settled down, ill on the sofa, to begin a full rewatch of one of my favourite shows for comfort. And it painted the issues I had with Josh in brighter colours than ever before.

Looking back now, I’m not so sure it was that romantic (Picture: NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

While Sorkin wrote the truly brilliant part of Press Secretary CJ Cregg for the equally wonderful Allison Janney (who bagged four Emmy wins) and had the President’s wife be a doctor, he still too often used CJ as a slightly clueless audience surrogate. This simply means that if there was a complicated situation that viewers needed to grasp to follow the episode’s storyline properly, it was more often than not CJ who would be magnanimously filled in on the finer political points by her male colleagues.

He also had Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) compliment a female colleague by telling her she ‘could make a good dog break his leash’. And while it’s true that senior White House staffer Sam’s behaviour is pulled up in this episode as possibly misogynistic, it’s not slammed nearly as fiercely as it would be today.

In fact, Ainsley Hayes (Emily Procter) is a perfect example of Sorkin fumbling one of the best female characters on the show. A clever Republican lawyer who thoroughly embarrasses an overconfident Sam during a debate segment on TV, she ends up with a White House job thanks to her impressive performance.

Ainsley is shown to offer valuable counsel to her new colleagues as well as defend her opposing values in interesting ways – and yet her male colleagues often can’t help but focus their comments on her looks. Hell, even the President refers to her having a reputation as a ‘sex kitten’.

And that’s one of the more high-ranking female characters on the show. The secretaries are often berated and blamed by their male bosses – even if it’s classified as banter – despite them ably handling a tsunami of meetings, engagements and deadlines on a daily basis.

And let’s face it, you don’t exactly fall into a position at the secretarial level in the White House. These women are capable and ambitious in their own rights, even if Sorkin often reduces them to sideline characters or the butt of jokes.

And so then we come back to Josh and his secretary Donna. I’m embarrassed to admit that I thought she was lucky to have him when I first watched the show, but it’s now absolutely the other way around.

There’s the poor working hours and a criminal lack of respect, for starters. His tendency towards smugness would also infuriate me – especially when he’s gone to convoluted or even ethically dubious means to prove a point, such as bullying congressmen for votes and leaking information that eventually results in a government shutdown. Although his commitment to his job can’t be questioned, any charm in his confidence definitely wears thinner with me now that I’m older.

It sometimes pushes into belittling rather than teasing (Picture: Mitch Haddad/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

When she finally leaves to pursue a better, more influential job suited to her talents – and by extension, Josh, who never came through properly on his promise of a promotion – I was cheering. He was lucky to have her – a fiercely competent, intelligent and funny woman.

That realisation is quite galling for me though, as I look back on what society was suggesting Donna (and by extension, me) should put up with in our love of Josh.

The teasing sometimes oversteps into belittling.

Like when he tells her she has ‘terrible taste in men’ and castigates her because her ‘desire to be coupled up will always and forever drown out any small sense of self or self-worth that you may have’.

Or comments on her dropping out of university or overly-interested and rather judgemental remarks about her dating life and boyfriends (many of whom would have been a better candidate than him) over the years – no thank you.

Even though it’s clear to many it comes from a place of jealousy and repressed feelings, I am much clearer on what I will and won’t put up with from a potential partner now I’m properly grown up. And it’s not teasing from Josh – it’s embarrassing and pretty exhausting in a professional work setting.

Aside from my personal reaction to Josh, Sorkin’s issues with writing women are not exactly news. The Oscar and Emmy winner has had his female characters criticised as needy, irrational and too reliant on the praise and support of the men around them over the years.

In 2022, Sorkin even acknowledged his problem with penning women himself, admitting during an onstage talk: ‘I hear the criticism. I hear it and I don’t want to argue with you. I don’t want to defend it. I’ll do better.’

It’s refreshing to hear a man fêted in Hollywood avoid making excuses for himself and vow to take criticism onboard.

I still love The West Wing and would absolutely encourage anyone to give it a go for its entertainment and fascination value.

Yes, some things about it have not aged well in the past 25 years, as with many of its TV contemporaries – such as Friends. But it taught me an awful lot – and beyond the intricacies of the US government, to what I look out for in relationships. 

I also still love Josh – if not plenty of his actions – but I’m certainly not in love with him as any kind of boyfriend ideal anymore.

First published on 22nd September 2024.

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