‘The Office’: Jenna Fischer Said Fan Anger About Pam Beesly Was ‘Sexist’
Over nine seasons of The Office, Jenna Fischer’s character Pam received a fair amount of scrutiny from time to time. During an episode of the Office Ladies podcast, Fischer shared her feelings about the backlash Pam faced when compared to Jim, calling out the sexist nature of some fans’ complaints.
Fans weren’t happy with Pam in 1 ‘The Office’ episode
The characters on The Office weren’t perfect and their flaws came through as the documentary crew captured their day-to-day lives. Fischer’s character Pam often faced criticism, something that she felt was sexist when compared to John Krasinski’s character Jim.
During the May 26 episode of Office Ladies, Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted about the season 5 episode titled “Weight Loss,” part of which involves Pam going to art school.
Kinsey noted that one scene with Pam had fans upset. “Well, this scene in juxtaposition to Jim’s talking head got people fired up because here’s Pam laughing in art class with Alex and then there’s a Jim talking head.”
“He says, ‘Summer’s going great. Just listened to Michael Klump for two hours, convinced I have an ulcer, and my girlfriend lives in New York and I haven’t seen her in 10 days,’” Kinsey added. “So people were not happy with Pam when this episode aired. I remember.”
Jenna Fischer called out the ‘sexist’ complaints about her ‘The Office’ character
Fischer didn’t hold back when she addressed the fan hate about Pam in this episode and in other moments during the show’s run.
“I have a lot to say,” Fischer started. “I just want to say that when Pam went to art school for only three months, when she was not yet married and didn’t have children, people came down real hard on her because of Jim’s feelings.”
“Then when Jim invested in a business without telling Pam and left his family and left Pam alone to care for their two children while he chased his dreams, people came down on Pam again for not being supportive enough of Jim,” she continued.
“So in both of these instances, I just want to say I noticed a lot of hate for Pam,” Fischer added. “Do I want to call it sexist? I do. I do.”
The actor found that fans could be pretty harsh in their criticisms of Pam, something she didn’t think was entirely fair.
“I just want to say that Pam faced a lot of scrutiny as a character, I think, because she was a woman,” Fischer noted.
The co-hosts agreed “that river runs deep,” with Fischer explaining, “It runs deep, and it’s going to run long into some future seasons.”
There has been a lot of Pam hate over the years
There are many Reddit threads that discuss Pam, with fans debating whether or not she was “selfish” when she went to art school and then later didn’t support Jim and his start-up company.
In one Reddit discussion, fans shared their thoughts on Pam, with some agreeing that Jim and Pam were at different stages in their relationship during Pam’s art school stint and when Jim worked at the start-up in Philadelphia.
One Redditor noted, “They were only dating when she went to art school. If she failed then it didn’t affect their lives too badly. However, they were married, had a house and children by the time Jim started Athlead. I think you can forgive her for being worried about their future given that Athlead was not a definite paycheck.”
