Ladies First (2026), directed by Thea Sharrock, is streaming on Netflix. It follows the story of male chauvinist Damien Sachs, who learns about sexual discrimination in a female-dominated world. However, the film seems to be riding high on a Poe’s Effect rather than establishing a concrete matriarchy.
Here is a breakdown of what happens in the film.
Ladies First: Plot Summary
Damien Sachs, a wealthy and chauvinistic executive at the advertising agency Atlas, needs to appoint a female creative director to lead a women’s campaign. To improve the company’s image, he promotes Alex Fox to the role.
However, Alex quickly realises that Atlas chose her for appearances rather than for her ideas and talent. Frustrated by Damien’s misogynistic attitude, she resigns. In response, Damien lectures her about the challenges men face in the world. Soon after, he hits his head and wakes up in an alternate reality ruled by women.
Struggling to adapt to this matriarchal society, Damien experiences the discrimination and bias he once dismissed. Determined to return to his old world, he tries to change his outlook and position. Along the way, he clashes with Alex Fox, who has risen to power, as they compete for the CEO position at the company.
A Promising Premise
Adapted from the French film I Am Not an Easy Man by Eleanore Pourriat, Ladies First explores the concept of a matriarchal society. Through a wide range of gender-reversed roles, the film challenges the social norms that govern our world. Moreover, it constantly contrasts and juxtaposes the treatment of women in a patriarchal society with the treatment of men in its alternate reality.
In this world, women occupy every position of power. The CEOs, board members, Pope, and even the dentist are women. Meanwhile, men function largely as accessories, much like women often do in the real world. To reinforce this reversal, the film transforms King’s Cross into Queen’s Cross, Harry Potter into Harriet Potter, and celebrates men receiving driving rights in Saudi Arabia. Similarly, women manspread on buses, and Burger King becomes Burger Queen. Through these details, the film creates a familiar yet unsettling mirror image of contemporary society.
More importantly, the film centres on a complete reversal of gender roles. Just as many societies objectify women in the real world, the matriarchal world treats men as objects of pleasure and gratification. In Damien’s original reality, his mother and sister remain passive homemakers, while his father and brother-in-law avoid domestic responsibilities. However, the alternate world flips this dynamic. There, his mother and sister, Sunny, adopt roles designed for passive men. As a result, the film quickly exposes forms of discrimination that women have long endured, but that society has often overlooked or failed to debate seriously.
Treatment of Men in Ladies First
However, the film falters in its portrayal of matriarchy. A curious case of Poe’s Law emerges here. The film uses satire to expose the injustices women face. Yet, it imagines a matriarchal society as nothing more than the reverse of patriarchy.
Damien becomes the stand-in for women in a male-dominated world. In this alternate reality, people value him only for his looks. Others label him a stereotypical crazy cat man—unmarried and “too old” at 51. His sister even tells him that he will never earn a promotion if he is “not fuckable.”
As a result, Damien undergoes an intense grooming transformation. He wears garments designed to enhance his appearance. He shaves his body, grooms himself daily, and carefully manages his image. Women begin to notice him on the streets, and only then does his social status improve. To advance at work, he offers sexual favours. Unlike the women who hold power in this world, he remains little more than a diversity hire.
Why does the premise fail?
The film fails to establish a concrete idea of the matriarchy. What they project is just a flippable world. The core tenets of feminism aim for equality and equity between the sexes. This movie revolves around misandry.
In an attempt to counter misogyny in the world, it creates an alternate dimension where traditional masculinity is seen as weak. Men are only concerned with their appearance. There is no equality between the sexes, nor is there a cooperative effort towards a more sustainable future.
The film tries hard to showcase what it feels like to be a woman in a male-dominated world, but it will have the opposite effect of propagating misandry more. In an internet culture ruled by incels and the manosphere, the existence of this film will spark hatred more than debate. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie was also highly misunderstood by the audience due to the same reason, and Ladies First falls into that line.
Benjamin Lee from The Guardian notes that it is “an excruciatingly unfunny high-concept thought experiment.” Thus, the movie fails to give the audience anything new, not even a newer ideal of a matriarchal world where finally there would be equality.
Final words on Ladies First: Should you watch it?
Whether you are a man or a woman, you should definitely watch Ladies First to get an overview of the number of things that are patriarchal in daily life. The amusing moments of changing ‘hysterical’ to ‘testerical’, men-oriented slangs, and noting that a mother will walk the son down the aisle all point to the fact that most things are male-centric in our world. Yet, the film mostly stays as an infantile idea, it does not offer any concrete solution.
However, you should be ready to spark a debate about the dominance of men after watching this movie, rather than hating it outright for showing an alternative picture.
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