A Georgian chess player who rose to prominence in the 1960s has shattered Netflix’s infantry. The chess legend Nona Gaprindashvili filed a lawsuit against Netflix after a sexist remark against the protagonist of The Queen’s Gambit in the show itself.
Netflix was requesting to dismiss the lawsuit saying that the series is a work of fiction and it has nothing to do with the actual player.
However, U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips disagreed with Netflix’s request and felt that Nona Gaprindashvili actually had a valid reason and she was defamed.
The controversy arose when Nona Gaprindashvili sued Netflix in a federal court. A character in the series said Gaprindashvili had “never faced men.”
She argued that this statement was “grossly sexist and belittling”.
The series is said to have been set in the year 1968 when the chess players had faced 59 male players.
The judge wrote, “Netflix does not cite, and the Court is not aware, of any cases precluding defamation claims for the portrayal of real persons in otherwise fictional works,” Phillips wrote. “The fact that the Series was a fictional work does not insulate Netflix from liability for defamation if all the elements of defamation are otherwise present. The Queen’s Gambit” is based on a 1983 novel by Walter Tevis, and follows a fictional American character, Beth Harmon, who becomes an international chess champion in the 1960s. In the final episode, set in Moscow, Harmon defeats a male competitor. A chess announcer explains that her opponent underestimated her: “Elizabeth Harmon’s not at all an important player by their standards. The only unusual thing about her, really, is her sex. And even that’s not unique in Russia. There’s Nona Gaprindashvili, but she’s the female world champion and has never faced men.”
“The Series’ reference to Plaintiff was intended to recognize her, not disparage her,” argued Netflix.
Finally, the judge wrote, “An average viewer easily could interpret the Line, as Plaintiff contends, as ‘disparaging the accomplishments of Plaintiff’ and carrying the stigma that women bear a badge of inferiority that fictional American woman Harmon, but not Plaintiff, could overcome, At the very least, the line is dismissive of the accomplishments central to Plaintiff’s reputation.”
This has certainly come as a surprise and hit Netflix. Now they may try to get their facts correct even in a fictional show.