Entry tags:
White Collar and women
Actually, there was one thing I mentioned in the previous post that I wanted to pull out in a post of its own, which is how respectfully White Collar (usually) handles its female characters.
It's not fantastic across the board; there's a rather spectacularly gratuitous 'fridging, and the usual casting issues with the vast majority of its female characters being young, thin, conventionally beautiful white women. And, of course, the main characters are two guys, so the show is never going to be about the women -- that's just not the show it is.
But I've realized a few things about the show, namely that in five years there has never once been:
- A rape or rape threat
- A threatened woman who does not actively participate in her own rescue
- A sexualized or partly naked female corpse
(Actually I don't think we've ever seen a dead woman on the show; there have been a couple of female characters murdered off-camera, but all the actual corpses we've seen were male, I think ...)
And I'm not just talking about main characters, but single-episode bit characters as well. Never a helpless damsel in distress, a rape victim, or even so much as a rape threat in five years. Which might quite possibly make White Collar unique among crime dramas.
The thing is, it's not like you can't build a good story around any of those elements. I also love Justified and Orphan Black, which are both dark and violent as hell. But violence against women, and women as rescue objects, is so endemic to TV, especially to the crime/action genre, that it's like background noise -- it gets to the point where you don't notice it anymore. It's just there. I think White Collar is kind of spoiling me for that, honestly. I started watching a few different crime shows at about the same time a couple of years ago (Rizzoli & Isles, The Closer, I forget the other ones ...) and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM included among their first 2 or 3 episodes a serial rapist or serial killer of women. I don't think these topics should be off limits, but they're in danger of being something perhaps even worse: disposable window dressing.
I especially like the "no damsels in distress" thing on White Collar. It's so consistent throughout all the seasons that it HAS to be a writers-room guideline. Some female crime or kidnap victims on the show participate subtly in their own rescues -- finding clever ways to send messages, for example, or following directions given to them -- while others rescue themselves before their would-be rescuers even show up, but they don't just sit there.
There's also the fact that the show has a very wide variety of different female characters, all of whom pursue very different lives, with none of them being presented as any less "right" or her choices any less valid than the others: nurturing, housewifely Elizabeth; tough cop and lesbian single mom Diana; opinionated, career-driven Sara; enigmatic Kate; unapologetically amoral and mercenary Alex.
There are a few things I wish White Collar did differently with its female characters (like occasionally having them talk to each other, for example). But I never, ever feel like the show is poking me in the eye. I feel like the writers actually care about not poking me in the eye. And I wish that wasn't as rare as it is.
Random side note:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
veleda_k has some good meta on several of the individual female characters on the show: on Sara, on Kate, and on Elizabeth (specifically regarding criticism of Elizabeth being poorly written). All of the above links contains spoilers.
It's not fantastic across the board; there's a rather spectacularly gratuitous 'fridging, and the usual casting issues with the vast majority of its female characters being young, thin, conventionally beautiful white women. And, of course, the main characters are two guys, so the show is never going to be about the women -- that's just not the show it is.
But I've realized a few things about the show, namely that in five years there has never once been:
- A rape or rape threat
- A threatened woman who does not actively participate in her own rescue
- A sexualized or partly naked female corpse
(Actually I don't think we've ever seen a dead woman on the show; there have been a couple of female characters murdered off-camera, but all the actual corpses we've seen were male, I think ...)
And I'm not just talking about main characters, but single-episode bit characters as well. Never a helpless damsel in distress, a rape victim, or even so much as a rape threat in five years. Which might quite possibly make White Collar unique among crime dramas.
The thing is, it's not like you can't build a good story around any of those elements. I also love Justified and Orphan Black, which are both dark and violent as hell. But violence against women, and women as rescue objects, is so endemic to TV, especially to the crime/action genre, that it's like background noise -- it gets to the point where you don't notice it anymore. It's just there. I think White Collar is kind of spoiling me for that, honestly. I started watching a few different crime shows at about the same time a couple of years ago (Rizzoli & Isles, The Closer, I forget the other ones ...) and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM included among their first 2 or 3 episodes a serial rapist or serial killer of women. I don't think these topics should be off limits, but they're in danger of being something perhaps even worse: disposable window dressing.
I especially like the "no damsels in distress" thing on White Collar. It's so consistent throughout all the seasons that it HAS to be a writers-room guideline. Some female crime or kidnap victims on the show participate subtly in their own rescues -- finding clever ways to send messages, for example, or following directions given to them -- while others rescue themselves before their would-be rescuers even show up, but they don't just sit there.
There's also the fact that the show has a very wide variety of different female characters, all of whom pursue very different lives, with none of them being presented as any less "right" or her choices any less valid than the others: nurturing, housewifely Elizabeth; tough cop and lesbian single mom Diana; opinionated, career-driven Sara; enigmatic Kate; unapologetically amoral and mercenary Alex.
There are a few things I wish White Collar did differently with its female characters (like occasionally having them talk to each other, for example). But I never, ever feel like the show is poking me in the eye. I feel like the writers actually care about not poking me in the eye. And I wish that wasn't as rare as it is.
Random side note:
veleda_k has some good meta on several of the individual female characters on the show: on Sara, on Kate, and on Elizabeth (specifically regarding criticism of Elizabeth being poorly written). All of the above links contains spoilers.
no subject
I agree with all of this, but the quoted portion is I think what makes me the happiest. It shouldn't feel this amazing, a work not trumpeting one type of woman as the "right" type to be, but it does.
Also, thanks for the signal boost. Though it makes me feel guilty that I have yet to write the proper Kate meta, rather than just "Veleda is neurotic and rails bitterly against fandom," heh.
no subject
Anyway - yes! I love that the show never even hints that "this is the proper way to be female". Nurturing, muffin-baking Elizabeth; abrasive, career-oriented Sara; working mom Diana can all co-exist happily in the same TV world.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject