Edges and Cliffs: Women in Media

[butterfly]

So, I'm rather annoyed by the fact that I just don't like Sam (from Stargate: SG-1) all that much. I want to like her. She's the only female regular on the show. She's strong. She's smart.

But most of the time, I just don't like her. It's not like I am with Teal'c, wherein I don't think of him much when he's not around but do actively like him when he is onscreen.

I've been trying to pinpoint what it is that bugs me. And I think that it may be lack of consequences and lack of anger. The world of Stargate hurts her less than the rest of the characters. In Avenger 2.0, Felger says that even her mistakes are perfect. Now, whether or not this is true is not the issue. What bugs me is that everyone on the show that we are supposed to respect treats it as true.

I adore Buffy, because Buffy is strong and wonderful and intuitive, and gets called on her flaws. Willow tends to annoy me (particularly in the first six seasons) for the same reason that Sam does -- because she gets out of her mistakes. Nothing is ever really Willow's fault. I don't think that she ever faces up to anything that she's done wrong until season seven. She wallpapers over it with smiles and cookies.

So, what does that mean? Do I want female characters to be humble? Not necessarily. Buffy isn't anything like humble and I love her. Chiana is a complete brat at times and she's my favorite character on Farscape, topping John by a fair amount.

This is definitely not limited to female characters -- I like characters who yearn and try. I don't particularly care if they succeed or fail, I will love them either way. I just want to see passion.

On Angel, Cordelia was always so very arrogant. That's probably why I liked her much more as a Buffy-shadow on BtVS than as female lead. Used as a foil, her arrogance could be charming. When placed into lead position, it grew irritating.

In a direct contrast, I've always loved Joey Potter (Dawson's Creek), yet dislike Lana Lang (Smallville). They're both half-orphan (mother dead, not raised by father but by related female) brunettes adored by most males who show up on their respective shows, so why like one and not the other? For me, it was because Joey Potter felt realistic in a way that Lana didn't. Lana shifted to match every story, whereas in a similar situation, Joey often didn't fit. Because of her history, she didn't always rub along the right way. She had sharp edges.

That's actually something that most of the women that I like have in common -- sharp edges.

I also want realism in a situation. Lana Lang is always treated as the sympathetic character, no matter what. I don't like people who are always the sympathetic character. I want someone who pisses off at least one other sympathetic character. Who I will probably then 'ship them with (see: Buffy/Xander, Joey/Pacey, Jack/Daniel, etc). Sam doesn't piss people off enough. If she did, I'd probably like her a lot more.

On the other hand, I have no real idea why I have no affection for Aeryn Sun.

Comments

Re: Ripper and Giles

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

Well, there is that "So you're back" line in "The Dark Age" when Giles looks in the mirror, and his behavior seems to indicate that he's tried to put his younger self as far behind him as possible. But I do agree that they're both Giles and that a lot of the demarcation you see in fanfic or analysis (I once read this story where the Ripper personality killed the Giles personality! Then the Ripper personality put on a lot of leather and went off with Faith) is too severe. Kinda like Angel/Angelus on AtS as time went on -- they weren't as harshly separated.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I always thought he was talking to Eyghon there. But I think I'm in the minority.