Close your eyes, if you will, and reflect on the female ensembles that have graced the big and small screen over the past several decades...they can be seen in Sex and the City, The Golden Girls, Designing Women, The Babysitter's Club, Desperate Housewives, The Lipstick Jungle, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and plenty of others.
I have overheard (and, shamefully, participated in) a number of painful discussions in which the central question was: "which one are YOU?" Quizzes like "Which SATC character are U" have spread across the internet like the clap, and frankly, it's making me sick. There's a reason that most women can't single out one character to identify with: all of these women, by themselves, are totally one-dimensional. It is only as a combined unit that they create the ultimate female package. This is why women keep watching the shows (or why 9 year olds keep reading the books). They see a little bit of themselves in each character, and so can spend endless hours debating which character they are "most like." These shows serve as a sort of mood ring for women. "I was totally acting like Samantha last night but this morning I woke up and felt kind of like Carrie..."
Every woman fits in her neat little box and when she acts, in any way, differently than she is supposed to, it is a major emotional moment on the show. For example, when Blanche decided not to sleep with a professor to earn a higher grade on The Golden Girls. It wasn't a big deal because it happened, it was a big deal because it was Blanche! The Slut! Or when Samantha broke down at Miranda's mother's funeral on Sex and the City. Yes...how significant, for a friend to express sympathy at the funeral of her best friend's mother. Except it totally is a huge deal, because it's Samantha! The Slut! With No Emotions! There was an entire book in the BSC series dedicated to the fact that Mary Anne got a makeover without telling anyone first...because she is The Wimp!
The Golden Girls:
Rose: The Stupid One
Dorothy: The Wry Spinster
Blanche: The Slut
Sophia: The Peanut Gallery
Sex and the City:
Miranda: The Lesb...the Smart One
Charlotte: The Prissy One
Samantha: The Slut
Carrie: The Annoyi...the Funny One
The Babysitter's Club:
Dawn: The Hippie
Stacey: The Slutty Diabetic Fashionista
Jessi: The Black Ballerina
Mary Anne: The Wimp
Mallory: The...One With A Lot of Siblings
Claudia: The Stupid Asian Fashionista
Kristy: The Lesb...The Bossy Tomboy
These lists could go on and on. Why must groups of women contain only one-dimensional people? Is it just easier for the writers to keep track of them? Is it easier for the VIEWERS to keep track of them? Are we more comfortable thinking that every woman is that simple, that she only has aspect of her personality that guides all of her actions like a magnet? In groups, women are shoved into small personality boxes, because otherwise, what would you have? A group of women with similar interests and personalities having interesting non-scandalous discussions about their lives, and maybe politics, movies, and art? EW!
It's only when women appear alone, or in smaller groups, in ensemble casts, that they are allowed to fit into more than one identity. Prime example? Elaine on Seinfeld. She had her slut moments, her funny moments, her prissy moments, and her smart moments, yadda yadda yadda...in other words, she was as close to a normal human being as you'd be likely to find on prime time.
i agree with you about elaine, of course! i would also add roseanne. the show was ABOUT her, and though she has a pretty solid schtick--she represented herself in multi-dimensional ways. but only coz she as the star and the show's namesake!
ReplyDeleteALSO---let's not forget the (original) l word cast!! i wonder if they aren't more multi-dimensional than these other casts...i want to hear yer thoughts. b/c although shane is the slutty one, she is also a great friend and ends up being an awesome parent to her kid brother. plus, she struggles with a drug addiction and being 'uneducated.' but in their raw stereotyped forms, here's the line-up (excluding marina, b/c she was treated more like a prop and didn't last into the 2nd season):
shane: the emotionally handicapped orphan slut afraid of committment
alice: the outgoing, goofy, likable gossip hound (the 'relatable' one)
dana: the sporty, closeted one (who dies of upper-middle class white american wumyn's favorite illness cause celebre...breast cancer)
jenny: the impish, sexually-confused jewish writer with a dark & traumatizing past
bette: the light-skinned biracial yale grad who's the ultimate 'together wumyn' art snob in a power suit
tina: the slightly boring and naive doormat to bette's constant perfectionism with a humanitarian heart
kit: the straight, 'darker sister' musician, has-been with a nasty history of alcoholism
thoughts?