But is that really fair? Lost is the story of a bunch of messed up characters. Fer instance, Locke is pathetic and messes up everything he tries to do, but I don't hate Locke.
Is it the casually misogyny the Interwebs are so well known for? Maybe. I've really searched my feelings on this subject, and am not sure I like what I've found. For example:
Lost has never handled its female characters very well. With few exceptions, the women on the show serve three general purposes: Romance angles, babies, or damsels in distress. Juliet was the only character that somewhat broke out of these roles (though, baby doctor!). Kate should be able to - she's tough, capable, spunky, etc. But instead: Disaster.
It raises a big point in my writer's head: How to write dumb or incompetent characters, well. It's a dangerous line to walk - you want to portray a character who's not all that bright (Kate's criminal career for instance is a joke), but you don't want them to be hated. I mean, in real life, plenty of people do dumb stuff all the time, and they're not villified for it.
Now, to the point I was getting at: It seems to me the vast majority of male writers (myself included) cannot write women characters at all. If they even include female characters, they will most likely be foils or love interests to the male characters, who will receive the vast majority of attention in the story. This is Lost to a T, and so many other stories as well. Sci Fi is rife with this phenomena.
Is it mysogny? I have to answer yes - a general, societal wide misogyny that permeates everything. I think Western Civ has made great advances in overcoming this misogyny in the past 40 years or so, but there's still plenty of work to be done.
On myself, and this world.
6 comments:
I wish they'd do an episode about where Kate gets her hair done.
Ms. Cleo's Hair n' Nails, now located in the Pearl Station!
I don't like Kate either. I don't like the triangle between Jack, Kate and Sawyer.
I am beginning not to like Jack too. Still love Sawyer though, but I am a girl so that is to be expected, right?
Sawyer is the bad boy every girl hopes to tame, right? Did Juliet tame him? She dumped him, that's for sure, and Sawyer shouldn't blame himself for her death since she was the one making a lot of the decisions leading to her death. Like, fer instance, smashing a hydrogen bomb with a rock.
no, I don't want to tame him. I just want to look at him. that is objectifying right? oops. I am sure that is wrong.
you are right about the role of women on the show, I didn't realize it until today, which sucks. I will try to forget about it when I watch the rest of the season. of course, Kate will remind me. I never minded Juliet or any of the other women, except Shannon. until the end, at the end I liked her and Sayid. and who couldn't love Rose?
lol, I just looked up and saw "Please be intelligent"....sorry, that ain't gonna happen with me.
I know this is not the popular opinion, but the best female character on the show was Ana-Lucia, and everyone seemed to hate her, including the writers, or at least producers, as they swiftly killed her off. But she was a strong personality with her own real issues to explore (she was truly "lost", like most of the male characters). Alas, we only scraped the tip of the iceberg with her before Michael did her in, dramatically.
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