A Rant About The Girls of Supernatural
I've just finished watching Supernatural episode 3x06 - Red Sky at Morning and I am pissed. The following rant contains talk of feminism, Ruby, Jo, Ava, Bela, and shameless snark.
I am sick of this. Seriously, I am. For some reason, Eric Kripke seems to believe that if a girl is going to appear on the show more than once, then she needs to be able to hold her own against the boys. And for some reason, "holding their own" appears to mean "be able to best them in conversation and in case solving."
Case in point. We first meet Jo when Sam and Dean enter the Roadhouse. She has Dean incapacitated in seconds. We first meet Ruby when Sam, Dean, and Bobby were trying to apprehend the 7 Deadly Sins. She saves Sam's ass, brags about it, and leaves. We first meet Bela when Dean and Sam find the rabbit's foot. She steals it from them, shoots Sam, and escapes with her life intact.
It sounds all well and good when you put it like that, but here's what bothers me about it. All three of the aforementioned girls have an attitude problem. They do what they do with snark and sarcasm and a smug knowledge that they are great, they are wonderful, and they could totally take Sam and Dean if they wanted to. I'm talking more about Ruby and Bela now because I haven't watched a Jo episode since they aired, but still.
Call me naive, but I thought the point of feminism was to make women equal to men. We already know we're better. I don't need that thrown back at me on my favorite show which, by the way, I love because Sam and Dean are so good at what they do (and look so good doing what they do). Sam, Dean, and the Impala are the main characters of the show. They've been around since the beginning. I've seen what they can do. Then, all of a sudden, some girl walks in for a couple of episodes and she is so witty and pretty and smart. She can solve a case. She can outsmart the boys. She is woman, hear her roar.
No. Stop it. I don't want another carbon copy girl with an attitude problem that she has a half-assed reason for.
"I'm a female hunter, so I have an attitude problem and I don't like you because your Daddy killed my Daddy and you had so much to do with it!"
"I'm a demon, so I have an attitude problem and I know more than you and you can't kill me because I know how to save your brother as well as the cure for the common cold!"
"I'm a thief and I killed a family member, so I have an attitude problem and I can steal something from out of your coat without you noticing and shoot your brother and get away with it!"
I want Ava. Well, not Ava, specifically, but another girl like her. She was an ordinary girl with extraordinary powers. She was also a dork. But when Sam asked her to help him steal files she did it. And you know what? She thought it was awesome.
I'm tired of hardened heroines. Maybe what Kripke needs to do is bring on another novice. And, no, I don't mean Jo, who's been watching big, bad hunters her whole life and wants to break out into the business and prove her worth as a woman. I mean a girl like Ava who has no experience with any of this whatsoever but gets a thrill out of the illegal side of this whole thing. A girl who has a purpose (seriously, would the show be affected at all if Bela was gone?) and an actual effect on the plot. A girl that makes me go, "Hey, she's just like me - except cooler."
All these Badass Go Feminism Stock Females do is ruin the Winchester dynamic. Dean and Sam look incompetent because this random girl is doing their job better than them, or knows more than them, or just plain won't leave them the fuck alone. I, personally, think that if Kripke has to have a random girl on the show, he should test drive this:
Sam and Dean meet a random girl in one of the towns and save her from a supernatural crisis. This random girl thinks, "OH MY GOD THAT IS SO COOL" and decides she wants to be a hunter, too. Sam and Dean return to the car to see the random girl trying unsuccessfully to break into the Impala. Or something. Maybe a Jo way better than the way they actually handled Jo?
I don't know. I'm really just tired of all these "strong females". You can be strong without being annoying and Kripke just hasn't been able to show me that yet. Until then, I want these girls off my show.
That's all purely my opinion, but every time a girl swaggers onto Supernatural with a sharp tongue and an even sharper mind, I want to punch a baby. Normal girls can save people, too, is all I'm saying. Don't waste two minutes of my life having Sam and Dean verbally spar with a girl who's just going to win anyway. Don't waste five to ten minutes of my life having Sam and Dean have their asses saved by a girl who's totally better than them because, like, hello? Don't waste a whole episode of my life having Sam and Dean bossed around by a girl half their height who wants to "prove she's a hunter".
Strong female does not mean strong attitude problem. Food for thought.
I am sick of this. Seriously, I am. For some reason, Eric Kripke seems to believe that if a girl is going to appear on the show more than once, then she needs to be able to hold her own against the boys. And for some reason, "holding their own" appears to mean "be able to best them in conversation and in case solving."
Case in point. We first meet Jo when Sam and Dean enter the Roadhouse. She has Dean incapacitated in seconds. We first meet Ruby when Sam, Dean, and Bobby were trying to apprehend the 7 Deadly Sins. She saves Sam's ass, brags about it, and leaves. We first meet Bela when Dean and Sam find the rabbit's foot. She steals it from them, shoots Sam, and escapes with her life intact.
It sounds all well and good when you put it like that, but here's what bothers me about it. All three of the aforementioned girls have an attitude problem. They do what they do with snark and sarcasm and a smug knowledge that they are great, they are wonderful, and they could totally take Sam and Dean if they wanted to. I'm talking more about Ruby and Bela now because I haven't watched a Jo episode since they aired, but still.
Call me naive, but I thought the point of feminism was to make women equal to men. We already know we're better. I don't need that thrown back at me on my favorite show which, by the way, I love because Sam and Dean are so good at what they do (and look so good doing what they do). Sam, Dean, and the Impala are the main characters of the show. They've been around since the beginning. I've seen what they can do. Then, all of a sudden, some girl walks in for a couple of episodes and she is so witty and pretty and smart. She can solve a case. She can outsmart the boys. She is woman, hear her roar.
No. Stop it. I don't want another carbon copy girl with an attitude problem that she has a half-assed reason for.
"I'm a female hunter, so I have an attitude problem and I don't like you because your Daddy killed my Daddy and you had so much to do with it!"
"I'm a demon, so I have an attitude problem and I know more than you and you can't kill me because I know how to save your brother as well as the cure for the common cold!"
"I'm a thief and I killed a family member, so I have an attitude problem and I can steal something from out of your coat without you noticing and shoot your brother and get away with it!"
I want Ava. Well, not Ava, specifically, but another girl like her. She was an ordinary girl with extraordinary powers. She was also a dork. But when Sam asked her to help him steal files she did it. And you know what? She thought it was awesome.
I'm tired of hardened heroines. Maybe what Kripke needs to do is bring on another novice. And, no, I don't mean Jo, who's been watching big, bad hunters her whole life and wants to break out into the business and prove her worth as a woman. I mean a girl like Ava who has no experience with any of this whatsoever but gets a thrill out of the illegal side of this whole thing. A girl who has a purpose (seriously, would the show be affected at all if Bela was gone?) and an actual effect on the plot. A girl that makes me go, "Hey, she's just like me - except cooler."
All these Badass Go Feminism Stock Females do is ruin the Winchester dynamic. Dean and Sam look incompetent because this random girl is doing their job better than them, or knows more than them, or just plain won't leave them the fuck alone. I, personally, think that if Kripke has to have a random girl on the show, he should test drive this:
Sam and Dean meet a random girl in one of the towns and save her from a supernatural crisis. This random girl thinks, "OH MY GOD THAT IS SO COOL" and decides she wants to be a hunter, too. Sam and Dean return to the car to see the random girl trying unsuccessfully to break into the Impala. Or something. Maybe a Jo way better than the way they actually handled Jo?
I don't know. I'm really just tired of all these "strong females". You can be strong without being annoying and Kripke just hasn't been able to show me that yet. Until then, I want these girls off my show.
That's all purely my opinion, but every time a girl swaggers onto Supernatural with a sharp tongue and an even sharper mind, I want to punch a baby. Normal girls can save people, too, is all I'm saying. Don't waste two minutes of my life having Sam and Dean verbally spar with a girl who's just going to win anyway. Don't waste five to ten minutes of my life having Sam and Dean have their asses saved by a girl who's totally better than them because, like, hello? Don't waste a whole episode of my life having Sam and Dean bossed around by a girl half their height who wants to "prove she's a hunter".
Strong female does not mean strong attitude problem. Food for thought.