re: Lost
I've never been particularly attached to Lost, though I've watched it consistently since it premiered. I snack on it like cotton candy, and occasionally the acting is enjoyable. I sort of have a mild thing for Sawyer/Juliet, I must admit, but my favorite character is Ben. I love Ben. I love him to little pieces.
Anyway, I was thinking about the women characters and how I can't really think of any other shows that have so many of them, now that BSG is gone. And how they pass the Bechtel test fairly regularly -- or they used to. This season things haven't been so hot, honestly. And I realized this when I started thinking about Kate, and how I didn't question that she "adopted" Aaron.
And then I realized: Kate used to be a rather prickly, independent character. I didn't always like her, and I liked that about the character. But saddling Kate with Aaron made me realize that she was the last female character left who hadn't been linked to motherhood. Now, in context, I can actually understand Kate needing something innocent to love and love her back. I totally get this about her character. But. But.
Look at the major woman characters left on the show:
Juliet -- obstetrician. Originally brought to the island to deal with the problems with pregnancies.
Sun -- became pregnant on the island, now a mother
Kate -- adopted Aaron, mostly defined this season by mothering Aaron
Claire -- pregnant before crashing on the island, defined by her pregnancy and by Aaron, disappeared after giving birth
Danielle -- defined by the loss of her daughter to The Others
Penny -- had a child with Desmond after finding him
Female characters who weren't defined by motherhood have disappeared and/or died: Rose, Libby, Ana-Lucia, Shannon, Alex, Charlotte. Mostly dead, huh? Out of all of them, only Rose is still alive.
The show also has a fairly low view of fathers, which is a topic for another day. Even Michael was a conflicted father figure, at best. Look at the rest of the fathers, though: Locke's dad, Sawyer's dad, Jack and Claire's dad, Jin was absent (not by choice), Sawyer apparently has a kid he's ignored, Kate's dad abused her. Ben's dad was abusive. Ben might have been an okay dad, but he did both steal Alex and directly lead to her death. Michael tried to do right by Walt eventually, but yeah, not stellar. Charles Whitmore is diabolical, as far as we know. Probably the second-best father is Hugo's dad, and he's portrayed as opportunistic about Hugo's lottery winnings.
This annoys me. I can't really look at the show in the same way now.
Anyway, I was thinking about the women characters and how I can't really think of any other shows that have so many of them, now that BSG is gone. And how they pass the Bechtel test fairly regularly -- or they used to. This season things haven't been so hot, honestly. And I realized this when I started thinking about Kate, and how I didn't question that she "adopted" Aaron.
And then I realized: Kate used to be a rather prickly, independent character. I didn't always like her, and I liked that about the character. But saddling Kate with Aaron made me realize that she was the last female character left who hadn't been linked to motherhood. Now, in context, I can actually understand Kate needing something innocent to love and love her back. I totally get this about her character. But. But.
Look at the major woman characters left on the show:
Juliet -- obstetrician. Originally brought to the island to deal with the problems with pregnancies.
Sun -- became pregnant on the island, now a mother
Kate -- adopted Aaron, mostly defined this season by mothering Aaron
Claire -- pregnant before crashing on the island, defined by her pregnancy and by Aaron, disappeared after giving birth
Danielle -- defined by the loss of her daughter to The Others
Penny -- had a child with Desmond after finding him
Female characters who weren't defined by motherhood have disappeared and/or died: Rose, Libby, Ana-Lucia, Shannon, Alex, Charlotte. Mostly dead, huh? Out of all of them, only Rose is still alive.
The show also has a fairly low view of fathers, which is a topic for another day. Even Michael was a conflicted father figure, at best. Look at the rest of the fathers, though: Locke's dad, Sawyer's dad, Jack and Claire's dad, Jin was absent (not by choice), Sawyer apparently has a kid he's ignored, Kate's dad abused her. Ben's dad was abusive. Ben might have been an okay dad, but he did both steal Alex and directly lead to her death. Michael tried to do right by Walt eventually, but yeah, not stellar. Charles Whitmore is diabolical, as far as we know. Probably the second-best father is Hugo's dad, and he's portrayed as opportunistic about Hugo's lottery winnings.
This annoys me. I can't really look at the show in the same way now.