Misfits paper: Femininity and Female Disempowerment in Misfits
So I'm dead tired right now, and seriously about to pass out, but I just finished my final paper for my female superheroes class, talking about the portrayal of the female characters in Misfits and how they are ultimately more disempowered than any of the male characters. There are a bunch of citations in here that I just don't feel like taking out, so deal with it. Also, this paper ended up being more than twice as long as it needed to be. Yay me. Anyway, enjoy my pretentious smrtnes!
The 2009 British television series Misfits tells the story of some highly unconventional superheroes: young offenders who end up with superpowers after a freak electrical storm in the middle of their community service. The five Misfits -- Nathan, with the power of immortality; Kelly, the mind-reader; Curtis, the time-traveler; Simon, who can turn invisible; and Alisha, who sends men into a sexual frenzy with a single touch -- are thrown together by their circumstances, “bonded by the life-changing, shared experience” (“Episode 2”) of killing their probation-worker-turned-monster. The series is a huge departure from the usual superhero story in so many ways: for instance, the main characters’ status as criminals is never really forgotten, as they spend the majority of the series not atoning for their crimes, but rather using their powers to further cover them up; they are also highly anti-social and are not really interested in helping others at all, though they all have been mandated to community service because of the mistakes they made in the past. What is truly interesting, however, is how the show treats the characters of Alisha and Kelly, as opposed to the treatment of the male characters: both of them are in some ways even more disempowered than the boys are by the appearance of their newfound abilities. While Alisha and Kelly can be seen the two characters who get the best handle on (if not control over) their powers, they are more frequently portrayed as victims of their own power than young women who learn to use their supernatural abilities in more positive ways.
Analyzing Alisha and Kelly is a much different task than taking a critical look at any of the more conventional female superheroes, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Wonder Woman, simply because Misfits is about as unconventional a series about “superheroes” as you can get, intentionally working against many of the normal superhero stereotypes. There are no capes or tights, obviously: their “costume” is the orange jumpsuit convicts are notorious for wearing. None of the characters in Misfits are really meant to be admired or sympathized with; all of them have done wrong in their lives and are utterly unapologetic about it, viewing their community service as a waste of time and having horribly negative attitudes toward their probation workers and other authority figures. The “villains” of the series are what most people would consider to be upstanding members of society: Tony and Sally, their probation workers (both of whom wind up dead at the hands of the Misfits); and Virtue, an organization dedicated to teaching teens responsible behavior. The Misfits fight all these people and institutions and emerge victorious, restoring anarchy and antisocial behavior to their society so that they might continue to flourish. Their status as firmly un-heroic heroes is cemented at the end of the first episode: when Simon suggests that they might be meant to be superheroes, Nathan replies, “In what fucked-up world would that be allowed to happen?” (“Episode 1”) The series is not interested in redeeming any of these young people or pardoning their actions, which is an enormous part of what makes it so difficult to fit any of them in the usual mold of superhero.
of the more fascinating twists the series puts on the typical superhero model is the fact that these supernatural abilities are called “powers,” yet ultimately end up disempowering them, further separating them from society and giving them additional burdens they must overcome. The Misfits’ powers are more a nuisance and a burden than anything else: by the end of the six-episode series, Simon is the only character who has gained any amount of control over his power, and by and large the rest of them have only suffered because of their newfound abilities. Alisha is nearly raped on several occasions when men grab her; Curtis tries to rewind time to save himself from community service and ends up being inadvertently responsible for his friends’ deaths in an alternate future; and Nathan ends up buried alive at the end of the final episode, as his power of immortality had been undiscovered until a few days after his funeral. In the opening credits sequence, the Misfits all appear haunted or terrified by their abilities (all of which are symbolized by shadows or symbols), clearly unsure of how to use them or how they can fit back in with the crowd now that their powers have set them apart. Interestingly enough, it is the girls that appear most victimized by their powers in this opening sequence: while the boys are all walking or running somewhere, Kelly is crouched in the fetal position while wavy lines are broadcast from her, a symbolic representation of her mind-reading ability; and Alisha is standing still, looking around her, startled as similar lines are drawn to her, in a simulation of her “magnetic” power of seduction. Ultimately, it seems the appearance of these young people’s powers is far more disempowering than empowering, and while this is characteristic of all the characters, it is especially evident with the females.
While it is clear that their society looks far down upon all members of the group, it is interesting that even though they have gone through so much together, Alisha and Kelly still have a slightly worse rap than Nathan, Curtis, or Simon do. One notable thing that sets the females apart from the males of the group is the fact that both girls are seen wearing ankle tags on more than one occasion, while none of the boys ever are. The ankle tag is, along with the jumpsuit they all wear, a symbol of the restrictions society puts upon them, as they are meant to reinforce curfews and restrict where the convict can travel (“Episode 2”). While all the Misfits do have a stigma by the simple matter that they have been arrested and convicted of crimes, it is Alisha and Kelly who are bogged down by the additional restriction of the ankle tag, a fact which ends up having some rather unfortunate implications due to the way these tags are revealed. The very first shot of the series, in fact, is of Alisha’s tagged ankle as she puts on her orange jumpsuit with the rest of the characters; there are many lingering shots of her naked cleavage in this scene, which is not only a clear example of male gaze, but also seems to make the statement that her femininity has imprisoned her somehow, making her more confined than any of the male characters in her same situation are. Kelly’s ankle tag, meanwhile, is prominent when she is half-naked, making out on her bed with her fiancé, another criminal-type who is likely from the same low social class she is; what little we see of her relationship with him demonstrates that they are not happy together, thus giving the impression that she is trapped in this relationship. The ankle tags become as much a part of the girls’ uniforms as their orange jumpsuits, much as Wonder Woman’s power bracelets were a symbol of the Amazons’ past as slaves (Marston 5).
In addition, at least two of the three male leads, Nathan and Simon, are clearly shown to have negative attitudes towards women, seeing them as objects of sexual conquest more than anything else, especially towards the beginning of the series. Nathan, who is widely considered to be the main character of the series or even the “leader” of the group, is clearly sexist and likely a misogynist, as he makes several disparaging remarks about women not in his peer group, such as Sally and Rachel Leyton, the young woman in charge of Virtue; he also states on numerous occasions that the only way he can get a girl to sleep with him is to get her drunk first. However, while he does show more of a sense of camaraderie and friendship with Alisha and Kelly, particularly Kelly as the series progresses, Nathan also displays a good deal of sexism towards them, and is often unapologetic about it. In one notable scene in the first episode, he tries to get Simon and Curtis to talk about how the three of them are going to “divide them up,” not even referring to Alisha or Kelly by name, instead calling them “the one with all the frizzy hair” and “that other one”. When Curtis asks him if the girls get a say in who their romantic partners will be, Nathan brushes off the suggestion entirely, showing he cares more about “getting laid” than in the wishes of either of the girls. He later says that any hookups between the members of their group is a simple matter of “biology or physics” and thereby taking away any culpability he might feel over his remarks or any possible sexual advances he might make toward either girl over the course of the series. (“Episode 1”) Simon, meanwhile, at least knows the girls’ names, but his attitudes towards them are similarly focused on the material and sexual aspects of them than the girls’ personalities. One of the first times he uses his invisibility power is to spy on the two of them changing out of their jumpsuits into their street clothes, with the camera (acting in Simon’s point of view) lingering on a tattoo Kelly has on her lower back and both girls’ cleavage, and the scene ends with Simon hovering behind Alisha, mere inches away from her half-bare body, looking at her with a sexual hunger in his eyes. In a flashback, we see the first time he meets Kelly, before any of them had even been arrested: she is unconscious outside a club, and instead of trying to help her, Simon nearly puts his hand up her skirt. While Simon’s power stems from his shyness and feelings of social invisibility (Donaghy), he often puts it to use for the nefarious purpose of spying on women when they are most vulnerable, not only in the aforementioned scene in the locker room, but also when their probation worker, Sally, is at home, undressing or sleeping. These two young men use their strength to harm women, particularly Simon; and they show little or no remorse at treating their fellow female Misfits as objects or playthings.
Of the two female leads, Kelly defies more female stereotypes, although in some ways she is still a typical female; overall, however, she has a few more masculine tendencies than feminine ones because she relies on physical strength rather than emotion to get her point of view across. Kelly is known in the group for her bad attitude and aggressiveness: she uses bad language more than nearly any other character, she often punches Nathan when he annoys her, and she has violent tendencies that get her into trouble on more than one occasion. She was arrested for getting into a fight with another girl, and Kelly is the Misfit who winds up killing their first probation worker after he goes “mental”, bashing in his head with a can of paint and then kicking his face in after he calls her a “chav” (a derogatory British slang term for urban white trash). Kelly is also presented as uneducated: she has a coarse, unrefined accent that is difficult for others to understand (when she first speaks, Nathan comments “That’s just a noise. Are we supposed to be able to understand her?”); her fictional Twitter page (set up by the E4 channel that broadcasts the show) is full of misspellings and bad grammar, while pages for Nathan and Simon do not have the same issue; and when Virtue gets a hold of her, Nathan is shocked and appalled that she is looking at a university prospectus, implying that higher education was never something in her future. The way she dresses is also far from female convention, as she wears baggy flannel shirts and jeans, has scraped-back greasy hair, and wears far too much makeup. She does a complete, if temporary, turnabout in “Episode 6,” when she falls under the influence of Virtue and begins dressing and behaving like a more conventional and conservative female, much to Nathan’s consternation. While her actions during this episode are not really a part of her character development, as they are mainly the effect of brainwashing, they are significant to mention because she begins to buy into society’s view of her as a “horrible chav,” placidly saying “I think I look nice” when questioned about her new attire and berating herself for being so aggressive in the past. This shows that in order for her to be a “good person,” she should dress and behave like a more typical female, at least in the eyes of Virtue. (“Episode 6”) In spite of this expectation, Kelly is overall a character who is defined, at least superficially, by her lower class, masculine attire, and aggressive tendencies, making her more of a tomboy character and thus, not as appreciated by society or even her group of peers.
It is perhaps because she does not fit into the conventional idea of femininity that Kelly is shown as the most insecure character, a character trait that is enhanced by her mind-reading abilities. Kelly is shown multiple times to struggle with being a member of a lower class, becoming furious when anyone refers to her as a chav or makes assumptions about her based on her appearance; her insecurities are heightened when she gets the power to read minds, as most of her fears of what people might think of her are confirmed. Nathan, the member of the group she is closest to, is typically only thinking of having sex with her, rather than thinking about how much he has come to care about her as a person; when her fiancé is shown to be thinking the same thing about her, she punches him in anger, leading him to dump her. Kelly is more annoyed with her powers than anything else and is perhaps the character most eager to get rid of them: when Nathan says he should have a power (unaware of his own abilities), Kelly offers to let him have hers; however, her offer is promptly rejected, with Nathan saying he would rather have “something good, something from the A-list”. (“Episode 1”) It becomes apparent that Kelly’s aggressiveness also stems from her insecurities and her feelings of being misunderstood: whenever she tries to be nice or help people, they most often brush her off, leading her to lash back at them through angry words or even physical violence.
In spite of all her aggressiveness and her negative attitude, Kelly does have some more conventional female tendencies, as she winds up being one of the more nurturing and caring members of the Misfits. She shows a longing for a conventional, heterosexual relationship: not only was she engaged for a while, but she is often shown pining after Nathan, even describing the fact that he makes his bed as solid proof that he is “husband material” (Twitter, Dec. 17). Kelly is shown on multiple occasions to have a caring heart, as she shields Simon from Nathan’s bullying, makes sure Nathan gets to eat more than stolen food from the community center vending machines, and, most notably, is the only Misfit to ever use her power for the good of others, rather than only benefiting herself like all the others do. It should be noted that she does not make a habit of using her power to help others, since her power, like most of the others’, happens more often than not by accident; she has no control over what she might hear in someone’s mind, and at times she accidentally blurts out secrets another character does not want told. However, on occasion, by reading others’ minds, she is able to determine what they most need, and while she could use this information against them she sometimes does use it to help instead. The most noteworthy example of this occurs in “Episode 5”, where they find a baby with mind-control powers who has made Nathan believe that he should be the baby’s father. Kelly not only discovers the existence of the baby’s power by reading his mind, but she also convinces the baby’s mother that if she brings him to visit his absent father, the man will want to be the baby’s father again (though she does not mention that this is because of the baby’s power). This incident causes her to be the only Misfit explicitly described as a “superhero,” albeit in a sarcastic remark by Nathan; however, she rejects even the superficial application of this label by giving Nathan the finger in response. Because of the positive way in which sometimes she uses her power, Kelly is probably the character who most closely fits the conventional model of a superhero; this, paired with her more conventional female traits, makes her character the closest thing to a female role model that might exist in the series, though the show makes no attempts to put her character in so complimentary a light.
Alisha, meanwhile, is much more of a “bad girl” than Kelly is, because her power is based purely on sex appeal and she takes advantage of her abilities very often. While Kelly is the proverbial girl from the wrong side of the tracks, Alisha is the party girl: she is presumably middle-class, though most likely the wealthiest of the five main characters (she is the only one with access to a car), and she spends most of her time socializing on her cell and going out to parties. As I previously mentioned, she wears an ankle tag; but she is very nonchalant about the curfew and restrictions this tag has given her, completely ignoring the mandates society has imposed upon her and thus making her the “bad girl” even among young convicts. She has the power of seduction, able to make men want to sleep with her simply by touching them; while she initially uses her new ability for her own ends by having sex with several boys in a single night at a club, this turns out to be much more of a curse than a blessing, as men often try and take advantage of her if they inadvertently touch her. In spite of the warnings her power must carry with it, the fact that her power is so sexualized reinforces her portrayal as a “bad girl,” as she is a deviant whose power can only exist in a patriarchal structure such as contemporary Britain (Jowett 70). While Kelly at least sometimes attempts to use her mind-reading abilities to help others, the sexual nature of Alisha’s power means that it can only be used to benefit her (and not always even that), since, as one reviewer puts it, “exactly how you can use ‘sending people into a sexual frenzy’ to fight crime remains to be seen.” (Griffiths)
Alisha’s ability, as well as her overall character, is an excellent example of female sexuality functioning as a double-edged sword: as Antonia Thomas, the actress who plays Alisha, states, “there [is] quite a lot of pressure early on and from quite a young age to use your sexuality and to be sexy - I think too young actually. I think girls feel like they need to be attractive to boys to be popular.” (UK Press Association) Alisha is highly aware of her attractiveness and her hold over men, and she often uses it to her advantage, using her sexuality to captivate the young men around her even before she is aware of her supernatural abilities of seduction. There is one scene in the first episode where Alisha is regaling Curtis, Nathan, and Simon with the story of how she was arrested, interrupting her story with an extended scene where she mimes giving a blow job to a water bottle while the three of them stare at her, transfixed. Interestingly, this scene is cut with Kelly running frantically to escape from Tony, the demonic probation worker, in a twisted juxtaposition of the sexual power of women with the physical power of men. When not wearing her signature orange jumpsuit, Alisha is always scantily-clad, often explicitly telling boys to “feel free to check out my tits”; her physical appearance is a huge part of her characterization, as many characters, including Curtis and even Sally, repeatedly call her “beautiful” (a word that is never once applied to Kelly). This physical beauty of hers is sometimes seen as the reason or excuse for men’s actions around her: when a police officer nearly rapes her while under the influence of her power, Sally brushes his actions off by saying to Alisha, “You seem to have quite an effect on men... you’re a very beautiful girl.” Her use of her appearance and her sexuality gives her a stigma which she appears to wholly embrace, since when Curtis tells her that his mother told him to stay away from “girls like you,” she coyly replies, “Your mum has never met a girl like me.” (“Episode 2”)
As the series progresses, Alisha is shown to be more and more worn by her abilities: she becomes less bubbly and more detached from her sexual experiences the more often she uses her power. One of the side effects of her ability is amnesia: none of the young men she sleeps with remembers the experience afterwards, and it is clear that this picks away at her self-esteem bit by bit, resulting in her using her power more frequently in order to try and reassert herself as the dominant partner, worthy of being remembered. After she uses her power on Curtis, he angrily asks her, “You think that just because you’re beautiful, you can have whatever you want?” and she tearfully replies, “Yeah, that’s pretty much how it works,” showing that her initial pleasure with her ability and habit of casual sex has ultimately left her with nothing but despair. (“Episode 3”) It appears that because of the sexual aspect her power, Alisha can be viewed as the most vulnerable of the Misfits, even more so than Kelly. Both of them are under attack by unwanted forces; but while Kelly’s power only affects her mentally and the toll of her ability is never really explored, Alisha is under physical attack by men on many different occasions, and the downside of her enhanced sexuality seems to be all the series is concerned in discussing with regards to her character. Alisha’s vulnerability is eventually tempered by her entering into a normative (with her special circumstances, at least) heterosexual relationship with Curtis: they never touch, as she wants him to remember their time together and he does not wish for her to take advantage of him again, but he provides her with the emotional support she needs, as well as physical satisfaction through mutual masturbation, an experience Alisha sincerely describes to Kelly as “really special”. (“Episode 4”) As soon as Alisha and Curtis enter into this relationship, the negative effects of her power almost entirely disappear, and while Alisha is still highly aware of her sexuality she does not use it again as a weapon against anyone, showing that she has freed herself from the “bad girl” status her powers gave her, that she has become more “properly” gendered through heterosexual romance (Jowett 89).
Although Howard Overman, the writer and creator of Misfits, has stated that he had no desire to use his series as any sort of platform, that “once you start trying to deliver a message... you find yourself turning into some street-corner crazy” (qtd. in Donaghy), it is clear that his series does inadvertently promote some sort of gender bias against his female heroes, even while the series is decidedly postmodern and shatters so many other stereotypes about superheroes. Kelly and Alisha are consistently portrayed as victims of their abilities to a slightly higher degree than any of their male counterparts are, even though Kelly, at least, uses hers for good on occasion. The series’ portrayal of these young women’s powers, paired with the male characters’ and society’s attitudes towards them, ends up disempowering both Alisha and Kelly, and they struggle throughout the series trying to gain some of that power back through conforming to traditional gender expectations of heterosexual romance and other “good girl” behavior.
The 2009 British television series Misfits tells the story of some highly unconventional superheroes: young offenders who end up with superpowers after a freak electrical storm in the middle of their community service. The five Misfits -- Nathan, with the power of immortality; Kelly, the mind-reader; Curtis, the time-traveler; Simon, who can turn invisible; and Alisha, who sends men into a sexual frenzy with a single touch -- are thrown together by their circumstances, “bonded by the life-changing, shared experience” (“Episode 2”) of killing their probation-worker-turned-monster. The series is a huge departure from the usual superhero story in so many ways: for instance, the main characters’ status as criminals is never really forgotten, as they spend the majority of the series not atoning for their crimes, but rather using their powers to further cover them up; they are also highly anti-social and are not really interested in helping others at all, though they all have been mandated to community service because of the mistakes they made in the past. What is truly interesting, however, is how the show treats the characters of Alisha and Kelly, as opposed to the treatment of the male characters: both of them are in some ways even more disempowered than the boys are by the appearance of their newfound abilities. While Alisha and Kelly can be seen the two characters who get the best handle on (if not control over) their powers, they are more frequently portrayed as victims of their own power than young women who learn to use their supernatural abilities in more positive ways.
Analyzing Alisha and Kelly is a much different task than taking a critical look at any of the more conventional female superheroes, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Wonder Woman, simply because Misfits is about as unconventional a series about “superheroes” as you can get, intentionally working against many of the normal superhero stereotypes. There are no capes or tights, obviously: their “costume” is the orange jumpsuit convicts are notorious for wearing. None of the characters in Misfits are really meant to be admired or sympathized with; all of them have done wrong in their lives and are utterly unapologetic about it, viewing their community service as a waste of time and having horribly negative attitudes toward their probation workers and other authority figures. The “villains” of the series are what most people would consider to be upstanding members of society: Tony and Sally, their probation workers (both of whom wind up dead at the hands of the Misfits); and Virtue, an organization dedicated to teaching teens responsible behavior. The Misfits fight all these people and institutions and emerge victorious, restoring anarchy and antisocial behavior to their society so that they might continue to flourish. Their status as firmly un-heroic heroes is cemented at the end of the first episode: when Simon suggests that they might be meant to be superheroes, Nathan replies, “In what fucked-up world would that be allowed to happen?” (“Episode 1”) The series is not interested in redeeming any of these young people or pardoning their actions, which is an enormous part of what makes it so difficult to fit any of them in the usual mold of superhero.
of the more fascinating twists the series puts on the typical superhero model is the fact that these supernatural abilities are called “powers,” yet ultimately end up disempowering them, further separating them from society and giving them additional burdens they must overcome. The Misfits’ powers are more a nuisance and a burden than anything else: by the end of the six-episode series, Simon is the only character who has gained any amount of control over his power, and by and large the rest of them have only suffered because of their newfound abilities. Alisha is nearly raped on several occasions when men grab her; Curtis tries to rewind time to save himself from community service and ends up being inadvertently responsible for his friends’ deaths in an alternate future; and Nathan ends up buried alive at the end of the final episode, as his power of immortality had been undiscovered until a few days after his funeral. In the opening credits sequence, the Misfits all appear haunted or terrified by their abilities (all of which are symbolized by shadows or symbols), clearly unsure of how to use them or how they can fit back in with the crowd now that their powers have set them apart. Interestingly enough, it is the girls that appear most victimized by their powers in this opening sequence: while the boys are all walking or running somewhere, Kelly is crouched in the fetal position while wavy lines are broadcast from her, a symbolic representation of her mind-reading ability; and Alisha is standing still, looking around her, startled as similar lines are drawn to her, in a simulation of her “magnetic” power of seduction. Ultimately, it seems the appearance of these young people’s powers is far more disempowering than empowering, and while this is characteristic of all the characters, it is especially evident with the females.
While it is clear that their society looks far down upon all members of the group, it is interesting that even though they have gone through so much together, Alisha and Kelly still have a slightly worse rap than Nathan, Curtis, or Simon do. One notable thing that sets the females apart from the males of the group is the fact that both girls are seen wearing ankle tags on more than one occasion, while none of the boys ever are. The ankle tag is, along with the jumpsuit they all wear, a symbol of the restrictions society puts upon them, as they are meant to reinforce curfews and restrict where the convict can travel (“Episode 2”). While all the Misfits do have a stigma by the simple matter that they have been arrested and convicted of crimes, it is Alisha and Kelly who are bogged down by the additional restriction of the ankle tag, a fact which ends up having some rather unfortunate implications due to the way these tags are revealed. The very first shot of the series, in fact, is of Alisha’s tagged ankle as she puts on her orange jumpsuit with the rest of the characters; there are many lingering shots of her naked cleavage in this scene, which is not only a clear example of male gaze, but also seems to make the statement that her femininity has imprisoned her somehow, making her more confined than any of the male characters in her same situation are. Kelly’s ankle tag, meanwhile, is prominent when she is half-naked, making out on her bed with her fiancé, another criminal-type who is likely from the same low social class she is; what little we see of her relationship with him demonstrates that they are not happy together, thus giving the impression that she is trapped in this relationship. The ankle tags become as much a part of the girls’ uniforms as their orange jumpsuits, much as Wonder Woman’s power bracelets were a symbol of the Amazons’ past as slaves (Marston 5).
In addition, at least two of the three male leads, Nathan and Simon, are clearly shown to have negative attitudes towards women, seeing them as objects of sexual conquest more than anything else, especially towards the beginning of the series. Nathan, who is widely considered to be the main character of the series or even the “leader” of the group, is clearly sexist and likely a misogynist, as he makes several disparaging remarks about women not in his peer group, such as Sally and Rachel Leyton, the young woman in charge of Virtue; he also states on numerous occasions that the only way he can get a girl to sleep with him is to get her drunk first. However, while he does show more of a sense of camaraderie and friendship with Alisha and Kelly, particularly Kelly as the series progresses, Nathan also displays a good deal of sexism towards them, and is often unapologetic about it. In one notable scene in the first episode, he tries to get Simon and Curtis to talk about how the three of them are going to “divide them up,” not even referring to Alisha or Kelly by name, instead calling them “the one with all the frizzy hair” and “that other one”. When Curtis asks him if the girls get a say in who their romantic partners will be, Nathan brushes off the suggestion entirely, showing he cares more about “getting laid” than in the wishes of either of the girls. He later says that any hookups between the members of their group is a simple matter of “biology or physics” and thereby taking away any culpability he might feel over his remarks or any possible sexual advances he might make toward either girl over the course of the series. (“Episode 1”) Simon, meanwhile, at least knows the girls’ names, but his attitudes towards them are similarly focused on the material and sexual aspects of them than the girls’ personalities. One of the first times he uses his invisibility power is to spy on the two of them changing out of their jumpsuits into their street clothes, with the camera (acting in Simon’s point of view) lingering on a tattoo Kelly has on her lower back and both girls’ cleavage, and the scene ends with Simon hovering behind Alisha, mere inches away from her half-bare body, looking at her with a sexual hunger in his eyes. In a flashback, we see the first time he meets Kelly, before any of them had even been arrested: she is unconscious outside a club, and instead of trying to help her, Simon nearly puts his hand up her skirt. While Simon’s power stems from his shyness and feelings of social invisibility (Donaghy), he often puts it to use for the nefarious purpose of spying on women when they are most vulnerable, not only in the aforementioned scene in the locker room, but also when their probation worker, Sally, is at home, undressing or sleeping. These two young men use their strength to harm women, particularly Simon; and they show little or no remorse at treating their fellow female Misfits as objects or playthings.
Of the two female leads, Kelly defies more female stereotypes, although in some ways she is still a typical female; overall, however, she has a few more masculine tendencies than feminine ones because she relies on physical strength rather than emotion to get her point of view across. Kelly is known in the group for her bad attitude and aggressiveness: she uses bad language more than nearly any other character, she often punches Nathan when he annoys her, and she has violent tendencies that get her into trouble on more than one occasion. She was arrested for getting into a fight with another girl, and Kelly is the Misfit who winds up killing their first probation worker after he goes “mental”, bashing in his head with a can of paint and then kicking his face in after he calls her a “chav” (a derogatory British slang term for urban white trash). Kelly is also presented as uneducated: she has a coarse, unrefined accent that is difficult for others to understand (when she first speaks, Nathan comments “That’s just a noise. Are we supposed to be able to understand her?”); her fictional Twitter page (set up by the E4 channel that broadcasts the show) is full of misspellings and bad grammar, while pages for Nathan and Simon do not have the same issue; and when Virtue gets a hold of her, Nathan is shocked and appalled that she is looking at a university prospectus, implying that higher education was never something in her future. The way she dresses is also far from female convention, as she wears baggy flannel shirts and jeans, has scraped-back greasy hair, and wears far too much makeup. She does a complete, if temporary, turnabout in “Episode 6,” when she falls under the influence of Virtue and begins dressing and behaving like a more conventional and conservative female, much to Nathan’s consternation. While her actions during this episode are not really a part of her character development, as they are mainly the effect of brainwashing, they are significant to mention because she begins to buy into society’s view of her as a “horrible chav,” placidly saying “I think I look nice” when questioned about her new attire and berating herself for being so aggressive in the past. This shows that in order for her to be a “good person,” she should dress and behave like a more typical female, at least in the eyes of Virtue. (“Episode 6”) In spite of this expectation, Kelly is overall a character who is defined, at least superficially, by her lower class, masculine attire, and aggressive tendencies, making her more of a tomboy character and thus, not as appreciated by society or even her group of peers.
It is perhaps because she does not fit into the conventional idea of femininity that Kelly is shown as the most insecure character, a character trait that is enhanced by her mind-reading abilities. Kelly is shown multiple times to struggle with being a member of a lower class, becoming furious when anyone refers to her as a chav or makes assumptions about her based on her appearance; her insecurities are heightened when she gets the power to read minds, as most of her fears of what people might think of her are confirmed. Nathan, the member of the group she is closest to, is typically only thinking of having sex with her, rather than thinking about how much he has come to care about her as a person; when her fiancé is shown to be thinking the same thing about her, she punches him in anger, leading him to dump her. Kelly is more annoyed with her powers than anything else and is perhaps the character most eager to get rid of them: when Nathan says he should have a power (unaware of his own abilities), Kelly offers to let him have hers; however, her offer is promptly rejected, with Nathan saying he would rather have “something good, something from the A-list”. (“Episode 1”) It becomes apparent that Kelly’s aggressiveness also stems from her insecurities and her feelings of being misunderstood: whenever she tries to be nice or help people, they most often brush her off, leading her to lash back at them through angry words or even physical violence.
In spite of all her aggressiveness and her negative attitude, Kelly does have some more conventional female tendencies, as she winds up being one of the more nurturing and caring members of the Misfits. She shows a longing for a conventional, heterosexual relationship: not only was she engaged for a while, but she is often shown pining after Nathan, even describing the fact that he makes his bed as solid proof that he is “husband material” (Twitter, Dec. 17). Kelly is shown on multiple occasions to have a caring heart, as she shields Simon from Nathan’s bullying, makes sure Nathan gets to eat more than stolen food from the community center vending machines, and, most notably, is the only Misfit to ever use her power for the good of others, rather than only benefiting herself like all the others do. It should be noted that she does not make a habit of using her power to help others, since her power, like most of the others’, happens more often than not by accident; she has no control over what she might hear in someone’s mind, and at times she accidentally blurts out secrets another character does not want told. However, on occasion, by reading others’ minds, she is able to determine what they most need, and while she could use this information against them she sometimes does use it to help instead. The most noteworthy example of this occurs in “Episode 5”, where they find a baby with mind-control powers who has made Nathan believe that he should be the baby’s father. Kelly not only discovers the existence of the baby’s power by reading his mind, but she also convinces the baby’s mother that if she brings him to visit his absent father, the man will want to be the baby’s father again (though she does not mention that this is because of the baby’s power). This incident causes her to be the only Misfit explicitly described as a “superhero,” albeit in a sarcastic remark by Nathan; however, she rejects even the superficial application of this label by giving Nathan the finger in response. Because of the positive way in which sometimes she uses her power, Kelly is probably the character who most closely fits the conventional model of a superhero; this, paired with her more conventional female traits, makes her character the closest thing to a female role model that might exist in the series, though the show makes no attempts to put her character in so complimentary a light.
Alisha, meanwhile, is much more of a “bad girl” than Kelly is, because her power is based purely on sex appeal and she takes advantage of her abilities very often. While Kelly is the proverbial girl from the wrong side of the tracks, Alisha is the party girl: she is presumably middle-class, though most likely the wealthiest of the five main characters (she is the only one with access to a car), and she spends most of her time socializing on her cell and going out to parties. As I previously mentioned, she wears an ankle tag; but she is very nonchalant about the curfew and restrictions this tag has given her, completely ignoring the mandates society has imposed upon her and thus making her the “bad girl” even among young convicts. She has the power of seduction, able to make men want to sleep with her simply by touching them; while she initially uses her new ability for her own ends by having sex with several boys in a single night at a club, this turns out to be much more of a curse than a blessing, as men often try and take advantage of her if they inadvertently touch her. In spite of the warnings her power must carry with it, the fact that her power is so sexualized reinforces her portrayal as a “bad girl,” as she is a deviant whose power can only exist in a patriarchal structure such as contemporary Britain (Jowett 70). While Kelly at least sometimes attempts to use her mind-reading abilities to help others, the sexual nature of Alisha’s power means that it can only be used to benefit her (and not always even that), since, as one reviewer puts it, “exactly how you can use ‘sending people into a sexual frenzy’ to fight crime remains to be seen.” (Griffiths)
Alisha’s ability, as well as her overall character, is an excellent example of female sexuality functioning as a double-edged sword: as Antonia Thomas, the actress who plays Alisha, states, “there [is] quite a lot of pressure early on and from quite a young age to use your sexuality and to be sexy - I think too young actually. I think girls feel like they need to be attractive to boys to be popular.” (UK Press Association) Alisha is highly aware of her attractiveness and her hold over men, and she often uses it to her advantage, using her sexuality to captivate the young men around her even before she is aware of her supernatural abilities of seduction. There is one scene in the first episode where Alisha is regaling Curtis, Nathan, and Simon with the story of how she was arrested, interrupting her story with an extended scene where she mimes giving a blow job to a water bottle while the three of them stare at her, transfixed. Interestingly, this scene is cut with Kelly running frantically to escape from Tony, the demonic probation worker, in a twisted juxtaposition of the sexual power of women with the physical power of men. When not wearing her signature orange jumpsuit, Alisha is always scantily-clad, often explicitly telling boys to “feel free to check out my tits”; her physical appearance is a huge part of her characterization, as many characters, including Curtis and even Sally, repeatedly call her “beautiful” (a word that is never once applied to Kelly). This physical beauty of hers is sometimes seen as the reason or excuse for men’s actions around her: when a police officer nearly rapes her while under the influence of her power, Sally brushes his actions off by saying to Alisha, “You seem to have quite an effect on men... you’re a very beautiful girl.” Her use of her appearance and her sexuality gives her a stigma which she appears to wholly embrace, since when Curtis tells her that his mother told him to stay away from “girls like you,” she coyly replies, “Your mum has never met a girl like me.” (“Episode 2”)
As the series progresses, Alisha is shown to be more and more worn by her abilities: she becomes less bubbly and more detached from her sexual experiences the more often she uses her power. One of the side effects of her ability is amnesia: none of the young men she sleeps with remembers the experience afterwards, and it is clear that this picks away at her self-esteem bit by bit, resulting in her using her power more frequently in order to try and reassert herself as the dominant partner, worthy of being remembered. After she uses her power on Curtis, he angrily asks her, “You think that just because you’re beautiful, you can have whatever you want?” and she tearfully replies, “Yeah, that’s pretty much how it works,” showing that her initial pleasure with her ability and habit of casual sex has ultimately left her with nothing but despair. (“Episode 3”) It appears that because of the sexual aspect her power, Alisha can be viewed as the most vulnerable of the Misfits, even more so than Kelly. Both of them are under attack by unwanted forces; but while Kelly’s power only affects her mentally and the toll of her ability is never really explored, Alisha is under physical attack by men on many different occasions, and the downside of her enhanced sexuality seems to be all the series is concerned in discussing with regards to her character. Alisha’s vulnerability is eventually tempered by her entering into a normative (with her special circumstances, at least) heterosexual relationship with Curtis: they never touch, as she wants him to remember their time together and he does not wish for her to take advantage of him again, but he provides her with the emotional support she needs, as well as physical satisfaction through mutual masturbation, an experience Alisha sincerely describes to Kelly as “really special”. (“Episode 4”) As soon as Alisha and Curtis enter into this relationship, the negative effects of her power almost entirely disappear, and while Alisha is still highly aware of her sexuality she does not use it again as a weapon against anyone, showing that she has freed herself from the “bad girl” status her powers gave her, that she has become more “properly” gendered through heterosexual romance (Jowett 89).
Although Howard Overman, the writer and creator of Misfits, has stated that he had no desire to use his series as any sort of platform, that “once you start trying to deliver a message... you find yourself turning into some street-corner crazy” (qtd. in Donaghy), it is clear that his series does inadvertently promote some sort of gender bias against his female heroes, even while the series is decidedly postmodern and shatters so many other stereotypes about superheroes. Kelly and Alisha are consistently portrayed as victims of their abilities to a slightly higher degree than any of their male counterparts are, even though Kelly, at least, uses hers for good on occasion. The series’ portrayal of these young women’s powers, paired with the male characters’ and society’s attitudes towards them, ends up disempowering both Alisha and Kelly, and they struggle throughout the series trying to gain some of that power back through conforming to traditional gender expectations of heterosexual romance and other “good girl” behavior.