Rec: Meta - The Real Woman? Why Molly Hooper is the One Who Counts

[hells_half_acre]

This is sort of a follow-up to my previous post about Women, Sex, and Power in relation to Sherlock (and Sherlock fandom)...in that rant, I stated the following:

How about we stop making every single female on television the representative for all women? Is Sherlock the representative for all men? No? Why not? Oh, because he's a possible

Comments

[mymuseandi]

I totally agree. Besides, I think people judge female characters a little more harshly than than men, and that part of the reason is because it's like looking at yourself from a third person view and not liking what you saw and knowing that there's always something that you could have done that you didn't.

On another note, look forward to your new house!

[hells_half_acre]

Yeah, I think that does have something to do with it. Whether you do or don't see something of yourself in the character, that doesn't make it less of a true character. I mean, you don't necessarily see something of yourself in every single female you meet on the street either

[verdande_mi]

Thank you for the link; wonderful thoughtful article, and your thoughts; I so very much agree. This is a theme very much on my mind these days as I am gearing up to writing a large paper on why we don’t allow ourselves to see people as true individuals but instead see representations of gender and sexual orientation.

[hells_half_acre]

Ooo, that sounds like an interesting paper! I hope the writing of it goes well :)

[verdande_mi]

Thank you, I’m still in the very first phase with planning and choosing which books to use and which theoretical writers I want to focus on. I’m meeting with my advisor in a week or so, and hopefully he will tell me I’m on the right track! Or nudge me in the right direction.

[sgmajorshipper]

Yes. Just, yes. Everywhere. Everything. Molly is amazing, and, unfortunately, as is all-too-common with fandom, she's not liked. I mean, I know why. Fandom doesn't like women, and it especially doesn't like women who portray women as anything other than badass. It's like they can't grasp a woman who can be different and vulnerable and more like us that we want to admit. And Moffat and Gatiss did a wonderful job subverting what you expected by making Molly the most important.
YESSSSSSSSSSSSS. Yes.

[hells_half_acre]

Genau. Exactement. Yes.

I don't think it does anyone any favours to pretend that women don't have faults.

[dairygirl]

Actually, Molly is a great example of a woman. We don't think much of her. She seems nice enough but tries too hard with Sherlock. But then when he needs her, Molly shines. She offers her help with no strings attached and is able to do something for Sherlock he cannot himself. How many people have I thought similar but then there is some situation that showcases the strength that is not readily seen?

[hells_half_acre]

Very true!

[indusnm]

I do see what you're saying, and I often argue with people about the fact that while I like badass women, and shows with them, my favorite character is often not the badass ones. I mean- why lie? I heart the sidekicks, the relatable characters who stand there and say- oh my god I don't want to die. But at the same time, I am guilty of this with Muslim characters- I don't want the terrorist stereotype. I also don't want the anti-terrorist stereotype- omg there are plenty of us that neither work for al Qaeda nor work for the secret government agency of your choice. So there is a part of me that looks at Molly at first and cringes at the thought of the cliche of the pining, helpful woman who loves the oblivious hero because aside from Earth mother, that was one of the most common portrayals of women until not so long ago. So I do get what you are saying, but I think, in all fairness, that is a very small part of me, and there are other issues with her

[indusnm]

And I should say- in paragraph one, when I cringe at seeing Molly as reminiscent of those cliches, I fully acknowledge that isn't fair to her. It is something I consciously recognize and try to reprimand myself for because I don't think women have to be badass to be great.

[hells_half_acre]

I don't think Molly had to save Sherlock in order to redeem herself, but I think - in the end - her doing so showed a strength of character that we needed to see. People could argue with me, of course, because it's a woman who is helping a man who usually pushes her around - and that's hardly a good thing...but at the same time, it's her saying "You're mean to me, and you overlook me, but your not going to make it out of here alive without my help and I'm going to help you, because I'm not petty or vindictive...I'm a good and intelligent person, and you will regret ever saying a mean word now that you've realized it

[indusnm]

I have to admit, I haven't seen Merlin- I'm actually too fond of Arthur and not fond enough of Merlin to sit through too much of it before I shut it off in the interest of keeping my favorite childhood myths as they are ;) And I'm always in two places on race-blind casting because it ignores that there are real race issues- if you don't acknowledge that someone is a minority, you never touch on that minority's experiences. Perhaps there were no minorities in Arthurian times (not familiar enough with the region's history at that time), but I have to admit to having some issues with Downton Abbey because I was raised in South Asia, where we still resent how brown people are sort of treated as canon fodder, where our deaths don't count. In the war scenes, there was an opportunity to acknowledge that other races WERE present (some because they were promised independence for fighting, but that is a whole other story), but all I saw there were white people. There is no race blind casting in Downton Abbey and people like them would not hire