Marvelous Meta Monday -- Miss Parker and a can of worms
Let’s talk about Pretender, specifically Miss Parker. Pretender is a show about a guy who is kidnapped as a child and raised as a science experiment at a think tank called The Centre. Eventually he gets fed up and runs away, and goes off to help random people. This is the A plot. Miss Parker, who works at the Centre, is tasked with hunting him down and bringing him back. This is the B plot. Hijinks ensue.
Spoilers for seasons one through four, specifically “Not Even A Mouse,” “Collateral Damage,” and “Til Death Do Us Part.”
I admit that I am looking at this through a 1950s-type of gender construct. I don’t know much about feminist theory or the like. But Pretender itself is stuck in that kind of mindset. At its heart, this is a very, very conservative show. Family is constantly emphasized as being the most important thing, period. (And big government, in the form of the Centre, is not to be trusted, but that’s another essay.) Through the lens of Pretender’s conservative viewpoint, Miss Parker’s kick-ass character may not be so kick-ass after all.
Miss Parker is obviously the female lead on this show, but nothing about her characterization screams “woman” in that conservative sense. She has a corporate, pant-suit type job and spends most of her time at work. She doesn’t have any children. She doesn’t seem to do any shopping. Hell -- as a woman, she never seems to have any feelings, except ire.
One of the great things about Pretender is its use of flashbacks to show us when Miss Parker and Jarod were younger; Jarod is still pretty much the same guy he was 25 years ago, but Miss Parker has obviously changed. As a child (ages 9-12 or so) she was a very different person, loving and kind and expressive. Now she’s cold and calculated. We never find out what event(s) led to this change.
Miss Parker does have the capacity for the full gamut of emotions, but in her normal, day-to-day existence, she keeps them bottled in, much like a stereotypical man’s man would. The only time we see her show those feelings is when she regresses back to being a girl. Basically, the adult female Miss Parker has two states of being: tough man and girl. This is what struck me most when I was re-watching episodes.
To illustrate, there are two obvious examples of an adult Miss Parker acting as a caretaker -- a stereotypical womanly “mothering” type role. Yet both actually involve Miss Parker reverting back emotionally to being a girl, and not her as a woman.
The first is in “Not Even a Mouse,” when Jarod sends her a bunny rabbit for Christmas. Instead of killing it and eating it for supper (which is a worry, considering it’s Miss Parker), she smiles and puts it in her lap and strokes it in a way that signifies she will take care of it. The problem is that there’s more to it; the episode has had a flashback showing Miss Parker and Jarod playing together as children, with six rabbits that were being used for an experiment. By giving her the rabbit, Jarod has intentionally manipulated Miss Parker back into being a girl so that she can enjoy, as he is, the childlike wonder of Christmas.
A second example comes in “Collateral Damage,” where Miss Parker is forced to look after a co-worker’s daughter, Debbie, for the weekend. Miss Parker is not happy about it at all, and gives a little monologue: “These are the house rules: no running, no playing, no feed on the furniture, and no noise, which includes crying and whining. Be invisible and we’ll get along just fine.” Clearly child-rearing (or even child-interaction) is not on Miss Parker’s to-do list. Part-way through the episode, Debbie discovers a still-wrapped gift from Miss Parker’s mother in the closet. Miss Parker is furious at first, because the present is sacred to her, her mother having given it to her immediately before her mysterious death. But Miss Parker eventually decides that they will open it and read it together, it being a copy of Little Women. As they do this, it is clear that Miss Parker is again reverting back to being a girl; she’s still in an adult body, and has taken over a mothering role, but it’s more like she’s a girl with a doll than a woman with a daughter. On Monday morning, back at work, this is even more apparent as Miss Parker returns Debbie to her father: Debbie is dressed exactly as Miss Parker would-- a doll-- and Miss Parker’s tough exterior is back as soon as the child is handed over.
You might argue that Pretender is written in a clever way, with the week-in, week-out conservatism of the A plot running contrary to the progressive way our female hero is depicted in the B plot. But I don’t think that’s what’s going on; I think a bunch of dudes are at the helm and don’t realize that they’ve written such a problematic female character.
If the rest of the adult female characters on the show were written in a thoughtful way, I might say that the show is doing a better job with this. But they’re not. We basically have three other women characters on the show, our weekly damsels in distress, Brigitte, and Catherine Parker.
The damsels in distress are victims of the week who need Jarod’s help. Even when they’re strong, they still need a man’s help to get what they need, or what they want. Problem.
Brigitte is another Centre employee. She isn’t introduced until the start of the second season, and then she doesn’t have much to do... that is, until she becomes a baby-making machine in season four! And then she dies in childbirth. (As an aside, she was blonde and had a fake accent. Now you never have to watch any scene Brigitte was in, ever. You’re welcome.)
That leaves Catherine Parker, Miss Parker’s mother. She is a strong woman character-- not only employed at a good job, but with a family to take care of and her caretaker instinct so strong that she feels like it is her duty to rescue the children from the Centre. We do, therefore, have a womanly hero in our show, a character who balances the old fashioned stereotype of her gender with power and ability. Too bad she was murdered because of it in 1970.
Pretender isn’t really that good with adult female characters, I have to say. Maybe it’s better with Miss Parker. Maybe she’s a progressive woman character in a show of conservatism. She is tough, she doesn’t want her own family, she’s focused on herself and doing what’s best for her. I’ve admired those facets of her character for a long time. But all of a sudden, I’m not sure that’s what’s going on. The writers show repeatedly that they’re not that interested in fleshing out their other female characters. They think they’ve fleshed out Miss Parker but it’s not in the totally awesome way they think they have. She’s either a little girl or a big man, not a woman, at least not in the conservative sense that permeates the rest of the show.
My final questions are these: can we, as modern viewers, look to Miss Parker as a progressive character or not? Do we have to accept the conservative construction of the show as a lens through which we view her character?
Spoilers for seasons one through four, specifically “Not Even A Mouse,” “Collateral Damage,” and “Til Death Do Us Part.”
I admit that I am looking at this through a 1950s-type of gender construct. I don’t know much about feminist theory or the like. But Pretender itself is stuck in that kind of mindset. At its heart, this is a very, very conservative show. Family is constantly emphasized as being the most important thing, period. (And big government, in the form of the Centre, is not to be trusted, but that’s another essay.) Through the lens of Pretender’s conservative viewpoint, Miss Parker’s kick-ass character may not be so kick-ass after all.
Miss Parker is obviously the female lead on this show, but nothing about her characterization screams “woman” in that conservative sense. She has a corporate, pant-suit type job and spends most of her time at work. She doesn’t have any children. She doesn’t seem to do any shopping. Hell -- as a woman, she never seems to have any feelings, except ire.
One of the great things about Pretender is its use of flashbacks to show us when Miss Parker and Jarod were younger; Jarod is still pretty much the same guy he was 25 years ago, but Miss Parker has obviously changed. As a child (ages 9-12 or so) she was a very different person, loving and kind and expressive. Now she’s cold and calculated. We never find out what event(s) led to this change.
Miss Parker does have the capacity for the full gamut of emotions, but in her normal, day-to-day existence, she keeps them bottled in, much like a stereotypical man’s man would. The only time we see her show those feelings is when she regresses back to being a girl. Basically, the adult female Miss Parker has two states of being: tough man and girl. This is what struck me most when I was re-watching episodes.
To illustrate, there are two obvious examples of an adult Miss Parker acting as a caretaker -- a stereotypical womanly “mothering” type role. Yet both actually involve Miss Parker reverting back emotionally to being a girl, and not her as a woman.
The first is in “Not Even a Mouse,” when Jarod sends her a bunny rabbit for Christmas. Instead of killing it and eating it for supper (which is a worry, considering it’s Miss Parker), she smiles and puts it in her lap and strokes it in a way that signifies she will take care of it. The problem is that there’s more to it; the episode has had a flashback showing Miss Parker and Jarod playing together as children, with six rabbits that were being used for an experiment. By giving her the rabbit, Jarod has intentionally manipulated Miss Parker back into being a girl so that she can enjoy, as he is, the childlike wonder of Christmas.
A second example comes in “Collateral Damage,” where Miss Parker is forced to look after a co-worker’s daughter, Debbie, for the weekend. Miss Parker is not happy about it at all, and gives a little monologue: “These are the house rules: no running, no playing, no feed on the furniture, and no noise, which includes crying and whining. Be invisible and we’ll get along just fine.” Clearly child-rearing (or even child-interaction) is not on Miss Parker’s to-do list. Part-way through the episode, Debbie discovers a still-wrapped gift from Miss Parker’s mother in the closet. Miss Parker is furious at first, because the present is sacred to her, her mother having given it to her immediately before her mysterious death. But Miss Parker eventually decides that they will open it and read it together, it being a copy of Little Women. As they do this, it is clear that Miss Parker is again reverting back to being a girl; she’s still in an adult body, and has taken over a mothering role, but it’s more like she’s a girl with a doll than a woman with a daughter. On Monday morning, back at work, this is even more apparent as Miss Parker returns Debbie to her father: Debbie is dressed exactly as Miss Parker would-- a doll-- and Miss Parker’s tough exterior is back as soon as the child is handed over.
You might argue that Pretender is written in a clever way, with the week-in, week-out conservatism of the A plot running contrary to the progressive way our female hero is depicted in the B plot. But I don’t think that’s what’s going on; I think a bunch of dudes are at the helm and don’t realize that they’ve written such a problematic female character.
If the rest of the adult female characters on the show were written in a thoughtful way, I might say that the show is doing a better job with this. But they’re not. We basically have three other women characters on the show, our weekly damsels in distress, Brigitte, and Catherine Parker.
The damsels in distress are victims of the week who need Jarod’s help. Even when they’re strong, they still need a man’s help to get what they need, or what they want. Problem.
Brigitte is another Centre employee. She isn’t introduced until the start of the second season, and then she doesn’t have much to do... that is, until she becomes a baby-making machine in season four! And then she dies in childbirth. (As an aside, she was blonde and had a fake accent. Now you never have to watch any scene Brigitte was in, ever. You’re welcome.)
That leaves Catherine Parker, Miss Parker’s mother. She is a strong woman character-- not only employed at a good job, but with a family to take care of and her caretaker instinct so strong that she feels like it is her duty to rescue the children from the Centre. We do, therefore, have a womanly hero in our show, a character who balances the old fashioned stereotype of her gender with power and ability. Too bad she was murdered because of it in 1970.
Pretender isn’t really that good with adult female characters, I have to say. Maybe it’s better with Miss Parker. Maybe she’s a progressive woman character in a show of conservatism. She is tough, she doesn’t want her own family, she’s focused on herself and doing what’s best for her. I’ve admired those facets of her character for a long time. But all of a sudden, I’m not sure that’s what’s going on. The writers show repeatedly that they’re not that interested in fleshing out their other female characters. They think they’ve fleshed out Miss Parker but it’s not in the totally awesome way they think they have. She’s either a little girl or a big man, not a woman, at least not in the conservative sense that permeates the rest of the show.
My final questions are these: can we, as modern viewers, look to Miss Parker as a progressive character or not? Do we have to accept the conservative construction of the show as a lens through which we view her character?