sometimes I talk about television (really!)

[pellucid]

The problem, I think, is that most of the television I've been watching lately isn't worth talking about. For a good part of the last year or so, that's exactly what I've needed--the more brainless, the better! I'm starting to miss good, thinky TV, though, and I suspect that soon enough I'll be tapping my fingers impatiently: where is my shiny, new

Comments

[pellucid]

There are obviously a number of things about Jane's character that I don't particularly relate to, so I'm not sure why she pings so hard for me. It's not like my particular demographic--white, single, straight, professional women--is underrepresented on television. In fact, although we could always use more women of all sorts on TV, I suspect that there are more women who would check off the same identity politics-type boxes as I would than there are pretty much any other group of women (I mean, the white and straight is obvious, but there are also far more single and career-oriented women on TV than not--much easier to find a good portrayal of that kind of woman than of, say, a white, straight, married, stay at home mom, and that's still staying in the white and straight category). But there's something about the way Jane's choices have been portrayed: that she has chosen the things she's chosen on purpose, that these choices are celebrated by the show rather than belittled (the "too busy working to have a relationship" trope is common enough, but it's rarely seen as a positive choice: choosing career and friendships and family over a romantic relationship because this is what makes the character happy and fulfilled). Anyway, something about that makes me recognize myself so much more than in pretty much any other character I can think of, and I'm still not entirely sure why. I guess those choices I've made are pretty fundamental to the way I think about my own identity, and they also seem pretty fundamental to Jane, and that seems like a more important thing to have in common than more superficial things like socioeconomic or educational background, or specific career choices, etc.

*shrugs*

I really love Jane's normality, though--I think I'd say refreshingly normal rather than annoyingly normal! So many TV characters have their Great Childhood Trauma that's sort of the thing that motivates their character development. And Jane has serial killer baggage, yes, but not family baggage, and (as someone who also comes from an annoyingly/refreshingly normal family) I really love that.

[gabolange]

Oh, yes, I absolutely adore that Jane is normal. It's wonderful to see someone who has a stable relationship with their parents and siblings (is there a single character on Bones or in the entire Star Trek canon for whom this is true?). It's wonderful to see someone who has made choices so much like mine.

Though I'm rather glad I don't have any serial killer baggage. I'm not sure it would match the decor . . . ;)