The Women of White Collar (Are Made of Awesome)
I wrote the following piece for 
month_of_meta
White Collar is one of my very favorite shows. And one the reasons I love it so much is its varied cast of interesting and awesome women characters. In this piece (one couldn't really call it an essay), I'll discuss how the women of White Collar are written as individuals as well as the way the writers address gendered tropes. Expect this to spoil all the way through the end of season three.
I totally welcome discussion, but please stay away from character bashing. "Kate's characterization was weak" is fine "Kate sucks!" is not. ETA: I can't believe I have to say this, but apparently I do: calling a character a bitch is not discussion. Thank you.
The characters:
Elizabeth Burke
In a number of cop/detective shows and movies, the main character will have a wife. She will represent home and family, and all the things the male character is kept from by the demands of his job. She may be long suffering and patient, emphasizing the sweet, simple life that the male character longs for but is tragically denied. Or she may be demanding and unsympathetic, illustrating how the noble male character does his brave work for little reward. Either way, she's not a person in her own right. She's just the wife.
And then there's Elizabeth Burke. Elizabeth is a fully developed character in her own right. We see her living her own life, frequently at her job. One can easily conceive of a sitcom centered around Elizabeth as her efforts to pull off the perfect event are complicated by her FBI husband and his con artist partner. Wacky hijinks ensure! (Seriously, it would be hilarious.)
Elizabeth is wonderfully understanding about Peter's job, but she also has logical limits. She knows that date nights may be interrupted, but she's hurt during "Veiled Threat" as she's forced to watch Peter pretend to love another woman.
Diana Berrigan
Peter's right hand woman at the FBI, Diana is, put simply, made of awesome. In addition to being pure, unadulterated awesome, Diana is an out lesbian. And I don't need to tell you that lesbians of color are hardly a dime a dozen on the TV screen.
Everyone has opinions when it comes to TV. Everyone has things they want to see happen. Well, when it comes to Diana, it's as if the writers can actually hear what I'm thinking.
In the first season, I was frustrated that she was absent after the first episode. But then she came back! However, I was still irritated, if only mildly so, with how the writers dealt with her sexuality. The characters referred to it only obliquely, with the jokes in the first episode, that weren't offensive or anything, but were rather stupid, and seemed an obvious way of avoiding dealing with her sexuality in a frank way. In the last episode of the season, Peter asks about Christie, but it's only inference that allows us to assume that this is Diana's girlfriend. The writers weren't denying Diana's lesbianism, but I felt like they were leaving some room for plausible deniability.
Then comes season two. Christie is openly referred to as Diana's girlfriend, and in "Need to Know" Diana and Neal cheerfully acknowledge that she's not attracted to him at all. But still I had complaints. I'm very picky, understand. While Diana did have a girlfriend, we never saw her. I felt like Diana had shades of what I call "gay in name only," which is what I call it when a character is referred to as gay, but we never see anything on screen that supports that. (Except maybe some tired stereotypes.)
Enter season three. Not only did we meet Christie, we got to see her and Diana be adorable and domestic together. They kissed on screen! And even better than that, in "Pulling Strings," Diana announces her engagement. In a move that surprised me, the characters explicitly mention that gay marriage is now legal in New York. In the rare event that a TV show actually has a gay character, they're usually, in my experience, completely apolitcal. There are a few likely reasons for this, but it's always grated on me. Granted, they are some completely apolitcal queer folks in the real world, but as far as I can tell it's not that common. When your neighbors are voting on your right to get married, and your legislators discussing whether or not you can be fired for your sexual orientation, you tend to pay attention. The White Collar character discuss gay marriage in New York casually, like real people would.
Now if we could just get some more Christie in season 4.
The one hiccup the writers run into when writing Diana is their tendency to send her into ridiculous undercover situations. She's been a model, a prostitute, a secretary, and a trophy mistress. When viewed in list like this it comes as degrading and titillating. (There's nothing degrading about being a secretary, of course, but it's not a position with any power and Diana spends the episode at the beck and call of a capricious and demanding boss. In other words, it's another undercover position that denies Diana power and respect.*) Where any other show presenting me with this list, I'd probably throw my remote down in disgust. What saves White Collar from this fate is two things. One is Diana's professionalism and poise. She takes her job seriously at all times, therefore there's less for us to laugh or gawk at. And two, of course, is Marsha Thomason's acting, which allows Diana that professionalism and dignity.
But seriously, couldn't she go undercover as a mob boss or an ex-marine?
Sara Ellis
Sara is proof that the White Collar writers aren't afraid to give us aggressive women. Sara is ambitious, blunt, and fierce. It's refreshing that the writers created a woman character with those traits and then made her a protagonist. Because there are ambitious, aggressive women on TV, but they're usually "the bitch," and the White Collar writers don't present Sara that way. (Fandom, on the other hand... But this is about canon.) Sara's sharp edges are part of her character, and they never go away, but she's three dimensional, and also capable of kindness and warmth. You know, just like a real person.
After the end of season two, I was worried that Sara would be relegated to "the love interest." That is, she would show up every few episodes for a scene or two just to remind us that Neal had a girlfriend. This, obviously, did not happen. And then after the mid season finale, I was worried that no longer being Neal's girlfriend would lead to Sara fading away from the show. Also did not happen. My new wish is to see lots of Sara in season four. Will it happen?
From here on we'll be getting into minor characters, so it may be a bit more difficult to discuss their inner workings, if only because we don't see as much of them. But they're still great characters, and they deserve the spotlight.
Alex Hunter
Alex is a woman who knows what she wants. I've always liked that while she cares about Neal (and might even love him) and is willing to help the FBI if it furthers her own ends, at the end of the day Alex's main concern is Alex. She's not purely selfish by any means, but she plays her cards close to her vest, and she's always aware of her own interests. Like Sara, it's rare for a women character who behaves this way to be presented positively. We missed her in season three, here's hoping she'll be back for season four.
June Ellington.
So, during "Judgment Day" was anyone going "Yes! Last name for June!"?
June is not only an awesome woman, she's an awesome older woman, who has lost none of her cunning or intelligence. She doesn't get a lot of screen time, but when she does it's a treat. More June!
Lauren Cruz
We only had Cruz in season one, while Marsha Thomason's schedule was in conflict, and season one was before we really delved into the emotional complexities of characters beyond the leads. But she was competent and intelligent, and it was nice to see the writers cast another women of color after Thomason temporarily fell through.
Kate Moreau
There's a reason I saved Kate for last. Because the rule book on how not to write a woman character, which the writers so neatly avoided with all the women above, yeah, somehow when they're were writing Kate that book slipped in. It's hard to describe Kate's character since we were given so little to work with. The women above have lives and goals of their own, but Kate was never much more than a walking macguffin. She was important only in how she related to Neal. And in the end, she was fridged, ie, she was killed off to provide angst and character development for a male character.
I like Kate. Admittedly, this probably has a lot to do with the automatic affection and protectiveness I feel for any female character who's been screwed over by the narrative. And I don't think her character's a total wash. We did get to see some of her personality in "Forging Bonds." But all in all, the way Kate was written was a disappointment, especially considering the strength of the writing for other women characters.
But at least I found a cool picture for her.
Now I want to get into some gendered tropes and the way White Collar deals with them.
The Damsel in Distress
Right after the mid-season finale, there was some grumbling that Elizabeth had been turned into a damsel in distress. I withheld judgment. After all, at that point, all we knew was that Elizabeth had been kidnapped. Considering that Peter and Neal had both been kidnapped previously, I wasn't going to declare that simply being abducted made Elizabeth weak or helpless. For me, it was all resting on what happened in "Checkmate." I wanted desperately for Elizabeth to rescue herself, or at least help, but I couldn't feel optimistic. TV has burned me so many times. And then, of course, the episode actually aired, and Elizabeth did work to save herself. She was clever, resourceful, and brave.
More often that not, White Collar subverts to damsel in distress role. I've described what happened to Elizabeth above, but there's also Diana and Sara. In "Need to Know" Diana is alone with a bad guy who intends to hurt her very badly. She shoots him. (After giving him a warning.) When Peter bursts in, we get this exchange:
Diana: Aw, you were worried.
Peter: Well, not about you. I was worried about what you would do to him.
And in "Pulling Strings" Sara is taken hostage. Now, Sara is fine with you taking her hostage. That means you're nice and close, making it all the easier for her to beat the shit out of you. Which she proceeds to do.
Now I really want an episode in which Diana and Sara team up. Or fic. Just give me something. They will be armed and fabulous!
Of course, then there's Kate. It's hard to say just how much Kate filled the damsel in distress role, because we know so little about her motivations and plans. Was she fully Adler's pawn? Was she a partner who got double crossed? We can't know, but I put her in the damsel is distress way in the end, because being murdered definitely counts as in distress. And once again, we'll never know how much (or how little) agency Kate ever had over her fate.
Sex
White Collar is not a particularly sexual show. Yes, the characters have sex occasionally. There will be brief references, and on a handful of occasions we'll see a couple in bed together. But it's hardly excessive.
What sex there is is positively portrayed. You won't find any slut shaming on White Collar. The show is equally positive when showing sexuality in a long term relationship (Elizabeth and Peter), a one night stand (Alex and Neal), and a casual relationship (Neal and Sara).
Performing Gender
Here I'm going to deviate briefly, and mention the men of White Collar, as I need to in order to give a complete picture.
White Collar isn't majorly subversive when it comes to gender. And it's certainly not subversive visually. (Diana and Christie are lesbians, sure, but neither of them is butch.) But when it comes to how characters perform gender, there's a bit more subtlety. Neal does not perform masculinity in a traditional way. He's style conscious and cares deeply about aesthetics and refinement. His main survival skills are charm and emotional manipulation, which are traditionally feminine weapons. (This is why I like to see him team up with Sara, who likes to beat people with her baton.)
Peter is more traditionally masculine. He's a guy's guy who likes beer and sports. However, he's not macho. Nothing about him is an act. He's not unwilling to show emotions or be kind. And he doesn't push masculinity on others. He'll tell Neal he looks like a cartoon, but never that he's not acting manly enough.
Indeed, Neal is never demeaned for his behavior or dress sense. Imagine how many gay/girly jokes might be aimed at him another show. But femininity isn't portrayed as negative on White Collar. Elizabeth, Diana, and Sara are all feminine looking, and they're all portrayed as intelligent, complex, and powerful. Neither are they censured when they stray from traditional femininity. Diana can like guns, and Sara can be ambitious and aggressive without ever being portrayed negatively.
While there's room for improvement, and there are a few things I'd like to see, as a feminist, I find White Collar to be one of the most satisfying shows on TV.
*Indeed one could argue on whether or not being a model or a prostitute should be described as degrading. But again see my explanation that what bothers me is the lack of power and control these roles give her, as well as the sexualization aspects.
This entry was originally posted at http://veleda-k.dreamwidth.org/275178.html. Please consider commenting there.
month_of_meta
White Collar is one of my very favorite shows. And one the reasons I love it so much is its varied cast of interesting and awesome women characters. In this piece (one couldn't really call it an essay), I'll discuss how the women of White Collar are written as individuals as well as the way the writers address gendered tropes. Expect this to spoil all the way through the end of season three.
I totally welcome discussion, but please stay away from character bashing. "Kate's characterization was weak" is fine "Kate sucks!" is not. ETA: I can't believe I have to say this, but apparently I do: calling a character a bitch is not discussion. Thank you.
The characters:
Elizabeth Burke
In a number of cop/detective shows and movies, the main character will have a wife. She will represent home and family, and all the things the male character is kept from by the demands of his job. She may be long suffering and patient, emphasizing the sweet, simple life that the male character longs for but is tragically denied. Or she may be demanding and unsympathetic, illustrating how the noble male character does his brave work for little reward. Either way, she's not a person in her own right. She's just the wife.
And then there's Elizabeth Burke. Elizabeth is a fully developed character in her own right. We see her living her own life, frequently at her job. One can easily conceive of a sitcom centered around Elizabeth as her efforts to pull off the perfect event are complicated by her FBI husband and his con artist partner. Wacky hijinks ensure! (Seriously, it would be hilarious.)
Elizabeth is wonderfully understanding about Peter's job, but she also has logical limits. She knows that date nights may be interrupted, but she's hurt during "Veiled Threat" as she's forced to watch Peter pretend to love another woman.
Diana Berrigan
Peter's right hand woman at the FBI, Diana is, put simply, made of awesome. In addition to being pure, unadulterated awesome, Diana is an out lesbian. And I don't need to tell you that lesbians of color are hardly a dime a dozen on the TV screen.
Everyone has opinions when it comes to TV. Everyone has things they want to see happen. Well, when it comes to Diana, it's as if the writers can actually hear what I'm thinking.
In the first season, I was frustrated that she was absent after the first episode. But then she came back! However, I was still irritated, if only mildly so, with how the writers dealt with her sexuality. The characters referred to it only obliquely, with the jokes in the first episode, that weren't offensive or anything, but were rather stupid, and seemed an obvious way of avoiding dealing with her sexuality in a frank way. In the last episode of the season, Peter asks about Christie, but it's only inference that allows us to assume that this is Diana's girlfriend. The writers weren't denying Diana's lesbianism, but I felt like they were leaving some room for plausible deniability.
Then comes season two. Christie is openly referred to as Diana's girlfriend, and in "Need to Know" Diana and Neal cheerfully acknowledge that she's not attracted to him at all. But still I had complaints. I'm very picky, understand. While Diana did have a girlfriend, we never saw her. I felt like Diana had shades of what I call "gay in name only," which is what I call it when a character is referred to as gay, but we never see anything on screen that supports that. (Except maybe some tired stereotypes.)
Enter season three. Not only did we meet Christie, we got to see her and Diana be adorable and domestic together. They kissed on screen! And even better than that, in "Pulling Strings," Diana announces her engagement. In a move that surprised me, the characters explicitly mention that gay marriage is now legal in New York. In the rare event that a TV show actually has a gay character, they're usually, in my experience, completely apolitcal. There are a few likely reasons for this, but it's always grated on me. Granted, they are some completely apolitcal queer folks in the real world, but as far as I can tell it's not that common. When your neighbors are voting on your right to get married, and your legislators discussing whether or not you can be fired for your sexual orientation, you tend to pay attention. The White Collar character discuss gay marriage in New York casually, like real people would.
Now if we could just get some more Christie in season 4.
The one hiccup the writers run into when writing Diana is their tendency to send her into ridiculous undercover situations. She's been a model, a prostitute, a secretary, and a trophy mistress. When viewed in list like this it comes as degrading and titillating. (There's nothing degrading about being a secretary, of course, but it's not a position with any power and Diana spends the episode at the beck and call of a capricious and demanding boss. In other words, it's another undercover position that denies Diana power and respect.*) Where any other show presenting me with this list, I'd probably throw my remote down in disgust. What saves White Collar from this fate is two things. One is Diana's professionalism and poise. She takes her job seriously at all times, therefore there's less for us to laugh or gawk at. And two, of course, is Marsha Thomason's acting, which allows Diana that professionalism and dignity.
But seriously, couldn't she go undercover as a mob boss or an ex-marine?
Sara Ellis
Sara is proof that the White Collar writers aren't afraid to give us aggressive women. Sara is ambitious, blunt, and fierce. It's refreshing that the writers created a woman character with those traits and then made her a protagonist. Because there are ambitious, aggressive women on TV, but they're usually "the bitch," and the White Collar writers don't present Sara that way. (Fandom, on the other hand... But this is about canon.) Sara's sharp edges are part of her character, and they never go away, but she's three dimensional, and also capable of kindness and warmth. You know, just like a real person.
After the end of season two, I was worried that Sara would be relegated to "the love interest." That is, she would show up every few episodes for a scene or two just to remind us that Neal had a girlfriend. This, obviously, did not happen. And then after the mid season finale, I was worried that no longer being Neal's girlfriend would lead to Sara fading away from the show. Also did not happen. My new wish is to see lots of Sara in season four. Will it happen?
From here on we'll be getting into minor characters, so it may be a bit more difficult to discuss their inner workings, if only because we don't see as much of them. But they're still great characters, and they deserve the spotlight.
Alex Hunter
Alex is a woman who knows what she wants. I've always liked that while she cares about Neal (and might even love him) and is willing to help the FBI if it furthers her own ends, at the end of the day Alex's main concern is Alex. She's not purely selfish by any means, but she plays her cards close to her vest, and she's always aware of her own interests. Like Sara, it's rare for a women character who behaves this way to be presented positively. We missed her in season three, here's hoping she'll be back for season four.
June Ellington.
So, during "Judgment Day" was anyone going "Yes! Last name for June!"?
June is not only an awesome woman, she's an awesome older woman, who has lost none of her cunning or intelligence. She doesn't get a lot of screen time, but when she does it's a treat. More June!
Lauren Cruz
We only had Cruz in season one, while Marsha Thomason's schedule was in conflict, and season one was before we really delved into the emotional complexities of characters beyond the leads. But she was competent and intelligent, and it was nice to see the writers cast another women of color after Thomason temporarily fell through.
Kate Moreau
There's a reason I saved Kate for last. Because the rule book on how not to write a woman character, which the writers so neatly avoided with all the women above, yeah, somehow when they're were writing Kate that book slipped in. It's hard to describe Kate's character since we were given so little to work with. The women above have lives and goals of their own, but Kate was never much more than a walking macguffin. She was important only in how she related to Neal. And in the end, she was fridged, ie, she was killed off to provide angst and character development for a male character.
I like Kate. Admittedly, this probably has a lot to do with the automatic affection and protectiveness I feel for any female character who's been screwed over by the narrative. And I don't think her character's a total wash. We did get to see some of her personality in "Forging Bonds." But all in all, the way Kate was written was a disappointment, especially considering the strength of the writing for other women characters.
But at least I found a cool picture for her.
Now I want to get into some gendered tropes and the way White Collar deals with them.
The Damsel in Distress
Right after the mid-season finale, there was some grumbling that Elizabeth had been turned into a damsel in distress. I withheld judgment. After all, at that point, all we knew was that Elizabeth had been kidnapped. Considering that Peter and Neal had both been kidnapped previously, I wasn't going to declare that simply being abducted made Elizabeth weak or helpless. For me, it was all resting on what happened in "Checkmate." I wanted desperately for Elizabeth to rescue herself, or at least help, but I couldn't feel optimistic. TV has burned me so many times. And then, of course, the episode actually aired, and Elizabeth did work to save herself. She was clever, resourceful, and brave.
More often that not, White Collar subverts to damsel in distress role. I've described what happened to Elizabeth above, but there's also Diana and Sara. In "Need to Know" Diana is alone with a bad guy who intends to hurt her very badly. She shoots him. (After giving him a warning.) When Peter bursts in, we get this exchange:
Diana: Aw, you were worried.
Peter: Well, not about you. I was worried about what you would do to him.
And in "Pulling Strings" Sara is taken hostage. Now, Sara is fine with you taking her hostage. That means you're nice and close, making it all the easier for her to beat the shit out of you. Which she proceeds to do.
Now I really want an episode in which Diana and Sara team up. Or fic. Just give me something. They will be armed and fabulous!
Of course, then there's Kate. It's hard to say just how much Kate filled the damsel in distress role, because we know so little about her motivations and plans. Was she fully Adler's pawn? Was she a partner who got double crossed? We can't know, but I put her in the damsel is distress way in the end, because being murdered definitely counts as in distress. And once again, we'll never know how much (or how little) agency Kate ever had over her fate.
Sex
White Collar is not a particularly sexual show. Yes, the characters have sex occasionally. There will be brief references, and on a handful of occasions we'll see a couple in bed together. But it's hardly excessive.
What sex there is is positively portrayed. You won't find any slut shaming on White Collar. The show is equally positive when showing sexuality in a long term relationship (Elizabeth and Peter), a one night stand (Alex and Neal), and a casual relationship (Neal and Sara).
Performing Gender
Here I'm going to deviate briefly, and mention the men of White Collar, as I need to in order to give a complete picture.
White Collar isn't majorly subversive when it comes to gender. And it's certainly not subversive visually. (Diana and Christie are lesbians, sure, but neither of them is butch.) But when it comes to how characters perform gender, there's a bit more subtlety. Neal does not perform masculinity in a traditional way. He's style conscious and cares deeply about aesthetics and refinement. His main survival skills are charm and emotional manipulation, which are traditionally feminine weapons. (This is why I like to see him team up with Sara, who likes to beat people with her baton.)
Peter is more traditionally masculine. He's a guy's guy who likes beer and sports. However, he's not macho. Nothing about him is an act. He's not unwilling to show emotions or be kind. And he doesn't push masculinity on others. He'll tell Neal he looks like a cartoon, but never that he's not acting manly enough.
Indeed, Neal is never demeaned for his behavior or dress sense. Imagine how many gay/girly jokes might be aimed at him another show. But femininity isn't portrayed as negative on White Collar. Elizabeth, Diana, and Sara are all feminine looking, and they're all portrayed as intelligent, complex, and powerful. Neither are they censured when they stray from traditional femininity. Diana can like guns, and Sara can be ambitious and aggressive without ever being portrayed negatively.
While there's room for improvement, and there are a few things I'd like to see, as a feminist, I find White Collar to be one of the most satisfying shows on TV.
*Indeed one could argue on whether or not being a model or a prostitute should be described as degrading. But again see my explanation that what bothers me is the lack of power and control these roles give her, as well as the sexualization aspects.
This entry was originally posted at http://veleda-k.dreamwidth.org/275178.html. Please consider commenting there.