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Alright, so, I had to write a paper for my English Composition 102 class about an ideology shared by a community that I am part of that I would like to see change. I chose the Criminal Minds fandom as my community, and the way that female characters are viewed as my topic. I sent out a request for people on livejournal and tumblr to let me know ( Read more... )
I started out liking Elle but wound up being glad she left and Prentiss joined not because she was like the guys but because she was ineffectual in the episode set on the train -- I forget the title -- and went over the line in her response to the rapist later on. (Admittedly, the team let her down when she was attacked, but if I remember correctly, she also pushed them away.) I lost respect for her as an agent because she saw things linearly instead of with complications and was strategically inept.
I was fine with Prentiss once it was clear that while Mommy's influence might have gotten her the job, she had the chops to do it -- basically, after the episode with her, Reid, and Gideon at Guantanamo. I like badass Prentiss and don't need to see her "softened," although seeing her out shopping with JJ and Garcia was a nice look at a more personal, fun-loving side of her.
As for JJ: she was more just there and blah for me until around "Jones" or so mostly because she's more stereotypically girly and feminine looking. As media liaison, she's not really a field agent. What's most memorable to me is her apology to Reid for not backing him up adequately when he was captured by Tobias Hankel when she wasn't really at fault and her advocacy for the sensibility of victims' families. I love it when she disagrees with Hotch over that and would have liked to see her win more of those arguments. Those disagreements could have be part of the reason she's interpreted as being more nurturing vs. Hotch's "catching the killer quickly is more important" attitude. Personally, I dislike Hotch as a character -- he's way too tightly wound and serious -- but I understand why a character like him is on the show. The other guys, with the exception of Reid, who's written as sort of in between -- he's effective and badass without being particularly macho, and when he gets in trouble, it's for using persuasion instead of a gun -- don't really do that much for me. I watch for the women and Reid and the way the team performs as a group.
I haven't watched this season due to JJ's departure and cutbacks in Emily's episodes, but if the producers didn't want Seaver to be the anti-JJ, they shouldn't have cast someone who at first glance looks so much like JJ. It doesn't matter how different the characters are; seeing someone who looks so much like JJ just keeps reminding viewers of JJ's absence. And her backstory -- daughter of a serial killer assigned to the BAU as an intern? -- screams plot device.
I'm female, but I'm also 54 and a lawyer by training.
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Elle was suffering from severe PTSD. Hotch sent her into a situation that was reenacting her trauma - sending her in to a house to wait for someone to come in and violate her. They didn't have her back when she needed it, and it was callous on the part of everyone involved to ask her to do this. Her reaction, while not the thing that she should have done, was understandable given her circumstances and the fact that no one understood the severity of her trauma. She pushed the team away because she was in a constant state of panic, and the one time she did let someone in - Reid, in "Aftermath" - it got thrown in her face because of just how much he did not get it.
I'm not getting into your complaint about JJ and Seaver looking alike again, because we've debated this point several times and nothing ever comes of it.
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I acknowledged that the team let Elle down. Just because she has PTSD doesn't, IMO, give her a pass on this score. It sounds a bit like saying she should be given a break or held to a lower standard, instead of the usual higher one, because she's female. I'd be as critical of any of the other characters for taking the law into their own hands.
Sorry, I didn't realize you were the same person I had the discussion with before about Seaver and JJ's appearance, but that's not the only objection I expressed to the inclusion of her character. Considering that most of my comment supported the view of the female characters you advocate, why the hostile tone?
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