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kaberettTwo words: compulsory heterosexuality.
As so often with fannish wossnames, I haverandomling to thank for pushing me to this realisation/articulation. Spoilers for S1 follow.
As of 1996, 15% of the NYPD were women, up to 32% as of 2010. The FBI is 19.1% women as of 2012.
We meet four female members of law enforcement authorities with speaking roles.
... and the unnamed FEMA Official is the only one who doesn't have any sexual tension/history with a (male, obviously) protag. Two things:
(1) I bet the statistical analysis on the number of women with speaking roles versus the number of men with speaking roles within law enforcement agencies would... not be fantastic, even compared to reality. Has anyone done that? If so, links pls! <3
(2) They. are all. corrupt. Every single one of the women in law enforcement with a speaking role? Is corrupt. Every. Single. One. And as far as I can tell, it's not even precisely, directly, because of sexism - instead, it's down to compulsory heterosexuality, and the idea that we can't have disagreement or tension between our (male...) protags and anyone else - that people can't have vendettas - if sex hasn't been involved. Ergo, they're all women. UGH.
I want to note that we haven't yet had sexual tension involving Joan Watson interact with her work as a detective in ways that involve workplace issues. I further note that there is a running theme of Everyone's Ex Is Douches. But why the fuck do they all have to be exes? And why, given that they are exes, is EVERYONE HETEROSEXUAL? It's not like this show is shit at lgbT stuff - there's a trans woman played by a trans woman, for crying out loud, whose plot relevance is not that she is trans, which a is a damn' sight more competent than any other TV I have ever come across[1] - but still. Still.
All the women are corrupt, and best I can make out? In the vast majority of cases, it's because of unthinking compulsory heterosexuality. Ugh.
[1] A:tLA is not explicitly stated in canon and in any case is an anime-ish-thing, so obviously that's not providing work for trans actors, plus I'm really unhappy with Sokka's misgendering of Smellerbee in the bridging comics...
As so often with fannish wossnames, I have
randomling to thank for pushing me to this realisation/articulation. Spoilers for S1 follow.As of 1996, 15% of the NYPD were women, up to 32% as of 2010. The FBI is 19.1% women as of 2012.
We meet four female members of law enforcement authorities with speaking roles.
- Episode 7, Terry D'Amico (NYPD). Planted evidence at a crime scene in the show's history, while a professional partner to now-Captain Toby Gregson.
- Episode 14, Kathryn Drummond (FBI). Pays people to act as sources for lies she includes in a book. She & Sherlock slept together - repeatedly - while working on a case in London; things turned antagonistic when she wrote an article profiling him.
- Episode 16, Paula Reyes (NYPD). Plants evidence, and years later, on discovering the whistleblower was her ex-boyfriend Marcus Bell, tries to frame him for murder - not once, but twice.
- Episode 19, "FEMA Official". Assists in a $30 million heist, and tries to break a criminal out of the police station.
... and the unnamed FEMA Official is the only one who doesn't have any sexual tension/history with a (male, obviously) protag. Two things:
(1) I bet the statistical analysis on the number of women with speaking roles versus the number of men with speaking roles within law enforcement agencies would... not be fantastic, even compared to reality. Has anyone done that? If so, links pls! <3
(2) They. are all. corrupt. Every single one of the women in law enforcement with a speaking role? Is corrupt. Every. Single. One. And as far as I can tell, it's not even precisely, directly, because of sexism - instead, it's down to compulsory heterosexuality, and the idea that we can't have disagreement or tension between our (male...) protags and anyone else - that people can't have vendettas - if sex hasn't been involved. Ergo, they're all women. UGH.
I want to note that we haven't yet had sexual tension involving Joan Watson interact with her work as a detective in ways that involve workplace issues. I further note that there is a running theme of Everyone's Ex Is Douches. But why the fuck do they all have to be exes? And why, given that they are exes, is EVERYONE HETEROSEXUAL? It's not like this show is shit at lgbT stuff - there's a trans woman played by a trans woman, for crying out loud, whose plot relevance is not that she is trans, which a is a damn' sight more competent than any other TV I have ever come across[1] - but still. Still.
All the women are corrupt, and best I can make out? In the vast majority of cases, it's because of unthinking compulsory heterosexuality. Ugh.
[1] A:tLA is not explicitly stated in canon and in any case is an anime-ish-thing, so obviously that's not providing work for trans actors, plus I'm really unhappy with Sokka's misgendering of Smellerbee in the bridging comics...
(no subject)
Date: 2013-07-05 12:57 am (UTC)but i think i will put it somewhere else with a nice cut and some warnings
because (a) unpopular opinion and (b) brain weasels
(and (c) then i will be able to find it again when i change my mind in a few months)
that will maybe take a while but i wish to inform you in advance that you are making me think and you're not changing my mind [yet] but i like thinking.
also this is a very open ended thing but: a:tla, tell me more. assume that i saw a few episodes of tv show many years ago and remember basically nothing. tell me more about this character, yes, but also tell me about it in general so that i might ........ idk, i might pursue, you never know, words.
(i don't watch elementary because ... i don't really know. something about it is very aesthetically unpleasing to me, but i don't know what. but it makes me feel ungood, looking at it. and i know that sounds weird. but i don't watch it and probably never will, i am saying, and i still, stats, yes please.)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-07-06 10:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-07-06 11:16 am (UTC)But I think our major recurring characters are:
Sherlock
Bell
Gregson
some of Watson's friends
Watson's brother
and:
Watson
Watson's therapist??
Mrs Hudson
Watson's friends, with the women actually being more important
Watson's mom
Watson's friend-at-the-hospital
... so I think actually we're doing fairly well -- this did occur to me too, but actually most of the men we see as one-offs are also victims or perps!