The Walking Dead

So I started watching The Walking Dead today. Holy shit is it good. I've been meaning to watch it since the beginning of the holidays but you know, procrastination. I have a whole list of shows I was supposed to be test driving so I watched the beginning of Parks and Rec as well today, the first 3 episodes. I like the lead actor in that so that's why, I can't spell her last name, Amy P. But the humour isn't exactly mine so we'll see.

But the walking dead, zombie apocalypse is my favourite, so it's good. You-know-who and I were talking about it a few weeks ago so I know the general plot line but it is really really good. I can't not watch without my feminist goggles but even so.

Like, it's the kind of female representation that is pretty common, it's very normal. It's like the 5 man band trope, one of the 5 is a woman, the rest are by default men. So you get the leader, the hunter, the black one, the funny one, and the chick. I think those are the five. Everything I say is also applicable to racism and black people, at least in American media, which is basically the default as well. So the woman is competent and might not even serve any romantic plot but the ratio of 4 or 5 to one is pretty legit in most tv or movies. Think Avengers. It gives girls someone to relate to and like, like being the pink power ranger. Though I think there were actually two girl power rangers? Idk, I didn't like power rangers. When the ratio gets out of whack, with god forbid, even an even number of male/female, people look at it weirdly. I do. Only exception is generally chick flicks, but the name shows it right there, if there is an even number of women in a plot, or more women, though its almost never you get no undeveloped men, it's classified a girl movie. But movies with a majority of males is just a movie.

So yeah, this show isn't stepping much outside the box in that way. I know the names of about 5 men and one chick, who is the wife and mother of the protagonist and son. While two women were out on the mission with let me think, 5 dudes, they were background mostly, and had barely a stand out moment.

However I'm not dissing TWD totally. I can't remember the name of the test, but it passes or fails movies based on if a female character has a conversation with another that is not about a guy. Like, if they are rival romantic interests of the main dude bro, them talking about it doesn't count. And there has been that. I'm on episode 4, and it's happened, let's see.... twice. And I'm pleased with that, how gross is that? In about 3 and a half hours of footage, about 2 minutes of it was dedicated to a female relationship. One between sisters and one between all the women as they washed clothes by the lake.

The scene was positive in that one of them actually spoke up about the division of labour, then they talked about things they missed, like their washing machine, coffee maker, car, then one said vibrator and they all oohed and laughed, then another older one agreed and they started cacking themselves, good naturedly, like that was a organic scene.

Then an utter asshole white male douchebag comes over, tells them to stop laughing and get back to work, they all quiet, the college educated one (basically me, except prettier and blonder) was like, if you want it done, do it yourself. She's dead now.

He threatened her, then told his wife to follow him, they were going back to camp. Then women were like 'she doesn't have to go', and tried to pull her back because he was abusive and shit, they were all yelling and he hit her and she fell back, and then the other main leader dudebro came and beat the shit out of him.

And of course the wife ran to him and tended to him once he finished punching the crap out of him.

But it was a powerful scene and I really like the walking dead so I'm going to keep watching.

Because the thing is, this kind of representation is normal. I write apocalypse stories like this, worse. I mean, as far as male/female representation goes. I read a lot of dytopias with really fucked up gender dynamics.

See, the thing is, I don't mind reading about fucked up gender dynamics, I love it. It hits on lots of the right things for me. I just need it to be done in a way that is showing the evils of it, not being like 'fuckin' right, put women in their place, this is how society should be'.

So the Handmaid's Tale, or The Postman, or any other one, they're great. The Walking Dead has been good so far dealing with redneck, south US state white assholes and racism. Now they're doing sexism so let's see.

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So I finished the 2nd season, I feel slightly disappointed. It wasn't as good as the first season and I had a lot more problems with it.

It's a very guy oriented show. It is sexist. It does make caricatures of women and uses them as tools to guide the male narrative.

http://opinionessoftheworld.com/2012/04/10/the-walking-dead-and-gender/

This is an article that sums it up brilliantly. This is a great quote.

“[The Walking Dead goes out of its] way to demonstrate that those women had to first be saved by a righteous man. In order for women to become competent and determined, a man had to first stand up and make a space for them. Until a man appeared as savior, the women were doomed to be physically overpowered and sexually exploited.”

My favourite female character is called Andrea. She was a successful civil rights laywer before the zombie apocalypse and is the only female who becomes 'one of the guys' when it comes to carrying a gun and shooting proficiently, guarding the perimeter and providing protection.

She is the only 'strong female character'. I am not the type of feminist that believes that women need to be more like men to be valuable, or that devalues traditional women's roles, but it is very hard to like characters that are used purely as props to male characters, and Andrea defies that better than most.

The other main female character (who dies next season, thank God), is the wife of the protagonist Rick. He was believed dead at the beginning of the apocalypse and Lori and her son were saved by his best friend and partner Shane. Shane falls in love with Lori and in her grief they become lovers.

When Rick finds then, she immediately goes back to him, and basically, in not much kinder words, tells him to fuck off, stay away from her and her son.

While I wouldn't have blamed her for going back to her husband, she dealt with the love triangle business badly and I didn't like her for her treatment of Shane, who was my first favourite character.

I don't generally like the main hero, when it's a guy. It's not that it's a guy, but the hero trope pisses me off. It really made no sense that Rick took over from Shane as leader of the group and when everyone just started to listen to him and do everything he said, it was weird and I was like, why are they following him? They blame it on charisma but it's really not there. And you know when shows decide that the 'hero' is always morally right and in-show, it's always the other characters that get shamed and the hero is always in the right and everyone worships the ground they walk on, even though I'm watching in the audience like 'what the fuck'. Same with Finn in Glee and Clark in Smallville. It's why I'm always drawn to the anti heroes who generally have a point.

I still can't believe that my favourite character is a racist redneck but he actually is the best at not taking agency away from the female characters. And for all his faults, he actually developed best of everyone. He still lashes out and has a long way to go, but he and Carol, a domestic abuse survivor who also lost her daughter in season 2, have a semi-good relationship and occasionally bring out the best in each other.

Season 3 is possibly the best yet... I still have a lot of problems with gender, race and representation but there were some improvements. Daryl (everyone's favourite redneck) is even more brilliant than ever. He and Carol are awesome, if they got together it'd defy a lot of stereotypes but I think it could be amazing. But I ship them just as bros as well.

Carl, the kid, annoys the crap out of me. Just in general, 'daddy's gone, you're the man of the house now' cliches piss me off, but in a zombie apocolypse, when there are adults around, EVEN IF THOSE ADULTS ARE WOMEN AND CRIPPLED MEN, why is this THIRTEEN YEAR OLD CHILD MAKING THE DECISIONS. It's fucking weird.

Andrea has gone much downhill, siding with her evil new lover who everyone knows is evil except her, despite quite a lot of evidence, she is still sticking with him and it's frigging annoying. He has taken away a lot of her agency and she's lost a lot of her opinions and has become a less rolemodel-y character.

Michonne on the other hand, her badass, Amazon warrior look a like saviour, is intense, says very little, cares for children and does the right things, has great instincts and a terrible past.... SOUNDS LIKE A NEW FAVOURITE CHARACTER ALERT. I like her muchly.

No more episodes until February now but I do like the walking dead, it's a great show, it's a treat to get to see a zombie apocalypse in TV show format, which is of course my favourite format, even beating out books (blasphemy!!).