Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not like the show’s filled with deeply complex male characters, but the women… my God.We’ve got Jenny, the unknowing widow, who can’t seem to stop having completely regrettable sex.
And then there’s Huey’s widow, whose name I frankly don’t care to look up. Her mob boss husband just got wacked and she’s leaning hard on a young man she barely knows, but inexplicably trusts. You know who would never fall for Tommy’s shit (even with those abs)? Carmella Soprano.
And Mama Donnelly? Bitch is crazy, y’all. She thinks its ArtGirl’s fault that Sean got his face smashed open. It’s a good thing her sons aren’t man enough to tell her that it’s Kevin’s gambling debts that lost Pretty Boy the first part of his title.
My favorite part of this week’s episode was when Sampson taught us how to treat a lady: bed her and then inform her former (and I thought secret, but apparently not) lover. You know, just so everyone’s on the same page.
Why are all the major female characters widows? How did Louie's cell phone keep its charge for so long? Why am I still watching this show?
4 comments:
Why are you still writing about it? That's the real question.
-Ed
"I broke my vows this week. And i did it again last night, with someone else... What's worse, I did it to hurt the person I'm really in love with -- who was the first guy."
I'm glad that, since this show's ultimate goal seems to be to eventually act as an almanac for all possible cliches, entombing them for all time, so that future writers can just check out it's 8 episodes for reference, that they were able to stick this one in. The "I slept with another guy to piss off the guy I'm really in love with who also loves me" number because it, in particular really pisses me off.
Now, I'm a big fan of women, in general and in specificity. I have known incredibly beautiful, incredicly talented, incredibly savy, and incredibly intelligent women and in none of these women were these character traits mutually exclusive. I have also known some of the most worthless pieces of trash whose sole purpose on earth seems the retardation of their entire genders progress away from stereotype.
But I have never seen, nor even heard of any women actually behaving this way. The ONLY place I ever see this occur is on TV or in movies. Maybe it's my gender blindness at work here, so I'm asking: Do any women actually act this way? It seems far to illogical and loathing.
The whole "sleeping with the wrong guy as a way of getting back at the other one" strikes me as the kind of compoundedly mysoginistic plot device that could only be written by the most gender tone deaf of male writers: It first belies the (percieved) reality that women are only viewed and valued as sexual objects. Then, second, posits that the only way women express themselves (especially the only way that matters to men) is through their sexuality -- they, evil as they are, exploit not only other men's obsesssion with their sexuality, but, in the pinnacle of self loathing behavior -- themselves as a way to punish third parties. And third, that this is somehow the territory of not only the men involved but any man that they know. Women, far more so than men, are responsible for their sexual choices and it's completely appropriate for any man to degrade or deride them for it (see Jimmy's reduction of Jenny to a trap opening her legs for anyone).
So we get another show promoting the view that once again, and for all time: A woman's most valuable feature/assest, as far as her social place is concerned, is not just her sexuality but how scare she has made it's experience. So the more men that have tread on this territory the less valuable it becomes. And, also, that women have all completely accepted the veracity of bold faced double standard and use each end of it, both to inflict emotional damage on someone (by sleeping with someone else) and feel bad for the loss or status and value they've cost themselves and their true love (by apologizing).
the audience is supposed to believe that after Tommy's actions have repeatedly placed her in harm's way and he has emotionally put her in a particularly difficult position that 1. her character's action would be to jump into bed with a extremely recent suitor she barely knows, 2. Then immediatly feel remorse and reject that suitor, and 3. Be really sad and apologize to Tommy for all the wrong and emotional damage she's done to him.
"Did you sleep with him?" (presumably he forgot to add... married woman who has also slept with me)
"Yes"
Then later...
"What I did was mean..."
And there you have it. This female character accepts all of the mysoginist standards we've discussed above, and the show is sincere in it's belieft that she really was choosing to be mean and vindictive to Tommy by sleeping with Sampson -- and that this is the way that women operate. Moreover that while men's sexuality is conquest based/non existent, a component of women's the public perception...
It's all over the episode: Kim wants to know if Tommy, et al. think she's a slut. Mulgrew implies that the Kim's communicating through her sexuality (a wink, a wave with the boys) -- as the episode has established is the only meaningful way women communicate with men -- is what got Shaun beat up. And Kim, also understanding the arrangement here, seeks out to clear her good name because the worst thing she can be thought of in this universe is someone of little sexual value, obstensibly because this sexual information about her is the property of all men everywhere, all of whom, SHOULD be interested.
In reality Olivia Wilde (who I hope winds up on something much better) would have told Tommy that aside from not being any of his business, not everything she does is meant as a direct or veiled communication with him and not every romantic/sexual encounter she's had in her life time she must be made accountable for, nor has bearing on their relationship. So, he can either choose to move forward with her, based on what's between them, or fixate on this slight to his sexual territory -- but if he does that, it will, most certainly be HIS problem.
Instead, and because this whole thing, the characters, and all their actions, are based on this mysoginistic concept of sexual politics Jenny slept with a guy to be mean to Tommy, felt bad about it, because she should feel bad about it, apologized to Tommy, who completely brushes her and her alleged soul baring off, telling her is she's got some stuff to work out to just go do it. It's completely her problem, she's devalued herself and damage what's between them, not by pushing him away, or not being ready to accept gravity of their position (him in deep with organized crime, her married, yet probably a widow) but by being penetrated by another man. We've complete returned to the garden and femininity is the real snake and the real apple.
So this is the morality the show is fundamentally espousing here:
Boys, women's only value is their sexuality and they will use it to break your heart because they are calculating, mean creatures and, whew, we'll never understand them.
Girls, you vagina is your most valuable posssession and sexality is the accepted and agreed upon way to communicate and punish men, because they really do care more about it than you. However, becarful who you sleep with because your only value in men's eyes is your sexual scarcity.
All men everywhere are obsessed with the sexuality of all women. But, instead of denying this obession as being all the things that it is: inappropriate, hypocritical, gross, creepy, unfair. Women accept it and use their understanding of it to punish men by exploiting or giving away the thing they know men care most about. But! Hey, the joke is really on women because, after the men get over being hurt they (and all their friends/brothers) will simply deride you/blow you off as a whore opening your legs for anyone, and then they'll just move on to someone whose sexuality holds more value. It's a great and equal world we live in! Thanks Paul Haggis!
And on a side note, can we please have Studio 60 back now? This thing's ratings, after 4 shows are already well below the worst ratings Studio 60 ever turned in. Studio 60 was flawed but in interesting ways -- it was odds and interesting to see what about that show worked and what didn't, and it was atleast something different on television. This is flawed, but in stupid and cliched ways that tend to propogate misguided beliefs about human nature.
Wait. So my lady bits aren't my most important assets? Now I'm just confused.
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