Hey I'm here via the post in the misfits comm. I know you said that you had read other meta after writing this, but I thought I'd post links in case anyone reading this post hadn't seen these yet.
kohler's Representations of Race and Gender in Misfits on E4 --> http://kohler.livejournal.com/466611.html
da_phoenix13's Misfits paper: Femininity and Female Disempowerment in Misfits --> http://da-phoenix13.livejournal.com/69859.html#cutid1
My Alisha-centric meta: "Feel free to check out my tits, yeah?" --> http://goddess09807.livejournal.com/20815.html#cutid1
You are right, Misfits treatment of it's female characters has been problematic at best. And there have been several times when watching it that I've had to turn off my inner feminist otherwise I'd just scream in rage. However, I don't agree with some of the points you've made here.
First, how are you defining proactive? Because Nathan's power is incredibly passive at this point. He is immortal and can see dead people. These are not actions that he takes but rather just things that are.
Secondly, I would say that Kelly's control of her power is either on par with Simon's at this point or she's a close second to him in terms of control. Other than Simon (and Alisha's brief exploration in episode 1x03) she is the only other character to use her power at will. She still can't block the occasional errant thought but she can read people's mind at will now. She is also the only character to have been called a superhero in the show. Of course this was jokingly in the Nathan steals a baby episode, but still. Her power has also been one of the ones most consistently used to further the plot and story-lines.
I'm confused by you defining Nikki's power as "unable to be used proactively." She definitely has very little control over it but it is very proactive. One, it is triggered every time she thinks extensively about a person. First with Ollie, her donor, then twice more with Curtis. She's already shown more mastery over it compared to Ollie who could teleport at will but only a few feet if that. She can travel large distances and her power is not location specific.
I absolutely agree with you that Alisha's power is abusive towards her, and all of the links I've supplied above get into that.
I don't think you're giving the recurring female characters their due.
Lucy exerts incredible control over her characters, actually the most we've seen out of any characters thus far. Able to transform at will and multiple times in a short amount of time. And as was noted in the main comm, her transformation looks just as painful as Simon's.
It is never clarified why Lily has her power so your speculation that it is due to her intimacy issues is just that, speculation. She causes the explosion due to a combination of two factors. The drugs reversing her power and the already demonstrated fact that she has no control over her powers.
And you left out Jessica, who is actually one of the better drawn female characters when not viewing her through shipping lenses. Jessica tells Nathan to piss of when she catches him leering at her in the locker-room. When she's flirting with the random red-shirt in the community center and he pushes it further than she is comfortable she makes her displeasure known and removes herself from the situation, causing him to call her a prick tease. She initiates all of the physical contact between her and Simon. And when she tells him she is a virgin, she thinks he might "think she's a freak" but she doesn't apologize for her sexual choices or seem ashamed of them And after the sex act with Simon she seems content and happy with the choices she's made. Her father's storyline IS in credibly misogynistic but Jessica herself is refreshingly proactive especially given that she is a shy personality.
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momijizukamori
Part 1
Date: 2010-12-16 03:13 am (UTC)My Alisha-centric meta: "Feel free to check out my tits, yeah?" --> http://goddess09807.livejournal.com/20815.html#cutid1
You are right, Misfits treatment of it's female characters has been problematic at best. And there have been several times when watching it that I've had to turn off my inner feminist otherwise I'd just scream in rage. However, I don't agree with some of the points you've made here.
First, how are you defining proactive? Because Nathan's power is incredibly passive at this point. He is immortal and can see dead people. These are not actions that he takes but rather just things that are.
Secondly, I would say that Kelly's control of her power is either on par with Simon's at this point or she's a close second to him in terms of control. Other than Simon (and Alisha's brief exploration in episode 1x03) she is the only other character to use her power at will. She still can't block the occasional errant thought but she can read people's mind at will now. She is also the only character to have been called a superhero in the show. Of course this was jokingly in the Nathan steals a baby episode, but still. Her power has also been one of the ones most consistently used to further the plot and story-lines.
I'm confused by you defining Nikki's power as "unable to be used proactively." She definitely has very little control over it but it is very proactive. One, it is triggered every time she thinks extensively about a person. First with Ollie, her donor, then twice more with Curtis. She's already shown more mastery over it compared to Ollie who could teleport at will but only a few feet if that. She can travel large distances and her power is not location specific.
I absolutely agree with you that Alisha's power is abusive towards her, and all of the links I've supplied above get into that.
I don't think you're giving the recurring female characters their due.
Sally wasn't a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. What happened to her was beyond fucked up, I'm not going to argue that. But she was actively investigating and manipulating in order to find the truth about her fiancée's disappearance/murder. Hers is not a passive storyline. And even in the scenes leading to her death puts up quite a fight.
Lucy exerts incredible control over her characters, actually the most we've seen out of any characters thus far. Able to transform at will and multiple times in a short amount of time. And as was noted in the main comm, her transformation looks just as painful as Simon's.
It is never clarified why Lily has her power so your speculation that it is due to her intimacy issues is just that, speculation. She causes the explosion due to a combination of two factors. The drugs reversing her power and the already demonstrated fact that she has no control over her powers.
And you left out Jessica, who is actually one of the better drawn female characters when not viewing her through shipping lenses. Jessica tells Nathan to piss of when she catches him leering at her in the locker-room. When she's flirting with the random red-shirt in the community center and he pushes it further than she is comfortable she makes her displeasure known and removes herself from the situation, causing him to call her a prick tease. She initiates all of the physical contact between her and Simon. And when she tells him she is a virgin, she thinks he might "think she's a freak" but she doesn't apologize for her sexual choices or seem ashamed of them And after the sex act with Simon she seems content and happy with the choices she's made. Her father's storyline IS in credibly misogynistic but Jessica herself is refreshingly proactive especially given that she is a shy personality.