The harms of social gender norms
In the Internet age TV, fans are more connected than ever with the ability to widely discuss their opinions. Online fandom forums have also revealed the hatred that exists for particular fictional characters. Female characters especially have become targets for fan hatred.
An article on the popular website, Buzzfeed, acknowledged this trend by listing 16 female T.V. characters who were cyber bullied in 2013. The list included Andrea from the Walking Dead, Skyler White of Breaking Bad, Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones, and Betty Francis and Megan Draper of Mad Men. These are all characters on hit TV, shows with lead male protagonists.
There are some justifiable reasons for fans to dislike certain characters. For instance some characters are just poorly written and acted. However, hatred of complex and realistic female characters is a result of socially accepted misconceptions about gender. These concepts assign roles and qualities based on rigid binary definitions of gender. In reality, gender is much more fluid and does not define an individual’s characteristics.
Anna Gunn, the actress behind the role of Skyler White on Breaking Bad, recently wrote an op-ed in the New York Times about the negative response that her character provoked. The actress even feared for her safety after receiving death threats. Gunn discusses how gender stereotypes were largely responsible for this hatred. “Skyler didn’t conform to a comfortable ideal of the archetypal female,” wrote Gunn. “She had become a kind of Rorschach test for society, a measure of our attitudes toward gender.”
Reasons cited for disliking some female characters include that they are promiscuous or too comfortable with their sexuality. This is a result of social narratives about female morality and chastity. Characters are also disliked if they are seen as “too feminine” or weak, especially in action shows. Furthermore female characters can be seen as “nagging killjoys” that the audience finds irritating because the male protagonist finds them irritating.
By contrast, male characters do not face the same criticism. Audiences are much more willing to accept the complexities and faults of male characters than female ones. Some of television’s most popular male protagonists are also the most flawed. Prime examples include Hank Moody of Californication, Ari Gold from Entourage, and Mad Men’s Don Draper.
An article in the Atlantic by Maria Kannikova examines this phenomenon. It details how research by social psychologists has shown that women are perceived and evaluated on different criteria than men. Particular traits are considered more important in males than females, and vice versa. Assertiveness is consistently seen as a more important quality in males, while niceness is more important for women.
It is apparent in how fans react to female TV characters that misconceptions about gender are still widely accepted. These norms prevent people from appreciating fictional female characters with the depth and complexity awarded to male characters. This is problematic, as it prevents females from being equally represented in media. It is especially harmful when these views are applied to real women in the real world.