Kooky activist types
I can’t quantify this or anything, but an awful lot of female characters on TV and in movies these days, particularly ones who would be classified as “romantic interests,” have as a defining personality characteristic the fact that they are “activisty.” They care about social issues, they have done something involving a nonprofit in the past, they’re maybe vegetarians or into animal rights or something. This is a sign that they are Good People, better than the male characters, but also Uptight, where the male characters’ fallen natures allow them to have fun. The activisty aspect thus becomes something to lose or overcome, or come to terms with, while at the same time being part of the package that redeems the male character.
Why is this so popular? Laziness is the Occam’s answer, but a more cynical one might go like this: women are increasingly dominant in traditional areas of influence and importance, particularly the academy and, most importantly, government. Though there are nowhere near as many women at the top levels of government as there should be, they do tend to dominate at lower and more local levels. A romantic interest being an activity type allows her to stand in for these newly powerful women, and for men to find a way to deal with them. It takes politics, a traditional realm of power (which is indeed the way it’s praticed by any successful woman in government), and turns it into a moral pursuit, the traditional domain of women. Women in powerful political positions are thus not there because they’re smarter, harder working, or more adept at manipulating power—more masculine, in other words—but because they care more, because they’re more sensitive, more feminine. Being political is thus transformed into something women do because they haven’t figured out how to have fun yet. (Whereas in reality feminism has made it a lot easier for women to have fun, it seems to me.) It is a phase or a personality flaw, ineffectual and a bit silly.
This seems like a fairly rational response on the part of anxious men, and in tactical terms, it’s probably a good thing: the more men think politics is stupid and un-fun, the less they’ll want to get into it. But it makes for bad art, it seems to me. I still need to do a Parks and Recreation post, but that’s why Leslie Knope is such a refreshing character. She thinks politics is fun! Governing is fun, and having power is fun, and if she doesn’t always do it as well as she could..hey, it is a sitcom after all.
3 months ago
