Mid-summer I got hit with stunning news regarding one of my favorite TV shows, Criminal Minds. The contract for AJ Cook (JJ Jarau) was not renewed and the screen time for Paget Brewster (Emily Prentiss) was being cut back. Few people hearing this news considered it accidental that they were both women. It would seem that CBS is quite comfortable with the main portrayal of women on their shows is as victims, broken and discarded.
The fans were outraged, CBS was inundated with calls, emails and letters, but nothing changed. On September 28, fans said goodbye to JJ.
Through the turmoil surrounding the news, I couldn't help but notice a trend. Most fans had a character/actor they would leave the show over if that person ever left, but it was always one of the male characters. So in the end, the women of Criminal Minds are as disposable to the fans as they were to CBS.
Criminal Minds fans do not seem to be unique in this. I have heard the same thing from fans of other shows. "I'll quit watching if so-and-so leaves." More often than not, the so-and-so turns out to be male.
How can we expect the networks to value female cast members when we, the fans, don't? There's a reason why non-chick flick shows centered on women don't tend to survive, why most of the victims in crime shows are women when in real life most homicide victims are men, and why the strong, interesting roles for men vastly outnumber similar roles for women. It's easy to accuse the networks of sexism, but face it, they're simply giving the viewers what they want. Until we start valuing portrayals of strong women, until we start wanting to see women as something other than the detritus of violence, television networks will continue to treat women as disposable.
The fans were outraged, CBS was inundated with calls, emails and letters, but nothing changed. On September 28, fans said goodbye to JJ.
Through the turmoil surrounding the news, I couldn't help but notice a trend. Most fans had a character/actor they would leave the show over if that person ever left, but it was always one of the male characters. So in the end, the women of Criminal Minds are as disposable to the fans as they were to CBS.
Criminal Minds fans do not seem to be unique in this. I have heard the same thing from fans of other shows. "I'll quit watching if so-and-so leaves." More often than not, the so-and-so turns out to be male.
How can we expect the networks to value female cast members when we, the fans, don't? There's a reason why non-chick flick shows centered on women don't tend to survive, why most of the victims in crime shows are women when in real life most homicide victims are men, and why the strong, interesting roles for men vastly outnumber similar roles for women. It's easy to accuse the networks of sexism, but face it, they're simply giving the viewers what they want. Until we start valuing portrayals of strong women, until we start wanting to see women as something other than the detritus of violence, television networks will continue to treat women as disposable.
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