Let's Hear It For The (Fan)Grrls!

Meta
Title:	Let's Hear It For The (Fan)Grrls!
Creator:	kill claudio
Date(s):	March 8, 2008
Medium:	online
Fandom:	due South
Topic:
External Links:	Let's Hear It For The (Fan)Grrls! - DS Meta, Archived version
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Let's Hear It For The (Fan)Grrls! is a 2008 essay by kill claudio at ds_meta.

"Hello everyone! I volunteered today to post about ‘How differently the women of dS behave when they're in love.’ Or something. This is my slightly rambly look at how a lot of the main female characters, who are otherwise competent and brilliant, have a tendency to turn into doe-eyed girls whenever they’re being used as the love interest of the moment. Let’s look at a couple of examples."

Some Topics Discussed

• the female characters in due South: Stella Kowalski, Meg Thatcher, Victoria, Francesca Vecchio and how they generally don't come off as positive characters while in romantic relationships
• fanworks treats the female characters better than canon did

Excerpts

Perhaps I’m being slightly unfair to the writers of due South; I’m aware that this post is bordering on a rant. After all, Fraser and Ray both do stupid things when they’re in love with Victoria and Stella. But I would argue that in Victoria’s Secret, Fraser is motivated by a need to make everything right, something which motivates him for most of the series. And Ray, well, we already know how single-minded Ray can be. But even when he’s in love, such as with Luanne in Likely Story, he’s still willing to do what he knows is right - in this case, to arrest her. None of the behaviour of the men ever feels out of character for me.

I wasn’t really sure what my point was when I started writing, and I’m still trying to work some of these ideas out. But I think a big part of the problem with writing het or femslash in due South is that we may have been offered strong female characters, but their behaviour when they’re in love is so out of character that they lose some of their appeal. The women of due South have a tendency to conform to stereotype. The tough career woman; the ditzy little girl who wears tight clothes; the femme fatale; the cheerful tomboy; and I really think the writers did them a disservice. Due South became ultimately a programme about men.

So what do we do, as a community made up largely of women, who want to write about these women without descending into cliché? Well, we write from their point of view. We write Frannie as the sympathetic source of sisterly advice (among other things). We write about Thatcher’s childhood. We write Stella, dignified and courageous and beautiful. We write her relationship with Ray from her point of view. And I’m sure you all have dozens more recs. I am constantly amazed by the quality of the stories that come out of this fandom.

I intended to make my conclusion something about how these women deserved better. But the truth is that they did receive better. They got it from fandom. If I had to pick one reason why I love fandom, it wouldn’t be the hot boykissing, wonderful though that is, but our ability to correct some of the problems with the shows we love, to make them everything that they could have been. And really, I don’t think ‘fangrrls are great’ is a bad way to end.

In conclusion: Yay fandom! \o/

Comments by Fans

[umbrella half]: This is really interesting! I think so much of due South, and especially the humour, is derived from stereotypes and the interaction of different stereotypes (or archetypes as well, I suppose.) We've got polite Canada/rude US, naive and pure country boy/cynical and streetwise city boy, etc. etc.

In the same way, Frannie becomes a stereotypical ditzy girl, Victoria is a stereotypical femme fatale, etc. They sort of slot them in, which is a little lazy, characterisation-wise, if you think about it. I think you're right in pointing out that it does happen much more to the female character than to the male ones, too.

I think the show is very, very, very Fraser/Ray-centric. Maybe that's totally obvious, but compared to other shows that focus on groups of people or families, the buddy-cop show seems to focus almost entirely on the two main characters and their dynamic. (Hence, of course, it lends itself to slash...) I was thinking the other day about how weird an episode Dr. Longball is, mainly because it focusses so much on Lt. Welsh. I think that might be partly responsible for the writing of female characters in the show, sometimes they're mere blips on the narrative radar.

The writing of female characters does, often, let the show down, but I think it's not so bad that it can't be remedied, that good qualities can't be found. Like you said, fandom has written all these awesome stories about them, and I'm constantly amazed to by all the stuff that this fandom does, too. \o/

[aingeal8c]: Interesting you point out that with every guy but Fraser Thatcher is quite...aggresive is the wrong word but that sort of thing. Is it the rank thing perhaps? She knows she's not supposed to go after those under her command?

I agree with you about Frannie too. I think part of that weakness is it goes on for so long. She keeps pursuing him even when it's clear he has no interest in her. It would have been nice to see her grow by moving on form that infatuation. As it stands she's missing some maturity for lack of a better word.

dS does sterotypes. Fraser has a lot of sterotypical attributes, as do Vecchio and Kowalski yet the guys are given more to work with so they can moce on from the sterotype whereas the women don't seem to.

Good points and great last paragraph

[vsee]: This is great, KC. I don't have much to add from my own thoughts, but a couple of quickie things.

1. Frannie in the first two seasons worked better for me, in some ways, even though I liked her increased self confidence that came from having the job at the 2-7. However, in some ways, they just cranked up the Fraser infatuation thing more, which makes her seem weaker to me. I liked how sassy and self starting she was in the first two seasons. I am with some of the others who have commented here that the plotline that she had a crush wasn't really a problem, just that they made her seem flaky by making go on too long. I was so annoyed the first time I saw COTW, and they dragged that all out again. I REALLY, REALLY wanted Frannie to have outgrown it by then, to separate with dignity and maturity and to realize that her friendship with Fraser had value and helped her grow as a person, not like....oooh, do you love me?

2. I think the main problem with Thatcher is that she is almost always used as comic relief. It's hard to get a clear shot at characterization if the character is only ever used to set up a gag.

3. Stella was way too smart to fall for Orsini in the first place, and I hate the implication that she is so power hungry, she'd ignore her basic integrity. You're absolutely right about the blowing off of his direct lie about the housing. She shouldn't have been able to let that go, and in fanfiction she probably wouldn't have.

Thanks so much for your very interesting thoughts.