‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Keeps Giving Its Female Characters A Bum Rap

Worry The Strolling Lifeless has a feminine character downside.

I’ve gotten some pushback for my review of last night’s episode on Twitter from the standard suspects.

Naturally, they’ve resorted to the standard ways, asserting that as a result of I discovered Grace insupportable to observe on this episode I’m by some means “sexist” or “mysoginistic.” One can’t criticize a feminine character in any present for any purpose lest they be accused of such a factor.

Some have gone as far as to say that they hope no person struggling postpartum despair ever reads my evaluation as a result of it could be traumatizing, as if Worry itself hasn’t been accountable for exploiting motherhood and the loss of a baby.

I’ve confronted comparable assaults each time I’ve critiqued a feminine Strolling Lifeless character, whether or not that’s Michonne or Maggie or Carol. Naturally, I’m accused of different issues after I critique Morgan or Rick or Negan (although I do suppose Negan is nice now).

However this time, it’s the sexism claims as a result of I critiqued Grace who, Twitter is fast to remind me, is affected by postpartum despair after dropping her child final season.

Within the following Twitter thread I reply to The Strolling Lifeless World’s critique that my evaluation is a “gross article” as a result of “Grace is affected by extreme grief over dropping her child throughout childbirth, however she’s by some means egocentric and the villain for not eager to deal with a child that’s not hers?”

I’ll level out only a couple issues:

To begin with, sure it’s fairly rattling egocentric to not deal with a child simply since you misplaced your individual, particularly given the circumstances. Are we actually arguing right here that leaving the newborn to die alone in the course of a zombie/nuclear apocalypse is what we must always count on from a lady who’s grieving?

That strikes me as a genuinely sexist assumption. Girls who’re grieving deserve empathy, however that doesn’t imply they get a free move. Even the loopy individuals in final night time’s episode wished to deal with child Mo after the dying of their very own toddler.

Second, Grace is simply affected by postpartum despair as a result of the showrunners exploited each her and viewers by airing the episode “In Dreams” on Mother’s Day. That is an episode the place Grace has a full-blown imaginative and prescient of her daughter, Athena, as a young person solely to get up and provides beginning to a stillborn youngster.

On Mom’s Day.

Shock worth a lot?

Then they simply kind of dropped Grace’s trauma for the remainder of the season till now, after a time-jump, they’ve dug it again up to make use of in essentially the most hackneyed, contrived means potential.

The issue, in fact, isn’t that she’s affected by postpartum despair it’s that the author’s make her look dangerous the whole time. I don’t suppose that is how anybody would act, many months later, within the midst of a zombie/nuclear apocalypse. I don’t suppose any of those characters act like actual individuals. And that’s a writing downside. That’s a showrunner downside.

Certainly, my total critique of Grace is centered round how badly her character is written on this episode—I point out that actor Karen David ought to be pissed off in regards to the script, and that the writers “torpedo” her character. They might have dealt with her despair in a extra believable, relatable method however they selected to maker her a caricature. That’s par for the course with Worry.

This isn’t a sexist critique. That is me defending Grace from the writers and showrunners who clearly don’t care about exploiting her character.

In the meantime, it positive is handy to have fangirls and fanboys rush to the present’s protection and assault these Very Imply Critics with accusations of misogyny. That’s some awfully good cowl to cover behind.

Right here’s the factor: my critiques of each female and male characters in these exhibits are virtually all the time aimed on the writing and narrative selections being made (and sometimes the performing, although it’s normally advantageous or solely crappy due to the crappy strains they need to say).

For example, I’ve been deeply crucial of how they neutered Alicia’s character, making her paint timber and act like a Morgan-Lite as a substitute of the chief and badass she actually is, or at the least should have turn into because the collection wore on. I additionally deliver up often how Alycia Debnam-Carey ought to be the lead of the present as a substitute of Lennie James.

How sexist of me! How a lot do you must hate ladies to argue such a factor?

The Strolling Lifeless Does This, Too

Worry often is the worst offender, however its huge brother The Strolling Lifeless has made lots of the identical errors.

I used to be deeply crucial of how Michonne exited that present however not as a result of I used to be offended at Michonne or Danai Gurira, however as a result of I believed her character would by no means abandon her kids like that, and that it was a fault of the writers and producers to ship her off in such a weird, inexplicably egocentric method. It was a cop-out, pure and easy. Michonne deserved higher.

Carol is commonly in my critic’s crosshair as a result of she’s simply so everywhere on a regular basis, written into one silly nook after one other. Is that this as a result of I hate ladies? Or is it potential that I simply need Carol to lastly turn into the tough-as-nails chief she should be by now, keen to do no matter it takes to get the job carried out and shield her individuals. Not this weepy, emotionally-driven one that no person can ever belief.

Maggie has returned to The Strolling Lifeless and been given precisely one emotion: Anger. She’s offended at Negan on a regular basis and comes throughout as a shallow, one-note character whereas Negan, by some means, will get all the higher strains, all of the introspection. I’m glad they’ve discovered a technique to make Negan relatable, however did it have to return at Maggie’s expense?

I notice that no person accusing me of this shall be satisfied in any other case. It’s a lot simpler to assault a critic than to simply accept that this present you (by some means) nonetheless get pleasure from is doing these characters a large disservice. However I’ll simply level out that I didn’t even actually like Madison as a personality and I nonetheless suppose they did her soiled (and by extension, Kim Dickens, who was presupposed to be the lead on this present from the start).

In actual fact, Worry The Strolling Lifeless was a reasonably balanced present at one level, with each feminine and male leads represented near equally—although Madison was clearly the central protagonist.

As soon as the brand new showrunners took over, Morgan turned the middle of every part, Madison was out and Alicia was relegated to a secondary character who barely will get any screen-time and doesn’t even act like herself anymore.

However hey, I’m the sexist one.

Oh nicely. Gross article. Clearly hates ladies sufficient to defend them in his very imply opinions again and again. 0/10 stars.

P.S. Once I referred to as Gracie an “fool youngster” it was, as soon as once more, due to how they wrote her character within the “hurricane” episode this season. You can read my review of that episode right here. In it I level out that it’s ludicrous to painting her character as so sheltered and naïve after being raised through the apocalypse and never honest to Gracie in any respect to make her the reason for so many issues. Monster.

P.P.S. I forgot to say Luciana! I forgot as a result of the present has so badly mangled her character she’s principally unrecognizable now. When Nick first met her, Luciana was a tricky chief of the army department of a survivor neighborhood in Mexico.

Ever since Nick’s dying and the brand new showrunners took over, she’s been nothing however a weepy, irrelevant shadow of her former self. How is that not a much bigger deal to individuals who cavalierly toss round claims of sexism and misogyny?

Curiouser and curiouser.

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