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Is <i>The Vampire Diaries</i> Sexist?

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Written by April Yorke   
Friday, 18 December 2009 07:45

©2009 The CW NetworkSince I finally pinpointed the episode where Diaries got good, I probably didn't need to keep watching the CW's week long marathon last night, but I did anyway. "Haunted" and "162 Candles" are great episodes: excellent character development, lots of action, a few surprises. Highlights:

 

 

 

  • Vicki's funny/sad reaction to being a vampire: I have to pee. Why is that? I thought I was dead.
  • Stefan tries and fails to help Vicki integrated to his kinder, gentler vampire ways, so he ends up staking her to save Elena and Jeremy.
  • Damon is there for Stefan in a crisis.
  • Elena opts to have Damon (!) compel Jeremy to forget (!!) all about seeing Vicki staked and instead think she ran off, which is "for the best."
  • The result is that Jeremy goes a little Stepford.
  • Turns out Stefan has a friend, a 350 vampire who never misses his birthday, and in Lexi and Stefan's interactions we see far more warmth and spark than we could have imagined from our resident brooder.
  • Until, that is, Damon sets her up as a vampire that's been terrorizing Mystic Falls and stakes her.

Good stuff, man. 

Unfortunately, these are all the two episodes that made me worry that Diaries might end up in the same sexist vein as Dawson's Creek. Years ago, I watched Dawson. Then it became a time conflict with Ed, so I chose Ed. Years after that, I started watching Dawson again in reruns on TBS, and I stuck it out just long enough to figure out what bothered me about the show: the female characters existed only in relation to the male characters. They rarely got plotlines in their own right, and even those could generally be traced back to a male. Consider Jack and Andie, who each dated one of the four main characters: Jack and Joey's break up lead to a front burner story about being gay. Andie and Pacey's break up lead to Andie getting written off the show. 

So now that two female vampires have appeared, been cool enough that we wanted to see them stick around, and gotten staked within an episode, I'm on Diaries sexism watch. So far it's just a coincidence, but if a female character dies suddenly or stupidly or falls victim to character assassination, it will the Kevin Williamson rule in full force.

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Claire
June 29, 2012
Votes: +0
...

I have been watching Dawson's Creek again and, although I never noticed the first time round, I am astounded by the sheer sexism that is abound in the show. In a nutshell, all the straight male characters revolve around Joey. The virginal, sweet girl next door. In comparison, Jen - the experienced, more well-rounded, interesting female character, experiences a drove of bad luck, all men inevitably lose interest in her... And then in the last episode - she dies. What lessons did that teach young women?

Sorry for ranting!

Claire

April Yorke
April Yorke
July 02, 2012
Votes: +0
On the contrary

Don't apologize, Claire. Thanks for reading!

0
Andre
September 01, 2012
Votes: +0
Damn, your instincts were right

Three years before the end of the third season of the show and it looks like your instincts were right.
Sadly I didn't spot it so easily, however after the only emotion I felt during the last episode of season 3 was annoyance I quitted it once and for all. For me to ever go back they would have make a complete 180 turn and they will never do it.
You might like what was written on racialicious regarding the show's treatment of the past and Bonnie Bennet/witches in general:
http://www.racialicious.com/2012/04/10/why-the-vampire-diaries-treatment-of-bonnie-bennett-and-her-fans-bites/
http://www.racialicious.com/2012/01/20/table-for-two-kendra-and-jordan-break-down-the-vampire-diaries/
http://www.racialicious.com/2011/02/21/white-vamps-black-witches-race-politics-and-vampire-pop-culture/

Personally I don't see why people think that Elena is great, or the other females of the show. Ultimately they always need men to rescue them and do nothing untypically female and if they do they fail.
I think what I don't like about the three leading females I summed up pretty good in what I posted on deviantart:

http://fav.me/d506f0x
http://fav.me/d506j1r
http://fav.me/d506ddf

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Last Updated on Friday, 18 December 2009 00:48
 

April Yorke is a (Cult)ure Magazine contributor since Wednesday, 07 January 2009.

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