I was not able to succinctly gather my thoughts today in class. I was flustered! My issue with the articles that we read was that they were distressingly narrow in their focus. I accept and agree that Penny was portrayed negatively from a feminist standpoint. That is fine. What is important to remember, though, is that she was not the only character portrayed in this manner.
Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer were both presented to the audience as utter buffoons. Captain Hammer, in particular, is the exact image of the stereotypical "masculine" figure that dominates much of the history of the superhero genre. Dr. Horrible is no better -- though he does have a sweet side, his BillySelf is not enough to overcome his innate crazy. He is a loose cannon. Literally.
In the end, all three of the main characters are failures. Penny dies because she has been too passive. Captain Hammer falls apart because reality, in the form of death, struck him personally. His facade crumbles. Dr. Horrible loses the only positive influence in his life and falls toward his "dark side" as a result.
They all lose. When, then, do we have to view this series in terms of gender? If, in the end, all of them are brought down by the actions that took place within the series, why does gender have to play a role at all? Some people are female. Some people are male. The men didn't win. The female didn't lose.
After scouring the internets, I was able to find a quote from Joss Whedon responding to the feminist backlash from this series:
Langley Air Force Base, Va.: I’ve been reading some criticism (insert audible gasp here!) of “Dr. Horrible” about the lack of a strong, empowered female lead. They claim that Penny is merely a prop for Dr Horrible and Captain Hammer to fight over.
What are your thoughts on that?
Joss Whedon: Hi! Here goes Typomania! If I don’t get to a question, forgive. There are many, and I’m dodging the tough ones.
But, yeah, Penny is not the feminist icon of our age. And yes, she does exist in the narrative as part of Doc’s fate — but everyone in the story is there to move the story. Is she less real than Hammer? (Is ANYTHING?) We gave her a cause so she wouldn’t JUST be the Pretty Girl but the fact is, neither Doc nor Hammer gives her the attention she deserves — Doc’s crush comes before he has the slightest idea what she cares about. Which is not uncommon. It reminds me of “Sweeney Todd,” the Judge and Sweeney singing “Pretty Women” — a beautiful duet with no insight whatsoever. Just images.
Here is a quote from Felicia Day (Penny) responding to the same issue:
Some people have criticized Penny’s character saying she’s not strong enough and doesn’t live up to Joss Whedon’s usual portrayal of strong women characters, do you have an opinion on that issue?
FD: Does every woman character have to be “strong”? What does that mean anyway? To me Penny represented the normal life that Horrible craved, someone who didn’t judge, someone who cared about others before she cared about herself. She wasn’t kicking people in the face, but she was true to herself and brave enough to be “good” in the face of a cynical society. Just because she was naive doesn’t mean she was weak. Personally, I loved playing her.
Take those for what you will. Personally, I think Dr. Horrible had a point when he was describing Captain Hammer to Penny: "And sometimes there's a third, even deeper level, and that one is the same as the top surface one. Like with pie."
Maybe we're all digging too deeply. We have hit the third layer, and it is exactly like the top layer. That second layer full of nice criticism?
Eh.
9 comments:
I'm in a bit of a crunch right now--a huge pile of work to do, but I do want to comment on one brief point Josh makes in this great post: yes, the pieces you read for today were narrow in their focus. That was intentional. Plenty of other people have written with nothing but praise for "Dr. Horrible"--or have made completely different criticisms of the work.
Way back when I wrote the syllabus, I decided to focus on these pieces because I knew they would get you all a bit fired up. It worked, right?
I also think that, as we reach the end of a Whedon-filled semester, it puts on interesting coda on the whole "girl power" trope he usually executes with such skill and nuance.
More later...maybe...
It did work!
Though they were not my favorite articles in the world, they were able to evoke lots of excellent discussion and debate. I love discussion and debate.
great point with the "everyone looses in the end" statement. All three characters, regardless of their sex, do fail and that does kinda serve as an equalizer.
This is the perfect closer to a some-what stressful discussion today, I think this is the best reaction to uptight feminists who flip over this show.
I also agree that we may be delving too deeply into Penny's character (and its presumed innate flaws). Thinking back on Cait's post a bit as well, I feel that her character may be a symbol of the "social acceptance" that both Horrible and Hammer (ha! alliterative names ^^) crave. More on this later.
Josh, I am glad you have things to say! Ha. This post is great, and simply makes me feel better after all of the mixed feelings in class.
Also, like Dr. H mentioned, I think Penny's inclusion is valuable for our Whedon-girl-power discussion. Not only should Penny not be pinned down into a category of weak female, but Whedon shouldn't be stuck in a category of only being able to portray one version (though a positive one!) of a female character. I think Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a great way to for him to do that; it's not a whole series of Penny (a-la Buffy) but just a taste of what else Whedon can say with his female characters.
This post gets my vote for post of the week. People who have a problem with Dr. Horrible do not consider all angles of it. They also search so hard to find issues with it that they miss the entertainment.
You all are making me so proud with these posts and comments this week. Really smart stuff, even if I still feel like I am not doing a good enough job of explaining why these discussions about Penny are worth having. (Here's a short answer: why are they worth having? Take a look at your posts and comments--they illustrate the value of these kinds of discussions.)
Cait, you know I love you and your writing, but the phrase "uptight feminists" bugs me. Asking questions and making points about a character that so many of you seem to see as flawed/poorly rendered does not render one "uptight." But don't worry--you are still blogger extraordinaire, Cait.
Oh well, I guess it's good that I rephrased, because I had used a harsher word and then erased it. I didn't mean anything deeper other than I feel as though sometimes people who label themselves feminists appear uptight and a feminist reading of a work/show can start to feel like a digression.
My thoughts on the label feminist are numerous, but don't play out deeper than that here.
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