Aisling Murphy takes issue with the depiction – or lack thereof – of brainy, unstable women on TV.
As I read Chris Redmond’s article “The God of TV”, something struck me – in the three award-winning, celebrated television programmes he was discussing, the protagonists were male, extremely intelligent and, perhaps most importantly, they all ranged from slightly unbalanced to completely unhinged. Later, while doing the nightly mindless flicking from channel to channel, I began to notice a similar pattern developing. On two separate channels, three new programmes coming out this winter centre on the aforementioned personality – a brainy, crazy man.
Elementary is yet another take on the Sherlock Holmes story, but this time the character of Holmes has gone even further up the insanity spectrum; Watson is a woman and they live in New York. A Gifted Man focuses on a brilliant and selfish brain surgeon whose ex-wife begins appearing to him from beyond the grave. An eccentric neuropsychiatrist working with the F.B.I. is the protagonist of Perception. In the season trailer, when he is asked by his female sidekick “are you out of your mind?” he replies, “well, that’s not the clinical description but yes, actually.”
This is not a new phenomenon. House, Dexter, Monk, Psych, Sherlock, The Mentalist – these successful shows include a genius, bordering-on-psychotic man. You may be wondering at this stage what my point is. These are good shows, some worthy of worldwide acclaim, others only a self-confessed TV addict such as me would happily watch at two o’ clock in the morning. However, my problem with this formula lies with the third shared characteristic of these characters: they are all male.
In all my years of extensive TV watching, a female character that was both extraordinarily clever and basically demented has never come across my radar. Admittedly, the 2011/2012 television season has been a good year for female protagonists – New Girl, Girls, and recently The Mindy Project. I adore New Girl and want Jess/Zooey Deschanel to be my best friend but could we describe her character as being a genius and acceptably insane? Funny – yes; smart – yes; quirky – yes; but would she be a member of Mensa, joining the likes of Dr House and Dexter? No, she would not, and her crazy ways are usually pinned down to the fact that she’s an emotional, quirky girl.
The characters in the television shows I listed above are eccentric, borderline sociopaths – and this is an accepted as part of their personality. When a woman is depicted as “cray” (to borrow a popular quote from Kanye and Jay Z), it is put down to her highly strung feminine nature and this crazy side to her persona prevents her from acting rationally. On the other hand, a man with crazy tendencies can still be rational, calculated and helpful to authorities.
The closet example of a brainy woman my research turned up was the show headed by Ms. Deschanel’s sister, Bones. The character of Temperance Brennan is shown to be one of the top minds of the country, if not the world, but her odd ways and quirks would be put down to her Type A personality and the fact that she’s just plain weird.
Why do I want a woman with an extraordinary IQ and a penchant for murdering people a la Dexter or driving into an ex’s bungalow like House? For equality! Say it with me people! We need some psychotic brilliant female minds for little girls to look up to. More importantly, the fact that women so clever they’re crazy, just like the above mentioned men, can’t be depicted on our small screens is an example how inequality is still clear in our society. Maybe I’m just crazy. Either that or I’m a genius. I can’t be both, can I?
