Characters vs. Themes

Another reaction to another collection of Internet Arguments (TM).

Again, you’d think I do nothing but tool around the Internet (OK, you’d be right), but I’ve come across a bunch of forum threads for various TV shows/books/movies/etc. that all go into the same basic argument:

POSTER 1: This work of art’s portrayal of women was sexist! Male character A did something to female character B that is sexual harassment/abusive.
POSTER 2: But it was clear that B thought was A did was okay! Therefore, it wasn’t sexual harassment/abuse, and this work of art isn’t sexist.

(Or replace the sexism discussion with one about racism, homophobia, classism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, etc. Point is, the character toward whom it was directed was a) part of the marginalized group and b) didn’t have a problem with it.)

Hum.

I’m not trying to make a judgment on the correctness of Poster 1’s accusation. That depends on the show/book/movie itself and could just as equally be valid as invalid. But I think Poster 2 isn’t making an important distinction between situations in real life and situations in stories.

Maybe the best way to put it is through an analogy with another way to be mean to people. Suppose I call you “poopyhead” in real life. If we’re friends and you laugh, or if you don’t really care about being called “poopyhead”, most people would think it was kind of silly for a bystander, Bob, to rush in and chew me out.

Why? First of all, because you don’t seem to care. Most people are utilitarian to at least some degree; if I say something mean to you, but we both agree it’s just a joke, nobody’s hurt, feelings-wise or otherwise. Well, unless the circumstances are such that my calling you “poopyhead” makes you lose your job or some other thing that’s important to you. Or instead of saying, “poopyhead”, I say something that ties into years of prejudiced-based misuse of power.

But even then, we might have recourse to the second reason: nobody has the right to tell you what you should find offensive. If somebody calls me a run of anti-Semitic, misogynist terms and for whatever reason, I’m not offended by it, nobody can step in and demand that I take umbrage. Ultimately, I get to decide. My decision may be bad for the communities to which I belong – it may make it more difficult for other Jews or  women to make their legitimate offense heard – but it’s still mine.

So I do see poster 2’s point: if character B was the posters’ friend in real life, then the poster 2 might have good reasons for not wanting to call the actions of A sexual harassment/a racist incident/ homophobic/etc.

But.

This isn’t real life. It’s a TV show (or book, or movie). It’s a story, and as a story, it has normative power.

The conceit of a story is that the various characters in it are actual individuals whose personalities direct and restrict their actions, opinions, and choices, like the people we know in real life. Is it impossible for Agent Mulder to stop chasing after UFOs? Yes, because his personality just doesn’t go that way. Likewise, we consider it impossible for Sherlock Holmes to suddenly become a social butterfly, or Rambo to retire and run a kitten farm. Those aren’t things they would choose to do.

Thing is, characters in stories aren’t actually choosing anything, and nothing really is impossible for them. They’re made-up. The people doing the choosing are the writers, and they can choose whatever the heck they want. We really could have Skeptic!Mulder, MySpace!Holmes, and Lolcats!Rambo.

Let me put it another way. Often, when I’m writing a story, I’ll get a criticism about my character’s action or an element of the plot. My first reaction is often, “But I can’t change that! My character just is that way.”

Actually, no, she’s not. My character is whatever the heck I tell her to be. It’s my choice. I might like the plot better the way I originally had it, but it doesn’t need to be that way because my characters won’t let it do anything else. I chose to make it that way because I didn’t want to do anything else.

What does this have to do with morals in stories? Well, Rhetorical Question, I’m glad you asked. Look: Uncle Tom doesn’t mind being a slave. Katherine (eventually) chooses to submit to Petrucchio’s authority. Gunga Din is happy to lay down his life for the white British gentlemen he saves. If they were real people, then at the end of the day, I’d have to respect that they’re adults who can make their own moral decisions and leave it at that.

But since they’re fictional characters, I can lay the moral responsibility at the door of the person(s) who could have done otherwise: the writer (and/or actors, directors, producers, etc.). It’s the writer’s choice to show a woman who’s pleased to be sexually harassed. It’s the writer’s choice to set that up as a model for a romantic relationship rather than, say, having B tell A that’s not acceptable and having A be sorry. Or having A buy B a gift certificate to go bungee jumping with him. Or laugh with B over a crazy inside joke.

(Naturally, whether there’s sexism inherent in such a set-up depends on the context. If B is the only woman getting sexually harassed, and she’s OK with it, we have a nasty model of what sexual harassment is: something normal women don’t care about. If A also harasses every other woman in his workplace and the audience gets to cheer them on as they all successfully sue him except for B, who refuses (and this is portrayed as a bad thing, not B’s outstanding moral virtue), then we just have insight on B’s character.

It’s not that there aren’t women who don’t mind sexual harassment in real life, and it’s not that those women don’t deserve to be able to see themselves in stories just like anybody else. The point is, when you have a small sample size of female characters, each one suddenly represents her gender as well as herself. And when you see an overwhelming majority of characters who meet some sort of stereotype, it doesn’t matter if each belongs to a different story or if there exist people like that in real life: what matters is that other people in real life aren’t getting a representative slice of the pie.)

Hey, not every scene on every show is sexist or racist or what have you. But arguing against it based on a victimized character’s reaction to prejudice? Er… not quite.