Hunh. I've never really thought about how much transference plays a part in how much I like a character, male or female. So. I created an extensive (although certainly not complete) list of female characters in science fiction television and then categorized them by how much I love, like, am ambivalent towards, or dislike the character.
I won’t go into who ended up on what list (unless you really want to know) but there were some interesting trends that formed when I looked at it from a perspective of transference. My two cents for what it’s worth.
Love – every last one of these could easily be classified under your “big damn hero” heading. I can easily point to discreet events that made me fall in love with them. And you’re also right about transference; they’re everything I wish I could be. Heck, half the time I don’t just want to be LIKE them, I want to BE them. As a side note, this category was woefully small. I wonder how a similar list of male characters would compare in size?
Like – I admire who these women are and what they stand for but they've never had that moment that made me sit up and REALLY take notice. These are the ones that I can see the better parts of myself in. I see them and think, “yeah, I could do that, be that – I’m kind of like them in my better moments.”
Ambivalent – I tend to spend more time confused or annoyed at these women. After reading through your post, I realized that I don't see any of these characters on their own terms but instead see them by how they interact with the characters that I DO like. Phrases like "I don't get why she did/didn't do X with/too this other (beloved) character" tend to make up my impressions of them. So why don’t I like them? Taken by themselves they tend to have pretty decent qualities, be pretty decent people but I certainly have NO desire to be like them. I can’t decide if you’re right here and I’m seeing them under some kind of flag of competition but the fact that I can only see them in terms of other characters and not on their own, does seem to suggest it.
Disliked – this one actually ended up really surprising me; almost without exception these tended to be of the "look, we have strong women in important positions on our show, aren't we progressive?" variety. Apparently I’ve got real issues with characters whose primary purpose is to be Female and In Charge.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: new thoughts, part two
Date: 2008-09-29 09:06 am (UTC)I won’t go into who ended up on what list (unless you really want to know) but there were some interesting trends that formed when I looked at it from a perspective of transference. My two cents for what it’s worth.
Love – every last one of these could easily be classified under your “big damn hero” heading. I can easily point to discreet events that made me fall in love with them. And you’re also right about transference; they’re everything I wish I could be. Heck, half the time I don’t just want to be LIKE them, I want to BE them. As a side note, this category was woefully small. I wonder how a similar list of male characters would compare in size?
Like – I admire who these women are and what they stand for but they've never had that moment that made me sit up and REALLY take notice. These are the ones that I can see the better parts of myself in. I see them and think, “yeah, I could do that, be that – I’m kind of like them in my better moments.”
Ambivalent – I tend to spend more time confused or annoyed at these women. After reading through your post, I realized that I don't see any of these characters on their own terms but instead see them by how they interact with the characters that I DO like. Phrases like "I don't get why she did/didn't do X with/too this other (beloved) character" tend to make up my impressions of them. So why don’t I like them? Taken by themselves they tend to have pretty decent qualities, be pretty decent people but I certainly have NO desire to be like them. I can’t decide if you’re right here and I’m seeing them under some kind of flag of competition but the fact that I can only see them in terms of other characters and not on their own, does seem to suggest it.
Disliked – this one actually ended up really surprising me; almost without exception these tended to be of the "look, we have strong women in important positions on our show, aren't we progressive?" variety. Apparently I’ve got real issues with characters whose primary purpose is to be Female and In Charge.