Thursday, September 20, 2007

Looking To The Stars - HEROES; A WiR Fest?








HEROES returns this Monday and I for one can't wait. Reading the blogosphere the past few days, I can't help but wonder if I'm alone in this.

I've read more than a few blogposts involving HEROES in the past few weeks. Some, such as a statement made by one man ("Not even comics have managed to shove so many women into so many fridges in a single storyline.") made me wonder just how many comics they read to think that statement is even close to accurate.

Some, such as Hourly Bookseller's statistical analysis which shows how very little conversation occurs solely between female characters on the show, gave me something to think about though I question the accuracy of any statistics that draw upon a pool that features only 2 female characters in a sample size of 13.

I even read one comment on someone else's review of the HEROES DVDs (which I can't find now, else I'd link to it) by someone who freely admitted to having never seen the show but how she "knew" it was without merit because Jeph Loeb was a writer on it.

Now before I get accused of being an apologist fanboy, let me make one thing plain right now - I agree that that HEROES has indulged in more than a few sexist cliches of genre writing. Too many female characters, such as Simone Deveaux and Charlie Andrews, have no independent purpose in the story. Simone has no value other than as a dramatic wedge between the uneasy heroic alliance between Peter and Isaac and Charlie has no reason to exist other than to give Hiro the kick in the pants he needs to see heroism as a serious matter and not an adventure.

Even the two major female characters, Claire Bennet and Niki Sanders, are often defined by a role rather than their personality - Niki is a mother, Claire is a cheerleader. And even if they don't fit that stereotype over the course of the story, it's still a disturbing thing to think about even as a subtext to the narrative.

However, I think that the quality in other areas of writing as well as the great performances of a stellar ensemble cast have mitigated a lot of these cliches. In short, the good outweighs the bad.

That's why I'm writing this right now; because I can't abide the thought of people refusing to watch a good show after taking advice from critics who are passing judgement on something that they haven't watched and only know about by having read someone else's critique or because of bad statistics. That's why I'm going to count the actual number of male and female deaths in the series relative to The Official WiR and MiR lists on HeroesWiki.


DEFINITION OF TERMS

These lists cover both the Heroes TV series and the on-line comic series but for the purposes of this analysis, we will limit ourselves to events that happen in the show.

Deaths will include any "fake deaths" (i.e. any time Peter or Claire physically "die" but are later restored by their powers) that occur as well as deaths that occur in alternate timelines, such as Future Claire's death at the hands of Future Sylar.

Minor characters are defined as any character with a non-speaking part (such as James Walker and his wife, who appear only as murder victims) or characters who have speaking parts in no more than three episodes, such as Charlie Andrews.






THE NUMBERS

# of women who are subjected to physical, psychological, emotional, or sexual violence according to the WiR list: 17

# of men who are subjected to physical, psychological, emotional, or sexual violence according to the MiR list: 23

# of total women's deaths (including multiple deaths): 11
These women are:
* Claire Bennet (once by Brody Mitchum during attempted rape, once by Sylar in alternate future)
* Charlie Andrews (killed by Sylar)
* Simone Deveaux (accidentally shot by Isaac)
* Virginia Gray (accidentally killed by Sylar)
* Eden McCain (suicide, inspired by need to stop Sylar from stealing her powers)
* Dale Smither (killed by Sylar)
* Karen Sprague (indirectly killed by husband Ted's radiation powers)
* Mrs. Walker (killed by Sylar)
* Jackie Wilcox (killed by Sylar)
* Candice Wilmer (killed by Sylar in alternate future)

# of total men's deaths (including multiple deaths): 18
These men are:
* Noah Bennet (killed by Matt Parkman in alternate future)
* Brian Davis (killed by Sylar)
* Charles Deveaux (dies from illness)
* D.L. Hawkins (killed by Sylar in alternate future)
* The Haitian (killed by Mohinder Suresh in alternate future)
* Mr. Linderman (killed by D.L. Hawkins)
* Aron Malsky (killed by Jessica)
* Isaac Mendez (killed by Sylar)
* Hiro Nakamura (killed by Matt Parkman in alternate future)
* Nathan Petrelli (killed by Sylar in alternate future)
* Peter Petrelli (once after getting pushed off a roof by Claude Raines, twice by Sylar)
* Micah Sanders (killed in alternate future by The Explosion)
* Theodore Sprague (killed by Sylar)
* Chandra Suresh (killed by Sylar)
* Zane Taylor (killed by Sylar)
* James Walker (killed by Sylar)

# of women who die violent deaths: 9

# of men who die violent deaths: 17

# of women who die violently in the main continuity: 8

# of men who die violently in the main continuity: 12

# of women whose deaths occur off-camera or whose bodies are not ever seen on camera: 1
These women are:
Candice Wilmer (whose death in an alternate future is presumed since Sylar possess her illusion powers)

# of men whose deaths occur off-camera or whose bodies are not ever seen on camera:: 4
* Charles Deveaux (whose death from illness we hear described by his daughter Simone)
* D.L. Hawkins (whose death in an alternate future is presumed since Sylar possess his phasing powers)
* Nathan Petrelli (whose death in an alternate future is confirmed when Sylar uses his flight powers and confesses to the murder)
* Micah Sanders (whose death in The Explosion of New York is mentioned by Peter in an alternate future)

# of minor female characters who die: 5

# of minor male characters who die: 6

# of minor female characters who die violently: 4

# of minor male characters who die violently: 5

# of female characters who die peacefully: 1 (Karen Sprague)

# of male characters who die peacefully: 1 (Charles Deveaux)

# of female characters forced into a unwanted sexual situation: 3

# of incidents of a female character forced into a unwanted sexual situation: 5
These incidents are:
* Claire Bennet is nearly raped by Brody Mitchum.
* Lori Tremmel, a former cheerleader, was raped by Brody Mitchum
* Niki Saunders is forced by circumstance to take a job as a stripper to pay the bills.
* Niki Saunders is forced to strip by Linderman's thugs.
* Niki Saunders is forced to seduce Nathan Petrelli in order to pay her debts to Linderman

# of male characters forced into an unwanted sexual situation: 1

# of incidents of a male character forced into a unwanted sexual situation: 1
These incidents are:
* Isaac Mendez, who is seduced by Eden McCain's persuasion powers as well as her sex appeal into taking heroin against his will.


ANALYSIS

As a matter of course, the number of murders between genders on average does seem to be fairly balance.

* Of all the women on the show to undergo some kind of trauma
47% were killed violently in the main storyline.
* Of all the men on the show to undergo some kind of trauma, 52.2% were murdered in the main storyline.

If you include alternate timelines, these numbers skew much higher in favor of the men.

* Of all the women on the show to undergo some kind of trauma including alternate futures, 52.9% of the women were killed violently.
* Of all the men on the show to undergo some kind of trauma including alternate futures, 73.9% of the men were killed violently.

However, if one limits this study to minor characters, a disturbing trend emerges.

* 44.4% of the women on the show who die violently are minor characters .
* 29.4% of the men on the show who die violently are minor characters.

Interestingly, every single minor character in the show who is killed in a violent manner, male or female, dies at the hands of the super-power stealing serial-killer Sylar with one exception; Aron Malsky, who was killed by super-strong assassin Jessica.

Another interesting note; except for characters killed before the introduction of the character in the second episode, every character killed by Sylar can be identifided by name. With the exception of Aron Malsky, none of the characters killed by Jessica during her murderous rampages have ever been identified by name.

Of course it goes without saying that more women over the course of the show experience a sexual assault of some kind. What is surprising and disturbing is that of the three female characters who undergo some form of sexual assault, two of them are core female protagonists - Niki and Claire - and one of them accounts for 60% of the incidents of sexual assault in the show. Compare that to the one male character who is sexually assaualted and even then the circumstances of his assault are less cut-and-dry since superpowers are being used with seduction in order to secure a non-sexual end.





CONCLUSIONS

With the exception of one episode that doesn't count in the main continuity, there appears to be a fair balance of violent acts against male and female characters on HEROES. The one exception to this balance is that a greater relative percentage of minor female characters die than male characters. However, I believe the smaller female cast of the show skews these numbers somewhat and that a larger ensemble of female characters is needed to provide greater statistical balance.

There is a heavy imbalance of sexual assault against female characters in the show, but this is to be expected given the staggering high numbers of female sexual assaults compared to male sexual assaults in real life. What is not to be expected, however, is that most of these assualts should come from the background of one character.

And yet, despite this, I cannot find it in myself to condemm HEROES completely. While there are many female characters who exist only to prop up a male protagonist, there are just as many male characters who do little other than promote a female character. This is particularly evident in the Niki Sanders storyline where husband D.L. spends most of the later half of the season proving to be an incapable parent without his wife's support.

Indeed, while Niki's background reads like a checklist of female superhero cliches (abused child, recovering alcoholic, possible mental illness) it cannot be denied that she is the star of her storyline and that in The Book of Life, her husband and son are her supporting cast. How many comic books about a married woman with superpowers can say that? None that I can think of. And while Niki's journey through the first season is a primarily selfish one (she's not trying to save the world, she just wants her family back), at the end, when it comes to a choice of running away with her family or fighting a greater evil, she's ready to fight with the parking meter of justice.





Claire too is a surprisingly original creation. She isn't a typical cheerleader and despite her protests of how "being a freak" could ruin her life, she is still the first character to use her powers for a totally selfless reason in the first episode- saving the life of a fireman trapped in a train-car.

Indeed, Claire is one of the most selfless characters in the show and one of the few who does good things purely because it is the right thing to do. Peter wants to do good but is also trying to find his place in the world and prove himself to his family. Hiro wants to save people but doesn't really appreciate what that means at first and treats his quest like a video game. Even Isaac, the first character to say "I'm going to be a hero" outloud, is trying to find redemption for his drug use and win-back his girlfriend.

And despite having the old standby "I fight so nobody will suffer like me" background in how she is inspired to further heroism after surviving a rape attempt & accidental murder because of her healing powers, Claire doesn't act like your typical victimized crime fighter. She has an attitude. And while most of the adults in her life are manipulating her in some form or fashion, Claire is defiant against any attempts to control her destiny.

*****

Does HEROES indulged in some cliches? Of course. What comic book, opera or epic tale doesn't? But I urge all of you reading this who haven't given HEROES a chance yet to watch it for yourself. Forget the numbers. Forget the statistics. Just watch and feel. That's what a good story is supposed to be about, right?

14 comments:

  1. You forgot Hana "Wireless" Gitelman (killed by Matt Parkman in alternate future).
    But overall, I agree with your point.

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  2. Ah yes. In my trimming the list of characters from the comics, I forgot that Hana actually does die on the show in The Dark Future. Mea Culpa.

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  3. For the most part I agree. I note the sexism, and I wish they would do better.
    But CLAIRE isn't just "The Cheerleader," for one. Just like you said, she's a VERY strong young woman.
    When people complain that all she is is that typical fantasy role of "Cheerleader" I can't help thinking to myself: "You're the one doing that. NOT THE SHOW."
    But Charlie WAS a classic fridging, and they really could have done better than that. (And, frankly, I'm suprised Hiro isn't familiar with the term "fridging" He's quite up on American Comics. ;) )

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  4. Not that up. He quoted the wrong X-Men issue in the first episode.
    I do find it cool that he used Kitty Pryde as an example of a time-traveling hero and not, oh say... The Flash or Superman.
    And yes. Charlie was a classic case of WiR. I said as much in the introduction. And yet, I didn't think much about it the first time I watched the episode because the performance of the actress playing Charlie was so good and Charlie was such an instantly likeable character that I was caught up in whether or not Hiro would be able to save her before I thought during the next episode "Wait... so the only reason she dies is to give Hiro angst? Lame!"
    That being said, I'm glad that the first Heroes spin-off novel is going to deal exclusively with buidling the Hiro/Charlie relationship over the six months he was in Odessa with her. I felt it was a shame they crammed the whole romance into one episode.

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  5. Do I have to turn in my feminist hat if I admit that I watch Heroes largely because of all the hot guys with superpowers?
    That said, Claire is pretty frickin' awesome. I mean, she jumps out a window to get away from her manipulative grandmother and stops Nuclear Ted from going into meltdown, et cetera.
    And she really is more than "just a cheerleader." After Hiro (because, gender differences or not, I identify more with the total nerd than with the cheerleader), she's probably my favorite character.
    Yeah, there are still some problems, so let's hope Season 2 introduces a few new awesome female Heroes, but it's still a fun TV show and I'll definitely be watching for at least another season.

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  6. Do I have to turn in my feminist hat if I admit that I watch Heroes largely because of all the hot guys with superpowers?
    Not if I don't have to turn in my enlightened male badge because I like watching Ali Larter strip even though I know, on an intellectual level, how shameless it is? :)
    That said, Claire is pretty frickin' awesome. I mean, she jumps out a window to get away from her manipulative grandmother and stops Nuclear Ted from going into meltdown, et cetera.
    Yeah. In a lot of ways, she is the main character of the series and one of the few who gets her main character arc resolved. Her whole big thing is wanting to find out who she is and who her family is. By the end of the season, she's fully evolved into a confident young woman and she's learned that a family is something you make, not something you find.

    And she really is more than "just a cheerleader." After Hiro (because, gender differences or not, I identify more with the total nerd than with the cheerleader), she's probably my favorite character.

    She's one of my favorites and easily my girlfriend's favorite. (Small wonder given she's a blonde ex-cheerleader who is plenty tough.) For the record, Isaac was my favorite although the sudden decision to bring Sylar back for another season rendered his sacrifice pretty much moot.
    Yeah, there are still some problems, so let's hope Season 2 introduces a few new awesome female Heroes, but it's still a fun TV show and I'll definitely be watching for at least another season.
    Based on what I've heard about the new season, I've got high hopes. They're already correcting some of the show's mistakes by breaking the season into two books, so we won't be waiting all year for a payoff. They're also diversifying the cast and going to bring in more characters from around the world so things aren't quite so Americanized. Oh, and Hiro in 16th Century Japan...

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  7. "That being said, I'm glad that the first Heroes spin-off novel is going to deal exclusively with buidling the Hiro/Charlie relationship over the six months he was in Odessa with her."
    Ooh, I'll HAVE to pick that up! And maybe they can take a bit of the bad taste out of my mouth by showing us some flashbacks in the next season. It would help.
    Also: Eden? Yes, THANKYOU for pointing out that she was something of a sexual abuser! Not a rapist, methinks, but still.
    And anyone who calls her death a sign of sexism is getting a smack on the back of the head from me. That woman died BRAVELY. And it was HER act of bravery. Died far, far better than she ever lived, from what I can tell.

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  8. EXACTLY. And while Eden couldn't help what she was, she made a bad use of the deck that was dealt to her.
    But she COULD keep someone even more vile from using her powers. And she DID. "Cowards way out," my ever-lovin' ass! She was going to die either way, and she knew it, and she made the only right and proper choice. Awesomesauce.
    (I'd read the first comic you linked, but not the second. Good stuff.)

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  9. That's right. It was a very courageous self-sacrifice (even though Sylar would have killed her anyway).
    By denying Sylar mind-control, SHE saved the world more than Peter, Hiro, Niki, and Nathan did combined.

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  10. I think it kind of defies the point to look at the comparative numbers of male and female characters who die, instead of looking at percentages (also one of the flaws in some responses to the original WiR list). Any show that has a regular cast of twelve characters, of which only three are female. Of these three, two are white blondes (who live) and the only woman of color is also a non-powered individual who later dies -- after her character remained woefully undeveloped, despite being the central axis of the main hero's love triangle.
    I did note during the first season that D.L. was very much Niki's supporting character, rather than the other way around. However, Niki/Jessica's "multiple personality disorder" very clearly follows the Madonna/Whore dichotomy. Jessica is both sexual and violent; the two are inextricably linked. Niki is forced into stripping by debt. The situation might have been redeemed somewhat if Niki and D.L. had a positive sexual relationship as a married couple, but their marriage (such as it was) was completely sexless. Totally in the vein of sex = evil. Not deliberately, I think, but nonetheless.
    The show isn't beyond hope, and there's a lot about it that's good, but they need to do some serious cleaning in terms of female characters and characters of color (and, dare I say, queer characters, after the travesty with Zach).

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  11. Don't forget about Isaac. If it hadn't been for him, nobody would have known about how exactly to go about fighting the problem.

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  12. I think it kind of defies the point to look at the comparative numbers of male and female characters who die, instead of looking at percentages (also one of the flaws in some responses to the original WiR list).
    Agreed, and that was basically my point. You can't statistically analyze some things and expect a fair or accurate result without considering mitigating factors.
    That's why I said, at the end, that all these numbers are basically meaningless as statistics since you can look at individual incidents and see that they aren't WiR cases. Eden's death, for example, is a truly heroic act that only relates to a male character in that she is trying to stop an all-powerful maniac from becoming even more powerful.
    I did note during the first season that D.L. was very much Niki's supporting character, rather than the other way around. However, Niki/Jessica's "multiple personality disorder" very clearly follows the Madonna/Whore dichotomy. Jessica is both sexual and violent; the two are inextricably linked. Niki is forced into stripping by debt.
    Yes, but I think it works as a metaphor for how Western Society percieves women and whether or not Jessica is a seperate presence inside Niki's head (I still hold onto the idea that her twin sister might be living through her, somehow), Nikki and Jessica make literal the conflict a lot of women have regarding the balancing act of career and family and being a mother and a sexual being.
    I think Niki is quite definitely a motherly figure. Not just in how she makes Micah the center of her world but in how she reacts to the other characters. She seems to honestly want to comfort Nathan. She explains to Ando that the sex goddess on the screen he isn't really her. And while I don't think it's the case, I can understand her developing a Disassociative Personality to cope with the stress of missing her husband, making ends meet and dealing with the mob.
    The situation might have been redeemed somewhat if Niki and D.L. had a positive sexual relationship as a married couple, but their marriage (such as it was) was completely sexless. Totally in the vein of sex = evil. Not deliberately, I think, but nonetheless.
    Well, in fairness - when did we get a chance to see them interact as a normal couple? Apart from in the Six Months Ago episode, we don't, and even then they were too busy dealing with Niki's issues with her drunken, abusive father trying to get back into her life to, using the vernacular, "get freaky"?
    DL was home all of one night after escaping prison and there were cops outside watching the house who heard Niki talking to someone. I imagine they'd easily be able to hear the sounds of lovemaking as well. After that, DL and Micah went on the run because of Jessica and then Niki put herself in prison for a while. After she got out, Jessica seems to have taken over completely 24-7 and DL figured that out pretty quickly.
    Somehow, I doubt Jessica would have been a willing partner even if DL were the sort to try and get some loving while someone else is borrowing his wife's body.
    The show isn't beyond hope, and there's a lot about it that's good, but they need to do some serious cleaning in terms of female characters and characters of color (and, dare I say, queer characters, after the travesty with Zach).
    It looks like the new season is off to a good start. They've already confirmed that one of the new eads will be a Hispanic female and I know Kristen Bell is coming on to play a part for at least five episodes.

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  13. How did i miss this post. heh. good ones. But seriously I'm more worried about this coming season not living up to next season. I'm looking forward to Bell, but you make mention of the ethnic females. I know there are to be two. One of them is DL's cousin or Niece.
    I'm kind of stuck thinking about them as 'I'm ethnic I'm cool and edgy.' So I don't give a damn what they are, I want to give a damn about them as characters. I want to feel for them. I know I feel for the characters who were on the show, but new characters thrown in the mix.. oy they better figure it out quick or I'm going to be surly mcpouty.

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  14. Well, that's a valid concern too. We don't want the effort to create a more realistic or balanced cast to lead to Abercrombie and Finch faux diversity, i.e. we have one Black guy in the background.
    Or worse yet - Winickian Diversity. Which is, pretty much "I'm ethnic, I'm cool and edgy." Or "I have AIDS and I am living with it!"
    I'm not too woried though. One of the new female leads was the focus of the most recent Heroes On-Line comic and it looks like she's got one of the more interesting power concepts ever.

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