I was sitting in the otherwise empty house at night watching a show about serial killers when I decided, curiously enough, that I’d much rather write about a show about serial killers.
The show in question is Criminal Minds, which follows the gruesome adventures of the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit as they profile and hunt monstrous persons, picking up a fair bit of trauma and PTSD as they heroically but humanly make the world a slightly better place. I like it extremely, not least because it plays with gender-role stereotypes a lot and has, in the main cast of seven, three distinct female characters who talk to each other about things other than men.
I bring to your special attention the tenth episode of the third season, True Night, written and directed by Ed Bernero. Spoilers herein!
The episode is not only very obviously The Crow via Sin City, but features quite a bit of comics industry fun, including a guest star playing a comics writer, quotes from Frank Miller, and a signing at a store with some cutely dialoguing geeks.
It’s at that scene that my hackles went up in anticipation. One of my pet peeves is the way female fans and creators are so often made invisible by the industry, the academy, and mainstream media. Every time someone runs a story with the same wide-eyed, astonished headline ‘Look! Girls read/write comics!’ I growl. Yes! Amazing! It’s not like they’ve been doing it for decades!
I’m not arguing against bringing attention to women in the industry, but I’m annoyed by how often it’s presented as something new and astonishing, because it’s only shocking that it’s taking so long for people to notice. It really doesn’t help when the stereotype of the male comic book fan is constantly reiterated in the mainstream (usually as the butt of the joke) and the female fans scarcely get a look in.
So in the Criminal Minds comics store signing scene, I was at first encouraged by the episode’s inclusion of female fans lined up waiting for their idol. At the very least, it was a start. But the scene ended, and every comics insider with a speaking role fans, store owner, writer and agent was male.
‘Oh, show!’ I complained, and moved on.
But this story has a happy ending, because later it’s revealed that there is indeed a comics fan among the women featuring in that episode. She’s one of the main characters.
In fact, Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) is the team’s self-proclaimed ‘Oracle of Quantico’; a brilliant hacker who used to work outside the law and now works with it*. ‘Don’t tell me you’re a fan of this guy,’ one of her colleagues tells. ‘Oh my God, yes! He’s a genius!’ she returns, utterly unembarrassed. Later, she instructs the same colleague in the ways of Miller. She’s female, she’s a comics geek, and it’s not a big deal.
Oh, show!
