Original Air Date: October 11, 2007. Official CW episode description:
“AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL WINNER EVA MARCILLE GUEST STARS — Kara (Laura Vandervoort) desperately wants to make friends and fit in on Earth, but Clark (Tom Welling) tells her to keep a low profile until she can get her powers under control. Despite his warnings, when the “Miss Sweet Corn” beauty pageant comes around, Kara signs up and meets the competition – Tyler (Eva Marcille), Carly (Elisa King) and Tempest (Christine Chatelain) – three meteor-infected vixens who plan to use their powers to steal a treasure map to the hidden Smallville time capsule. After Tyler witnesses Kara using her powers, the girls pretend to be her friends, but are really planning to use her for their devious plan.”
I can’t believe that the first Kara-centric episode Smallville gives us is about superpowered “mean girls” competing in a beauty pageant. Un-frikkin-believable.
This episode demonstrates once again that the (nearly-all male) creative staff on Smallville despise women and are ridiculously lazy. The gender stereotypes were positively flying in this episode. After six years, they’re still writing women as hackneyed, misogynist stereotypes rather than as people. Sure didn’t take them long to get Supergirl into a bikini, did it? Is there a regular female cast member whom they haven’t stripped down to her underwear (or less) in a creepy and exploitative scene?
I can’t decide which bothers me more about episodes like “Fierce”: the horrible gender myths they perpetuate, or the fact that real women are being exploited to make them. Female actors deserve better, and so do viewers.
Supergirl and beauty pageants?
that seems so lame to me. she’s a superhero, why not have her investigate something, kick evil guy/woman butts. *sighs in frustration*
I was pretty sad to see Kara’s first attempt to fit in here on Earth by being in a beauty pageant. “Fierce” is the first episode of Smallville I have seen in a while. Mostly I was interested to see the Supergirl character and how they would treat her. I like that she is independent, and is emotionally vulnerable like when those beauty pageant villains were mean to her. But I dislike that the show put Kara’s sexuality as the important thing in this episode. I really would have liked to have seen more of her saving Jimmy when he was frozen. I was dissapointed to see Kara rip the door off the car, and then the show cuts to the hospital scene. Did Kara fly Jimmy there or was he driven there? This would have been a great hero moment! I would really like to see more of that kind of thing for Kara on Smallville. But I understand that the show seems to be going with the whole dark/ edgy Kara and the “Kara must kill Clark” story from the comic books. I grew up with Helen Slater’s positive, heroic, and hopeful version of Supergirl so I guess it is hard to accept Laura as Supergirl. Hopefully Kara will get more hero moments, and learn from mistakes if she makes them (Tony Bedard’s Supergirl). I do like that the show wants to have Kara learn to use her powers and come into her own person on HER terms rather than Clark’s. We just need to see less sexuality and more heroics!
“I like that she is independent, and is emotionally vulnerable like when those beauty pageant villains were mean to her.”
I don’t understand why being emotionally vulnerable is such an interesting or positive thing for a female character. It’s not like women are normally portrayed as being unemotional. This description comes up often enough as a notable character trait for women that I notice whenever someone mentions it: Laura Vandervoort said that about Kara in an intereview, which means it’s one of the character traits the show’s creators are pushing. Tellingly, they don’t make a point of saying Clark is emotionally vulnerable (in fact, he’s becoming increasingly repressed – the fact that he refused to let himself cry or show much emotion at all over Lana’s death was disturbing, not heroic, to me). Yet it’s seen as a good thing for *female* heroes to be open to attack/capable of being wounded (which is the meaning of vulnerable), because being emotionally resilient is…a bad thing?
Personally I was annoyed that Kara was hurt by the comments of a couple of “humans”. There’s no reason to believe she’s been brought up to be insecure in that way. It would have been a lot more interesting if she had completely missed the power play going on and just barrelled on thru, never catching on that they were trying to put her down.
“I was dissapointed to see Kara rip the door off the car, and then the show cuts to the hospital scene. Did Kara fly Jimmy there or was he driven there?”
I didn’t notice that, but I think it’s related to Clark’s command to Kara that she not fly (like he’s got any right to make that arbitrary rule). It seems to me like a cheat so they can avoid putting money into flying scenes for her. I bet that’s the reason they failed to show anything more interesting than her ripping off the door: they’re trying to keep down costs. I don’t think it’s the right place to cut corners myself, but compared to shows like Stargate Atlantis, Smallville doesn’t seem to have a very big SFX budget.
In general I like to see both male and female heroes be emotional every now and then. But I understand your point about female characters being portrayed as emotional though as the “norm”. I did not mean to imply that female characters showing emotion was a good thing, and them being emotionally resilient is a bad thing. Of course it is great to see emotional resilence in female heroes! Like I said before I have not seen any Smallville episodes before “Fierce”, but if Clark did not cry over Lana’s death then something is wrong there. It is human to cry sometimes after all. All characters should be able to do this regardless of gender. What counts I believe is what the hero does afterwards. Do they continue to feel sorry for themselves or do they rise up to meet the occasion? Kara went on to save Jimmy and saved Clark from the two villains. But I can see your point about being annoyed that Kara was hurt by the comments of a few humans.
A good example of a male hero showing emotion I believe is in Batman Begins when Bruce tells Alfred as Wayne Manor is burning that he failed Gotham and his parents. Then Alfred tells Bruce that the reason we fall is so we can pick ourselves up. I love it when Bruce then says to Alfred “You’ve never given up on me have you?” Then, of course, Batman goes on to save Gotham.
Just like in the comics, I wonder why Supergirl would act like this when she’s born and raised on Krypton? :\
She seemed perfectly intelligent and independent and confident in her first appearance why is she now so insecure? :(
I blame Clark and raising her on TV >:|
I agree Michelle :( Why is it “good” when female heroes show how emotionally vulnerable they are? As if if they didn’t show that they were “just like any other self conscious eomtionally vulnerably girl” somehow it would make them too scary as heroes. Like OMG A CONFIDENT HEROIC WOMAN RUN FOR THE HILLS!
Too unrealistic. *tsk tsk*
XD
Yes! It’s like if you don’t remark on a woman’s beauty and her emotional vulnerability, she’s unwomanly. Which really means she’s indistinguishable from a man. It’s modern wording, so no one really thinks about what it means,* but it’s just a fancy new way of saying what Superman said in 1959, “At heart, she’s as gentle and sweet and is quick to tears – as any ordinary girl!” *gag*
*Not picking on you here John, because someone else would have said it if you hadn’t.
No problem… I really don’t feel like I’m being picked on here… I think your right when you say somebody else would have talked about “emotional vulnerability”. But I hope you also read my response from 10/17/07 before you wrote again.
I don’t believe I or other men of the current age have much in common with the 1950s male perspective that girls should be gentle, sweet, and quick to tears as stated from the Superman quote. The Supergirl character to me is about courage, dedication to justice, saving the day, kindness, hope, and believing in yourself. Kara’s true power is within herself rather than those Super powers. If she did not believe in herself she could not be the amazing hero she is or want to use her Super abilities for good purposes. I have been told, however, by some that this is “Superman in a skirt” rather than a distinct character from Superman. I think of Kara as being a teenager with a sense of adventure and heroism while Clark is more of a by the book kind of guy.
Anyways, to get back to the subject of “emotional vulnerability”… I’m reminded of the difference versus equality debate from my U.S. Women’s History course I took last semester. Do we view women as totally equal to men? Or are women naturally different from men and have different needs/ legal status? How do we define equal anyways? Do we take male legal standards and apply them to women? Or do we change the legal standards to a “size fits all” system? We could, of course, recognize the differences and still have equality. Let everyone have the chance to experience their full humanity. And get rid of all the stereotypes that hinder equality such as that women have to be pretty and quick to tears. Kara may be beautiful, but that is not what the character is really about. The Girl of Steel can be heroic and be not afraid to show her feelings. I believe that is what I wanted to express in my first post: that Kara is not afraid to show her feelings. I grew up with the masculine model that “men never show emotion” or that “real men shake hands rather than hug”. My mom really was better at expressing her feelings. Growing up I never thought of that as weak but strong. And I have been influenced more by her example rather than my dads example.
I hope I have not dug myself into a deeper hole here. Another thing I learned in Women’s history is that feminists can disagree with one another as evidenced from the 1977 National Women’s Conference (Sisters of ’77 film).
But I hope you also read my response from 10/17/07 before you wrote again.
I read everybody’s comments =) I don’t always comment on them, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t read them or find them interesting. I didn’t find anything to disagree with in your follow-up comment. My follow-up comment was addressed to Ami and not you. We were discussing a larger trend of praising heroic women’s emotional vulnerability and not your comment in particular, which is why I wanted to point out that I wasn’t picking on you. Your comment simply provided an opportunity to discuss something that crops up a lot in describing female characters, which I find to be odd. There seem to be different criteria for what makes someone “heroic” depending on their gender.
The Girl of Steel can be heroic and be not afraid to show her feelings. I believe that is what I wanted to express in my first post: that Kara is not afraid to show her feelings.
That’s fine, and I understand that.
I’m more interested by the frequency with which female heroes are described primarily in terms of their physical appearance and their emotional sensitivity. This episode of Smallville was all about that, which is a very telling choice for their first Kara-centered episode. In the episode they equate Kara’s desire to enter the beauty pageant (which she wins for being pretty and nice, and not too competitive) with Clark’s desire to be on the football team (star quarterback, I think she said), while completely ignoring the huge gender differences.
Anyways, to get back to the subject of “emotional vulnerabilityâ€â€¦ I’m reminded of the difference versus equality debate from my U.S. Women’s History course I took last semester.
Carol Tavris has some very interesting things to say on that topic in The Mismeasure of Woman: Why Women are not the Better Sex, Inferior Sex or Opposite Sex.