On Jessica Jones and Writing Powerful Women

Don't worry, there's no spoilers.

So if you're like me, by now you've probably watched through the entire second season of Jessica Jones in a blurry, emotional binge-watching marathon when you probably should have been doing other things. Like going to the gym. Or working. Or showering.

But why be healthy when you can watch Krysten Ritter portray the most unhealthy, damaged Marvel superhero to ever hit the screen? I don't know about other people, but for me, when I get invested in a show, I start to inherit some of the personalities of my favorite characters, almost unconsciously. I found myself, during my short breaks from this Netflix bender, walking around the house with a cup of water in my hand that I was treating like a glass of whisky--swirling it around, holding it by the rim with my fingertips while dramatically staring out the window. (Well, dramatically staring out the window is actually pretty normal for me.) So maybe it's better that I get the series over and done with before I pick up too many bad habits. 

(Don't worry, I'm a child, I'd pick fruit juice over booze any day.)

But there's a reason that I'm so invested in Jessica's story, and it's because it has something we don't see in a lot of mainstream entertainment: Powerful women. I don't mean to say that there aren't other powerful female characters out there, but I rarely come across a show that has so many crammed into it: from Jessica's incredible strength and resilience, to Jeri Hogarth's clever and cutthroat business acumen, to Trish's moral immovability and dedication to helping others--and so many more. Even the minor characters and the extras are often powerful women! Many bit parts that, in any other series, would go to a guy are often filled instead by women of color and sometimes queer women. Landlords, bartenders, shop workers, delivery people--all these one-line parts are filled by female actors who look like real people. Not models who have been done up to look like a porcelain doll, but women of all shapes, shades, and sizes.

Beyond that, these characters also have something that so many writers have trouble putting into their female characters. These women are flawed. And I'm not talking about flawed as in "I'm not pretty enough!" or "What if I don't get married someday?" I mean relatable, heart-wrenching issues that so many women deal with every day and that are talked about so little: mental illness, rape, PTSD, alcoholism, anxiety, drug addiction, sex addiction, abusive families, abusive relationships...the list goes on. Sometimes the women in this show are the victims, sometimes they are the perpetrators. They are not all good people, and they shouldn't be. That's the point. Women are versatile, complex, and they exist on all the same societal levels that men do.

What I think many male writers have trouble with is the concept of separating the gender from the character. I had a friend once who asked me about a scene he was working on where a female heroine was trying to get past a male guard, so she tried flirting with him to have her way. He asked me if this was a sexist thing to have her do. I responded with a simple question, "If you were writing this scene with a male hero, would you have him attempt the same thing?" He admitted he would not. And therein lies the answer: really, most of the time, all you have to do to write a female character is to swap pronouns. And if you were to swap the genders of all the main characters in Jessica Jones, you would find yourself with something much more akin to what most Marvel superhero movies are like nowadays: A troubled male lead, a female secretary with rose-tinted glasses that the hero was able to save, an insecure male sidekick who just wants to be as cool as the hero himself, a cunning male lawyer who only operates in the gray area...

To me, and to a lot of other people, that's pretty boring. It's played out.

There are so many things to talk about with Jessica Jones, and I'll probably get to those sometime. But this--the inclusion of complicated and diverse female characters--this is the thing that helps me get out of bed in the morning. This is what I emulate when I walk around the house talking like a P.I. and doing shots of apple juice. These are the characters I'd love to write and direct and play. This is what I've been waiting for.

This is what we need.