"Poker Face" vs "Thelma & Louise"

[Hopscotch]

Curious to know what romance writers think of these comments:

From “Natasha Lyonne soars in ‘Poker Face.’ If only the mysteries did,” Washington Post, Feb 2, 2023

In discussing “how unavailable the ultra-American thrill of being on the road was to women” in the late 1960s, the article points out how the lead character Charlie in Peac*ck’s new mystery series Poker Face “encounters no such difficulty. The world is not against her. She is neither disciplined nor punished, and her past doesn’t torment her overmuch….[She] achieves, in spades, what male figures in this sort of role can generate more easily: an appealingly casual combination of openness, slouchiness, curiosity and charm that doesn’t lead to sexual violence or even (in most cases) sexual interest.

“The pleasure of watching Charlie move through the world unvexed is no accident. [Lead actress Natasha] Lyonne told the New York Times she admired ‘female filmmakers where it doesn’t feel like she was hemmed in by this necessity of telling “a girl’s story.”’ There’s a plea in there — not for genderlessness, exactly, but for a freedom of narrative movement that femaleness, as conventionally written, impairs.”

[The Bass Bagwhan]

"Slouchiness" and "genderlessness" ... terms like that make me question the idiotness of the writer.

[Crystal]

I haven't seen Poker Face, but it sounds like the writer is saying:

It's great to see a female-led mystery series that is a mystery series, first. People aren't constantly reacting the the lead as a female detective but as a detective.

A lot of content with women leads is ABOUT the experience of being a woman. Content with male leads is not usually restricted this way. And when male-lead movies, books, TV shows, are very much about masculinity (Breaking Bad, Mad Men), they are considered "for everyone."

Masculinity is a topic that applies to everyone. Femininity is a niche.

Similarly, we see this in the way genres are discussed. Without fail (please let me know if you have an exception), when genre TV is elevated to "prestige," it is a genre that is not considered feminine. Usually, it's a genre that is explicitly or historically masculine. The Last of Us (zombies / horror). Breaking Bad (crime). The Sopranos (mafia). The Wire (crime/ cops). Cause stuff for/about men is for everyone. And stuff about women is for women, and people don't take that content seriously.

As for the show itself, sometimes I want a more gender neutral experience, sometimes not. It's nice to have the option.

[LilyBLily]

My favorite gender-neutral movie genre is "blowing things up." Die Hard isn't really gender neutral at all, of course, but I do love action movies. My inner tomboy yearns for adventure--and not romantic adventure at all. In my childhood I dreamed of being Maid Marian dressed as a pageboy to slip out of one castle and into another and warn Robin Hood of danger. I can still see the colors on the page of my storybook illustrating her daring deed.