Lisa Paitz Spindler

I’m not sure what to say to the fact that I’ve never profiled Xena as a Danger Gal Friday. Maybe it’s that so much has already been written and said about her ground-breaking character that I wasn’t sure what I could add.

Xena: Warrior Princess blazed new ground for feminism and the acceptance of lesbianism. Not only is Xena a pop culture phenomenon for both reasons, but the show has influenced the emergence of other strong female characters, many of whom have been profiled on this site as Danger Gals. Via Salon:

“Xena” is credited by many, including “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator Joss Whedon, with blazing the trail for a wave of female action heroes: Buffy, Max of “Dark Angel,” Sydney Bristow of “Alias,” Starbuck in SciFi’s new “Battlestar Galactica” (in which Lawless guest-starred last week) and the Bride in Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill.” (Tarantino is an enthusiastic “Xena” fan: He talks about his love for this “really cool show” in an interview on the DVD of “Double Dare,” a recent documentary about Hollywood stuntwomen featuring “Xena” and “Kill Bill” double Zoë Bell.)

Many articles have already been written about Xena that I couldn’t possibly summarize it all in one blog post. Instead, here’s a list of some of my personal favorites:

• Xena: Feminist Icon by Suzanne Sheldon
• What we owe Xena by Cathy Young
• Xena: She’s Big, Tall, Strong – and Popular by Donna Minkowitz (Ms. Magazine)
• Xena in Love (Still Kicks Ass) by Jennifer Kesler (Hathor Legacy)

Please feel free to post links to your favorite articles about the Xena phenomenon or at least chime in with what the show meant to you.

This week’s Danger Gal Friday profiles Sydney Bristow from the TV series ALIAS. While writing last week’s profile on Evelyn Salt, I realized that I had never profiled Bristow. (I really thought I had already!)

Maybe the reason I have never profiled this character is because more often than not the show resorted to dressing Jennifer Garner not only in incredible disguises, but incredibly exploitive disguises. Even though I definitely enjoyed ALIAS, very often it seemed that Bristow’s MO was to distract with her sex appeal and it got old. In fact, that trope was old before ALIAS ever graced the airwaves. Hathor Legacy posted on this topic back in 2008 with a great shakedown of the tactic.

Despite that weakness, the show always primarily revolved around Syndey even when secondary characters had their own complicated lives (has anyone noticed how FRINGE has turned into All About Peter?) Also, Jennifer Garner stayed seriously in shape for this role, something I always thinks lends credibility to an action role.

Extremely intelligent, Bristow is highly-skilled in Krav Maga and speaks 30 languages. Her father is a CIA operative like herself and her mother, Irina Derevko, was an undercover KGB agent who faked her death to avoid capture by the FBI when Sydney was six. After a few years with the CIA, she was recruited into the black ops division SD-6 and reunited with dear old dad. During the show Sydney became involved with Michael Vaughn and in the last season of the show the two had a daughter, Isabelle. It was revealed that Sydney had been part of Project Christmas, a program designed to raise gifted children as sleeper agents to later be recruited by the CIA. The show suggested that Isabelle was also part of this program.

Overall and despite my few criticisms, I definitely enjoyed ALIAS and think that Sydney Bristow pushed forward the way we think about women and action-oriented characters in TV and movies.

Owen: “Make yourself useful, sweetheart, pass us the big chisel from the toolbox?”
Gwen: “Not sweetheart, Gwen. One syllable, sure you can manage it.”
Owen: “Not sweetcheeks? Freckles? New girl?”
Gwen: “It’s a shame your tool’s not big enough for the job. Darling.”

This week’s Danger Gal Friday profile is of Gwen Cooper from the BBC show and Dr. Who spin-off, Torchwood as portrayed by actress Eve Myles. Cooper comes to Torchwood after her South Wales Police officer investigative skills lead her to discovering the secret Cardiff branch of the Torchwood Institute. While often the “everyday man” member of the team, stand-in for the audience, and her obvious compassion, Cooper never loses her sharp edge and proves to be an asset to the team over and over again. Hathor Legacy sums up Cooper’s character nicely:

Despite being the conscience of the team, Gwen’s not a pushover. She can chase down a suspect with the best of them, is willing to use force, sticks to her convictions even when everybody with far more experience thinks she’s bonkers. Kindness and strength in one person. Kindness as strength. Gwen’s not a perfect person, but she’s a darn near perfect character.

Gwen handles much of the interviewing of witnesses and investigative work due to her previous experience as a police officer. Jack Harkness, head of the Cardiff Torchwood office, regards Cooper as the grounding force of his team, reminding everyone of their ties to humanity. One of the main themes of Cooper’s character is her struggle to maintain this humanity and her inability to reveal to Rhys Williams, her live-in fiance, the true nature of her work.

In dealing with the dangers she faces everyday as part of Torchwood, Cooper temporarily turns intimately to fellow teammember Owen Harper. Harper, an all-around unlikable character, offers Cooper the company of someone who understands what she faces each day, but without any real emotional attachments. While their relationship is ultimately a short-lived mistake, Cooper does not face any Scarlet Letter moments with Rhys afterward. In my opinion, Cooper does lose part of the humanity Jack admires about her when she gives Rhys the amnesia pills after confessing to him, but the secret is hers alone to bear without any kind of global aftereffects. It’s refreshing to see this approach — i.e., in shows of the supranatural type, I’ve often seen female characters engage in some sort of “dishonorable” or “unheroic” behavior to only shortly afterward face some sort of vital personal and global threat, as if the fate of the whole world were somehow tied to their personal honor or to whom they slept with. Not so on this show, in Torchwood Cooper’s indiscretion has only personal repercussions, not global ones. In fact, Cooper took control of the situation and broke off her affair with Harper instead of becoming the stereotypical jilted woman. She’s permitted to be an imperfect person and to make mistakes.

Cooper never stops thinking with both her heart and her head, and we often see her as a formidable debater with Jack and the other members of the team. She stands her ground often and despite being a newbie to the group, continually demonstrates her marked contribution to the team. Cooper is also the first member of the team to learn of Jack’s secret inability to die.

Quote found via the The To Be Human Gwen Cooper Fanlisting.

This week’s Danger Gal Friday profile examines the Battlestar Galactica character of Lt. Sharon “Athena” Agathon.

Athena is a Number Eight humanoid Cylon. I’ve deliberately chosen to profile the Athena version of Number Eight as opposed to the Lt. Junior Grade Sharon “Boomer” Valerii version, even though the two share many of the same memories and experiences. While Boomer was a sleeper Cylon agent who tried to assassinate Galactica Commander Adama, Athena’s main mission was originally to procreate with a human male. Not a particular terrific trait for a Danger Gal, you might be wondering, but Athena has proven that she’s much more than her programming.

In common with Boomer, Athena is a Raptor pilot, a multipurpose military spacecraft similar in purpose to the U.S. Navy’s EA-6 Prowler, but designed after the U.S. Army’s Apache helicopter. According to Wikipedia, a Raptor:

. . . scouts ahead of the fleet and it accompanies Vipers and provides targeting information and electronic counter measures (akin to the EA-6B Prowler). Raptors can also carry external munitions to assist Vipers against large targets. Its non-combat roles include SAR (search and rescue) operations (akin to the SH-60 Sea Hawk) and transport of military personnel in hostile areas. Raptors, unlike Vipers, are capable of short-range FTL jumps. They are also capable of atmospheric operations. Standard crew includes a pilot and electronics countermeasure officer (ECO)

Other Cylon models have said that the Number Eight is flawed, when in fact Athena seems to be the only one able to find some balance in, as Hathor Legacy points out, the overly-emotional nature of the humanoid Cylons. They all seem to go to extremes, but unlike all the others Athena has a purpose, and it’s that function which enables her to find her way out of the Cylon emotional morass. First, her purpose is simple: procreate. That purpose becomes complicated when Athena actually falls for her intended mate, Lt. Karl “Helo” Agathon, whom she eventually convinces that her feelings are true. Athena’s sense of purpose begins with self-preservation, but radiates out in an ever-widening circle as she begins to become more accepted in the Galactica ranks.

After first wanting only to avoid being “boxed” by her fellow Cylons, Athena then finds a purpose with Helo, then finds a purpose through protecting her daughter Hera. These personal initiatives expand when she chooses the call-sign Athena and begins to find purpose in protecting the crew of the Galactica and finally the fate of the human race. Intentionally or not, this is an interesting metaphor for a growing maturity. When we’re young we think only of ourselves, as we age that concern moves outward. From this perspective, the epithet “Athena,” the goddess of wisdom and war, seems appropriate.

After a long struggle, Athena is valued not just for her ability to procreate, but as a partner and protector as well. It’s important to note, as contentgrrl does, that these latter two achievements came after she became a mother, contrary to many stories where once married or giving birth a female character isn’t so valued. A similar and refreshing comparison is Stargate: Atlantis’ character of Teyla, whose Wraith communication abilities actually become more powerful with approaching motherhood.