Written by Robin Hitchcock.
This review contains spoilers for Daredevil and some graphic images of violence against women.
The new Netflix original series Daredevil, about Marvel’s blind defense-attorney-by-day-vigilante-by-night Matt Murdock, surprised me. It’s extremely different from the other Marvel Studios properties, the MCU films and the broadcast television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Agent Carter. First, it has the “dark, edgy” tone normally associated with Warner Bros. DC movies, particularly the Nolan Batman films. Second, it is really, REALLY violent (like, graphic decapitations violent) in a way that Marvel’s PG-13 movies cannot be. Finally, Daredevil is almost a complete disaster when it comes to its female characters. Marvel’s track record with female characters isn’t perfect, but I’ve come to expect much better than what we get here.
The first woman we meet on Daredevil is Karen Page, the most prevalent if not necessarily the most important female character from the source comics. Karen Page is a notorious example of women being treated horribly in comics, with Frank Miller writing an arc where she’s addicted to drugs and “tragically” became a porn star, and Kevin Smith later fridging her and then having himself drawn into her funeral. She does better in this series, but that’s not saying much.
In the first episode of Daredevil, Karen is set up for murder in a complicated cover-up that’s tied into all the series’ other complicated criminal ongoings (which are hard to keep track of even when marathoning the episodes). Do-gooding lawyer noobs Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson take on her case, and protect her from all the bad guys who want to kill her, with legal jujitsu as well as the actual kind from Matt in his masked vigilante alter ego that will become Daredevil. They take her on as their assistant, so she can continue to be imperiled.
In the comics, she’s a love interest of Matt’s, but many of the early episodes give her nothing more to do than be made goo goo eyes at by Foggy. (Nearly every female recurring character on this show is a love interest for someone.) Later, Karen is given “something to do” as she conducts her own investigation of the Kingpin alongside journalist Ben Urich. Naturally, this makes her a damsel in distress once again, but at least she’s given the opportunity to save herself.
Next up is Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson), a nurse who drags a half-dead Matt out of a dumpster and tends to his wounds. Their relationship grows because Matt loses and a lot of fights and falls out of a lot of buildings and regularly needs patching up. But it only takes a couple of episodes before she’s kidnapped, beaten up, and rescued by Matt. Who she’s falling in love with, which makes no sense (I mean, dude is fine, but he’s also seems to be pretty much wrecking her life). Claire peaces out for pretty much the rest of the season, probably because Rosario Dawson was too expensive to have in many episodes. The role is really a waste of her talents.
The third and final female character in the main cast is Ayelet Zurer’s Vanessa, the romantic interest of the Kingpin, Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). I can’t decide if I should call Vanessa “complicated” or just “confusing.” I really do not understand why she falls for Fisk, and grows closer to him the more she learns about his criminal lifestyle. Vanessa feels more like a construct designed to humanize Fisk than a character in her own right. And of course she also functions to give Fisk angst when she inevitably ends up in a hospital bed, because this show sure does love its damsels in distress.
The minor female characters continue the depressing trends: Elena, a friendly elderly client of Nelson & Murdock, is murdered to draw out Daredevil. Evil drug dealer Madam Gao is one of two villainous East Asian characters who just happen to be martial arts experts. And Ben Urich has a dying wife, because not only violence imperils the women our male heroes love, but also the cruel fates of sickness and natural death!
And to answer your burning question, no, there’s no Elektra. (Not even a teaser in a post-credits scene, which I was suspecting we’d get at the very least.) I guess they’re saving her for season two.
Ultimately, I still enjoyed Daredevil enough to watch the whole season in two days (it helped that I’m nursing a cold and didn’t feel up to much more than curling up in front of the TV). But I’m terribly let down by its treatment of women, and hope Netflix’s forthcoming Marvel series do much better.
Robin Hitchcock is a writer based in Pittsburgh who actually liked the Ben Affleck Daredevil movie, so you should possibly disregard all of her opinions about everything, ever.
I’ve always had huge issue with Frank Miller’s treatment of women, it seen at its most awful in 300 where he bastardizes history in the name of sexism and having very little understanding of how real sexual dynamics worked in Sparta as in the true history men and women grew up as equals and any man who tried to rape a woman would have his face cut up and publicly shamed by the rest of city. Also add to this that the oracle of delphi was not some overly beautiful woman there for the sexual pleasure of inbreds to use and screw she was a really powerful historical figure respected by her male counterparts and treated with the up most respect. Miller and Steve Moore both have issues in how they portray women, but Moore tended to try harder and listened to issues brought up where as Miller is arrogant and I find it sad that his ideas have shifted to the small screen.
Frank Miller is basically a nightmare when it comes to women. He did create Elektra, and I loved his run on Daredevil, but when I read it I was a wee babe who wasn’t nearly the jaded feminist I am today, especially when it comes to comics, so I can’t be sure I’d still like it.
Its interesting you say that because i’ve had the same issues growing up and finally embracing feminism, some things of my childhood I find I like more and even look at in a completely different light and some things I find I hate and don’t cherish the way I did in my my teens, because I see them for what they are outward and overly sexist, also sometimes its hard to enjoy media and striking a balance can be hard at times..
Haha, you’re deluded. You’re the one whose spoon fed all this feminist lies about history. Men and women weren’t equal in the past. How could they be? One needed strength and intelligence to survive, so men did the surviving and women did the leeching. In the contemporary world, the government gives women subventions for every enterprise, while it doesn’t provide men with anything. So, even women (weak and, well, less intelligent) prosper in this contemporary world. You are PLOTICALLY equal, but you are not equal when it comes to the faculties of human beings. Know the difference. And stop spreading lies about the history. Even Viking women had utmost respect for men.
Oh. So you’re just a male supremacist then. How limited.
Troll trolltrolltroll TROLLL.
Yep. I liked the show but that thing bothered me since the first chapter
Wow, I saw Karen completely different than this writer did.
“Do-gooding lawyer noobs Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson take on her case, and protect her from all the bad guys who want to kill her”
This is where I wonder if the writer even saw the show or got mad after reading an article by someone else who didn’t see the show. Karen is attacked in prison and SAVES HERSELF. I won’t even address the lack of logic required to think that a woman needing a lawyer=damsel in distress. Is she supposed to be her own lawyer? When Foggy comes to her defense when Karen is attacked later in the show and discovers that Foggy was stalking her, Karen calls him out on it and tells him she can take care of herself. When Foggy does make goo goo eyes, Karen makes it clear that she’s not romantically interested. Immediately after that, the show gives Foggy a love interest that is clearly using Foggy for sex rather than the other way around. Later, when Kingpin’s second in command captures Karen, she gets the drop on him and shoots his ass stone cold dead. I guess the writer of this article didn’t get that far into the show.
I do agree that Dawson’s nurse character Claire is less well written but not as bad as this critic makes it seem. Claire is basically Daredevil’s Jiminy Cricket. But she proves herself just as badass as Daredevil when she uses her medical knowledge to help Daredevil torture a child kidnapper. When Claire is captured and tortured herself, it’s more a statement about the consequences of her indulging in torture herself, a price that all the other characters also pay. Also, does she whimper and plead for her life? No, she laughs in her captures faces.
As to Madam Gao, how this writer frames a female crime lord who actually frightens and intimidates the main villain AND is a martial artist who can take care of herself as a bad thing is simply astounding. Either a female character can take care of herself or she’s a damsel, the writer can’t have it both ways. Gao has complete agency throughout the entire series. Which, again, makes me wonder if the writer of this “critique” even saw the entire show.
As to Vanessa, she projects power and Kingpin is drawn to that. Is it so odd that a woman might also be drawn to power? Vanessa is flawed and, in effect, a villain herself by buying into Kingpin’s criminal vision for the city. We can’t have flawed women on tv shows now?
It’s too bad this article misrepresents rather than informs.
I just rewatched the show and I think Karen goes through a lot of changes that sort of put her in the same path as Dare Devil, however, I do think that most women in the show fall to a passive roll.
It’s more than fair to say that the series had some seriously flat, stereotypical characters, and I was just amazed at how little it seemed to care to update the old characters and tropes to avoid criticism. I mean all the Asian characters being martial arts experts, “the Russians” and “the Italians” being used as shorthand for “faceless bad men,” Fisk’s abusive father, etc.
That said, I agree. This post seems to be really stretching the definition of “damsel in distress” or outright confusing it with “female character under any kind of duress.” When Karen’s in peril and saves herself, the author sees it as an example of a damsel in distress. Somehow further, when Claire saves Matt, and then in turn Matt saves her, she is a damsel when she requires saving. It seems by the standard of this article, if after his ridiculous martial arts battles, Matt had been a woman being “patched up” by a man, she would be a “damsel” in this context.
“Naturally, this makes her a damsel in distress once again, but at least she’s given the opportunity to save herself.” If she saves herself, is she not by definition not a damsel in distress? I just don’t understand what this phrase means in this context. The author is ultimately arguing that the men can get in trouble, but when the women do, the show is guilty of something.
Murdock saves a lot of women, and mostly women are portrayed as the victims of mostly men, and this it problematic. I thought if they wanted a really bold solution, they could have simply flipped the genders of Foggy and Karen, but I can see a ton of reasons they wouldn’t want to do that. Still, I think this criticism suffers from some serious confirmation bias and cherry picking. A woman under duress (and even being saved by a man) is not automatically a “damsel in distress.” This lack of nuance used to paint all these women as “damsels” just weakens perfectly valid criticisms.
First episode of Daredevil (all female characters except Ms Gao):
1. A group of women who are obviously being trafficked for sex because they’re all young and beautiful. (Sex objects.)
2. Dumb real estate woman (but still slightly attractive) seen through male gaze as a bit of a toy. She seems attracted to Matt for no reason. (Sex object.)
3. Karen – damsel in distress the whole way through. For some reason needs to get soaking wet twice, then strips in front of Matt. (Helpless and sex object.) My personal belief is that a woman would change in private regardless of whether a person is blind because it’s built into us. Our culture shows men view women as little more than breasts so we have to modest (or if we’re not modest, we’re sluts.)
4. Final woman at end of show who discovered the dead prison guard – just happens to be doing a load of LAUNDRY!! (Stereotype.)
This show had better improve. I’m sick of the same bloody crap over and over, and I’m sick of casual sexism being okay.
I think that using the damsel in distress trope is a go-to cliche to help humanise the male hero and give him the impetus to do heroic-y things.
I mean, its fine and all and sometimes it’s ok to use (and to flip the genders too) but it sure does get dull when it’s used 6 or 7 times in a season or every couple of episodes.
Writers need to get creative and write themselves out of this hole that writers since words were first written created. It’s time guys and gals of screenwrittey-land. Use it but don’t abuse it.
I went in expecting gratuitous female nudity and sexual violence, so I was pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t present. The lure to be “edgy” pretty much means that. So I forgot to even critique the charavters because they weren’t nude and being raped. Great low bar eh. But then when Dawson wasn’t in it – like at all – I was all WTF.
As for Vanessa; I actually loved her and understood her. Considering the field she works in, she’s got a thing for rich, powerful people who are also artistic. Fisk is all that. And D’inofrio is a sexy man, really charismatic and he exudes power in this role. I loved than Vanessa was attracted to the King of the Underworld, wanting to be the Persephone to his Hades. We rarely see a female character non-plused by that sort of lifestyle, but in fact attracted to it in an empowering way. And Fisk was very clear about his dislike for gendered violence, so ya….I totally got her. Just wanted more of her.
I found this show to be horrendously feminist. The freaking Kingpin, who controls everything and everyone fears him, is nervous when talking to a woman. Karen Page survives a strangulation attempt. Not even a buff, strong man would be able to survive that, since the human body loses strength rapidly in that situation, which means that she, being just a woman, would be dead in seconds. And they’re not killing, nor torturing women. Claire is tortured off-screen, then shown as bloodied. I wanted to see her tortured. On the other side of the coin, however, men are killed and broken like toys, their bones jutting out, and that Russian was getting his head smashed in for some 3 minutes of fucking screen time. Why don’t we see women beaten in that way?
So, please tell me again what the actual FUCK more do you want from this show? Next you’ll be criticizing if they show a woman urinating while sitting. I really do hate you all.
I’m sorry, you’re terribly off.
-Just because a man admits he is nervous about talking to a woman does not this show a ‘feminist series’ make when, as the author said, her role as a character is to bring out the humanity in this male character. That’s not a person, that’s a device.
-Karen survives because she goes limp and pretends to have died. If you are insinuating this series is feminist because the writers granted her “extra tough neck muscles”, that’s ridiculous.
-The fact that women enter this series merely as counterparts to men is un-feminist enough. We don’t need to see them being tortured to see that their characters devolve into damsels who need to be rescued by their male counterparts. Our male heroes get in fights and win or lose. The women are dragged into situations and then need to get saved. Even when Karen and Foggy are thrown by the aftershock of an explosion, Karen stands there looking clueless with a dishrag while Foggy declares he’s going off to “help others”.
So. You ask what we WANTED. What I wanted from the show when Claire appeared was for her to continue being knowledgable and helpful without ever being a love interest. She could be the rock! The problem solver! She keeps talking about how much she believes in DD’s motives and then she’s up on the roof wearing a hood with eyeholes… oh wow is she going to become a masked hero, too? Cool!
No. She just gets captured, then kissy, then immediately starts talking about being in love, cries, and then disappears. I don’t care if you’re “not a feminist”, that’s some lazy freaking writing.
What I wanted when I met Vanessa was a really sly villain. I wanted her to slither in and know what she was getting in to, or for her to have her own underground gang, or i don’t know, for her to be a masked karate vigilante by night too or ANYTHING.
But no, I guess she’s just lookin for love in the wrong places. She risks being around a “dangerous man” (her words) because ooh she’s just so magnetized by his charms. Cause ladies are all about love, right?
Speaking of which, it’s widely recognized these days that more often than not, if you get two female characters together on screen they’ll be written to just talk about men or love or their relationships. And again, WE’VE SEEN IT. Sexist but also lazy writing. So:
We meet a weird lawyer lady with big hair in the 5th episode, right? Oh and there’s Karen on screen! For the first time, two lady characters important to the plot are standing next to each other. Maybe the lawyer lady will try to recruit Karen! Maybe Karen will say something detrimental to the case? Maybe the lady will be a complicated person?
No. The scene was just an excuse for Karen to meet an ex lover of Foggy’s. Not to mention we meet an old woman who seems strong and kind but really just serves as a device to get Foggy and Karen together for their first “date”.
Again, besides being noticeably un-feminist that is some LAZY writing.
Jeez. I’m not even getting started. Why is DD so flawless? He is a PERFECT person. When Karen or Claire show some initiative he always knows better. Heck, even when Karen translates some Spanish for the team it turns out he was fluent the whole time.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with having a talented “good guy” in a show. But lord, even when Claire stands out for having medical training he can patch her up just as well as she can patch HIM up! Well JEEZ, who needs knowledge or talent with a guy like him around? Good thing the writers gave the male characters personalities or they’d be as useless as the women in this series. Too bad the series couldn’t afford it’s female characters some essential traits. AMIRIGHT?
Ok, I won’t nitpick every single point you’ve made, just one obvious conclusion I could make. And that is that you’ve never been in a situation that needed immediate action (though I’m pretty convinced that you will claim as such to augment your argument). I, on the other hand, have been in such situations, and what I’m about to say is FACT. In almost every situation there were different women involved. Whenever some emergency sprouted, women always started screaming and covering their eyes, and/or running away or behind their men. But men were the ones who would jump to their feet, assess the situation and act in a split second. Only ONCE (and this has nothing to do with acting in an emergency to help someone) did I witness a woman (tall woman) physically attacking a man (much shorter and smaller than her), and he beat her up (other men saving her from hospital). When the police came, she started lying that he had started it and using the obvious “he hit a woman” defence. Absolutely hideous. Only in television have I seen women as capable. Deal with the real life and stop badgering us with fallacies.
Your experience is but a tiny slice of reality. If you’re going to claim that you personally can attest to all women being weak cowards then you sir, are nothing but a generalizing bigot. To say you know the hearts of the entire other half of the population as though their genitalia dictates who they are and what they “do”; that isn’t wisdom. THAT is a fallacy.
It doesn’t even matter what I do in dangerous situations because I don’t represent the woman standing next to me. Women are just people and it’s time to stop generalizing, guy.
Genitalia doesn’t dictate what people do. There are many other factors, so stop simplifying. And why are people so afraid of generalizing? It means that a MAJORITY of people behave in a certain way. The minority does not matter.
Yep, you’re right. Genitalia doesn’t matter. So what’s left to judge a person and their actions by? Their moral constitution, right? Generalizing is wrong because you can’t possibly know the moral constitution of half the earth’s population.
Your account of all women cowering in times of danger is completely the opposite of my experience. So, who’s right? The only thing to do is stop generalizing and accept that women are people, and people’s hearts differ.
If you’ve only ever met women who act a certain way, it is because you’ve limited yourself somehow. Maybe you’ve put on blinders due to some deep resentment. If you want to see people for who they are and what they’re capable of stop generalizing and forget your prejudice.
You’re too liberal to see what’s really going on.
You’re too biased to see what’s really going on.
I’ve run headlong into a dangerous confrontation to save four teenagers and received commendation from the LAPD. I’ve helped a person whose wheelchair was caught in a train door. I’ve yelled down a violent person with a knife. I’ve pulled apart fights in public. I’ve held back strangers from assaulting my friends. I’ve run into my neighbor’s house to check on an elderly person whose fire alarm was blaring. I’ve run into oncoming traffic at night to save a stranger’s dog. And I’ve only listed these things so now you can say you know a woman who is as proactive as you believe you are. And I don’t know a single woman who wouldn’t do the same as me.
Really? I vacation on the Sun.
You say you’ve been in dire situations and I’ll believe you, but you’re not willing to believe I’ve experienced the same.
It just shows how limited you are in your capacity to trust or respect women. Which is why I took the time to think back and list my specific experiences for you; I’ve told you the truth, so now that bigotry is all you. If the pressure of unfounded sexism is too great for you, you’ll just call me a liar. I feel fine over here, knowing I’m not one. But I do pity you and what must be a bitter and lonely existence.
Some day you’ll realize it was all self imposed. It was all a blanket of self pity. And when you own that, you’ll look around and realize you’ve missed so many friendships and relationships and it’s all been your fault.
We can only hope you’ll incinerate one day.
Really? Just really? I bet you also turned your head, lowered your eyes, and said this under your breath when you typed it. I imagine a single manly tear frolicking down your stubbled cheek because you knew in that moment that you’d been beat.
Ok, you cock cheese chewing, arse protrusion. I am a woman. I am also a martial artist (This is a bit like saying that Elvis, “Played some guitar”, but oh well) and have been since I was 6. I have put men on their arses bigger and taller than I am. I have broken noses that sat on heads 6 inches higher than mine, you putrid, puss snozzling, arse sweat licking, wee boy with Mummy issues.
I would put you rightfully on your flabby arse just the same. So shut the fuck up, sit the fuck down, shove that fucking keyboard up your puckered hole arsewise, and know your fucking place.
That Y chromosome of yours (By the way which is constantly degrading and cannot self repair like the X chromosome) doesn’t make you superior to anyone else. You aren’t fecking superior to the boob sweat I get when training.
You wouldn’t defeat a male foetus in a fight.
The trolliest troll who ever did troll.
I must say, this show has lots to offer. The visual style is very strong and effective, the pace is tight, and Charlie Cox is a great actor. All of this makes the sexism stand out even more. It could have been an all round great show. And we’ll see what they do with Season 3. Hopefully they’ll shift. But the depiction of women in season 1 and 2 is typical Frank Miller – a vicious misogynist. Its not just damsels in distress, any strong women in this show are characterized as ultimately bad/evil and doomed to die. Season 2: Elektra and the District Attorney. Even the mysterious “Black Sky” (Elektra) sounds like a misogynist’s fantasy of an independent intelligent strong woman – Stick: “the Black Sky cannot be controlled, manipulated…” and in another segment ” I tried to housebreak her. impossible!” ha! ha! yes! a free woman! However Elodie Yung does such a great job as Elektra that she actually makes her a complex person who wants to be “good.” But the “Black Sky” – independence and power in a woman – is made out to be the ultimate evil weapon. Would be great if the Netflix Daredevil writers could turn this around and present a female hero as not only strong and intelligent but also good. Elodie Yung would be perfect for this. (btw, she has a real blackbelt in Karate and a real degree in law from the Sorbonne) It could still happen. But the end of season 2 does not bode well. Though they could still turn it around. It’s the comics, with plot twists galore. Also, it looks like they are going to make Karen Page a pivotal character. Terrible mistake. Karen is the blandest, most actress-y, vapid character on the show. She is actually annoying to watch. She has a school girl wide- eyed crush on Matt. Bleck! She’s unwatchable. I skip over those segments. And she has no chemistry with Matt at all. If they can change the b.s. “strong woman as evil” approach, Matt and Elektra would be a great pair. They come the closest to being equals. Lots of chemistry. And that makes it exciting to watch. Let’s see the evolution of Elektra in to a real hero. That last scene in front of the door on the roof, before they go out to fight Nobu, when Matt declares his love for Elektra is nice and well done. Matt says maybe this is not the end but the beginning. Elektra also says, as she lay dying in his arms, this is not the end. So it appears there is more to come. IN the next season lets see Elektra grow into a real hero. and let there be a real love between these two. That would be powerful.
Matt and Karen would be forced, and a dud that will lose viewers in droves.
Marvel carries the same sexism in depiction of women in Jessica Jones – though its a bit better on women, still Jessica Jones herself is full of self-hatred and the entire series is based on her relationship with a former boyfriend. She has no larger purpose in life but getting rid of him (the opposite of the woman whose purpose in life is to get a man, but still the same center of her world.) Her Private Eye job is really bottom of the barrel stuff. Where’s the heroism?