From comics to television
The history of comics shows this is a cultural field of
ideological tensions, where mainstream ideologies have been contested,
criticized and parodied since the early years of the comic strip until our days.
One of the most challenging was the poetic and elegant defiance of gender
stereotypes composed by George Herriman in his Krazy Kat comic strip. The rich
epoch of the sixties counterculture in the United States, was one of sexual
liberation where irreverence became almost the norm for male artists, while
females found in comics a platform of self-expression in the Wimmen’s Comix
movement.
The self-awareness of narratives was prevalent in the eighties,
where genres were re-thought and intervened in what have become now classics,
such as Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore’s Watchmen. What most of these
manifestations have in common is that they appeared in the margins of the
comics industry, creating sub-genres and movements that eventually become
assimilated by the mainstream industry, which saw an area of opportunity for
business, with new narratives that could attract new readers.
Such is the case of Jessica Jones, a comic originally published
by Marvel that intended to shift some gender stereotypes. Along with a new
roster of super heroes created for contemporary times and branded by Marvel as
“New Avengers” series, Jessica Jones has been adapted to other mediums such as
film, video games, literature and most recently, television.
This article will discuss episode 1 of the TV adaptation of
Jessica Jones, with a focus on its genre and gender subversions.
Created in 2015 by Melissa Rosenberg as a web television
series produced by Netflix, Jessica Jones, played by Krysten Ritter, is the
story of a grumpy, alcoholic and disheveled private investigator suffering from
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Jessica, we learn as the series progress,
possesses strange physical powers but has quit them after a traumatic event. She
is now in search of a common, more anonymous life and has a struggling business,
set up from her impoverished home/office.
Jessica’s skills as an investigator gain from her unique
superhero capabilities, despite her trying to suppress them. She’s introduced
as a disenchanted and sometimes cynical character walking through the streets
of New York City and entering a posh office. She shows no respect for figures
of authority and no plans to improve her personal and professional
circumstances. Downplaying herself, she interacts only with strictly necessary
characters in the first episode, especially the source of her most important
jobs: Jeri Hogarth, a powerful female defense lawyer with questionable ethics.
The first five minutes of episode 1 shows no male characters,
and instead displays two powerful women interacting with each other, one as a
freelance investigator and the other as the owner of her law firm. The first
subversion of the series is the lack of reliance on male characters, and a
display of women overtaking traditionally male-dominated work ambiences. A
second subversion is the representation of these women’s appearance: Jessica is
scruffy, wears little make-up and has a leather jacket, blue jeans motorbike
type of style; Jeri wears a skirt and short hair. None of them fall into
stereotypes of femininity. However, the politics of power are intact in the
representation of Jeri’s assistants: two stereotypical feminine women in their
assigned work space.
Jessica’s first night at the job makes this superhero genre
show intersect with a noir detective genre where ambience and mood enhance the
story as well as the character’s personality. The dark streets of NYC echo
Jessica’s solitude, misanthropy and stalkerish proclivities, as one of the main
male characters is introduced: watched in an objectified kind of way by Jessica
(a third subversion), Luke Cage has superhero powers and will become Jessica’s
object of desire.
Superheroes have been traditionally represented as ordinary
people who go through an extraordinary event and gain extraordinary powers from
them. In this sense, Jessica Jones is a conventional character, as her
struggles and suffering have the function of making her more convincingly
human. PTSD isn’t new either; but its ramifications are: rarely we have seen the
routines of an alcoholic protagonist in a state of desperation. Jessica’s
health issue make her more human and believable, but more importantly, it is displayed
on television without mockery or alarmism, and the camera’s angle portrays it
accordingly:
Picture 1: Jessica’s world is upside down
Secondary characters (her neighbors) are introduced. They’re
all misfits, but portrayed in a way that makes the audience feel empathy and
closeness for them, as they limit
Jessica’s self-destructiveness. Marginal characters assigned to the narrative
can be considered another subversion, despite how common this is now in the
field of comics. But TV is a different issue, going through its own rearranging
of genres and narrative possibilities.
Despite her troubles, Jessica is a competent and fearless
P.I., especially when male characters want to dominate her. Sexual practices
show other subversions: seduction and copulation are represented without TV’s
traditional conservatism of the act being suggested instead of shown. Jeri’s
lesbian affair and relationship are introduced without delicacy or soft tones;
Jessica seeks, gets and dominates her lover. Jessica is proactive in her
desires, represented in a frontal and loud way.
While this can be considered a gender subversion, Jessica’s white
privilege over her black lover has provoked reactions. https://www.themarysue.com/race-in-jessica-jones/
Trish Walker’s introduction is the most deceptive of all: She
looks stereotypically feminine, has a successful job as a radio host and enjoys
the comforts of her luxury NYC condo, with its panic room and reinforced
security. Jessica’s sister is apparently her opposite: blonde, rich, physically
fit, a public person. Yet, all these stereotypes hide a vulnerable woman who
shares Jessica’s past and deepest secrets, and like her sister, refuses to be a
victim. Their interaction has a narrative function, as it introduces the
villain of the series without actually showing him.
This ominous character is coming back for Jessica, via her job.
He’s using a vulnerable young woman reported as lost to get to Jessica, victimizing
and taking away the woman’s autonomy. This suggests how powerful he is before
he’s even introduced. As Jessica tries to rescue this girl and her parents, a
shocking murder sequence closes the pilot episode. This proves devastating for
our heroine, while at the same time detonating her come back to her superhero
senses and resolution to face and destroy her nemesis.
The pilot of Jessica Jones progresses in an engaging
narrative and successfully introduces the characters, their motivations and
their life and work environments, while shifting gender stereotypes in the mass
communication media that is television. While there is an imbalance of gender
and race issues, these are now part of a collective discussion that should be
welcome.
Archived version:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180628162131/https://www.bookwitty.com/text/jessica-jones-tv-series-episode-1-rethinking-the/56c2a1d9acd0d072fda38e2e
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