For starters, she's the natural heir to Buffy’s feminist throne.
BY MEG MASSEY
[Spoiler alert!]
Last night I spent an hour in the crazy,
campy, supernatural-ridden backwoods Louisiana world of HBO’s True Blood.
Over the course of that single hour, a voodoo priestess was brutally murdered,
a magic woman let us know just how she feels about towels, a vampire made
smoothies out of synthetic blood, and a flamboyant chef/call-boy/drug dealer
was chained to a medieval torture wheel. In the midst of it all? A
twenty-five-year-old telepathic waitress named Sookie Stackhouse, the show’s
protagonist.
With every minute I spend with Sookie (played by Anna Paquin), I become more and more psyched to have discovered her. Did the last waitress you saw on TV read minds, decapitate serial killers, and take up a vampire lover? There’s something pretty fucking fantastic about a woman who turns over the stereotype about girls being wide-eyed and stupid by having a brainy talent that lets her understand a hell of a lot more than the rest of the world.
Fantasy worlds—in this case, a world where
vampires have made their existence public, alongside telepaths, shapeshifters,
and whatever the hell Maryann is—have always been a great place to challenge
social stereotypes (Star Trek, anyone?). True Blood continues
this proud tradition: female protagonist with a supernatural gift (in this
case, mind-reading) who uses said gift as well as her own resourcefulness to
put the bad guys in their place and undermine those who say she should be at
home baking pies.
Female TV leads by themselves are rare. The
ones we usually see are of the ditzy reality-show contestant variety, there for
laughs as they stumble through the pronunciation of two-syllable words or
display the emotional aptitude of a snail. Women in leading roles who dare to
be a little bit complicated (and unwilling to sleep with Bret Michaels, Flava
Flav, or an 83-year-old man) have been scarce since The West Wing, Buffy
the Vampire Slayer and Alias went off the air. Joss Whedon, Buffy’s
creator, complained a few years ago about how often he gets asked why he
creates so many female leads. Like many of us, he wants to know why most
screenwriters are fixated on white dudes.
Brought to life by Six Feet Under
mastermind Alan Ball, Sookie is the natural heir to Buffy’s feminist throne. In
the series’ first episode, Sookie rescues a vampire named Bill Compton (Stephen
Moyer) from a pair of redneck would-be vampire “drainers” by choking one and
threatening the other with a knife. It contrasts nicely with everybody in Bon
Temps writing Sookie off as a crazy, vulnerable young woman who needs to rest
her silly little head and stay away from the big-boy stuff. She continually
refuses with gusto, from calling out the town gossip who thinks she can’t live
by herself to undermining the condescending “vampire sheriff” by using her
telepathy to inform him that his bar is about to be raided. What are you going
to do when the cute telepathic lady kicks your misogyny out from underneath
you?
The books that True Blood is based on—Charlaine Harris’ 10-book "Southern Vampire Mysteries"—are every bit as
honest, campy and thrilling as the series. Harris’ Sookie and Paquin’s Sookie both value their
independence above all else. They enjoy Bill (and sex with Bill), but not to
the point of allowing him complete control. They’re fierce and not squeamish.
They outsmart the world that assumes they’re stupid by using their
(telepathically-enhanced) brains. They have honest-to-goodness adventures.
True Blood thoroughly enjoys being
over-the-top, including an occasionally gratuitous amount of sex and violence.
Yet Sookie navigates the twelve kinds of crazy she finds and allows it to
reveal her complexities rather than pigeonhole her. She reacts with shock and
tears upon discovering the murdered body of her beloved Gran, but can still
spend the night alone and clean up the killer’s mess. She’s naturally nervous
about the unknowns that come with Bill and his vampire world, but ultimately
initiates their sexual relationship. Bill and Sookie’s sexytime, by the way, is
not only deliciously frequent after the initial go-round, but healthy and
respectful.
In fact, like many good couples, their relationship is defined by how they simultaneously protect and challenge each other, though the context is a little different when your boyfriend is a bloodthirsty vampire trying desperately to “mainstream.” Bill is happy to be on hand for physical protection as Sookie tries to hunt down the serial killer, but Sookie also protects Bill from the “vampire-phobic” people in her town, warning him of a mob hunt via voicemail and “re-burying” him when he goes out in the daylight to save her and instead starts smoldering (and not sparkling. I’m looking at you, Twilight).
There’s also something Sookie does that very
few female characters are allowed to do successfully: She stands up to Bill when he attempts to control her or decide what’s best for
her. In a lot of TV shows and films, the message is that women always, always
need to turn over their independence for male protection. (Once again I look at
you, Twilight.) With Sookie and Bill, it’s quite the opposite. For
instance, though Sookie hardly mourns her pedophile uncle, she’s not happy when
she figures out that Bill is responsible for his death: “How can I confide in
you if somebody might end up dead?” Translation: Why did you decide without me
what’s best for me? Why don’t you trust me to decide for myself?
Of course, True Blood is not a Gloria
Steinem polemic. Most of Sookie’s dresses appear to come from Gap Kids, given
their size, and though relatively equitable and healthy, Bill and Sookie’s
relationship loves the melodramatic (exhibit A: their fight about trust
issues and subsequent make-up sex at the end of last night's season two premiere).
However, the skimpy wardrobes and soap opera theatrics are part of the show’s
campy appeal. And what other show on television has a 25 year old
woman: beheading a serial killer; beaming with pride as she talks about sex without
being portrayed as slutty or doomed; telling her boyfriend she can take care of
herself and meaning it?
You get the picture. Long live Sookie!
—Meg is a writer and media strategist in Washington, D.C. She likes coffee, the outdoors, The Beatles and, of course, ridiculous vampire novels. Check out her blog ms. mam.
[Image via imdb]
Comments