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Long have I wondered why Marg Helgenberger’s Catherine Willows shows up to every crime scene looking like she raided her teen daughter’s wardrobe and applied half a trowel’s worth of make-up for a 1am call out to the desert to dig through human remains or pluck through a carpet for suspicious-looking hairs. Thankfully, The LA Times reports that with more women being hired on to write and manage crime procedurals, we may finally see the end of the inappropriately sexy and certainly inefficient wardrobes of top TV female police workers.
Veena Sud, the showrunner of AMC’s The Killing and former Cold Case writer has long shared my gripe:
“In cop dramas, there’s a preponderance of female cops who wear stilettos, and it drives me nuts. I mean, I’m not showing up to work in a poodle skirt.”
So Sud decided that her female character on The Killing need a complete cliche clean-out, from the ground up:
When Sud adapted the AMC series “The Killing,” which is based on the Danish hit “Forbrydelsen” and was also a smash hit in the U.K., she decided that the heroine should wear sneakers. “It was like, let’s take every cliché of female detectives and ground them in reality, right down to their shoes.”
The article goes on to explain that while crime dramas were initially seen as escapist entertainment for men, studios are surprised to learn that their audiences are increasingly female, and more and more women are helming the series once thought to be guy-oriented (even if Spike still has CSI on a permanent loop).
But more to the point: even if this was always escapist fantasy for men, why should it be a requirement that female TV detectives, crime scene workers or police officers arrive at the scene of a crime looking like they just came from a bar? Do crime procedurals require that every woman be sexy — right down to the sexualization of the female corpses? And it’s not just the male gaze that bothers me, it’s the very fact that Catherine Willows’ long, sexy hair, for instance, does direct harm to the task at hand when she’s supposed to be tweezing out stray fibers to piece together a clue while she’s shedding her golden mane all over the area in question. Or the impossibility of pursuit on foot if a ladycop has, for some unknown reason, decided to show up for work in high heels.
I guess my problem is that these seeming mistakes almost makes the female professional seem… unqualified? Silly? Unimportant?
What’s your take? Do the wardrobes of female police workers on TV bother you? Do you think that putting female cops in high heels signals the way we view women in that profession in general?
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If you look at a lot of the dramas, the men are almost always in suits (CSI being the example). Certainly the male detectives are almost always in suits. From Law and Order to Bones (excluding the squints) to NCIS, etc this holds true.
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NCIS is also different because where Cate wore hells, Ziva rarely does and Ziva is rarely out of slacks. And she kicks major ass.
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With Catherine Willows’ case, I think it has more to do with her being a Vegas native, the daughter of a showgirl and a casino mogul and the fact that she was once a dancer, too. Sara Sidle never wore heels and when she did wear makeup, she looked ridiculous.
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All this to say that I think the trend has been changing the last decade or so.
*heels
I was going to say that I really like the way the women dress in Bones.
They don’t all dress the same. They dress according to the personality of the character they play.
I also like that fact that when they’re shown in the field collecting evidence, they’re in blue jumpsuits. The way they should be.
That’s true. I really like Cam. She’s the only reason I watched the show in the first place. Bones irritates me and the fact that they have a tendency to have her talk about how much her jewelry or her clothing costs is annoying. Angela definitely dresses to her character.
What gets me even more than Catherie Willow’s character is the coroner! From the very begininning of CSI, it was so stupiidly ingnorant of the way her character dressed. Same goes for the mini skirts of attorneys in court. Ziva is one kick ass lady and so is that show with Angie Harmon. While the cornoner dresses in heels, it sort of the joke about her.
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See, Sarah, I do get into some of the “celebrity gossip” and TV genre and how it relates back to womens protrayal in the media.
*you friends really have to ignore my spelling, typos, and grammar lately. Been working lots of hours and not quite seeing straight
VChilds, I am confused by your comment in regards to CSI. While I agree Catherine is/has always been ridiculously dressed, uh, both of the show’s coroners are male & are generally dressed properly. Admittedly, the first few episodes of CSI did feature a female coroner, but she was only ever seen in the morgue & also dressed appropriately.
I was going to say the same thing. I don’t remember Catherine being anything other than second in command to Grissom, or at least 2nd in seniority.
Sorry guys, I was thinking of the coroner in CSI Miami. Got the two CSI’s mixed up.
I love the show Castle. The characters all dress like normal people, although the ladies’ shoes still tend to be a bit silly, they wear real pants and real shirts and stuff.
What’s wrong with a little sexy justice?
You mean like Judge Judy in fishnets and spaghetti straps?
Judge Joe Brown in assless chaps?
LOL,thats burned in my brain forever!!!! But actually all chaps are assless,so thats my new favorite oxymoron.
Perhaps I should have said pantless chaps, then?
but that references the chaps having pants. and chaps don’t have pants. I can’t think of a convenient phrase for ‘chaps with no pants underneath’.
anyone..?
You mean THE BEST PANTS EVAR???
Thought so :)
wouldn’t that be the best *chaps* ever?
I’m pretty sure the standard definition of pants includes an ass…
Maybe Dog the Bounty Hunter in a thong?
it would be an oxymoron if by definition chaps couldn’t be assless.
‘assless chaps’ is simply redundant.
Thanks Lilith!
Well,no one has convinced me that those two words don’t contradict each other,which is a oxymoron,so I’m still using it as my new fave!!
how do ‘assless’ and ‘chaps’ contradict each other. chaps ARE assless..
If chaps fell over in the forrest,and there was no one their to hear them,would you still appreciate cowboy poetry?
I appreciate no poetry.
I am a man with a very flat bottom so technically I would be an assless chap.
Gross
Ha!
It’s ok Lola, you’ll get the joke eventually.
Good grief,I’m clearly confused,my unbiased opinion has created a minor crisis! My kingdom for a true oxymoron.
Jumbo shrimp?
Military intelligence?
Diligent sloth?
Peasant king?
Jumbo shrimp? Military intelligence? Diligent sloth? Peasant king?
For some reason the site is treating me like spam. That’s offensive. I am not a tin of processed pork shoulder.
Well, maybe you’re not, but I’m fairly certain that Lola is. Maybe the software is getting the two of you confused.
If you were to reread my statement,it has four oxymorons in it,get it,it’s a joke!!
Thanks