The Manly Version of a Female Detective
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The manly version of a female detective A qualitative study of the protagonists of the shows The Killing and The Bridge and their struggle with masculine and feminine traits. University of Amsterdam First Reader: Dhr. Dr. Jaap Kooijman Master Thesis Second Reader: Mw. Dr. Leonie Schmidt Television and Cross-Media Culture Words: 17303 Date: 5/11/2015 Caroline Recter, 10074732 ABSTRACT Although there are many different fictional detectives, most have the same foundation when it comes to personality and behavior. They are highly intelligent, have an enormous drive to solve cases, and are rational and unemotional when it comes to their profession. While these traits traditionally are contributed to the male fictional detective, nowadays these traits are also taken over by female fictional detectives. Originally, women are not portrayed in this way, as they are predominantly shown as housewives and mothers who have to take care of their children. Furthermore, they are seen as emotional and caring, which are ‘feminine’ characteristics that do not match with the ‘masculine’ ones of the fictional detective. Because of their detective skills, many female fictional detectives have trouble in succeeding in their private life, and fail thus in the combination between work and home. In this thesis, two Scandinavian series The Killing and The Bridge are analyzed on this struggle between professional success and private failure by examining all episodes of both series on various aspects. An overview of the analyzed episodes is presented in the appendix. It appears that both female protagonists have many characteristics related to ‘masculinity’, what helps them in their professional life. Moreover, in both series the female protagonists are presented as equal to their male colleagues, making them relatively unique in the detective genre. However, the failure in combining their professional success with a private life is still present, bringing to the foreground the struggle between the ‘masculine’ character of their professional world and the ‘feminine’ character of their private and personal world. 2 Table of Contents Introduction 4 Chapter 1 – Book, TV and film detectives throughout the years 8 1.1) In literature 8 1.2) On television 12 1.3) Female detectives on television 13 1.4) Conclusion 16 Chapter 2 – The female stereotype in professional and private life 18 2.1) Stereotyping 18 2.2) Mothers 19 2.3) The professional life in relationship with the private life 22 2.4) Female detectives and their role in the family and in their career 24 2.5) Conclusion 25 Chapter 3 – The Scandinavian detectives 27 3.1) The two protagonists 28 3.2) Their professional life 31 3.3) Their private life 34 3.4) Conclusion 38 Conclusion: The Killing and The Bridge transcending? 40 Work cited 43 Appendix 49 3 Introduction “He's got to know botany, geology, ballistics, medicine, chemistry, literature, engineering. If he knows facts—that ash with a high strontium content probably came from a highway flare, that faca is Portuguese for ‘knife’, that Ethiopian diners use no utensils and eat with their right hands exclusively, that a slug with five land-and-groove rifling marks, right twist, could not have been fired by a Colt pistol--if he knows these things he may just make the connection that places the [unknown subject] at the crime scene.” (Deaver 120) The above quote describes the necessary characteristics of a detective. The detective is an all- knowing figure that has specific skills to identify the killer. A detective must be capable to “narrow down the social and geographical location of the killer as well as his psychological make-up with the support of evidence” (qtd in Gates 45). This evidence, also known as clues, are “possible indicators of the hidden story of the criminal” and are connected with the crime scene in the form of footprints and objects near a dead body or around a murder scene (Hühn 454). Because everything can be a clue, the world of the detective transforms during the case into a world of possible signs; a man walking across the street, cars parked wrong in the parking lot or a suspicious character leaving a bar. All these clues help to create a “systematic development of the detective’s interpretive operations” (Hühn 455), through which he uses different frames and hypotheses to interpret the most important information (Hühn 455). When he succeeds, the detective has the ability to break through the suggestive context of the evidence and to search for the unorthodox connection between different clues. Originally, this fictional detective in novels was a man living in a world surrounded by male criminals and police officers. A woman was never around, as she was considered a distracting from the case. Even though the female detective was introduced in a later stage, she continued to play a role in a men’s world as the surroundings of male criminals and police officers stayed the same. This meant that these women needed to succeed in the center of a man’s world of criminals and police officers. In their new role as protagonists, Gates discovered two main ‘problems’ in creating a positive and reliable image of the female in this genre (49). One is the “over-identification between the heroine and the victim”, which means that the female detective is also often the victim of the criminals she hunts down (Gates 49). This creates a victimization of the character, which does not benefit her overall image. The other “problem” concerning the persona of the female detectives is the development of masculinization in order to succeed in a masculine environment (Gates 49). Where male 4 protagonists are mainly focusing on “investigating the masculinity of the hero”, the female detectives additionally are struggling with balancing their personal life with their professional life (Gates 49). This struggle illustrates the main point of this thesis, as the problem of combining a professional and private life of two female detectives in television series is being examined through an in-depth analysis of the series’ episodes. The series examined in the thesis are the Scandinavian series The Bridge (FX, 2013-) and The Killing (DR, 2007-2012) with the female protagonists Saga Norén and Sarah Lund, respectively. Both protagonists face, during the seasons, multiple problems between the private and professional life. These lives contradict with each other due to the different typical characteristics of a mother/housewife and a detective in fictional television series. The term mother does not only refer to her being an actual mother, but also to aspects of traditional representation of womanhood like maternal characteristics such as caring for others and being emotionally concerned. Moreover, they are portrayed as domesticated, subordinate women who are always inferior to their family, husband and surroundings. These qualities are in stark contrast with the qualities that are necessary for a fictional detective. Intelligence, rationality and emotionless behavior are typical characteristics of a detective, as described in literature. The character of Sherlock Holmes is an excellent example of a man who follows these particular aspects. Amy Griswold describes in her paper how Holmes represents an excellent detective (5). Holmes present an ultimate detective based on his deduction skills and intelligence but also because of his supremely masculine behavior, mostly due to his ability to “face some psychical danger without fear for their personal safety” (Griswold 5). Together with his masculine appearance as tall and slim, Holmes is an idealized detective mainly because of these qualities related to ‘masculinity’. According to Sims, Sherlock Holmes can also be such a good detective because he is “unmarried and as a loner dedicated to his mission”; his missing personal life entails him to act properly as a detective (9). For a male character, the absence of having a personal life is accepted because the stereotypical man seems more dominant, and is able put his private life on hold for his job. For the fictional female detective however, these characteristics cause a difficult situation. On the one hand, a female detective needs to focus on her private life, as that is her traditional female position. On the other hand, in order to properly act as a detective, she needs to limit her engagement with her private life, as it limits her ability to do her job. As stated above, this friction is exemplified by two Scandinavian series The Killing and The Bridge. Both series are critically acclaimed and have won multiple prizes such as Best 5 European Drama series (2014; The Bridge) and a BAFTA for Best International TV series (2011; The Killing). Scandinavian series are known for their dark take on the detective genre, in which suspense is central and are often praised for their portrayal of their female leads, with The Killing and The Bridge as the two mostly cited (Gray 2014; Agger 43). In The Killing and The Bridge respectively, Sarah Lund and Saga Norén are followed during their investigations. Both are detectives in a police department and are considered good in their jobs. In both series, the episodes focus on one particular story case that is spread throughout the entire season. In The Killing, additionally to Sarah Lund’s investigation, there is an alternative storyline that involves political complications of the crime committed as well as storylines of suspects and witnesses. According to Agger, this direct link between politics and crime is innovative in this genre, because it is a combination that rarely is been used in police series (45). The Bridge does not display explicitly political scenes but is set in two countries: Denmark and Sweden, as murders are committed in both countries. Most of the stories take place in Malmö, with interplay of scenes displayed in the Copenhagen police force.