Emily Prentiss
When most people hear about women in the workplace,
they assume jobs such as secretaries, clerks, customer service representatives
and waitresses; some rarely envision women as hardened FBI agents protecting
the country. Criminal Minds, which focuses on a Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) in Quantico, Virginia is a
crime drama television show that differs from typical crime shows for it
focuses on the criminal rather than the crime itself. The BAU field team,
agents investigating the crimes, consists of a group of male detectives and one
female agent, Emily Prentiss. Prentiss is a significant character on the show,
being the only female agent in her field. She is a leader and more courageous
than most of her male co-workers; she is the first agent to enter a crime
scene, jump in front of a bullet, or interrogate the witnesses and criminals.
The context of her character is mysterious, yet
stimulating. According to her history, she is a United States Ambassador’s
daughter who traveled the world under FBI protection throughout her entire
life. Since Prentiss is extremely well travelled due to her upbringing, she
became fluent in Arabic, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, and Greek. She graduated from Yale and worked with the
FBI Interpol for ten years before joining BAU. Upon joining, she felt like an outsider and often worried that people
doubted her abilities. Over time, Prentiss proved herself through sharp
profiling skills and dedication to her work, gradually earning the trust and
respect of her fellow BAU team members. Emily
Prentiss carries herself professionally, and is shown to be extremely
competent, level-headed, and courageous; she shows no fear when undergoing
dangerous and often unpleasant tasks such as chasing criminals and analyzing
bodies. She does not allow
her personal feelings to interfere with investigations and constantly puts
herself in the line of fire to protect her fellow agents. Her
peers describe her as someone that they can rely unconditionally and view her
as professional and brave; they are proud to have her as part of the team.
Reputation is based on
how someone acts and carries themselves in a workplace, amongst friends, or in
society. For decades, women have been subjected to sexism and discrimination
because of their gender; in relation to Criminal Minds, Emily Prentiss never
let spiteful comments and discrimination stop her from being one of the best agents
in her field. She carries her own weight and rarely relies on others to help
her, thus incurring a reputation of courageous, fearless, and respected.
According to Shaviro (2005), another strong, independent woman who is highly
respected in her field of work is Lil’ Kim; she has broken through racial and
gender stereotypes to gain power and fame in the hip-hop industry. She is proud of who she is and proudly boasts
of her sexual mystique and power over men. Shaviro (2005) says that Lil Kim’ is
not a typical rapper trying to gain control over men and get rich, but rather she uses her body as a work
of art in her videos in order to gain a mass appeal. Male rappers negatively rap
about female artists and advocate people to avoid and distrust them; Lil’ Kim,
in retaliation, does not critique these stereotypes, but instead willfully
inhabits them, and pushes them as far as they will go. In comparison to Lil’
Kim, Emily Prentiss exceeds what is expected of her and breaks through the stereotypes
of a typical female police officer. Prentiss does not boast nor flaunt herself,
but subtly displays her power over her team and has become the driving force of
the team’s success.
Lotz (2001) is a strong believer in equality for women and advocates
highly for postfeminism, for she believes that it can reveal realities about
gender. She says that postfeminism is the represents the current period of time
in which women are treated equally in society, the workplace, and the home.
Over the past few decades, women have been subjected to stereotypical jobs from
powerful men in companies; along with unequal treatment, women have been
portrayed in the media as “lesser” members of society. In relation to Emily
Prentiss, although not directly stated, she too is an advocate for
postfeminism. She believes in equality in the workplace along with the
delegation of power and responsibilities. She is independent and believes that
she should be judged for her work, not because of her gender.
Although crime dramas are aired for viewer’s
entertainment, both men and women hold highly contrasting views on the
objectification of women in crime dramas according to Lee, Hust, Zhang, & Zhang
(2011). According to “Effects of
violence against women in popular crime dramas on viewer’ attitudes related to
sexual violence,” they conducted a research study amongst 176 undergraduate
college students by having them watch television crime drama scenes which
included either sexual or violence against women in order to determine the
effects of crime dramas on enjoyment.
What they found was that males said that scenes involving physical
violence were more exciting to watch than nonviolent clips. The majority of the female viewers however
felt that crime dramas objectified women because women were almost always the
victim; they were the ones being attacked while walking alone, or victims of
abusive partners. The female participants felt that crime dramas enhanced
societal gender stereotypes and increased the depiction of women as victims to
sexual and physical violence.
Lee, et al
(2011), produced results that women felt objectified and discriminated in crime
dramas; women were seen as sex objects or used for entertainment purposes for
viewers, thus creating societal stereotypes against women. Shaviro (2005) says
that Lil’ Kim’s success arose from her retaliation against, and her inhabiting
of, societal stereotypes. Lil’ Kim experienced gender discrimination, but
rather than being affected by them, she embraced and acted upon them. In
contrast, Lotz (2001) felt that women should not be treated poorly due to their
gender, but rather treated as an equal; women are not for entertainment purposes,
nor should be treated as a lesser part of society. In relation to Emily
Prentiss, she too felt that she was treated differently than her fellow male
agents; she was seen as weaker and less competent upon joining, thus causing
her to break gender stereotypes to become the competent and fearless leader of
the BAU team.
Work
Cited
Lee,
M. J., Hust, S., Zhang, L., & Zhang, Y. (2011). Effects of violence against
women in popular crime dramas on viewers’ attitudes related to sexual violence.
Mass Communication and Society 14,
25-44.
Lotz,
A. D. (2001). Postfeminist television criticism: rehabilitating critical terms and
identifying postfeminist attributes. Feminist Media Studies, 1(1), 1-18.
Shaviro, S. (2005).
Supa dupa fly: black women as cyborgs in hip-hop videos. Quarterly Review of
Film and Video, 22, 169-179.
Moss has a comprehensive understanding of the character Emily Prentiss who is a special agent in the show Criminal Minds which is an American police procedural television program.
According to Moss’s analysis, I know Emily is strong and brave, and breaks the traditional situations of women in the society. You introduced clearly about Emily’s background and experiences which appeal us a lot to know more about her characteristics through your feminist analyses. In addition, from Shaviro (2005) and Lotz (2001)’s articles, we can see Emily has the same attitudes with them who are all strong believers in equality for women and advocate the view of postfeminism. In the peer-reviewed journal article, you emphasize that women are victims on sexual and physical violence so that women should be treated equally and women are not for entertainment purposes and criminal objectives. In relation to Emily, she was also seen weaker and less competent than male colleagues, hence she did her best to break gender stereotypes in her workplace.
In conclusion, you did a great job linking the character with your articles closely, but if you should have spoken slowly during your presentation that would be better.
After briefly introducing the character of Emily from criminal minds, Moss gives me a general image of her. I think it is really smart to use the comparison of the female’s common working roles with Emily’s job— FBI agent. Because it is really natural that when you are told she is a working woman, you may think she is a secretary or office lady, but you will never imagine that she is a FBI agent. Emily’s job makes her different from other female characters from other dramas.
In order to further explain this character, Moss gives us more details about her background and also her personality. For instance, she makes great effort to create equality in the workplace along with the delegation of power and responsibilities. She is independent and believes that she should be judged for her work, not because of her gender. Then Moss successfully related Emily’s character with Lotz’s concept of post feminism. She argued that She says that post feminism is the represents the current period of time in which women are treated equally in society, the workplace, and the home.
It is really interesting to point out that the female roles in criminal drama are victims, but Emily’s character is no more a victim, but a agent.
Good job Moss!
Moss, your knowledge of the show Criminal Minds is apparent. The tone throughout the paper, and even in your presentation, demonstrates your clear passion for the show and understanding of the character, Emily Prentiss. You did very well explaining the representation of the character based on the assigned readings. I especially liked your analysis of Prentiss to the post-feminist theory discussed by Lotz.
I found the peer-reviewed article you chose, Effects of violence against women in popular crime dramas on viewer, very relevant to the topic. As a viewer of other television crime dramas, I don’t normally think of the storylines in terms of gender, but recognizing that females are often depicted as the victims in such dramas further emphasizes how the Criminal Minds goes against this stereotypes, in both the representation of Prentiss and her interaction with others.
I would have liked to see a stronger conclusion that tied all of the readings together, as the summarizing statements are strong individually, the connections are less clear. Overall, your analysis paper is well written and includes all the requested information. Your enthusiasm of your selection to analyze Emily Prentiss further proves your choice to represent her as a strong example of post-feminist theory.