(no subject)

[skygiants]

When newredshoes was visiting this weekend, we ended up watching most of The Bletchley Circle, and I just sort of feel like talking a little bit more about Susan, the mystery-solving protagonist.

I mean, I've said this before, but the thing that gets me about Susan is that she has all the hallmark traits of a Sherlock Holmes or a, I don't know, Patrick Jane (I've never watched The Mentalist) or any of the other flawed civilian crime-solving geniuses who tend to anchor the kind of shows where geniuses solve crime. She sees the world in ways that other people don't; she sees patterns that most people don't see, and that leads her to have exceptional insights. She's incredibly intelligent, and very bad at explaining herself to people who aren't as intelligent -- she doesn't have the communication skills or the patience for it. And she LOVES her intelligence. She loves being right. She loves being right sometimes to the point where she forgets to have the appropriate reactions of horror at horrible things, and forgets to take other people's horror into account, because those horrible things prove her deductions correct.

But she isn't a Sherlock Holmes, because she isn't an independently wealthy upper-class white man who can afford to be dismissive of the rest of the world. She's a fifties housewife, a woman who has been socialized to be polite and conciliating and to always put other people at first. So she doesn't say, "I'm brilliant, I can see things you can't;" she says, "I'm good with patterns." And the way these impulses are at war in her -- her knowledge of her own intelligence and skills and the fact that she is smarter and better than other people, and the fact that she knows she's not supposed to be, and no one will take her seriously if she is -- is what makes her fascinating, and what anchors the show, for me.

And I don't think I've seen another character like this, and I want to.

(This is of course a request for recs, I am always requesting recs.)

Comments

[troisroyaumes]

Touma from Keizoku 2: SPEC is an example that comes to mind, though she explicitly throws all female socialization out the window and behaves as eccentrically as she wants.

[skygiants]

It's true! I love Touma. I haven't watched all of SPEC 2, because I have trouble focusing on procedurals on my own, so I'm waiting until I can force my roommates to watch it with me. But Touma herself is amazing.

[hebethen]

I feel like a lot portrayals of fictional female ~geniuses~ elide that tension either by placing the FFG in a position of relative privilege (WRT race, class, etc.), subsuming it under the Child Genius trope, or just handwaving it because of reasons. (I don't necessarily object, but I too would be interested in what you describe.)

There actually was a YA novel that literally dealt with the idea of Sherlock Holmes' daughter, but she wasn't an Eccentric Genius so much as a clever, determined kid... and there was an insufferable and rather unnecessary love interest actively putting her down the whole time?

[skygiants]

Yeah, I don't object at all either -- I like the wish fulfillment and I think it's important sometimes to show characters who aren't limited by that, so we can envision ourselves that way too! -- but I think it's kind of important to have both. Especially since we see a lot of Child Genius women as you say, but not as many Adult Genius women . . .

Ugh, insufferable and unnecessary love interests!

[lacewood]

Seconding the mention of Touma from SPEC! Though, as Tari mentions, she deliberately chooses to throw all female (or uh... human...) socialization out of the window. Arguably she uses the fact that no one ever takes her seriously until it's too late, but I'd say the bulk of it is more that she... really doesn't give a shit about the consequences. >_>

Osawa Eriko from Boss/Boss 2 might also qualify. She isn't called a genius but she is undeniably brilliant and a lot of the first season has her dealing with male superiors who don't take her seriously on the basis of her gender (dealing in ways that do not involve punching them in the face). One of the subplots also has her mentoring a younger woman on the team who is a science whiz with terrible social skills! IT'S SO GREAT.

I know you're not a fan of crime procedurals but they seem to have the best examples I can think of XD;

[skygiants]

Hah, isn't the other woman on the team also the same actress who plays Touma? I have seen bits of both of these! I might give them another try sometime soon -- like, I'm kind of hoping Elementary has actually for-real broken through my procedurals block and this isn't just an Elementary-specific thing. IT'S POSSIBLE!

[lacewood]

Hahaha yes, it's the same actress! I have wildly theorised that Kimoto (from Boss) was a trial run for Touma in SPEC or something XD In the second season of Boss another girl tech genius also shows up, so it's like a rotating gallery of awesome genius girls, BEST TREND.

I WISH YOU MUCH LUCK IN BREAKING THE PROCEDURAL BLOCK. Think of the awesome ladies who await you!

[skygiants]

Awesome ladies get me through everything!

[surexit]

I really like this meta, and I have no recs but will be WATCHING CLOSELY. ♥

[skygiants]

<333 I am glad!

[antisoppist]

There's also the fact that she's not allowed to tell anyone, including her husband, what she did during the war. Bletchley was a place that did appreciate her and where her sort of intelligence was valued and came into its own, and her superiors respected her opinions and then she has had to go back to a life where not only is that skill no longer wanted but she can't refer to it either and it is hugely frustrating.

And they are all wrong and she is right and they won't listen and she is wasted in this life dammit!

I disagree slightly with "knows she's not supposed to be". I think initially she does assume that the police will respect her intelligence and listen to her theories, as her bosses at Bletchley did, and it's a shock when she finds that they don't, and that after the war, as a woman, she has lost the right to be taken seriously that she had gained during it.

[skygiants]

Hmmm, yes and no -- I agree that she's a little taken aback by just how little respect she receives, but at the same time, the socialization did take, you know? She expects to be listened to if she's polite and respectful -- even though what she clearly longs to be doing is marching in and informing everyone that she is smarter than them and she is obviously right! And, like, she's not very good at being polite and respectful and downplaying herself. Because she's Susan. But you can see her trying, even or especially at the beginning -- and of course as you say Bletchley and the experience of being taken seriously there did a lot to overcome even earlier socialization, when she was hardly even sure enough of herself to mention it.

[brooms]

!!!

this sounds SO GREAT. not quite like my dream detective tv series, but close enough.

[skygiants]

ahhh I also want your dream detective series to exist though!