I had been waiting for Jessica Jones to premiere for over 6 months, coming off the buzz from DareDevil I knew this show would not be anything short of amazing but it was riveting , refreshing and astounding in unexpected ways. I knew she would be dealing with trauma from the past but the show it's much more then that. I'd be lying if I said it hasn't changed my life. This show is just rich in strong female characters. Everyone that really matters that really move the plot forward are strong women who are not typical who are complex and who step out of their archetypes surprising you . Well let's get to it.
I want to start by talking about rape in this show. Jessica Jones is raped over and over again by the villain named Kilgrave whose power is to make people do whatever he wants them to do. He falls in love with Jessica and spends weeks manipulating her to do his bidding. We only see flash backs of their time together when she was under his influence. There is no rape scene. But Jessica confronts him about the rape he committed multiple times throughout the show. It was so powerful for me. She kept saying the word, she wouldn't stop it. She confronted him over and over again about what he did to her. How that made him a monster. I loved that. In society we talk about rape in whispers. Women are often times blamed for the rapes and it's a secret shame we must carry. We tell women to change the way they dress, to be careful of the words they say instead of telling men to stop raping women. Her shaming of him, her confronting of him was so necessary so important. He also made her commit murder which is something else share carries and that's a big focuses of the show, I didn't think she would confront him about the rape but that she does on more than one occasion is surprising and necessary when rape is an epidemic in this country. According to RAINN 1 in every 6 women has been the victim of rape in america, this brings it to a total of 17.7 million women currently. This aspect of the show was liberating it was like music to my ears. Kilgrave's reaction was perfect too. He would tell her to stop saying the word,that he didn't do that. He romanticizes their time together, like rapists do. He also tells her after much insistence from her part that he admit what he did that it wasn't his fault that he can't sometimes control what happens when he says certain things.sure.... and I was born yesterday. He is very intentional about his words which is showcased on multiple occasions throughout the show. He defended himself weakly like a depraved coward, like so many men out there do. But she wasn't having it and neither were we.
I have to make the connection with another victim of Kilgrave who has a much worse fate then Jessica and that is Hope. Who is raped and forced to kill her parents. Hope ends up pregnant from Kilgrave's baby. She hires someone while in jail for the murder of her parents to beat her so she can lose her child-the child of a monster she can't bare the thought of keeping. She tells Jessica she won't stop trying even if it costs her her life to get rid of the child of Kilgrave. Jessica helps her get an abortion by taking a pill. It's not something I've seen much writing about but it sheds light on what victims of rapists aka monsters have to contend with. Not only the memory of the rape or multiple rapes but also carrying a child by the rapist. There are 31 states in the USA that give custody rights to the rapists as well by the way. Which sickens me to a degree that I can't even put into words.
Jessica is an unconventional female character in that she isn't looking for marriage and children. Jessica is not feminine she wears jeans and a leather jacket with boots throughout the whole show. She isn't concerned about her appearance at all, she just is- take it or leave it. She drinks heavy alcohol. Her relationship with Luke Cage is very passionate and sexual first and foremost without expectation of a romantic relationship. Yet in her strengths there is a vulnerability, a self awareness that is beautiful and is what makes her.
The lesbian relationship between Jeri and Pam was groundbreaking in that it was realistic without glamorizing or sexualizing it to appeal to men. It was a complicated normal relationship between two people with all the ups and down, the passion and commitment. I have never seen a portrayal of a lesbian relationship like that before in any tv show or movie. Perhaps I need to broaden my horizons in this aspect but I want to mention it here because it was wonderful to see that were moving away from the sexualization of lesbian relationships for the pleasure of men.
Last but not least is Jessica's best friend- Trish. Jessica Jone's weakness whose actually not weak. She trains and prepares herself and her home so that Jessica doesn't have to always come to her rescue and so that she can be in Jessica's life without her fearing that she will die. As a comic book fan I've been waiting for this. I thought women like Louis Lane, Mary Jane should do what Trish does be an ally don't just be a weakness, felt great to finally see that. No more damsels in distress, we don't have to be super heroes to learn to protect ourselves and our homes without he need of a man.
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