I'm writing a paper on the female characters of Criminal Minds!

[x-forgetromeo.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to get a survey going so that I can get a good idea on a direction for this paper, so can we have a discussion post on female characters? 

What I need for my paper:

• Your gender
• Your age (an age bracket is fine if you're not comfortable giving a solid number)
• Your views on Elle, JJ, Garcia, Prentiss, Seaver, and Haley Hotchner: Do you like/feel indifferent to/dislike/hate any of them? Why? 

Otherwise, let's just have a free-for-all discussion on female characters of the CM verse. :) 

(Also, my laptop monitor is dead, so I might be slow replying to people, but I really appreciate anyone who comments.)

Mods? I'm super hoping this is okay. I didn't see anything against it in the rules, and it's technically a discussion post?

Comments

[sugakane-01.livejournal.com]

Gender: Female
Age 32

Elle: I adored Elle. I liked that she was never seen as needing protecting or viewed as less capable than the guys. I also like that they let Elle be sexy and feminine without making her character have to rely on her sexuality. She also wasn't a bed of roses, she could be difficult and snarky and blunt but she could also be vulnerable and understanding. I loved her dynamic with both Reid and Hotch and loved how fierce and brave she could be.

JJ: I always saw JJ as the anchor of the group. She was capable and confident, but JJ's role on the team was to be the "normal" one. She gave them hope that they could do their jobs, do it well and not sacrifice their lives. They could have a family, a relationship, a life outside the BAU. She was incredibly compassionate and easily underestimated. JJ was a total iron glove in a velvet fist.

Emily: It took me awhile to warm up to Emily. Truthfully I still feel like I don't really KNOW her. She holds her cards very close to the vest and still comes off quite mysterious. Emily is professional and poised and I love how protective she is of the team, even willing to challenge Hotch to reach out to them after the attack by Foyet or force Spencer to confront his feelings about Gideon. She's brave and she's strong and she manages to mix compassion with competency and never comes off weak.

Garcia: I love Garcia but I think she's a lot more emotionally damaged than people catch on to. She pretends to be an open book but her emotional walls are pretty high. I actually think there is some serious sadness beneath that bright, shiny, exterior.

Seaver: Honestly, its a god awful character. My main issue is that I remember what Hotch said back when he didn't want to let Emily into the BAU: "We don't just let anyone who wants to give it a whirl." I don't see where she brings anything of value to the table or adds to the team dynamic and for me that makes investing in her impossible. She has no depth or layers and I DO think its been enough time to say that. When you go back and look at the first few episodes of CM I had a take on who Garcia, Elle and JJ were in their first few episodes, I can't say the same for Seaver. She's poorly written and poorly conceived. The other women had a clear purpose and defined role both personally and professionally: Elle was the protective older sister and had an expertise in sex crimes, JJ had media contacts and gave the team what they needed before they knew they needed it (like when she had Garcia put together an office for Morgan or made Spencer Henry's godfather), Emily stepped into Elle's "big sister" shoes and is skilled in interrogation and speaks multiple languages and has a background in undercover work, Garcia is an expert hacker and highly skilled technical analyst and reminds them all to smile and also takes care of them emotionally. Seaver is just....there. She doesn't contribute and doesn't belong imo. And the tragic backstory they tried to give her made me roll my eyes. This is CM...with the exception of Rossi they ALL have childhood trauma: Reid was brutalized and bullied, abandoned by his father and raised by a mentally ill mother, Morgan was moletsted, Garcia's parents died when she was 18, Hotch was abused, JJ's sister committed suicide, Emily's mom was emotionally unavailable...Seaver's serial killer daddy isn't winning her any points with me, especially since I don't care about her so why would I care about him?

Haley: I didn't like Haley but I did understand her-mostly. I think she was strong, but she was also really passive aggressive and played the victim A LOT. I think they made it easy to dislike her when they implied she cheated on Hotch and made her, for lack of a better word, a bit of a shrew. I was sad when she died, but truthfully I was sad for Jack and Hotch, Haley wasn't a character I was overly attached to.