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

[shadowkeeper.livejournal.com]

gender Female
age 22

+Elle- a little bit difficult. I started watching the show near the beginning, and it's been so long that I barely remember her. When I do see clips of her, I remember that I didn't mind her, but I didn't love her. She seemed like a character that had faded into the background a lot. I guess it could be because she didn't seem to have the strongest personality

+JJ- Loved her. Or, at least once she became an actual character instead of just the pretty face bringing information. I think I finally noticed her around the Van Der Beek 2 parter when she finally got out in the field and seemed to develop a personality. They she became a nice model for efficiency, professionalism, and a sympathetic face without overdoing it. When they gave her character a love interest and even a baby, I think she became such a lovely inversion of the trope of working mothers- she didn't quit her job to sit at home keeping house and raising kids.

+Garcia- Love how she's unique in a realistic way. She doesn't have a 'manic pixie dreamgirl' vibe where her uniqueness is more than just some kind of male ideal. She's quirky, fun, and somehow innocent even while dealing with gruesome stuff. I love that she's competent, and an even better hacker than her boyfriend FBI counterpart.
Her flirting with Morgen seems to be written a little ott at times, but their relationship is cute and I love the sibling relationship they have. 'Penelope' is in one of my top 5 favourite CM episodes.

+Prentiss- Pretty much one of my favourite female characters on tv at this point. It took me a couple episodes to warm up to her at first. When she was first introduced, right after Elle left, I almost left like the writers were trying to shoehorn her in or something. She seemed like she was just overly pushy and assertive because 'as a woman, she needs to be', and was just a convenient replacement for another female character. Then, after getting to know her after a few episodes, I think I really began to love her. She's strong, tough, wicked smart, and seems to have depth as a person. I love how she dials back on 'femininity' and isn't written like 'the girl on the team', but is equal to her male colleges- but we don't forget she's a woman. I love when her cheekiness shines through sometimes (like with her 'sin to win' weekend).

+Seaver- Ugh. Bland, no personality, cheap JJ replacement. I mean, maybe down the line she may develop into something other than just being earnestly knowledgeable, but right now, she's like wallpaper.

+Haley- Realistic. I mean, she seemed like she was used to give Hotch some life outside the BAU at first, then to give him drama, but her character seemed realistic. The loving wife who finally gets fed up with being abandoned all the time works better than a wife who just falls into the easy brackets of the wife tropes out there.