Identical But Not the Same

Too often, female characters in TV shows are put into boxes. There are certain expectations we, the audience, place on them to act a certain way or fill a certain role, otherwise they are bad characters. This causes many female characters to be written similarly and stereotypically, and when a female character does deviate from the norm, viewers lash out at her character, criticizing things about her that, chances are, they would forgive a male character. The great thing about Orphan Black is that all the female characters manage to be both compelling and non-stereotypical. Take the protagonist, Sarah Manning. A con artist who can’t handle motherhood so she leaves her young daughter in the care of her own adoptive mother, she certainly seems to be an unsympathetic character on the surface. However, as the show progresses, and the viewer sees just how much she cares about her daughter and how hard she tries to be in her life and make up for the lost time, she regains some sympathy. Sarah is certainly an anti-hero, and she is given the sort of storyline that would normally be given a male, and yet she is a very compelling protagonist. Then there’s Alison Hendrix, seemingly your typical suburban soccer mom, high-strung and a bit of a perfectionist, who is not afraid to use violence when she feels threatened and, in the most recent season, resorts to illicit activities to fund her campaign for school trustee. Moving on to Cosima Niehaus, a lesbian microbiology student who at one point tells Rachel, a fellow clone, that, “my sexuality is not the most interesting thing about me”, which is 100% true. Cosima is debatably the most likable of the clones, and yet she is not all what one would expect. She is a brilliant scientist, a massive geek, a pothead, and a very kind, empathetic person. Much less likable but just as interesting, Rachel Duncan, a clone who was raised self-aware by the scientists behind the cloning experiment, would best be described as cold, ruthless, and even heartless. However, the viewer can empathize with her deep, innate desire to be a mother especially considering she is sterile. And finally, Helena, who is arguably the most compelling character on the entire show. Helena was originally raised in a convent in Ukraine, later by religious fundamentalists who told her she is the “original” and that her clones were satanic doppelgangers and that she must kill them, which she manages to do to several before she is stopped by Sarah. Helena is uneducated, was severely abused throughout most of her life, is very mentally disturbed and extremely violent, and yet she is also fiercely protective of children, highly intelligent, and wants nothing more than to be part of a loving family. She is simultaneously the most terrifying character on the show and also the most endearing. What makes the differences between these five characters all the more interesting is that they are in fact clones, they are genetically identical, and yet are all so drastically different from each other because of their different upbringings. If a show about clones can have such different and compelling female characters, then surely other shows can do a better job with their own.

A couple interesting articles that go more in-depth on this (SPOILER ALERT):

http://www.tor.com/2015/06/15/victims-and-villains-the-women-of-orphan-black/

https://fozmeadows.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/gender-orphan-black-the-meta-of-meta/