I think what ~annoys me, every time i see people call Will LaMontane whiny and annoying, is that, really, he deserves the whining and complaining?
JJ, frankly, treats the man like shit, frequently, ignoring that is not feminist or progressive, women fuck up and do bad things and treat people badly, pretending they don’t and placing them on a pedestal is dehumanising (garcia also acts badly in relationships in this show, which is actually an interesting creative choice because on TV, normally the gender divide is heavily skewed the opposite direction).
I think what bugs me is that I like the showing of healthy relationships, I like that a partner is called on their bullshit. I do not like the implication that JJ, just by the grace of being JJ, should be allowed to treat her partner badly or coldly. I am very much a fan of relationships in media where, when one of them messes up, is called on it and rectifies their behaviour, or works through their issues, or whatever. It’s adult, it’s mature, it’s what people should aspire to.
I do /not/ like the unspoken implications here, be it people who realise JJ is being pretty crappy and are saying Will should put up with it and keep it quiet (the part of me that likes healthy relationships is crying), or the people who do not realise that JJ messes up frequently because she’s JJ and golden and perfect (JJ is not perfect, JJ has many flaws, pretending she does not is placing her on a pedestal and not seeing her as a rounded character or person at all).
Yes, Will complains, if you were in Will’s place, i hope your relationship would be secure enough, that your self esteem would be high enough to point it out to your partner that you are being treated badly and that it’s not ok. I think my favourite part of Will is he sees JJ for who she is, he sees that she is incredibly reserved, very much capable of being incredible manipulative and at times very short tempered, but loves her and respects himself enough to mention the problems he has so they can work through it. He’s not doing it to hurt or annoy her, he’s doing it to be respected because he loves her and he wants them to work out.
I have my issues with the way the narrative is often more likely to use their relationship to prop up their plots to the point where sometimes we can talk about them and somehow also not talk about them at all (like 100, for example, we have a great jj x will scene but it’s entirely about hotch and jack and foyet and not about them at all), but i do like that we have a canon couple who, you know, try to work through their problems together as a unit. It’s nice. It feels more real to me and doesn’t hurt my sensibilities because they are equals, they’re consistently shown to be equals and respect each other as such.
so yes, Will may whine, but you will not ever be able to convince me it’s not justified. If somebody treated you like JJ sometimes treats him, i really hope you’d be secure enough in yourself and also your relationship to speak up, because people don’t deserve bad treatment and if you don’t mention problems, you can’t fix them.
dededos
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