Watch Out, You've Got A Skyler On Your Back!
My boyfriend introduced me to Breaking Bad about a year and a half ago and I took to the show like a fish to the polluted sea, which is to say it made me uncomfortable with my surroundings and sick. Don’t get me wrong. The show is great— fantastic writing, A+ acting, and that cinematography makes everyone in the film department at my school swoon. But what has made (and still makes) me uncomfortable has been the major hate that the character of Skyler White receives from fans. I don’t follow the fans’ online presence or commentary too much, but it recently came to my attention that the show’s creator, Vince Gilligan, made a statement about the Skyler Haters:
We’ve been at events and had all our actors up onstage, and people ask Anna Gunn, “Why is your character such a bitch?” And with the risk of painting with too broad a brush, I think the people who have these issues with the wives being too bitchy on Breaking Bad are misogynists, plain and simple. I like Skyler a little less now that she’s succumbed to Walt’s machinations, but in the early days she was the voice of morality on the show. She was the one telling him, “You can’t cook crystal meth.” She’s got a tough job being married to this asshole. And this, by the way, is why I should avoid the Internet at all costs. People are griping about Skyler White being too much of a killjoy to her meth-cooking, murdering husband? She’s telling him not to be a murderer and a guy who cooks drugs for kids. How could you have a problem with that?
Now, I think I approach this show and the character of Skyler with both a literary and a feminist perspective, and I gotta tell ya— it’s downright upsetting on both fronts! Before I really get into it, I want to make a quick point. Gilligan says that fans approach the actress, Anna Gunn, at press junkets with the question, Why is your character such a bitch? Correct me if I am wrong, but usually a Q&A session with cast members and writers is meant to gain some insight about a show pertaining to the actors’ and writers’ intentions. I can say, with confidence, that a question directed at a woman, asking her why her character is such a bitch, is really just a ploy to call a woman a bitch to her face. At first, I honestly gave it some thought as to how Ms. Gunn could have answered that question. Then I realized, “Well, my character is such a bitch because…" sounded utterly stupid. That question does not (nor was it meant to) merit a serious response. It’s an underhanded way of affronting a woman, not merely her character, with meaningless aggression. Who would do such a thing? Well, my guess is, the majority of these offensive people are not female.
To be fair, the show sets up its stupid viewers for failure. The epic camera shots of Walter White in all his evil, bad guy glory versus Skyler’s modest shots in comparison are ridiculous. I mean, I like the show’s style, but are we supposed to continually think that Walter is the cool kid on campus, even after he poisons a child and kills a swath of senior citizens to save his ass, time after time? Walt loses his appeal to me even during the first season, right around the time he has his umpteenth brooding, masculine meltdown due to the fact that he initially just cannot handle the pressures of the drug world. Call me unfair, but there is just something unattractive about a man that cannot cook meth and simultaneously hold down the fort at home. Unlike many of the viewers, I cannot watch a man have destructive breakdown after breakdown and still have an affinity for him, regardless of if he is portrayed as the anti-hero while doing it.
On that same note, I don’t think Skyler is a very attractive character either. Instead of turning her husband into the police when she initially finds out he is a drug manufacturer, she… ends up joining in on the fun! My boyfriend says that what bugs him about her character is that she waffles a lot— one minute, she is scared and telling Walt to quit while he is ahead, the next she is extorting Walt’s old boss and tricking the IRS. Here's the thing: she’s a messy character, too. I won’t deny that. But I think what my boyfriend refers to as “waffling" is really just her grappling with both her conscience and her loyalty to her husband. That does not make her a bitch. That makes her as complex of a character as Walt. Those people (ahem, men, I see you) hating on Skyler may as well be wearing “He-Man Woman Haters Club" t-shirts. Sure, Skyler commits adultery and gets down and dirty with illegal activity, but it somehow does not seem as cool as when Walt does it. Why? Because Walt has the cool camera shots, the cool music, the cool fedora. And, as per usual, Skyler is the woman nagging her husband and dealing with home, a realm much less glamorous than drug lords’ homes and an action-packed RV.
One blogger is quick to point out Skyler’s indiscretions and closes his post about the subject with, “And let’s not forget that she did fuck Ted." God forbid a woman has an outlet of emotional release, albeit an extramarital affair. How easily viewers forget that Walt almost essentially raped his own wife in the first season when he was trying to release his own tension. I don’t morally condone Skyler’s behavior, but are we to think that her emotional affair with Ted is much worse than Walt’s aggressive sexual behavior (oh, and his exploitation of prostitutes and poisoning of children)? I think not.
Granted, all these characters are fictional, but is fictional-based misogyny any better than reality-based misogyny? To me, they’re the same thing. And I would argue the former is worse, in a way, because it allows a man to say anything about a woman since, after all, she isn't even real. But Skyler is much more than a fictional character. She is the embodiment of what it is that men do not like about women-- she is vocal, cunning, complex, and has the audacity to be bold with a husband who pretty much spirals out of control. Sadly, there is nothing fictional about a woman being condemned for that. Indeed, it happens all the time.
