I got this reply in response to a post I made about loving Gwen, and Iâm putting my own novel of a response in the tags. Here we go.
Actually, nothing you said about her is fair, and Iâll go into why. While Gwen is a character I hold very dearly, I need to preface this with the fact that I in no way see her as perfect (in fact, Iâll go deeply into why she isnât), or better than any of the team. As anyone who knows me and my love of Torchwood can tell you, Iâm arguably in love with every single member of the team evenly, and with Rhys as well. So Iâll try to hit all the points you brought up here.
The writing in the first 2 series â Â Honestly, Iâll start with yes, the writing can be spotty and rough in points. It happens when you have so many different writers with differing views of what the relationships and characters are. For a non-Gwen example, take s1e12 Captain Jack Harkness - it was written by a woman who was fairly anti-Janto (a canon ship) and just wanted to see two soldiers kiss, by her own admission. So it took a very odd turn out of character for Jack to say âthereâs no oneâ when asked if he had someone romantically involved with him. Owenâs development went back and forth from asshole to progress to asshole to progress again. Tosh got next to no attention outside of wanting love. They were all written in a bit of a shoddy manner in s1, when a show with many, many writers was just getting on its feet.
Something of a sidebar, but important to note that the uneven writing does not apply solely to Gwen.
Gwen being written as condescending and holier than thou - nope. Iâm sorry, but no, thatâs not what it was at all. Gwen was written as a point of humanity for Torchwood, which was desperately needed, as is evidenced as early as s1e2 Day One. Gwen was not a seasoned veteran of Torchwood, she was a woman who joined the police force because she wanted to help people. On top of dealing with the overwhelming nature of joining Torchwood itself, she first spoke up about morality, and humanity, (as was evidenced and clearly intended by the writers as they dubbed her The Heart of Torchwood) when she heard Carys sobbing in a cell because the poor girl was fighting with some murderous sex alien for control of her own body. Gwen was also written to be a vessel for audience projection, whether anyone likes it or not. And I believe it was necessary; if any of us were to react in any way but concern for someone in Carysâ situation, Iâd question if there was something deeply wrong with us.
It was clear that nobody on the team had explained to her what was being done (Jackâs line about the computers running a bioscan on her makes that clear). It is only when he gets aggressive and defensive about it -
âNow, is that enough? Do you want more? Cos it gets kinda boring.â
- that she continues on about it.
âYou've been hidden down here too long. Spending so much time with the alien stuff, you've lost what it means to be human.â
This line isnât about being holier than thou, and itâs not about being condescending. Itâs about the fact that she got caught up in the moment with them, laughing and relaxing and eating Chinese takeaway while a girl fought for control of her body and felt as though she was losing her mind in a dingy cell underground. It was a moment of shock at herself and a hope to find that same response in the others. And when they didnât respond in kind, a realization about what they have done and how they have compartmentalized things in order to do the job before them.
She doesnât go on to build the background on Carys without prompting. She doesnât go off on a sermon about how horrible they all are. Jack says:
âSo remind us. Tell me what it means to be human in the twenty first century.â
and she does. She goes to pull up Carysâ life, as we all know, and in the end â Gwen was right. She was right in needing to keep Carys grounded, in a fight for control, though by the time they come to that conclusion it is too late and she has escaped. Later, she continues to argue with Jack about it, and they have a very sort of tense feeling between them through the rest of the episode. But then we get to the end, and Jack tells her â
âDo one thing for me. Don't let the job consume you. You have a life. Perspective. We need that.â
Thatâs a bit long winded for that one episode, but this is the foundation of what Gwen does for the team and who she is. Any one of us would be shocked entering Torchwood, finding what they do and how they handle it. Jack knew from the beginning what Gwen possessed â compassion and perspective â and wanted to use that. We see Gwen fall into the more callous and detached side of Torchwood to an extent over the course of the series, but we also see other characters come around to a more caring side.
Itâs balance, itâs not condescension. Jack â her boss â told her to keep up with what she had been doing. I donât know about you, but if I came up with an opinion â much less a controversial one â in my workplace, and my boss told me it was good and to hang on to it, I wouldnât just drop it. Iâd keep at it, like she was instructed to.
What the writers wanted vs. what they portrayed onscreen â Weâre going a bit out of order here, but I think this one fits in well here. The writers wanted compassion, an emotional and steadying hand for Torchwoodâs detachment, and an audience surrogate. And that is exactly what they gave us. Every show has an audience surrogate; Gwen was simply Torchwoodâs. Jack created Torchwood Three to be different than Torchwood One, and especially if you listen to the audios, Torchwood One was extremely callous and detached. Gwenâs POV was essential to the Torchwood Jack wanted, to the Torchwood Jack never stopped working towards. The writers didnât always handle everything well, but they knew what they wanted with Gwen, and they gave it to us.
Gwenâs infidelity with Owen and Jack â oh boy. This is a topic, because I know Gwen gets a ton of hate for it. Letâs preface this with: she was wrong. Gwen Cooper should never have cheated on Rhys, emotionally or physically. However, letâs explore this topic and how hating just Gwen for it and not Owen or Jack as well is misogynistic and wrong, full stop.
Weâll start with Owen. Weâve established I do not condone it, but I feel I understand her thinking in that, and I think itâs an important to delve into it a bit.
Gwen started Torchwood, as discussed, shocked by the detachment from humanity. She would later fall into that to an extent, as well, and I believe part of her affair with Owen was the beginning. She was stressed, overwhelmed, and scared in a job that demanded a lot from her in every way - physical, mental, moral, and emotional. She couldnât speak to Rhys about it, since it was confidential. She needed someone to confide in about the stress of the job (as seen at the end of s1e6 Countrycide), and as seen throughout the series in Gwenâs mannerisms, playfulness, and affection, sheâs very tactile, hence the physical aspect. But most importantly, it wasnât emotional. Gwen was not looking for another love â even in her most brainless moments (which they all have), she couldnât have believed that Owen wanted an emotional affair. Even from Day One, he says:
âI torture people in happy relationships.â
In Countrycide, he gives her this speech while they are inches from making out, about the incredible sex they would have together:
âDoesn't happen with him, does it? You're too familiar. Whereas you and me, we're not cozy at all. We'd be amazing. And that scares the shit out of you.â
Owen cared about sex, and being Owen and the carer he is (though he pretends not to be), allowed her to confide in him about the transition and stress of the job:
GWEN: âAnd I can't share [the things she sees in Torchwood] with anyone.â
OWEN: âYou can now.â
That was what Gwen was looking for. A confidante. The cheating was shitty, and the later action of telling Rhys and retconning him was shittier (imho, the writers REALLY fucked that one up, especially by never bringing it up again), but Gwen was not the only person doing shitty things. Owen knew she had a boyfriend. Even referenced him repeatedly in his efforts to seduce her. Canonically âtortures people in happy relationshipsâ. The point of this particular ramble being this:
IF YOU HATE GWEN COOPER FOR CHEATING AND DO NOT HATE OWEN HARPER FOR BEING THE OTHER HALF OF IT, IT IS MISOGYNY. FULL STOP.
Full stop. No excuses. Owen did exactly as badly as Gwen did. They both fucked up. I adore Owen Harper with my whole soul, but you cannot excuse for him what you hate Gwen for. They did it together, knowingly. You cannot cherry pick who you bash for their grey morality.
My personal headcanons aside**, we have the same situation. Gwen was not the only one flirting. Gwen was not the only one with feelings. Take s2e1 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, for example. That scene in the cells, when he finds out sheâs engaged to Rhys? That was him trying to seduce her (romantically more than physically). That was his poorly timed and awful attempt at making something out of it (Gwen also reciprocated in this scene. I donât deny that.) To quote The Four Aces: âlove is a many-splendored thing.â Itâs complicated and rough, and Gwen had genuine feelings for Jack at the same time as she did Rhys. Itâs not good. Itâs bad. Itâs immoral. Itâs not ideal. Jack Harkness also had real, genuine, and complicated feelings for Gwen, too.
**I need to make a side note that I am not a Gwack shipper. My personal headcanons have Gwenâs initial crush on him fading by s1e4 Cyberwoman. I donât enjoy the forced Gwack storyline, and it was dragged on endlessly, and I really kind of hated it. But weâre going by show canon. So the Gwack flirtation is a thing.**
So the point of this one is the same as the one before:
IF YOU HATE GWEN COOPER FOR FLIRTING AND DO NOT HATE JACK HARKNESS FOR BEING THE OTHER HALF OF IT, IT IS MISOGYNY. FULL STOP.
Full stop. No excuses. Jack was a willing, informed, and understanding participant in their flirtationship, despite her current and longstanding relationship with Rhys.
Iâll make one more point and then end this â itâs beautifully put in this post by @blipintiimeââ, aka 1/3 of my heart, but here is this: every single member of Torchwood is morally damnable. Ianto Jones hid a murderous Cyberwoman in Torchwood Three, using the team and Jack to get her there. Owen Harper began the series by essentially drugging a couple for sex. Suzie Costello - well. Suzie. Toshiko Sato invaded each team memberâs personal space, their thoughts, their most private recesses of their mind, for days, and then brought her alien girlfriend into Torchwood. Jack Harkness lied repeatedly and continuously to his team, murdered Ianto and Toshâs girlfriends, killed when he didnât need to, used an arguably sentient alien as bait, and a whole plethora of other things we wonât get into.
Torchwood is flawed, and thatâs the point of the show. Each member is flawed in their own way, and has something brilliant to contribute. Hating Gwen for being the same is arguably misogynistic and unfounded. She is far from perfect. But she is not the fandomâs or anyoneâs scapegoat.
Thanks for reading, stop blaming Gwen for things you pardon others for, goodbye.