I am actually totally baffled by the level of hate Jenny Schecter seems to get as a character. Her Wikipedia article even mentions “her frequent narcissistic tendencies, her prima donna ways, her egotistical attitude, and selfish persona”, and that “even the LGBT community does not like Jenny because of her duplicity and confusion” and I”m just not seeing it.
Here’s a woman who is a strong feminist and an abuse survivor, someone whose mental health means that she struggles with life on a daily basis but who nevertheless treats almost everyone around her with a level of compassion and understanding that very few people ever seem to grant her. Tim treated her completely abominably, way above and beyond what was called for even given that she cheated. Nevertheless when people cheat on *her* she’s ridiculously reasonable about it - she listens to their reasons and she gets them and she forgives them. When her partner transitions - something that must be really complex for her since at that point she’s identifying as a lesbian - she doesn’t skip a beat in doing exactly the right fucking thing, in the face of all their friends being a bit crap about it and the fact that he himself then goes on to treat her dreadfully as well.
As a writer, too, she takes criticism and she keeps trying and she challenges herself and she’s not afraid to learn from people who are incredibly harsh to her about her work. That shit is hard, yo. Even when she walks out on that editor she comes back and apologises, she’s able to be persuaded of her mistake - and that wasn’t even about her writing, it’s the stuff the editor said about her personality and her life story that upset her.
I’m only about halfway through series three, but I’m actually starting to feel like all the hate Jenny gets is problematic from a feminist perspective. She sticks to her guns and she tries to call people on it when they’re treating her like some kind of doormat or punching bag. She’s a feminist and an artist and someone with pretty serious lifelong mental health problems and I’m coming to admire her as a character a great deal.
Season four and five Jenny is awful. Its honestly painful to watch.
