Skylar White: Stupid Bitch or Sexist Scapegoat? (Spoilers)
When it comes to Breaking Bad, I personally found that all I wanted was for Walt to do incredibly bad-ass stuff. Whether it be cooking meth, killing tweakers, or simply saying more stuff like "I am the one who knocks" or "I'm in the empire business", the transformation from everyday man to drug kingpin is a fascinating one and one which which I personally believe constitutes the reason why this show stands out from all others. Throughout this process, Walt's wife Skylar seems to oppose everything he does. From starting this business in the first place to him simply buying a car for his son, she is constantly seen to be "the bad guy", which is interesting seeing as she can be seen to be one of the most morally upstanding characters in the entire show (assuming we ignore "the Beneke incidents"). So why is it that so many people hate Skylar?
On one side, it seems quite apparent. We simply don't like anyone who stands in the way of Walt becoming a super bad-ass. The majority of people watching the show really aren't overly bothered about his relationships with his brother-in-law's psycho wife, but instead simply want to see explosions, meth, and cool catchphrases. Throughout the progression of the show, we see this explored in greater depth, although at every turn Skylar seems to be preventing this. She will frequently call him out for his lies, his homicidal tendencies, and even his jeopardising of his family, the ones whom he set out to protect in the first place. Whilst we do not particularly see this exactly as a bad flaw, it seems that BB fans simply disagree with anything that comes between our anti-hero and the super-awesome character we are all anticipating he turn into. It would seem that the majority of the hate for Skylar simply comes because she stands between what we want and what we are getting.
However, I recently stumbled upon an Op-Ed contribution to the New York Times, written by Anna Gunn, the actress who plays Skylar on the show. Whilst she does not deny that her standing in the way of Walt contributes to the dislike for her character, she claims that this goes much deeper. She claims that the hate for Skylar is because people "canât stand a woman who wonât suffer silently or âstand by her manâ? That they despise her because she wonât back down or give up? Or because she is, in fact, Walterâs equal?**" Whilst I do not necessarily agree or disagree with the point Gunn is making here, I believe it is an interesting one. First, Gunn claims that it is due to gender stereotypes not being met and the male frustration that supposedly arises from this. Whilst I personally do not believe that all women must merely sit in the kitchen and do as their men tell them, I will admit that there are, to this very day, many men who still believe that this should be the case. However, I find it unlikely that people genuinely dislike her character purely because of the fact that they believe her to be a woman who does not "know her place", as I do not believe that sexism still holds a view this deep, that merely defying a stereotype is a reason to be hated. Although saying this, when we look at the three main women in Breaking Bad, these being Skylar, Marie (Skylar's sister), and Lydia (a woman Walt later goes into business with), all of these women have a reputation for being the least popular characters in the show. Whilst I personally disliked Marie more than any other character for reasons I do not have the time to go into, I believe that there is the potential that this point may hold SOME credibility. Come season five, Lydia is shown to be the only person with the power to ship and sell Walt's meth. Skylar is shown to have power over Walt, to an extent, in that she often knows how to convince him to compromise or change his ways (and Gunn's claim that Skylar is "Walter's equal" shows us this). Marie is shown to be powerful in that her marriage to Hank means she has a certain security, which can be seen when she walks free from her shoplifting. All three main women in BB are shown to be very powerful, and all three women are hated. Whether or not there is a direct corrolation there is to be disputed, however it seems possible that people watching the show have a problem with the power these women hold merely because they are women.
This is even more interesting when we look at the fact that, most of the time, Skylar is RIGHT. Many fans of the show call Skylar a "bitch", however she is trying to convince a man to give up a life of crime in order to protect her two children. In any other show, or in "real life" for that matter, this would be a perfectly rational response to this stigma. However, in the context of Breaking Bad, we do not agree with the points she makes, and in fact actively disagree with them. So why is it that, just because of this context, we disagree with what we would interpret as a rational reaction? This links back to my earlier point, that all BB viewers simply wish to see Walt become a super bad-ass. Because we all want to see something completely unrealistic, we are completely willing to put all personal senses of morality aside in order to support our protagonist in his adventures in order to see something totally mega awesome. Whilst it is nature that we try our hardest to sympathise with the protagonist with shows, which is why shows in which hardened criminals are central are often to interesting, it still bemuses me that people will completely disagree with pure, rational sense in order to watch a normal man become a psychopath.
So to conclude, I see both sides of the spectrum. Whilst we are given SOME valid reasons to hate Skylar (her exploits with Beneke), the majority of the time she is simply a rational woman whom we hate purely to give us a greater chance of sympathising with our protagonist. I believe that Gunn's claims that the BB fanbase hate Skylar purely because she is a woman who does not conform to gender stereotypes is misled and exaggerated, because gender stereotypes in this form simply do not manifest to such an extent in general society, however that is not to say that Gunn does not have a point in what she says. The idea that women have power still does not appeal to some men, and they will try to convince themselves that said woman is at issue because of it. Skylar White is certainly an interesting character, and one who raises many issues, but I do not believe she is either a "Stupid Bitch" OR a "Sexist Scapegoat", simply a strong female character who is open to interpretation by any who choose.
** All quotes taken from the full article, written by Anna Gunn, which can be found here
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