I'm very protective of Betty Cooper.
I have been from the very first episode. I could make a bullet point list of the reasons for that - and it would be a long list. I might get to it one day, but not tonight. At the heart of it, I’m protective of Betty because I see myself (as a teenager and an adult) in her character. I understand her unhealthy coping mechanisms. I understand the weight a parent’s expectation of you can have. I understand how she cares so much for everyone and everything, all the time. How that happens many times in detriment of her own mental health. I understand when she hurts the people she loves - sometimes out of an instinct to protect them, sometimes because she is simply blinded by her tunnel vision. I understand her anxiety.
I also understand Betty is a flawed character and that she makes mistakes. It would not be a realistic portrayal of a teenager if she didn’t. So, even when I can’t picture myself making the same choices she does, I stand by her.
I want Betty Cooper to be happy. I want Riverdale’s writers to do her justice. And tonight, they didn’t.
Now, this is not about her relationship with Jughead. I ship it. I believe in it. I’m endlessly frustrated about them breaking up yet again - but I’m not talking about that.
I’m talking about the writers’ choice to have Betty Cooper pole dance in a bar full of older men leering at her.
I’ve seen people in my timeline comparing this scene with the one Blair had on Gossip Girl. I believe Riverdale’s version of it was worse. Because they had Betty stripping to her lingerie. Because, if I’m not mistaken, Betty is younger than Blair was, if not by much. Because of the song they picked for the soundtrack. Both scenes were, however, fundamentally wrong. Blair was underage when she danced for Chuck in that cabaret. Betty was underage in the scene depicted tonight. To the people at the CW: it’s bad enough that it happened once, why would you do this again? It’s not edgy.
And it’s also not about Jughead’s face of how he felt watching it. When Betty asks him if he is pushing her away because of her option to do the dance, I’m glad his answer is no. However, he still breaks them up because he “doesn’t want her to be a part of it” - and that is what the writers want us to focus on. The dance is just another prop, and it shouldn't have been.
I was proud of Toni and her “misogyny dies hard” speech, but was the whole thing really necessary? Did Toni have to go though it too? If so, was she even younger? Even if she didn’t, even if this is something only non-member partners of Serpents have to do, why does the ritual associated with women have to be sexualized in such a twisted way? And why couldn’t Betty and Toni have found a middle ground?
They are fifteen years old.
Riverdale did Betty Cooper a world of wrong tonight. This scene was not what we were teased or promised. It was not “Betty exploring her sexuality”. It was unhealthy and all around bad. And yet again a misplaced sexualization of “dark Betty” and her mental health issues.
Alright. I’m done. I’m not even sure this made any sense, I just had to get this toxic frustration out of me.
Do better, Riverdale. You owe it to Betty Cooper. You owe it to your fans.