As much as people like to pretend they’re only critical of Carol Sturka because of her socioeconomic background, it’s obviously just misogyny. It’s fair to throw in homophobia, too, because many viewers ignore or pretend they don’t understand the impact of Helen’s death. Carol’s identity as a wealthy white American is often used as a shield to avoid accusations of misogyny. Some who are being critical of her character are using their marginalized identities to prove they’re somehow correct in their pseudo-intellectual takes. It’s all identity reductionism.
It’s like how people are misogynistic towards real white women but state their whiteness is what they’re critiquing when, in actuality, they’re just unloading how they feel about all women. Even the language used to critique Carol is blatant misogyny. Many are stating that she is ‘overreacting’ or ‘too emotional’ despite having justifiable reasons for her actions, which is reminiscent of female hysteria. Some have even used the word ‘hysterical’ to describe her.
Also, the term ‘Karen’ needs to be thrown away; it’s another misogynistic term. It was created for racist white women, but there is no male equivalent. Y’all use for any white woman regardless of whether she’s racist or not. It has turned into another term for ‘hysterical female’. It’s even used against women of other races that y’all deem to be too emotional. Again, it's just a modern version of other misogynistic terms used to shut up a woman and discredit her. Stop pretending to be anti racism or whatever because we all know that’s not the goal when it comes to the use of ‘Karen’.
For months, viewers have completely misconstrued every single one of her actions to write her off as being a privileged white American.
Calling Carol a bigot because she set up a meeting with only English speakers. I can not fault the other immune for feeling hurt by her actions, but as the viewer, why are you sensitive over it? In episode two, it was made clear that she was paranoid of the others listening, just like how Manousos was paranoid when he got to Albuquerque.
Calling Carol an entitled, rude American because she did not want to be nice to the people who caused the death of her wife. Yet when Manousos purposely caused the Others to seize TWICE, puts a knife to one of their necks, and states that he does not value their lives, y’all do not care. I have not seen discourse about Manousos being an entitled, rude Colombian who wants everything to be his way. This treatment seems to be reserved only for Carol…
Despite Manousos shitty behavior, I see people state that he should be the main character or that he’s the real hero. Y’all are being way more charitable to him, even when he is doing worse than Carol at times. Even using him being South American to ignore/justify his rudeness. Just weird.
Someone made a post about Carol and Manousos’s behavior in episode 7, stating that their difference in behavior is due to their socioeconomic background.
This is one of many Pluribus posts that I find to be idiotic. We watch Carol lose her wife, learn that the joining can be reversed, but no one wants to reverse it, be completely isolated from other immune and the Others, and not know that Mansuosos is traveling to Albuquerque. I have watched many Tv shows and Movies, so I understand that when characters feel all hope is lost, they stop caring. This behavior can be observed in real life, too. People tend to stop maintaining any social norms because nothing matters anymore. So, why would Carol, who believes that the joining will not be reversed, act like Mansousos and pretend that everyone will come back?
It also ignores that the other Immunes have been taking advantage of the situation since the beginning, and way more than Carol. Yet, she is the only one getting shit for it. What makes takes like this even more idiotic is that I remember when people were also hating on Carol for NOT taking advantage of the situation. They were calling her a colonizer who was disturbing the peace with her ‘irrational’ reactions. Stating that she, as an individualism-worshipping American, does not understand collectivism like the non-Western world does. But now that she says fuck it and tries to enjoy the time she has left because the rest do not want to save the world, shes now a selfish white American.
When viewers thought that Zosia was Middle Eastern, there were takes about how racist it was for Carol to have a “woman of color” be her chaperone. But when it was stated that she was a regular white Polish woman, everyone stopped pretending to care about their dynamic because they couldn’t use it to critique Carol.
If Carol were a male character, everyone would be understanding of his behavior and even have sympathy for him. Many white male characters share similar or worse traits, but they do not receive as much hate. In fact, their behavior is often excused, especially if they have lost a wife. So many have denied this and swear they would treat a white American Male character the same, but we all know that is false.
The entire discourse surrounding Carol proves two things that I have known for years. 1. Y’all will use a woman’s privilege identity to ignore her misfortunes while, in the same breath, use a man’s marginalized identity to ignore/justify their actions. 2. As much as everyone claims to want well-written female characters, y'all will treat them exactly how you treat real women. If society hates seeing and treating real women like people, how are y'all going to handle a female character that’s written like an actual person? What’s crazier is that the women who’ve participated in the misogynistic hate against Carol by holding her to weird standards are the same ones who’ll cry and complain when the same is done to them.
I’m not stating that her privileges have to be ignored or are not important, but I am calling y'all out for only being this hypercritical because she is a woman. I just want y’all to have NORMAL conversations about her character. There is more to be said about the conversations surrounding Carol, but it’ll be even more to write.
