Point: Once Upon a Time: Why Ruby may be doing more than just saving herself
Ruby is an important character line inOnce Upon a Time.She is a character that starts to represent the importance of breaking hegemonic standards. She realizes she can be strong and get what she wants if she believes in herself. Her character's popularity may help in the development of future female characters on prime time television.
This is a point/counterpoint discussion with dthorjones. Their counterpoint argument can be found here.
Once Upon a Time is a fairly new show that debuted in 2011 about a tiny town in Maine, whose inhabitants had supernatural powers. It quickly gained a major audience for those who liked the intricate plot and interesting characters.
One of the main characters, Ruby, is a dynamic character who starts the episode as unsure and unconfident, but ends up growing into a strong female character by the end of this episode. Ruby seems to underestimate her abilities in the beginning of this episode, searching for ways to control herself when she becomes a wolf. In this episode she meets her mother who she believed was dead. She is excited to learn from her, but is suspicious with the ways of the wolf pack she becomes a part of. She witnesses the wolf pack kill humans who enter into their home, and you can see Ruby begin to question her place in becoming a part of the pack. Her mother tries convincing her to stay so she can help Ruby hone in on her control when turning into a wolf. When her mom turns into a wolf to kill Ruby’s friend, whom she considers family, Ruby turns herself into a wolf and defends her friend. Ruby attacks her mom, accidentally killing her. In this scene Ruby chooses the life she had over the life she could have had with her mother. She starts to morph into a strong character as she lets go of the hegemonic stereotypes of listening to everyone but herself. This is an example of her breaking from hegemonic values: she is not being submissive or taking orders from others. She is standing up for herself and making her own decisions. This is a change to the usual story line that occurs over and over in primetime television. These story lines exist because of the people who control what is put out on television. It supports the argument that James Lull’s article “Hegemony” brings up when he writes “Owners and managers of media industries can produce and reproduce the content, inflections, and tones of ideas favorable to them…” (Lull 2). He is saying that the men who want to keep women’s roles as they are now usually write characters like Ruby. So when Ruby goes against the usual woman character she is not following the hegemonic roles.
In addition to Ruby choosing her own life over the life her mother wanted for her, she also accomplishes the difficult task of controlling the wolf inside her. She does not try to please anyone but herself in this episode, which is not common among women in these programs. They are usually the caretakers or following the male’s lead. She is not letting the men in her life control her ability to be a wolf, or stop her from being who she is. She chooses to embrace her inner wolf and run with it. Douglas Kellner discusses in his article “Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture” the stereotypes that are put on women in the media. “Ideologies of gender promote sexists representations of women, oppressive sexist representations…”. Ruby breaks from these gender stereotypes in this episode when she is in control, and stays in the life where she can morph into a wolf when she wants, and has the same abilities given to her as a male wolf.
Ruby’s character has more confidence in herself by the end of this episode. She no longer feels like she has to obey the others when they tell her how she should live her life under the red cloak so she won’t change. She shows the other characters how she has grown, and how independent she is. She is one of the only characters in this storyline who is not influenced by all the men in her life. She is a powerful and a strong fighter.