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Do you like the way that women are currently portrayed on ATWT? I don't. There used to be at least a few characters that one could describe as strong women who led interesting, purposeful lives independent of whatever man was or was not in their lives. I think that is one of the things long-time viewers miss so much now. The soap audience is primarily women. We like to see ourselves portrayed as competent and capable of standing on our own two feet. Lucinda, the tycoon, used to be Worldwide's wheeling and dealing CEO. She was confident, capable, and not afraid to take on anyone or anything. Like Kim and Emma, she has always tried to protect her family, sometimes meddling too much. As many of us have remarked the Lucinda whom we see today is quite different. She is never in the office. For months she has been occupied with David and James' schemes. And then, despite Lily's protestations, she married James. Our Lucinda would have hired someone to watch James night and day, not married him! As if that were not unbelievable enough, she married him without a prenuptial agreement! Now as she lies in a coma, waiting to be rescued, James is poised to strip her of her company and her fortune. Lucinda rendered helpless is unheard of! Emma, the hearty farmer and matriarch has retained her character. However, she has all but disappeared from Oakdale. And with her one of the few remaining families on the show has disappeared as well. Emma was the heart and soul of ATWT; the solid-as-a-rock Mama to everyone, not just her own brood. She has integrity, compassion, and intelligence; is independent and always her own person. She's had a few romances but always chose to live her own life as she wanted to. Emma is one of the most admired and beloved characters ever to be on this show and for good reason. I miss her and the Snyder clan a lot. Kim, the sensible one, is also a strong-minded woman. She, like Emma, could always be counted on to give the best advice available. Her kitchen, like Emma's, was a better place than the therapist's office to sort out problems. Kim, in total contrast to Carly, is a giver. There's not a mean or dishonest bone in her body. She loves Dr. Bob, but he's not her whole existence. She is fiercely devoted to her family but has a life outside it. Alas! We see very little of her these days and always in the background. Connor, the scrappy yuppie, blew into town and schemed her way to the top of Walsh, Lucinda's company, which she thought was rightly hers. She even ousted the mighty Lucinda! She was the capable head of the company for a long time. There were romances but they were not the sum total of her life. She married Cal, seemed to have a good life and then boom! She lost her baby, succumbed to Mark's charms and Poof! The Connor we knew disappeared without a trace. She became, in recasting, a totally silly airhead, a would-be-comic character, who is thankfully gone. I still miss the original Connor. Can you imagine her as the vapid Julia? Margo, the tough cop, hasn't been to work in months. Lately she has been reinstated, so let's hope she has something to occupy her time besides her idiotic husband. With the advent of Eddie, the Margo we knew suddenly changed character, neglected her family and became preoccupied with Eddie. She was the object of Eddie's fantasies, which was not all his fault; she acted like a flirty teen-ager without a brain in her head. Not the Margo I remember! After she was placed on probation from her job she was free to spend all her time focusing on Eddie's problems and then her own with Tom. Margo, the smart cop, was totally unaware of Emily's manipulations until they were staring her in the face. Unbelievable again! Even Lily used to go to work at WOAK when she wasn't being kidnapped or in jail. Lily has always been in the role of victim on ATWT. It looks as if she is in for some more, as the Mystery Man seems to have switched babies. Women are frequently portrayed as helpless victims of everything from duplicity to rape. I love Martha Bryne but I do wish that the director would tone down her hysteria a bit. She does it well, sometimes too well, but too frequently. I would love to see her handle a crisis with nerves of steel, just once! I like her in her new role as Lucinda's defender as well as Holden's wife, and Luke and Hope's mother. I hope we are going to see her become a strong woman, as her mother and grandmother are. Emily, the once femme fatale and another of James' victims (delightfully played by Melanie Smith), never whined about her life. Sure she was a schemer, a seductress extraordinaire, but she did not waste time in self-pity. The new portrayal has changed Emily from a business woman into a newspaper editor, and television producer who has become another hysterical woman. Melanie's Emily attracted men; Kelley's Emily repels them. Emily has been stripped of any endearing trait that she may have had. She lashes out at everyone and is horribly nasty to her mother. She blames her situation on anyone but herself. She is a manipulator, a user, and a stalker who is being stalked. Emily used to be as scrappy as Connor in the business world. Then she was raped by Diego, fell apart and instead of dealing with it intelligently dealt with it by spending the past year fixated on Tom. Now we have Julia, Carly, Molly and Camille as the women who occupy most of the airtime. Julia has no visible means of support. She came from a well-to-do family who must send her an allowance! She volunteers her time occasionally at the hospitals and plays ministering angel to Camille and others. Her entire function on ATWT seems to be to provide Jack with an alternative to Carly and also to play yet another female victim. She too is being stalked, cannot distinguish reality from fantasy, and is now addicted to some drug that will doubtless further victimize her. She gives Lily a run for her money in the hysteria sweeps! Julia is a lovely young woman but not a strong one. She has potential (she has been assertive at times) and perhaps with time we will see her become independent enough to find some purpose in life besides Jack. Since returning to ATWT Carly's life has been totally focused on scheming: either scheming to get Jack or scheming to get rich. She has no loyalty to anyone, not even Jack. Carly is far from the helpless female. She does have a strong will but it is entirely self-serving. Her manipulations in achieving her goals have been outrageous at times, funny at times, and at times incredibly sad. Hal should have known better, but I still hated what she did to him. She is another user and the worst kind. She used an innocent baby to get what she wanted. Her concern for the baby lasted about a week and then she was off spending her money and chasing Jack again. Like Emily, she has used her past as an excuse for her present behavior. Carly portrays a woman who is totally self-indulgent, a taker who has nothing to give anyone. From the outset Molly was a bizarre character, even crazed in her obsession to get Holden away from Lily. She had no personality at all except as a device to keep Holden and Lily apart. She went from that mania to being first David's and then Lucinda's pawn, to finally trying to stand on her own two feet (when the money ran out) by blackmailing Emily for a job. So Molly too has played both victimizer and victim. And now she has further metamorphosed into a harmless airhead, a comic character who is becoming capable of concern for others. This is a much more sympathetic role. Are we to believe that she is reformed? I don't know. I just know that I see way too much of her. I have left Camille until last because, of all the ATWT women, in many ways Camille is the poorest example of a strong, independent woman. She is ostensibly a medical student. Yet, she has rarely been shown even thinking about her so-called career plans, much less engaging in them. Her life has no purpose whatsoever except to decide what man she wants at the moment. Carly at least is aware of her manipulations. Camille, the perpetual innocent, is not. She just uses people and then emerges as blameless, because she doesn't know what she is doing. The entire story of her breast cancer seemed but a backdrop, providing reasons for her confusion about her sexuality and which man to choose. Now she has chosen to be alone and is trying to figure it all out. Good Luck Camille. No wonder we would like to see more of the real Lucinda, Kim and Emma. No wonder we protested when Margo lost all common sense. What do we have left? The current group of women is primarily concerned with what man is or is not in their lives. All of them are victims and some victimizers. Their standard reaction to any crisis is hysteria. For the most part they seem a totally self-centered bunch, either unaware of the impact of their actions on others or else not caring about it. Their time is spent pursuing or holding on to the men they desire. Molly, who is recuperting from that syndrome, at least seems interested in her job at the moment. Maybe there is hope. Why do I - why do we - keep harping about the show and wish for more of the good old days? I hope I have provided at least part of the answer. |
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