Sweet Dee from Always Sunny

Horror and gore movies with sexual icing is a popular phenomenon. Many horror movies depict women as the victims, where inflicting pain upon them is a pleasure for men (Saw, Hostel, etc). It’s one of the many ways to sexualized women by making them fully dominated by men; mentally, emotionally, physically, sexually. On the other hand, we also have heroine, whether it is as superheroes (catwoman, wonder woman, etc) or femme fatale in noir films. And they are all sexualized, too, but in a completely different way than women in horror movies. If they are superheroes, they are wearing spandex or leather clothings. These examples make me think if there is any portrayal of females in popular movies or TV completely detached from any sexual stigmatizations.  

                ….which brings me to the next point

                Sweet Dee from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is one of my favorite characters out there. She is an obnoxious, loud, prejudiced, cranky woman. She is the only female in the gang (with 4 other members and all of them own a bar) and is very often bullied as a bird by the gang members. But she’s not a victim of a bully since she also dares to give order to her dad, she picks a fight with one of the boys, she pees in a jar (in a car) when drunk, among many else. Despite her aggressive—often unladylike attitude, she is longing for a real relationship and she has to try real hard to prove her male friends that she is still attractive. Unfortunately, most of her dates prove that she is the other way around.

Dee, teaching her dad some lessons

If you only see her through her appearance, she actually fits the category of an ideal girl: pretty face, slim body, she always wears a fitting top, she has a normal high pitch voice of a lady. Her body and appearance tells that she is a nice looking lady with a possibility of great compassionate personality. But her personality is nowhere near that ideal girl category. In fact, as I have explained above, you can see how her personality is quite manly aggressive without being tomboyish. To certain extent, there is very little to none sexual stigmatization in her character. She isn’t portrayed as a sexy woman, although she can easily be one through her nice looking body, her silliness, or dominating character. We have seen that female characters who depict a not-so-normal personality can look quirky, cute, or even strong. She has all the potentials to be the sexual accessory of the gang, but she is very far from that. This proves that this character is barely sexualized at all.

Perhaps this is a slightly exaggerated example of how female would be like on TV/movies if they are completely not sexualized. But to me it’s extremely interesting to see that one way this is done is by making her character very similar to the males in the show. The males present a stereotypical arrogant, narcissistic, bully character. And with her personality, Sweet Dee blends in really well with other boys, making her somewhat equal with other guys. Although she was being bullied as a bird many times, there are also moments when she performs as the ‘winner’ and get the chance to ‘bully’ or ridicule other guys. Is this a realistic portrayal of females? Definitely not. But is this a ‘fair’ representation of females compared with the males in the movie? Maybe yes. At the least, she is depicted as an equal with her gang family; she is neither above them nor below them.