A Female Protagonist, but Not a Heroine

After the scandal House of Cards navigated through with Kevin Spacey’s sexual assault allegations, the show returned to Netflix with Spacey’s character’s wife, Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) at the center for its final season. Claire begins the season powerful, poised, and under pressure. She faces threats from the public as well as from advisors. Claire has a chance to turn away from her late husband’s dark dealings and be the pure and powerful female president the audience craves. One might expect to see a pro-woman story burst forth, illustrating how incredible women are and what good things come when they build each other up, engage in civic duty, and use their voices.

Claire Underwood does not take this route. She is nobody’s feminist icon. The character continues her fight for power, scheming against anyone who threatens her plans. She even kills off two other strong female characters. Criticism of the show says it’s not as feminist as it looks or is about “women gaining power at the expense of other women.” But so what? Claire Underwood is none of the female tropes we’ve seen, and she’s not a paradigm of female perfection. She fights for herself, not for empowering women. Male protagonists fight for themselves and, whether villainized or not, are accepted at face value. Female protagonists are expected to take up the cause of feminism and show the world, both in their fictionalized film as well as the audience, that women are wonderful and strong and full of goodness. Claire is a fully fleshed out character without being the conventional female leader we want to see in media today.