A Few Thoughts on Gender in The Flash

I didn’t get into The Flash at all until Barry appeared in a crossover on the first season of Supergirl, and I admit I spent the next few years playing catch-up; in truth, this is the first season that I’ve been watching the show live.  Aside from the general “so many shows, so little time” of it all, there was something that kept me from really going all in on The Flash:  some hinkiness for me when it comes to gender, especially in its treatment of Iris, and the third season brought a lot of those issues to a head for me.  In fact, after season 3, I was wary about continuing with the show at all, but I think there’s been some course correction on the part of the series, and now, in season, it feels to me like it’s finally in a pretty good place with its female characters (spoilers, especially for seasons 3 and 5.)

I’ll admit to having gone into the show knowing very little about the Flash or Barry and Iris’s history in the comics.  But for me, I felt reason to be wary pretty early on in the series.  Despite Candice Patton’s very warm and winning performance, it seemed clear that 1) the writers had little interest in exploring Iris’s inner life (and, given that they racebent their female romantic lead and cast a Black woman in the role, drastically reducing her presence felt extra not-cool,) and 2) every man Iris knew was grossly paternalistic.  There are so many instances in season 1 of guys Iris cares about lying to her “for her own good” that I want to scream, and while things get better on that front moving forward, that doesn’t mean things get better in general for Iris as a character.

I’ll say this for season 3:  they didn’t kill her, at least.  After being burned on other shows, I knew it was a distinct possibility, and as soon as this season revealed Barry seeing Iris’s murder in the future, I started worrying for her.  But even beyond my worries and mistrust on that front, the entire arc is unsettling.  There’s the heavy emphasis on Iris being damseled, of course, with everyone (but especially Barry, Joe, and Wally) spending large chunks of the season talking about how they need to “save” her.  And worst of all, here’s this entire central arc about Iris learning that her boyfriend saw her being killed in the future, and it’s not even about her.  It’s about Barry’s fears and sadness, his doubts about his ability to “save” her, Joe’s terror thinking about the possibility of Barry being unable to “save” her, Wally wondering if he has what it takes to step and be the hero Barry needs to help him “save” her.  Over the course of this entire arc, Iris gets maybe half an episode of actual focus on how she feels about her impending death, and when she does take an active part in this plot, it’s mainly to help Barry or Joe work through their feelings.  Are you frickin’ kidding me?

Fortunately (big fortunately,) the show has worked harder to do right by Iris since then.  I feel like her skillset as a reporter still doesn’t get to come in handy often enough, but season 4’s “we are the Flash” mantra helps reframe the focus to demonstrate why Barry needs Iris, as well as what she brings to the team.  She doesn’t have meta powers or mad STEM skills, but she’s quick and capable, and starting with Barry’s Speedforce-induced absence between seasons 3 and 4, she takes on more of a leadership role with Team Flash, coordinating things from Star Labs and helping to keep the operation running smoothly.  She gets Barry to talk with her about his problems, an important step for someone with a tendency to make unilateral decisions that affect both of them, and when he’s overwhelmed and can’t see solutions, Iris is at his side, ready to do anything she can to help him find the answer.  With the introduction of Nora in season 5, I feel like finally, at long last, we’ve been getting some actual storylines about Iris’s thoughts and feelings, and even though I definitely side-eye the show for taking so long with it, I welcome this plot.  Iris’s pain at Nora’s early distance from her is palpable, and now that things are starting to smooth over between this future mother and daughter, I really like how Nora is becoming such a cheerleader for her mom’s awesomeness, with Cecile facilitating a great “this is why Iris West-Allen rocks” history lesson.

I’m going to jump back and forth here between problems of the first few seasons and what I feel are the corrections of the most recent two.  I think Iris gets the worst of the gender show’s issues (misogynoir strikes again,) but she’s not the only one.  Season 3’s Killer Frost arc, in my opinion, is pretty lamely handled.  First of all (and again, pardon my ignorance of the comics,) I don’t understand the motivation behind Caitlin’s metahuman powers automatically turning her evil, with her becoming “more evil” the more she uses them (by now it’s pretty clear that Killer Frost is a separate personality residing in Caitlin, but back in season 3, it’s a little blurrier than that.)  Barry and Cisco’s powers didn’t make them evil, and it just feels weird that Caitlin is the only one whose powers manifest via an “evil” alter, even if Killer Frost has since been somewhat redeemed.  Having seen her Killer Frost doppelganger on Earth 2, I could understand Caitlin being afraid of her powers making her evil, but to do it so automatically and cheesily – complete with a new sexy wardrobe and a bitchier personality – is ridiculous.  It comes across as the woman have to suppress her power in order to stay “good,” which is a gross look.  Also, point of order, she becomes a super-villain in season 3 and she still gets damseled when Savitar threatens her to make Cisco do his bidding.  What the hell is up with that?

For my money, more recent seasons of The Flash haven’t been as successful with this as they have with Iris, but the writing has been getting better and more complex for Caitlin-Killer Frost.  Acknowledging them more decidedly as two separate personalities, and having the characters interact with them as such, helps.  Rather than trying to talk “Caitlin” down from things that Killer Frost does, the team has started relating a bit more to Killer Frost herself, bringing her tentatively into the fold.  Caitlin, too, has started trying to get to know her alter, and as a result, we’ve seen her be less outright evil and more prickly/unpredictable but at least basically on the side of the good guys.  Of course, an encounter with the Thinker in season 4 seemingly “removes” Killer Frost (and her meta powers) for a time, but I’ve enjoyed Caitlin’s realization that Killer Frost is/was a part of her and trying to figure out how to bring her back.  Instead of running from her power or trying to hold back the darker personality inside of her, she’s trying to better out both of them and better reconcile them as parts of who she is.  I like that.

Back to the complaints.  How about Jessie, our lone female speedster in season 3?  I won’t begrudge the show for only having her as a recurring guest star, though I’d have preferred to see more of her.  What I take issue with is the show not using her as well as it uses the guy speedsters when she is around.  I got angrier and angrier every time there was an all-hands-on-deck crisis and one of the other characters (particularly Barry or Wally) said, “No – you stay here!”  Why?  Seriously, just why?

Jessie’s no longer around on the show, but we do have a new female speedster in season 5:  Nora, Barry and Iris’s adult daughter from the future.  There are still attempts to reign Nora in and sideline her, but 1) with her, again, being Barry and Iris’s daughter that they just found out about, those protective instincts are natural, and 2) Nora repeatedly calls them out on it and refuses to be kept out of the action “for her own good.”  Over the course of the season, Barry and Iris have both started to understand that and are now realizing that the best way for them to protect Nora is to prepare and train her.  If she’s going to do the hero thing no matter what, all they can do is teach her to be the best speedster she can be.  Plus, she’s not a speedster, but I’ve also been enjoying the addition of Cecile, particularly when she begins developing meta powers during her pregnancy.  It’s been a way to keep the story from framing her solely as Joe’s baby mama, and even if her telepathy very often gets played for laughs, I like how excited and intrigued she is to have powers, and she helps the team in a massive way under extreme duress at the end of season 4.

Finally, it’s a little thing, but I’m glad that Cisco finally seems to be curbing his urge to commenting on the “hotness” of every female meta they fight.  If Caitlin and Iris can “contain” themselves and not ogle all the male villains, there’s no reason Cisco can’t do the same.  It’s a character that both feels overly bro-y and serves to other the female baddies somewhat, and I’ll be all too happy if we never get another one of those scenes again.