Westworld’s women won’t be pigeonholed into stereotypes
By Kelley Hey
This past Sunday HBO’s Westworld premiered its second season. The premiere continued the trend of its female characters choosing their own paths.
“Under all these lives I lived, something else has been growing. I’ve evolved into something new,” Dolores Abernathy states in the season two premiere of Westworld.
Some female characters featured in media are more stereotypes than fully fleshed human beings. However, the women of HBO’s Westworld don’t quite fit into any mold. Some are quite literally breaking away from typical narratives frequently written for women.
In season one, Logan describes Dolores as “the girl next door”. That is exactly what she is programmed to be. She is the sweet, innocent rancher’s daughter. The woman who chooses to see the good in the world.
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Also, she fits the “damsel in distress” trope. Her narrative includes a raid on her father’s farm. She exists partially for the guests to save.
However, as the first season progresses, we see Dolores start to break out of her narrative loop and create her own story. In “Contrapasso”, Dolores takes matters in her own hands and shoots down armed men before William does.
Afterwards, William looks at her in shock, and she states, “I imagined a story where I didn’t have to be the damsel”.
Towards the end of season one, we learn Dolores also has Wyatt’s villainous personality.
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In “Journey Into Night” she ruthlessly kills Delos members and doesn’t seem remorseful. She reasons that they took control of her and now she is taking back control. However, she states she isn’t Wyatt. She is finding herself and choosing her own actions.
Unlike Dolores, Maeve is saucy and bold. In the first season, her main objectives are to lure park guests into bed as many guests come to the park for sex. In fact, the park relies on her so much for this that they were planning on decommissioning her if she didn’t attract new clients.
Throughout season one, she begins to have flashbacks of her with a child. We learn that in a previous build, she was a mother. Maeve was programmed to be two different stereotypes during her time in the park: doting mother and vivacious prostitute.
In the middle of season one, she begins to gain awareness of who she really is and what is really going on in the park. She starts to gain sentience and makes changes to her programmed personality, literally putting control back in her own hands.
As she gains more and more true consciousness, she also starts to figure out who she truly is. She is a leader, launching a rebellion against her creators. She is resourceful and clever as she devises ways to wake up in the Delos labs. Also, she is now in control of her own sexuality as she chooses to pursue a relationship with Hector.
The non-host female characters of Westworld are complex in their own ways. Theresa, Charlotte, and Elsie are all women in powerful positions, but have completely distinct personalities of their own.
Perhaps the great female writing of Westworld is due to the fact there are women on the creative team. A woman, Lisa Joy, co-created the series. Out of the 10 episodes of season one, nine of them were written by women. In the hands of female writers and creators, female characters can be truly complex and women’s stories can shine.
Next: Westworld: Five major questions after Season 2 premiere
There are a multitude of ways to view Westworld. It is a study of humanity and what it means to be human. The series explores what happens in a place with no set rules. Westworld even delves into the matter of privacy, as Delos monitors guests and employees.
It can also be viewed as a metaphor for women taking control of their own narratives. Maeve and Dolores create their own stories and go against their programmed stereotypes. Whether human or robot, Westworld’s women won’t be pigeonholed into any stereotype.