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The Sociopolitical Aspects of…Teen Wolf?

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***Warning for possible Season 3 Spoilers***

Okay, so as a rule there are certain channels I try to avoid at all times. I don’t watch Lifetime because it tries to convince women that all men are trying to kill them and all other women secretly want to steal their babies. I don’t watch The Cartoon Network because all of their cartoons are sort of tasteless and sometimes a little creepy. I don’t watch The Weather Channel because every drizzle is a tsunami and if I did I would never sleep again. I don’t watch the Science Channel because the world is a terrifying fucking place and is going kill us one way or another. Aaaannnd…finally, I don’t watch MTV.

For the most part, I feel that MTV likes to claim they are promoting social and political change while in reality they are creating television that glorifies the absolute worst of our society. I feel like reality television shows such as The Jersey Shore, 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom have done more to harm our children mentally than hormones in our food and violence on television combined. So I was flabbergasted um, surprised, to find one of the most well written shows on television (in my not very important opinion) hiding among the trash.

Now, I should clarify that I was not watching MTV when I found Teen Wolf. No, I was actually looking for something on Netflix to binge watch while crafting on a Saturday (I know, I’m a party animal, don’t hate). Because I like shows like True Blood, The Vampire Diaries and Ghosthunters, Netflix imperiously decided that I would also like Teen Wolf, Lost Girl and Hemlock Grove. (They guessed right). While I feel that my Netflix account secretly judges me for watching television obviously geared to somebody far younger than my own 36 years, I figured I was stuck on my couch crafting badge reels so I might as well turn it on as background noise. I mean, how bad can a show about hot, shirtless, angsty, teen werewolves be?

Was that too creepy? Oh well, call me Mrs. Robinson cause those boys are ridiculously hot. Oh, and the guys my age on the show are insanely smoking hot too. Just saying.

I didn’t mean to get sucked into the plot line, I swear. I was only in it for the sexiness and the shirtlessness of it all. But, I (as most of you know) am a sucker for sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek dialogue; throw in the paranormal and I’m a goner. The hot werewolves and the snarky dialogue snagged my attention but it is the breathtakingly nonchalant way they approach sociopolitical hot button topics that got me hot and bothered. As anybody who has ever read one of my posts knows, there are four causes that are near and dear to my heart…women’s rights, marriage equality, mental health and anti-bullying. Teen Wolf addresses them all in a quietly disraming way that I think will impact teenagers without them ever really being aware of it.

Here’s why.

1.) Strong Female Characters

Though there are numerous “strong” female characters out there on television, writers often want to temper their fierceness with the occasional fit of histrionics or a need for a man to protect them because they feel that women who are too strong give off the wrong impression. Teen Wolf doesn’t do this at all. Some of their most intelligent, blood thirsty (though crazy & misguided) villains to date have been women. Now, homicidal women on television are nothing new but the three main female characters on the show are known for their independence, intelligence and unflinching badassery.

Main character, Scott McCall’s mom, Melissa McCall is a single mom and a RN (yes, just like me) and she never plays the pity card. She is strong and smart and even when her son actually told her he was a werewolf she momentarily (rightly so) freaked out but then adapted, overcame and went back to work. No matter what the situation she seems to handle it all with sarcasm, a great work ethic and general awesome mom skills, including taking in orphaned and abused werewolf Isaac.

Scott’s on again/off again girlfriend Alison Argent is not only the daughter of werewolf hunters…she is one herself. She even manages to kick werewolf ass while dating a werewolf. She don’t give a fuck about conflict of interest. She does what she wants. She is insane with a crossbow, keeps knives sheathed in all kinds of random places on her person and is 75% fearless & 25% brave. She doesn’t ask permission to go into the fray, she doesn’t pretend she’s not scared and she doesn’t constantly beg for her big bad wolfs help.

Lydia Martin, Alison’s best friend appears to be your typical shallow, vapid “mean girl”. However, as the story line progresses you find out that not only is she an A student, she is the smartest girl in school and a genius with a 170 IQ. She also has some pretty groovy supernatural powers but that is somewhat incidental. Lydia is far more interested in being known for her brain than her beauty which can, in part, be attributed to the actress playing her (Holland Roden) who insisted that her character be as smart as she was bitchy and hot.

My favorite thing about the women of Teen Wolf is that the writers don’t make apologies for their strength and they don’t pander to it. They expect the watchers to just know that women are strong and intelligent and I think that message is something that should be pushed at every opportunity.

2.) Realistic Gay Characters

I cannot stress this enough, when it comes to the portrayal’s of gay characters on television, Teen Wolf is doing it exactly right. As of Season 3, there are two characters on the show who are gay. The first is Scott’s teammate Danny Mahealani, who was introduced to the show in Season 1. Danny’s sexual orientation was addressed in one line as a very matter of fact statement that told the audience that Danny is not there to play the “gay” character but that he was gay. He is a well fleshed out character who just happens to be attracted to men instead of women. No big deal. They pay far more attention to the fact that Danny is one of the better athletes on the team, that he is popular, smart, a band geek and very comfortable with who he is as a person. Danny is very much angst free.

However, it isn’t just the way that the show introduced Danny to the audience but how all the other characters interact with him. There is no bullying, no hazing, no treating him differently in any way. They rag on him the same way they would anybody else. His best friend was one of the biggest assholes in school and yet he never thinks a thing of Danny’s sexuality. His teammates never have a problem with him being in the locker room or him dating guys. The video below is a perfect example of a scene between Danny and Scott’s best friend Stiles Stilinski.

The second gay character is actually a werewolf. A big, giant, full-on scary as fuck werewolf. They never talk about him being gay or whether he is or isn’t. Until he and Danny have a very hardcore make out scene it really isn’t even addressed that he is gay. It’s brilliant. There shouldn’t need to be a declaration of sexuality. People shouldn’t have to state whether they are gay or straight, defend their choices or be afraid of others reactions to it. They should just be able to be themselves. The storyline developing between Danny and Ethan is actually not only super hot, its romantic and sweet and given no more and no less screen time than any of the other pairings on the show. For now, anyway. I am all about more Danny and Ethan.

In real life, there is another type of homosexuality issue being addressed. Fans of the show have taken the somewhat angsty and smoldering looks between Alpha wolf Derek and Scott’s human friend Stiles and turned it into one of the biggest slash couple fandom’s out there. You can’t type in Teen Wolf on Tumblr without crashing head first into a mountain of Sterek (their fandom ship name) fanfiction be it kid friendly or just down and dirty smut. (It’s pretty awesome) Teen Wolf could have chosen to play down the Sterek hype, like some shows, but instead chose to use it to their ratings advantage by putting the actors Tyler Hoechlin and Dylan O’Brien in videos where they were very much willing to play up their “fondness” for each other just to make their fans happy and win them some votes on the Teen Choice Awards.

3.) Mental Illness

Teen Wolf has put their guidance counselors to good use on this show, with characters often going to see them after traumas of kidnapping or the death of a fellow student. Again, all with a sort of this-is-what-kids-should-do attitude. Stiles, while providing the majority of comic relief, has had a pretty rough life and they don’t hesitate to let him show emotion, especially when it comes to how he dealt with his mother’s death or his strained relationship with his father. In one of the most recent episodes, Stiles had a very realistic appearing panic attack when he realized that his one remaining parent’s life was very much in danger. Also, while under the influence of a powerful drug, Scott talks about what his life was like before he became the wolf, before him and Stiles became popular and how sometimes he wishes that he could go back to being invisible and even ending it all. The scene between him and his friends really drives home the fact that no matter how bad things get, you are not replaceable and that somebody will miss you.

It is sad and ironic that it takes a show where people’s lives are in danger due to supernatural influences to highlight how completely irrelevant who somebody loves is and how entirely relevant how they love that person is. There should be a million more shows like this that help normalize human equality without beating people over the head with it like I sometimes do with you guys.

So, go. Watch the show. It’s good. I promise.



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