Why Downton Abby is a Feminist Show and Why You Should Care

Apropos of Episode 3:

(I haven’t started series four yet, so the below will be based on seasons 1-3.  I reserve the right to revise.)

Let’s get all the complaints out of the way first: in this particular era, women were trained to compete with one another, even within families, for men (if they were rich), for positions (if they weren’t), and for all manner of other things.  They couldn’t inherit in many places, which meant they were dependent first upon father and then upon husband.  If they got pregnant outside of marriage, they were shunned and doomed, at least in cases requiring dramatic license, to life as prostitutes.  If they had sex outside of marriage, they were cursed by having said man die in their bed and being forced into arrangements with individuals who either liked their arm candy extra spicy or were going to use the information as leverage for money or power or whatever.

Not much I can do about history.  Sorry, kids.

Let’s take a closer look at Downton specifically, though.  Parse out they who are in the drivers’ seats of this epic.

Let’s talk about who makes this story happen.

Lord Grantham:*buzzer* Nope.  He has nominal command of the money and the house, sure, but he blows it all on bad investments.  He’d have lost the whole shebang to begin with without Cora’s money. Mostly he stands around, looking grim or serious or like he would rather be hunting, drinking, or kissing the maids.

Matthew:  Nerp.  Matthew is a placeholder.  A placeholder hero?  Sure.  But a hero who could very easily be replaced by a boulder or a tree stump.

Carson: Not with Mrs. Huges there to keep him in line.

Bates: Has a strong and compelling storyline, but he himself doesn’t domuch.  Lots of things happen to him, but it’s been years since he had any control.

Thomas: *snort*

The men have story lines, certainly.  They’re main characters.  They are important.  But they aren’t, by definition as I have come to understand it, protagonists.  

If not they, who?

I’ll tell you.

Anna: Without her, Bates doesn’t have a story because he rots in jail.  She decides she wants him and she makes it happen.  She knows he isn’t guilty and she hunts down the evidence that frees him.  Anna wears the trousers in the Mr. and Mrs. Bates story.  And we love her for it.

Mrs. Hughes:  Someone has to keep the king in line and she is just the queen for it.  She loves her job and refuses to leave it for a man.  She is the voice of reason.  She is the den mother of the apocalypse.  Downstairs falls apart without Mrs. Huges to keep all the actors in their places.  Herding cats, perhaps, but she does it well.

Miss O’Brien: Love to hate her, but you can’t deny the woman is in charge of her own destiny.  She even goes so far as to admit her mistakes, which is more than Grantham does when his family nearly needs to downgrade to a smaller mansion, and to grow as a human being.  Thomas will never learn.  O’Brien does.  Keeps her eyes on the prize and will get someone else drunk to grab the ring.

Mrs. Crowley: Every time she speaks, I hear, “Harriet Jones, Prime Minister,” in my head, but that’s neither here nor there.  She has a career.  She tells society to go screw when it’s the right thing to do.  She’s sanctimonious, certainly, and a bit of a know it all, but it’s great to have a lady who isn’t afraid to show off her brain and change a few other minds in the process.

Cora: Without Cora, there is no Downton.  She knew she was entering a financial arrangement when she married the Lord G, but she chose to do so just as she choses to help Mary with the Turkish diplomat scandal and choseswhen to ally herself with her mother-in-law and when to kick back.  She is an Edwardian Machiavelli and things always seem to end up the way she wants them to because she makes them happen.

Mary: Mary speaks her mind.  She takes a lover.  -Ish.  She does what she thinks is right for Matthew.  She affiances herself to a man who can give her what she wants but, when he proves quite the asshole, she dumps him despite his ability to ruin her.  She chooses Matthew as a love match, not as a financial one.  Things happen to change her path, but she always choses her own next step.

Edith: Edith gets shit upon.  There’s no denying it.  She falls in love with Matthew, he falls in love with her sister.  She choses a love match, against the will of her family, and is jilted at the altar.  She refuses to be another man’s mistress.  And she has an opinion.  She speaks her mind.  She gets a job writing a column for a newspaper and she isn’t a novelty act; she’s an editorialist.  She refuses to allow Mary to browbeat her, even going so far as to admit she doesn’t much like her sister.  Edith, in her way, is the most badass of the bunch.  I think the men may be afraid to be alone with her at the breakfast table because she can whip their asses at politics, finance, and a whole host of things the males view as their domains.

Sibyl: Becomes a nurse.  Learns to cook.  Not only marries the chauffeur but helps protect her revolutionary hubs from the cops.  Most importantly, she refuses to take “he’s common” for an answer, making absolutely certain her husband’s place in the family is secure.  Looks sweet and innocent, carries a big stick.

The Dowager Countess: Maggie Smith.  That is all.

I believe I’ve made my point.  Apparently, early 20th century Britain is ahead of the 21st century United States.

Put that in your opium pipe and smoke it.