She may have f*cked Ted, but Skyler White is telling her haters to f*ck off. In a New York Times op-ed published yesterday under the headline “I Have a Character Issue,” Breaking Bad star Anna Gunn wrote at length about all the vitriol she and Skyler have faced from fans of the show over the years, for “BEING SUCH A BISH.”
My character, to judge from the popularity of Web sites devoted to hating her, has become a flash point for many people’s feelings about strong, non-submissive, ill-treated women. As the hatred of Skyler blurred into loathing for me as a person, I saw glimpses of an anger that, at first, simply bewildered me. (Via)
Gunn acknowledged that “there is a natural tendency to empathize with and root for [Walter White], despite his moral failings,” because he’s the show’s protagonist; likewise, Skyler’s his antagonist, “the one character who consistently opposes Walter and calls him on his lies,” which women be calling out meth empire builders. Then, the boom.
But I finally realized that most people’s hatred of Skyler had little to do with me and a lot to do with their own perception of women and wives. Because Skyler didn’t conform to a comfortable ideal of the archetypical female, she had become a kind of Rorschach test for society, a measure of our attitudes toward gender.
I can’t say that I have enjoyed being the center of the storm of Skyler hate. But in the end, I’m glad that this discussion has happened, that it has taken place in public and that it has illuminated some of the dark and murky corners that we often ignore or pretend aren’t still there in our everyday lives. (Via)
In other words:
Except, um, the complete opposite.
(Via)
