I just want to be clear that I still like Claire Dearing. I’m not critiquing her portrayal because I’m determined to hate her? I’m not being analytical and expressing my opinions to convince anyone that she shouldn’t like her. I just expected more, especially after the women in the previous films, and I think there are ways to push her into a more creative character whose explicitly granted actual respect. I hope no one’s getting from my posts that I wholly despise her because I don’t. I’m just very, very critical of media that seeks to place women in leadership roles as if they’re so progressive only to not even recognize their own pitfalls and failures to actually elevate her from the heavy tropes/stereotypes and not make her likable to the general public only when she shows ‘badass’ qualities and basically performs masculine tasks. The double standard that women have to be women and perform masculine tasks while still looking pretty doing them in order for people to support those women is what I’m having a problem with, rather than her being likable and treated fairly the entire way through.
She was feminine and in a high-ranking position. I wish she was also portrayed as liked by her employees and employer instead of constantly insulted by them.
She was an aunt and sister. I wish her sister understood her career-oriented focus and didn’t chastise her for going on with her daily routine (like what did Karen expect them/her to do? why didn’t Karen emphasize it was important that she changed her schedule beforehand? why didn’t Karen tell Claire before they even got on the plane what her expectations/hopes were for their time bonding? why didn’t Karen tell Claire Zach is mean to Gray earlier? how could Claire possibly know that and why is she villainized by her own sister?) with words belittling her choice to not have children yet, and I wish her nephews’ perspectives/the script didn’t demonize her for not knowing small things about them. Karen and her husband are just as responsible for encouraging a relationship between their sons and their aunt. I wish Gray and Zach weren’t blatantly portrayed as her afterthoughts when the I-Rex escaped.
She wasn’t impressed with her perceived incompatibility and the impression that Owen didn’t really respect her on their first date, so she didn’t want a second date. I wish he had asked her a legitimate question about why she didn’t want a second date and actually valued her input, and instead the conversation wasn’t spun so we’re given the message that she’s a frigid, judgmental, stuck-up prude who needs to loosen up, and how she should loosen up should involve the male protagonist’s genitals.
She got off her high horse and asked Owen to help her find her nephews, putting her biases and pride aside for the better of her family. I wish Owen hadn’t immediately insulted her inability to recall their ages.
She charged into the jungle, with no experience whatsoever with tracking, dinosaurs, self-defense, and kept her demeanor together for the most part, and wanted to save her nephews herself because security ignored her orders to go get them. I wish Owen’s first response had been admiration/encouragement for her go-getter attitude and her bravery to be so out of her element, instead of fucking harping on her wardrobe.
She killed a dinosaur to save Owen’s life. I wish immediately after the nephews didn’t say they’d feel safer with Owen instead of her, when all they’d seen of him up to that point was him flat on his back wriggling around and her saving him, and oh, hey, some skills driving a jeep backwards (which is something I do every single day). Oooh. Ahh. What a fucking hero and how funny. Good one, script.
She realized the lab was evacuated/ing and started understanding how Dr. Wu and the corporations/military were making decisions without her being fully informed and therefore denying her actual consent even though she would be reamed in the media as the scapegoat while they ignored the safety of everyone for profit. I wish she had been able to voice all of that to the bad guy after he condescendingly calls her “Honey.” I wish she had been given a motivating monologue showing more of her growth and development and her advocacy for the wellbeing of all of her guests.
She drove the ambulance to save her nephews from the raptors. I wish instead of the nephews aggrandizing themselves (‘Wait ‘til we tell mom how we fought off dinosaurs!’) for rolling shit out the backdoor (that the raptors evaded) and finally turning on a shock-stick they said something affirming about their aunt’s driving, her slamming a raptor into a tree, their aunt protecting them like she promised she would.
She got the T-Rex as reinforcement. She got to re-enact Dr. Grant’s prolific flare scene in the first movie. She used herself as bait to save her family. I wish it had actually been her idea– not Gray’s “more teeth,” thing, even though I understand it and it was fun cooperation between them. (I actually thought when he said “more teeth” that she was going to COMBINE the T-Rex+Mosasaurus by leading BOTH the Rexes to the Mosasaurus because the Mosasaurus has the most teeth. Wonderful.) I wish she didn’t suddenly have a slit up her skirt revealing her thigh. I wish her hair wasn’t magically curled and she wasn’t all wet while the boys were dry. I wish she didn’t look like she was a damsel out of a King Kong movie laying on the floor underneath the Rexes, bosom heaving. I wish she didn’t have to shout a misogynistic and gross line to Lowery to get him to open the gate (”Be a man for once in your life!” reinforcing that she has to display masculine traits–or transversely the traits have to be regarded by herself as masculine even though we all know they’re not gendered traits realistically–to be respected by other characters/the audience).
I understand the people who like her as the movie portrays her. I understand the moments that made people pump their firsts. I understand people who like her with Owen, especially because Pratt and BDH have palpable chemistry. I understand how hero arcs work and that she had to fail in order for prevailing to be more exquisitely and strongly celebrated in our audience’s ability to relate to her. But constantly and needlessly and recklessly and stereotypically giving others the ability to undermine her and discount her at almost every turn pisses me the fuck off, and that’s what I’m criticizing. She deserved better.