TLDR; Representation of all different kinds is so fucking important and it's especially important for kids.
Rather niche post, considering the mini-series couldn't be found on streaming for years and years, but here goes.
I watched Stephen King's Rose Red several times as a kid and early teenager, but just watched it for the first time as an adult. I don't remember thinking of Joyce as an antagonist or someone capable of harm. I think, due to gendered norms and most media representation of women, I saw her doting over Annie as her nurturing tendencies and interpreted them as genuine care. When Joyce later becomes wild and explicitly violent, I think I understood that as her falling victim to the house.
She was always that way, though. Right under the surface. Watching as an adult now it's clearly obvious from the beginning that Joyce is obsessive, selfish, and reckless. She snaps at the student who approaches her outside of office hours. She clearly doesn't give two fucks about Steve as a significant other. She dismisses everyone else's contributions during the orientation even though they're the ones with lived experience. She smears blood on her colleague in front of an audience in broad daylight without thinking twice (unrelated: hands-down one of the greatest demonstrations and dialogue about the paranormal ever written, and also a fantastic reaction of female rage). She often gets that bright-eyed spark of a mad scientist in her eyes before masking or turning away.
Women can be cruel and mean and selfish. Not all women are maternal figures. Didn't really know that until much later in life though, did I? Gillian Flynn had to hammer the point home.
Also, even more egregious, certainly in part due to the heteronormative culture forced onto us: I totally missed that Ellen Rimbauer and Sukeena were evidently romantic companions.
I don't know the point of this post other than, man. How terrible is it that representation was so sparse back then that you couldn't see it when you did have it? How is it fair to raise kids in a world that hides reality? It's so shaming and unnecessary. I know there's a lot of backlash against more diverse representation, we need to keep shutting that shit down.
