Monday, November 17, 2014

The Mighty but Vulnerable Female Outlaw

I'll admit it - watching the final episode of the new season of "Orange is the New Black" made me tear up. 

*Spoiler alert* If you haven't seen the season 2 ending yet but are planning to, look away!

Miss Rosa decides that she's not going to spend her final cancerous days dying behind bars, throws caution to the wind, steals the prison transport van and blasts through a locked gate, causing a gaggle of protesting nuns to jump out of the way. (That's another story.) She turns on the radio, and Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't fear the reaper is playing." The final scenes flash back to her as a much younger woman. Her younger self -- played by the dark-haired beauty Stephanie Andujar -- is shown laughing as she speeds away from what was likely a bank robbery. The sound of police sirens pursuing her is heard. She laughs. She's beautiful. She doesn't fear the reaper, or the police.  

Outlaw women are fascinating. France Winddance Twine touches on the gun molls of the 1930's in her 2013 book, Girls with Guns (Routledge). Remember Bonnie Parker of Bonnie & Clyde fame? Yup, she was one. There were others, too -- the romantic, sexual, criminal partners of outlaw men. More recently (1991), Thelma and Louise elected to drive their car off a cliff into the Grand Canyon rather than turn themselves in and face the consequences for shooting a man. (A rapist.) 

All the characters in "Orange" are outlaws in a way. They all broke the law, some more violently than others. What the series does is show these women's vulnerability as well as their misdeeds. They lived outside boundaries and hurt others, but they get hurt too. Miss Rosa is dying of cancer. Nicky is tough, but still feels the pull of her heroin addictions. Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren beats up another inmate (Red) viciously, but as the audience and other characters clearly notice, she's badly manipulated by Vee. This is the paradox of the woman outlaw. Tough, but never beyond getting hurt. 
 

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