Dee Reynolds: role model?

Brian Herther

“Aw go eat a bag of dicks!” Without knowing the gender of the person who yelled that classy phrase, many people would have assumed it was a man. However, they would have been sadly mistaken. That line came from a 110 pound, pretty blonde woman named Dee Reynolds on the hit comedy show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. In a show that is mainly featured on male oriented stations like FX and Comedy Central, Dee can more then hold her own among her four other male co-stars. By no means is she considered a role model, but she is definitely an empowered female. So many females are cast into roles that require them to clean up after the men or tell the boys to grow up, in the case of Dee she is generally the one up to the nuttiest antics. Dee gives women liberation and equality through this show, by being just as absurd and disgusting as the fellas.

Although recently there has been a surge of vulgar comedic women to hit the cable networks (Broad City and Inside Amy Schumar) Dee Reynolds (played by Kaitlin Olson) has been around for nine seasons and is my personal favorite of all the comedic women as well. The show is based on a group of friends that own a bar in Philadelphia and get into various shenanigans (getting addicted to crack, drinking way too much, hosting child pageants, huffing glue, etc.) and other schemes to make money fast. Nearly every episode involves them trying to screw each other over. Dee is just as heavily involved in the schemes as the rest of the group and nobody even thinks twice about her being a woman when it comes to screwing her over, they see as just an easy of a target as the rest of the gang. While all this scheming is going on Dee’s character or lack thereof truly comes out, she is not simply picking up after the men while they go on their adventures, she is essentially carrying out the same acts as the men. For instance when she gets artificially inseminated she gracefully states, “I pushed that little monkey out, and now I’m going to be claiming him as a dependent and getting tax breaks for the next 18 years. So how’s that for a long term scheme bitches. You guys all better eat a dick because sweet Dee beat the system.” As you can see by that quote she is definitely not someone to look up to, but she does certainly try just as hard as the others to make a quick buck. She continues to defy the typical female role in that all the guys make fun of her relentlessly and just the same as if she were a man, which I’ve never personally seen on any other popular television show. Many times the insults are driven towards her appearance and they consist of the guys calling her a bird to just downright ugly. Now many people find it horrible to ever comment on a women's appearance regarding her age, weight, height, etc. but they don't see her as some poor helpless girl who can’t defend or stick up for herself. The writers of the show know just how capable she is of firing right back on them or getting the last laugh and it is empowering to women. Isn’t that after all the equality that women have been looking for? To be treated just like another one of the guys? It also discredits the men’s constant badgering of her being so hideous because she is clearly not and in turn it makes the men look so irrational that it’s hard to even take them seriously. However, in the show the Dee does also uses her feminine side to get what she wants. For instance there is a character on the show named Rickety Cricket that has been in love with Dee his whole life. She is well aware of this and constantly manipulates him and uses him as a pawn in many of her get rich plans or sometimes she does it just for to win her own silly bets with the gang. In one instance she gets Cricket to give up his life as a priest for her simply because Dee’s dad said she wouldn’t be able to get him to do it. Another instance Dee tries to use her femininity to get what she wants it when she tries to become a surrogate mom so she can make some ‘easy’ money. I think the surrogate parents realized something was off when Dee was trying to get the mom to become the next octomom. Nonetheless, the surrogate parents end up realizing she's a fraud and the whole thing blows up in her face as is quite common on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Dee Reynolds may not be the poster child for women empowerment or gender equality, but she is certainly making noise and having an impact on one of the most successful shows on television today. Although she is most certainly not someone to look up to, it is very refreshing to see a woman cast as an integral and essential part in a room full of guys. In an interview one of the writers, Glen Howerton (Dennis) also recognizes this when he says, “It was a lot of that same trap that’s easy to fall into I think a lot of times with female characters that just stand around that are like ‘you guys are terrible’ and then we get to do funny things because we have someone telling us we’re terrible.”  The fact that she isn’t just an irrelevant girl put on the show to look pretty and tell the men they shouldn’t be doing something, I think is very powerful in its own way. When casting the role for Dee the show’s creator Rob McElhenney (Mac) realized “we needed somebody really strong, comedically and could not be just bulled over by three other people.” They found just that.

Best (or worst) of Dee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2TJKOz7ZiY

Works Cited

"Kaitlin Olson Audition (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 10 July 2014.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1WqwGhes-c>.

Rowles, Dustin. "Pajiba." The Five Most Empowered Females Currently on Television. Pajiba, 23 Oct.

2009. Web. 10 July 2014.

"Screenshot: Sweet Dee Reynolds, Inadvertent Gender Liberator." Bitch Media. Bitch Media, 12 Dec. 2009.

Web. 10 July 2014