So what about dead boyfriends?
January 6, 2023
Whenever I explain the DFGRR to a new person, I inevitably get one of two potential reactions:
a) "Sounds cool! Who are your contestants? Which genres do you cover?"
b) "Aren't there female characters whose boyfriends all die? Your blog sounds sexist."
In honor of/to spite everyone in B camp, therefore, I've decided to research the Dead Fictional Boyfriends of American media. My first step was to pull up the Cartwright Curse page on TV Tropes and skim through the TV section for the names of women whose boyfriends tend to bite it. There are a handful, as it turns out, including:
- Samantha Carter of Stargate SG-1 (1997-2007), Stargate Atlantis (2004-2009), and Stargate Universe (2009-2011)
- Maggie O'Connell of Northern Exposure (1990-1995)
- Buffy Summers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)
Interestingly, however, each of those curse descriptions comes with a caveat.
Death is just how Stargate rolls.
All of the Stargate shows have ensemble casts, and none of them enjoy portraying long-term relationships. On SG-1 alone, at least 3 main-cast characters had the Cartwright Curse: Dr. Daniel Jackson, Teal'c, and Sam Carter. Which of them has the worst luck is actually open to a fair amount of debate. Carter does lose the most love interests, but Teal'c and Jackson are both married men for portions of the show's run, so they don't date as much as Carter does...at least not until their respective wives die (twice, in the case of the first Mrs. Jackson.)
In other words, Carter's deceased boyfriends may be less of a "this character is cursed" situation and more of a "this fictional universe hates love" situation.
via GIPHY (GIF Description: Teal'c from Stargate saying "indeed" with a solemn face.)
To heal and/or to harm on Northern Exposure
In the early seasons of Northern Exposure, it was a running gag that socialite-turned-bush-pilot Maggie O'Connell had lost 6 boyfriends to untimely death. However, the screenwriters apparently decided that wasn't funny enough, and Maggie's luck took a dramatic swerve in season 4: sleeping with her started to cure people's health problems.
I 100% swear to you that I am not making that up. That was a bona fide plot point on a CBS network show.
I won't even get started on the part where one of her dead boyfriends gets reincarnated as a dog, at least not until we've all had a chance to sit down with a stiff drink.
via GIPHY (GIF Description: Maggie and Joel Fleischmann looking at each other in frustration as she throws a towel onto a coffee table.)
Buffy needs to get out more
By that, I mean that she doesn't date many people who weren't already dead when the relationship began. Seriously, 2 of her 3 most significant relationships are with vampires.
About that drink...
via GIPHY (GIF Description: Buffy and Spike taking shots.)
Based on the above, I've derived a...
Hypothesis: There are fewer Dead Boyfriends than there are Dead Girlfriends.
In other words: among female victims of the Cartwright Curse, I predict there are differences in the number, rate, or manner of their boyfriends' deaths, compared to the deaths of girlfriends so far compiled.
In addition, my research assistant/social media manager/sister has proposed a second...
Hypothesis: The deaths affect the women's character arcs more than they affect the arcs of the men surveyed so far.
As I've often commented, most of our contestants don't seem to notice that their girlfriends keep dying. Granted, Sam Winchester cracks a few jokes about it, and James Bond is shown visiting the graves of 2 dead girlfriends (out of 22), but by and large, the bereaved men are willing to Keep Calm and Carry On [to the next doomed lover.] None of them would fall for a stray dog that reminded them of a lost love, is what I'm saying, unlike Maggie O'Connell.
(Go ahead and get that drink; I'll wait.)
Does this trend hold along gender lines? If so, why?
Testing these two hypotheses will be the subject of our next series of posts.