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A composite photo of Hillary Clinton (right), and actress Viola Davis (left), the lead character in the television series How to Get Away with Murder.

Image: Mashable composite / Getty Creative

By Rebecca Ruiz2015-01-17 16:06:31 UTC

For years, Hollywood has asked women on screen to play one of three roles: girlfriend, wife or mistress. These characters are often hollow, with few aspirations or desires beyond illuminating the inner life of a male keeper.

Now that illusion seems to be slowly, stubbornly receding in favor of the complicated female character. Like the generations of male characters that came before her, she is often deeply flawed, rejects convention, and isn't necessarily powerful or self-assured. She might even be an anti-heroine.

In this pop culture universe, a woman with hard edges is appealing, interesting, even marketable. This momentum may not be remaking American culture, but it does hint at a newfound appreciation for the complex woman. And it could come at no better time than when we start to contemplate, yet again, what it would mean to have a female president.

Hillary Clinton, the presumed frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has been defined by complexity since she became first lady in 1993. One of the most vocal advocates for women and children in modern history, she is also notorious for her hawkish stance on the Iraq War, subverting the popular notion that a woman, and particularly a mother, would avoid war at all costs. Among the most vilified women in American politics, she's withstood vicious attacks on her personality and motivations, sometimes with a smile. When her husband was outed as a philanderer, she remained his partner.

These complexities have been both Clinton's strength and weakness, transforming her through resilience but also making her a target for skeptics and criticism, some of it sexist. So it's worth asking: Can this particular moment in pop culture can change the way we think of Clinton?

Might the hard-charging women of Shonda Rhimes' television empire help the American public see female strength as an asset in a way they haven't before? Or maybe the grit and vulnerability of Sandra Bullock's marooned astronaut in Gravity convinced viewers that women possess both qualities in equal measure and still prevail in harrowing circumstances.

If the compelling female characters in film and television have messy lives, that arguably broadens our vision of what it means to be a modern American woman.

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Could Hollywood's new love of complex women help Hillary Clinton?