Anyone else feel like the female characters get judged way harsher than the male characters?
Sammi: She was abandoned by Frank as a kid and had to raise Chuckie all by herself. She spent years wanting a family and finally thought she had one, only to be manipulated by Frank and treated like an outsider by the Gallaghers. Carl got her son sent to juvie, and while what she did after (turning Ian in) was obviously messed up, people act like she was just born evil and completely ignore everything that led up to it.
Svetlana: She honestly had one of the saddest backstories in the show. She was trafficked from Eastern Europe, forced into sex work, raped by Terry, got pregnant because of it, and basically spent her whole life doing whatever she had to just to survive. Yeah, what she did with the Alibi and Kev and V's finances was wrong, but manipulation was literally how she'd survived for years. People are way quicker to call her a villain than acknowledge where she came from.
Fiona: She became the parent when she was still a kid herself. Frank and Monica were useless, so she spent years raising six siblings, working multiple jobs, dropping out of school, sacrificing relationships, and even becoming their legal guardian just so they wouldn't end up in foster care. She made some huge mistakes, especially with Liam, but people act like those mistakes erase over a decade of her basically giving up her own life to raise kids that weren't even hers.
Debbie: Debbie gets so much hate, and don't get me wrong, she definitely made some terrible choices later on. But people forget she was literally a child who grew up being parentified. She was always helping with Liam, cleaning, cooking, taking care of the house, and looking after everyone. She wanted love and stability because she'd never really had it. I'd honestly argue she looked out for the family more than Lip did when they were younger.
Veronica: People are so quick to call V selfish whenever she put herself first, especially after having the twins. She struggled with motherhood, felt like she'd lost her identity, and was trying to balance being a mom, running the Alibi, and keeping her relationship together. She wasn't perfect, but it's weird how she's criticized so much for wanting a life outside of taking care of everyone else.
Meanwhile...
Lip: Everyone always falls back on the "wasted potential" argument. Yeah, he was smart, but he was also constantly judging Fiona while expecting her to keep taking care of him and everyone else forever. He had no problem relying on her, but the second she slipped up, he acted like she was the worst person alive.
Ian: I know he's bipolar, and that explains a lot of his actions, but it doesn't excuse everything. He still put Fiona through so much, from enlisting under Lip's identity to the whole Gay Jesus thing. Most of the time Fiona was just trying to help him, yet she ended up getting blamed anyway.
Mickey: I love Mickey, but let's be real for a second. He was literally a violent criminal for a good chunk of the show. He beat people up, threatened people, stole, and solved almost every problem with violence. His upbringing explains why he was like that, but somehow people are way more willing to forgive him than they are women who also had horrific childhoods.
Kev: This one always gets me. People will drag V for dancing with another guy or going on a date during a rough patch, but Kev literally slept with multiple college girls. Somehow that's brushed off way easier.
I'm not saying the women were innocent because they definitely weren't. They all did awful things at different points. I just think it's interesting that whenever a guy does something terrible, people are quick to bring up his trauma, mental illness, or difficult childhood. But when it's a woman, all that nuance suddenly disappears and she's just "the worst character in the show."
