In the show Bones. Dr. Brennan is an anthropologist and highly intelligent. She prides herself on not needing anyone and being able to work alone. But when she starts working at the Jeffersonian with the FBI to help solve murders she realizes the help from others is all part of the job. Like Hodgens and Zach who test the samples, and Angela who is the tech and does all the computer stuff. But the other main character, Booth, the FBI agent who is paired with Temperance seems to be there to show she can't do it alone. And although Dr. Brennan is smart pairing her with a buff man sometimes takes away from her credibilty. It sometimes comes off as when she's working alone, she can do everything all by herself, but when Booth is in the picture she becomes a little more submissive and lets him take charge of things.
Another show where there is a strong female main character is Law and Order: SVU. Detective Olivia Benson has proved that she can work alone and function as an independant woman. When she is alone she is very dominant and takes charge of situations. She looks out and protects herself without needing anyone else to assist. But when she is with her partner Elliot Stabler she is often pushed into the submissive role. When working with her partner and she tries to make a dominant move it is also paired with a scene later in the episode where she needs Elliot's help whether it be needing protection, help with a suspect, or when off the job needing him to talk to or lean on for advice.
Although subtle, I feel these shows encourage women to try and be a strong and independant female while also reminding them they do need to depend on men. They can try to do it on their own but it'll only last for so long before they need a man's help.
That is a interesting way of looking at it, I had never really thought of it that way. I'm not sure if that was the intention of these scenarios. At least in Bones I always kind of noticed that the two of them were put together to make the perfect team. Bones is the brains, her analytical approach to everything and immense knowledge makes her the dominant force in the lab. Where as Booth is the muscle, he is there to help make sure things get done and Bones has everything she needs, he also has knowledge and experience in the field that Bones sometimes does not have. Many times Bones takes the subordinate role in a way because they are often in the field, this is where Booths expertise may lie. But I always thought that when Booth was in the lab Bones was normally dominant because that is where her expertise lie.
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