I already started talking about this in an episode discussion here, but it was apparantly 'off topic'. Whatever. In this blog, I will restructure what I've said, and make a case for Arrow's (or should I say, Error's) misogynist writing.
Let’s take Arrow season 2, for example. If Felicity was a real person I would sympathize with her doubting her place on the team when Sara showed up. Insecurities get the best of all of us sometimes. Except she’s not real. And Diggle and Oliver were never threatened by/insecure over each other. Roy wasn’t insecure/threatened by anyone when he joined the team later. It is suspect and needs to be addressed that the very second that the team had potential for more than a single woman, the writers chose to include an element of competition, that they decided to have Felicity express openly that maybe the team wouldnt need her anymore. The writers literally waited until they had another girl and then made Felicity’s character plot about pitting them against each other, despite the fact that Felicity and Sara had entirely different skill sets and contributed different things to the team.It would have made sense from a writing stand-pont if Roy had been insecure. He was newly trained and literally couldnt do ANYTHING that Diggle couldnt already do better. But instead of a believable character progression that could have resulted in Roy becoming more determined than ever, we instead got a woman being threatened by another just because she’s a woman, to the point where the actual words “I thought I was your Girl” are literally spoken, depsite the fact that Felicity and Sara are both equally valuable with entirely different skills and talents. That is a conscious decision that men made. Something that a man wrote. That is definitely suspect. Cloaking misogynist decisions by having felicity faciliate them, they hide behind her because she’s a woman and therefore it 'can’t be sexist'. However, Felicity is the most misogynist thing about Error.
Felicity has consistently, from as far back as season 1, viewed every other woman has her competition. She’s thrown every other female character under the bus to better herself and it genuinely baffles me that Felicity fans accuse those who dislike her of being misogynist, because Felicity has - since her conception - been the writers primary tool to facilitate their own misogyny.
Felicity dug into Moira’s background (granted she was enlisted to do so, however she continued even after she was specifically told to stop). Felicity then used the information she’d found on Moira (that also involved Thea) as she saw fit, with no regards for the women in question. She told Oliver, simultaneously dismissing Moira’s privacy, driving a wedge in the Queen family, viewing Oliver’s opinion as higher than either Moira or Thea (who the info ACTUALLY concerned) and faciliated the writer’s need for Queen Family Drama and more Oliver-man-pain.
Felicity made a petty remark of “What was it fantasy island?” Because she found out about Shado and Sara being present on Lian Yu. Oliver is traumatized and is hallucinating about a dead Shado, is consumed with guilt over her death and has consistently expressed that the island was too horrifying for him to talk about. And Felicity gets so jealous over the mere existence of a dead girl who was a part of Oliver’s life literal years before Felicity even knew he existed, to the point where she makes scathing comments and flippant remarks about his trauma.
Felicity needs to be reassured and explicitly told that SHE is Oliver’s ‘girl’ when Sara joins the team, because she doesn’t see Sara as an equal and is so threatened and intimdated by another woman joining the team they needed to literally specify that Felicity is The Girl ™. God forbid women work togehter and value each other without being pitted against each other.
Felicity called Oliver’s own mother diabolical AT HER FUNERAL, clearly not having any respect (if not for Moira as a person then she should have AT LEAST have respect for what she meant to Oliver), and this disgusting comment is never addressed or considered out of line in the narrative whatsoever. She also made a similar quip after Amanda Waller was shot.
Felicity is rude, dismissive, ashamed of and disrespectful to her mother near constantly. She looks down on her for not being as intelligent and slut shames her for her dress, despite the fact Donna raised Felicity single-handedly and dotes on her daughter completely.
Before I go on I’d love to point out that ALL OF THIS SO FAR (with the exception of the Waller comment) took place in Seasons 1&2, because people seem to forget that Felicity has always been awful, and they’re viewing the earlier seasons with rose-tinted glasses because seasons 3&4 were just THAT BAD.
When Season 3 started, Olicity was suddenly a thing, and they shoehorned in some flashbacks to try and make it more feasible, one of which included Felicity randomly walking into her boss’ office at QC after hours with no purpose, spying a photo of Oliver on a desk and commenting aloud to herself how cute he is and how “its a pity you’re dead”. This doesnt have anything to do with her treatment of women, but atleast her lack of respect for the dead is a consistent character trait!
Felicity continues to throw Thea under the bus, what started with Felicity telling Oliver about Thea’s true parentage, driving a wedge in the family and neglecting to tell Thea (or moira, who’s secret it was to tell), continues with Felicity outright telling Oliver not to save his sister because it might result in his death (a risk that Oliver has already stipulated that he’s willing to take).
But it gets worse!! A newly resurrected Thea is struggling with bloodlust and is too traumatized to return to her apartment because of what happened there, she moves in with Laurel, because Felicity and Oliver wanted to drive off into the sunset and play house. Months later it’s revealed that Felicity has been consulting with the team behind Oliver’s back the whole time and not once did she suggest they return and not once did either of them consider that Thea might need him. Its also never once addressed that Felicity was wrong for lying and keeping secrets, because Felicity is never wrong!!
(Also in The Flash, Felicity straight up told Eddie that it was completely fine for him to lie to Iris if it was for her own good!)
Then, when Felicity finds out Oliver fathered a child years ago that he didn’t know about, her temper tantrum caused such a distrubance in the team dynamic that they got killed and Barry had to go back in time to correct the timeline to stop it from happening. So Barry obviously knew about the kid.
William’s mother straight up tells Oliver that she doesnt trust him or his intentions and if he wants to get to know his son then it has to be a secret and strictly as a family friend until she’s convinced he’s in it for the long haul (this makes total sense given the Oliver she knew was a selfish, egotistical playboy who was NOT father material, she needs to see that he’s changed, and not overwhelm her son unnecessarily if it turns out that he hasnt).
When William is kidnapped and Felicity finds out about him as a result, she is petty and juvenile while they’re working, completely dismisses and gets snappy with Samantha when she apologizes, even when Samantha takes full responsibilty for what she asked Oliver to do, and not once does Felicity ever ask about William’s wellbeing. Felicity is surpised to discover that William - like Oliver - likes baseball, and makes YET ANOTHER SCATHING COMMENT AT OLIVERS EXPENSE by saying that they should hope the resemblence ends there, because she apparently thinks that her fiancee has absolutely no positive qualities whatsoever that might be nice to pass on.
Felicity then breaks up with Oliver for lying to her, even though he didnt want to but had to if he wanted to know his son. Even though she spent months lying to him mere weeks earlier, even though she told Eddie that lying was okay. Even though she told her mother the prior week that it was okay if Quentin kept things from her because she should trust he had a good reason.
Felicity then keeps the apartment (yknow the one that used to be Thea’s until she had to move in with Laurel to deal with her trauma), as a result Oliver slums it out in the Arrow cave, because depsite running for Mayor, Oliver is unemployed. Felicity has a CEO salary but of course she keeps the apartment. She’s Felicity. God himself shit her out and she is completely right all the fucking time even when shes a self-righteous, hypocritical piece of shit.
Felicity makes bitchy comments about the breakup when theyre trying to work even though she was the one to end it, she then tells Oliver that he will always be who he was on that island. She basically told him the most traumatic experience in his entire life is all he will amount to, and the person he is as a result of his trauma is not someone she can love and its his fault that he’s that way because apparently she’s a victim blaming piece of shit as well as a hypocrite.
Laurel dies and on her deathbed tells Oliver that Felicity is the best thing for him despite the fact she loved him too. The writers wanted to 10000000% make sure that we all know that Felicity is The Girl ™ and anyone at all that might’ve potentially maybe been competition just pales in comparison, my guy.
Diggle is traumatized by the situation with his family and Felicity makes YET ANOTHER INSULTING, DISRESPECTUL “JOKE” AT OLIVER’S EXPENSE by saying Diggle is “one illegitmate child away from a great Oliver Queen impersonation”, making another dig at William, yknow the kid that she dumped Oliver over, the one Oliver didnt know about himself until shortly before she did, the kid that Oliver had to say goodbye to, before he’d even gotten the chance to be a dad to, in order to keep him safe. (But she loves Oliver so much guys! Honest! So totally cares about his wellbeing and whats best for him, even at the detriment of herself, I swear!)
TL;DR in conclusion, Felicity is a misogynist tool that the writers have been employing from day one. Its a common trope in fiction. She’s the token female character that all other females get compared to/dismissed for. They pit women against each other at every available oppprtunity and have Felicity become this untouchable writers-pet that is never called out and can never be wrong and she’s just so great and can do everything and everyone loves her and no one seems to question any of the horrible things she does because she is so righteous in her writers-pet bubble!
And because she’s a woman they try and champion this as ground-breaking and feminist, when its actually extremely misogynist and anti-feminist, especially when you consider that if the tables were turned and OLIVER was the one doing all this shit to Felicity, then people would be out for blood and screaming misogyny from the rooftops, but because Felicity herself is a woman, they think that it makes her exempt.
But felicity isnt a woman, she’s not real, she’s a puppet being controlled by men and theyre using a female character to get away with misogyny.
The whole idea of The Girl ™ and the concept that one female character has to be the 'Alpha’ and something happens to every other female to prove that she is clearly The Best of the women, is always inherently misogynist and exists to fasciliate pitting women against each other.