Ultimately, they make Andrea downright irritable and hostile. It is important to note that, as they did with Lori, the writers of “The Walking Dead” illustrated Andrea’s weaknesses through a male contrast. Specifically, the immature Andrea is paired with Dale, a stable man. In many ways, Dale is a father-like figure who is consistently kind to Andrea. But notwithstanding Dale’s kindness, the writers cause Andrea to treat Dale cruelly. She repeatedly manipulates Dale’s feelings, knowing that he views her as a daughter and taunts him for being a weak person and trying to take care of her.
Contrastingly, the writers consistently portray Dale as a victim, a caring father figure who provides for Andrea, even though she consistently rejects his noble efforts. In the end, viewers sympathize with Dale while concluding that Andrea is selfish and cruel. Andrea’s immaturity isn’t limited to her interactions with Dale. When Andrea expresses a desire to learn how to properly shoot a gun, she begins taking lessons (from a man, of course). But Andrea isn’t a quick student. In fact, the writers portray Andrea as clumsy with guns.
In one specific case, a bloody and injured Daryl (a productive man) walks out of the forest and Andrea mistakenly believes that he is a zombie. When she decides to shoot him, Dale warns her to wait until the zombie is more visible, but she is too immature to listen. Instead, Andrea shoots Daryl, nearly killing him. Another immature female character is Maggie Greene, Hershel’s eldest daughter. The writers of “The Walking Dead” initially treat Maggie favorably by having her serve as one of her father’s most important helpers.
But even though her character is initially treated favorably, the writers soon turn Maggie into just another immature woman. And, once again, these writers illustrate Maggie’s character flaw by contrasting them against a man’s strengths. This time, the writers use Glenn, a young, humorous Asian boy who serves as the group’s go-to scout. The Maggie-Glenn relationship differs somewhat from the other male-female relationships in the series in one critical way: Maggie does not seem to rely on Glenn.
In fact, Maggie saves his life on a number of occasions, and Glenn is attracted to her many skills. However, Glenn and Maggie’s relationship suffers from its fair share of conflict and reaches two main hitches. Glenn and Maggie’s first disagreement occurs when Glenn reveals an important secret about Hershel to the group. Maggie feels betrayed by Glenn. However, instead of handling this conflict in a mature fashion, the writers cause Maggie to behave very immaturely. Like a child, Maggie literally ignores Glenn for quite some time, refusing to even look at him.
A second fight occurs when Glenn freezes during a battle with violent outsiders. Instead of blaming Glenn’s behavior on personal weakness, the writers have Glenn conclude that his impotence during battle is due to feelings for Maggie. In essence, Maggie becomes the scapegoat for Glenn’s incompetence, even though she did nothing wrong. The writer’s portrayal of Maggie is particular unfortunate. In a television series rampant with sexism and stereotypes, Maggie Greene initially stood out as a bright spot among a sea of weakened and terribly flawed females.
