I admit it. I’ve never liked Blue Bloods’ Erin Regan before.
I found her to be arrogant, rigid, and judgmental. I was annoyed by her refusal to break the rules and her belief that she was always right. From what I’ve seen on fan sites, a lot of people feel the same way.
Yet Frank possessed all of these qualities and was widely admired for his integrity and willingness to do what he believed was right, regardless of the optics. Talk about double standards!
Blue Bloods Season 14 Episode 12 Makes It Clearly Shown How Similar Erin Is to Frank
The similarities between Erin and Frank should have been obvious, but were not discovered until recently.
In Blue Bloods Season 14 Episode 12, Erin rebelled against her supervisor, and it wasn’t the first time.
Kimberly Crawford has always been a pain in the ass for Erin, caring more about optics than justice, and this episode makes that clear by having Erin fight her while Frank stands up to Tsai Mayor Si when he pulled a gun on a former police officer for no apparent reason.
In a nutshell, Crawford told Erin to influence a grand jury to indict an innocent police officer for excessive force after a fleeing criminal was hit by a car, while Mayor Chase intervened so that the NYPD could not Arrest a guilty ex-cop for pulling over a car.
The parallels are so obvious that I can no longer avoid realizing there is a double standard here.
CRAWFORD: Without your finger on the scale, they wouldn’t have come to that conclusion.
Erin: I did exactly what you told me. I just used different fingers.
Erin’s reaction to Crawford’s complaints is even similar to Frank’s, which makes me wonder how I kept missing that they were basically the same person.
Is gender bias at work here?
The simplest explanation for why Frank is seen as a decent guy and Erin is seen as a nuisance is good old-fashioned misogyny.
It’s no secret that traits praised in men are often disparaged in women.
From this perspective, it makes sense that when Frank refuses to be forced to do something he considers immoral, he is seen as standing up for integrity, while when Irene does so, she is seen as being too strict.
This isn’t necessarily the whole story, but it’s important to ask ourselves why we see Erin the way we do.
It’s easy to fall into this type of thinking because of the social messaging around us, including on shows.
Blue Bloods itself has at times reinforced the idea that Erin’s unwillingness to compromise is a problem, but not for Frank.
Erin’s brothers also sometimes called her fussy or stubborn, feelings Jamie talked about growing up.
but that’s not all Just because Erin is a woman. That’s part of it, but there are other factors at play.
Blue Bloods’ Erin differs from her siblings in some important ways
Erin’s brothers have mixed feelings about her, partly related to not only being the only girl in their family, but also her status growing up.
Especially to Jamie as a baby and Erin as the older sister who often acted as a second mother to him.
I’m not sure how old Regan’s children were when their mother died. If they are children, teenagers, or in their early 20s, Erin may have a stronger desire to step in and take over their mother’s life, which may also affect them.
Furthermore, Erin’s role in the justice system is different from that of her police brothers.
Their job is to get bad guys off the streets, but Erin has to figure out how to prosecute them. Sometimes, this means releasing criminals because the evidence was insufficient or poorly collected.
So while both Erin and the Reagan boys are on the side of justice, they have different purposes.
When Erin turns a blind eye to civil rights violations or is restricted by new bail rules that require her not to seek bail except in extreme circumstances, it seems to her brothers that she is undermining them.
But would they react the same way if Frank was the ADA holding them back?
It’s hard to say.
All of the Regans clash with Frank at times, but his role is different from Erin’s, so they can’t be directly compared.
It’s also important to look at these issues from Erin’s perspective.
As the only one in her family who isn’t a police officer, she’s often seen as a quasi-rival when she’s just trying to do her job.
No matter how much she wants someone to be locked up in prison forever, she can’t ignore the law, so sometimes she has to do things that seem unjust.
She also agrees with Frank that the Regan family should not receive special treatment simply because they are related to her. From her perspective, her brothers took it for granted that they had “authority” in the DA’s office because of her position.
Half the time, without considering that Erin might have other cases she was working on, Danny was barging into her office to complain about a criminal being released, or asking for a search warrant that he had no evidence to back up.
Why shouldn’t Erin be angry enough to tell her family firmly that she wasn’t doing them a favor on a whim?
However, it doesn’t seem fair that her backlash against such nonsense, especially coming from Danny, is part of the reason why she’s such an unpopular character.
It’s hard to say whether this is due to gender bias, whether police should be the show’s protagonists, or both, but there’s no doubt that Erin is judged just as harshly as viewers accuse her of judging others.
How do the frequent conflicts between Irene and Frank affect Irene’s popularity?
Erin and Frank often clash, proving that they are exactly the same.
The two never give in, which becomes a problem when they clash, like the conflict between Erin and her brother.
While Blue Bloods is supposed to be an ensemble drama, it makes sense that Frank is considered the main character by many viewers.
The premise revolves around two things: his determination to remain fair despite his love for his family, and his refusal to give in to political considerations that he believes will harm the NYPD.
So every time Frank and Erin clash (which usually happens when the policies of the DA’s office and the NYPD conflict with each other), Frank naturally becomes the character we root for.
But Frank wasn’t always right.
His dream team brought this up to him, a lot of people like Abigail because she’s not afraid to speak her mind most of the time, but when Erin does, people don’t like her.
That’s why it can’t be as simple as gender bias, even though it’s clearly part of the problem. Why do we love Abigail and hate Erin?
Is it also because Abigail, as an outsider, can earn respect by not being afraid to confront Frank despite his reputation, whereas Erin, as his daughter, is expected to respect him and back off when conflict arises?
The bottom line is that Erin is very much Frank’s daughter, yet the same stubbornness that makes him heroic can also make us uncomfortable when coming from her.
It’s a complicated question that fans may still debate years after “Blue Bloods” ends as their children and grandchildren watch reruns and take sides on whether they like Erin or not.
Over to you, blue blood fanatics!
How do you feel about Erin? Do you think there’s a double standard for her?
Hit the comments with your thoughts.
The final episodes of Blue Bloods will air Friday at 10/9c on CBS.
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