The Fetishization of Lana Lang
Written by: MobiusKlein

Fetish: any object, idea, etc., eliciting unquestioning reverence or devotion -Webster's College Dictionary

I think it really hit me how much fetishism surrounded this character when I heard about an interview of the producers saying how Lana Lang was perfect. The vibe was further reinforced by the no. 5 moment chosen for the San Diego Comic Con panel. The clip was Lana's pool scene in Nicodemus where she does that strip tease for Clark. Interestingly enough, the close-up shots of her body weren't of Kristin Kreuk but of a body double. This made me think that in a sense Lana Lang isn't really a character at all but a projection of desire a.k.a. fetish.

Often the power of a fetish over the person obsessed with the item is that it simply exists, regardless of the quality of the person or object being fetishized, for the person is projecting the fulfillment of his/her wants and desires on the fetish. Throughout the series, Lana Lang serves two different purposes: as an object of exchange and an object of desire/worship. This objectification, both within the series and without, serves to take away the character's humanity and turns her into a fetish.

Lana Lang serves as an object of exchange between Lex and Clark, especially in S1. In a sense, she becomes a type of currency. Since Jonathan forced Clark to return the truck to Lex in the pilot, he turns to helping Clark with his pursuit of Lana as a reward for saving his life. In Cool, Lex gives Clark tickets to a concert and limo concert so he can court Lana. In Rogue, Lex invites Lana to the museum in Metropolis and says to Clark that Whitney is the enemy and that "the sooner you realize that, the sooner you'll find a way to win Lana. Just remember, keep your friends close and the quarterback closer." He talks about her continually as something to be won, a trophy to be gotten from an enemy. He uses his money and influence in order to secure her for Clark. In Shimmer, Lex even asks, "Hey, how goes your new Lana initiative?" as if she's a business to take over or a country to conquer. Interestingly enough, Clark doesn't argue about the way Lex phrases things.

In Kinetic, it's strongly suspected that Lex let Lana take over the Talon since he basically agrees to her business plan without reviewing it after she happens to mention that Clark suggested that she try to answer his challenge. As a businessman, he's not the type of man who would do that on a regular basis. In Red, Lex allows Clark to borrow one of his cars to impress Lana. In Visage, Clark asks for Lex's help in helping Whitney. Even though it's not directly helping Lana, Clark asks because Whitney's strange behavior does affect Lana. While Lex has the ability to be quite generous, I doubt he'd go quite this far if he didn't feel he "owed" Clark for all the times he was saved and this is how he tries to "repay" part of his debt. It's interesting to note how calmly Lana accepts all the help she receives from Lex as if it's her due.

Whitney's behavior throughout the first season also helps to re-emphasize Lana's role as an exchange object and trophy. In the pilot episode, he makes Clark the scarecrow in revenge for talking to Lana. He often acts jealous and possessive including showing up at a party then asking why she went without him. In Tempest, even Whitney joins in the exchange by asking Clark to take care of Lana as if transferring his guardianship of her over to a worthy caretaker.

While in later episodes of season one like Zero where Lana says "I finally feel like I'm shedding that fairy princess costume" and in Nicodemus where an uninhibited Lana says that she wants to be free of her dead parents, she returns back to being an idol in Vortex, the beginning of Season 2. .

Martha: Yeah. God. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Lana: Yeah, me too.*

Martha: Oh, I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to dredge up bad memories.

Lana: It's okay. For so long, it seemed to define me, that fairy princess picture on "Time" magazine.

Martha: Well, if it makes you feel any better, you made one wish come true that day. Jonathan and I were in Nell's buying flowers right before the meteor shower, and you were sitting on the counter with your wings and wand, and you asked me if I wanted to make a wish. So I did. And not long after that, Clark came into our lives. I-I've never even told Clark that story.

At first glance, it could be seen as a sentimental story told by Martha but it just becomes the first in a long line of conversations that try to elevate Lana to a saint-like, almost godlike level, someone that almost everyone reveres without reservation. The vibe one gets from that story is that Martha's crediting Lana with Clark's arrival. This is just the beginning of the juggernaut that turns Lana from someone trying to leave her pedestal behind in season one to someone who clings to it in season two because the writers won't let her down. Also notice that Lana brings the subject back to her own suffering and brings up the "Time" picture despite the fact that at this point; Jonathan is missing, the town is in absolute chaos and she supposedly hates being reminded of that picture. Just before this conversation, the scene has the TV set have the news report on Lana's "miraculous" survival. It sets the stage for a season long of worshipful fetishism from the most of the other characters in the series towards Lana Lang.

In Ryan, Nell announces that she and Dean are moving to Metropolis. Interestingly, the decisive woman from Season One who could tell Lana what to do has disappeared and is replaced by a weak-willed woman who pleads with Lana to go with her. It would've been more dramatic for Nell and Lana to really fight over this issue but out of the blue, TPTB has Chloe invite Lana to stay at her place and Nell simply goes along with it. Now it makes no sense for Chloe to do this considering that it completely goes against her self-interest to keep Lana in town and that they're not that close. As far as I know, not even a best friend is very likely to let you stay at their house for such a long period of time rather than keep you from moving, much less a romantic rival. It was pointed out by a TWOPer that it's hard to believe that Gabe would so easily agree to such a setup. For Nell to so easily agree to this is also extremely OOC considering how she insisted on planning Lana's birthday party in Crush and sold her property to Lex despite Lana's protestations in Kinetic and interrupted Clark and Lana's kiss in another episode.

In one scene, Lana is complaining about Nell wanting to move to Metropolis to Clark, and says, "Ryan's lucky. At least he got to choose his family. I'll see you later." As she knows that Ryan escaped from a clinic and knew him from a previous episode, that is an extremely callous statement to make. Also, it is completely false considering that his aunt left him in the clutches of the doctor in the first place and the Kents have not adopted Ryan. Nell has never been shown to be an abusive parent. She's definitely a busybody and bossy, sure. Yet, I never saw her do anything on the level of Lionel has done to Lex or do to Lana what Ryan's previous guardians have done. In fact, her parenting skills and style are really not so different from Jonathan's. If the show had shown Nell to be an extremely abusive guardian with scenes where she hit Lana repeatedly with a yardstick, pulled her hair when Lana refuses to return to cheerleading, reacted scornfully to an A- on an otherwise perfect report card or kept a shrine to her sister and ranted and raved that Lana wasn't measuring up to her mother, then one could actually see why Lana would take refuge in the graveyard and fantasize so much about her dead parents. It would have strengthened her character's ability to echo themes regarding Clark and Lex. It would've shown how she too had dark secrets under an otherwise enviable facade. However, due to the excessive fetishization by the writers, they refuse to consider writing Nell as being less than satisfied by this "perfect" daughter and sent her away.

A prime opportunity to flesh out the character left along with Nell. While dismissing Nell to Metropolis clears the way for Clana and for Lana to become an independent agent, the easy resolution of her problems creates an even greater problem. The appearance of a fairy godsister to allow Lana stay completely destroys any parallels her problems have to do with the situations of Lex, Ryan and Clark. Now, all three of these characters' problems were much more severe in scope in the first place but having Lana's problems solved in one episode with no real effort on her part makes her situation (and her complaints) look that much more minuscule in comparison. Yet, TPTB saw this problem to be so important that it took a huge chunk of the episode without really adding to the main storyline that included an important character death. That they see her problems as being equivalent or deserving of equal time amounts to a blind spot.

Besides Chloe's surprising offer to Lana to stay with her and her father in Ryan, it's rather mind-boggling that Chloe didn't throw Lana out after the following incidents. In Fever, Lana asks Chloe if not going to see Clark made her a bad person. Chloe says no. Later, Lana reads Chloe's letter and when Clark asks about Chloe, she states "What happened to you really affected her. Me too. It was really hard seeing you sick." She not only changes to the subject to herself, she implies she went to see him, which is a complete lie. In Rosetta, despite the fact that Lana is the one who snoops at the files, fudges to Clark that opening the files was an accident, and creates a situation where Clark yells at Chloe, Chloe gives a speech where she apologizes and calls Lana a "sister." Then in Witness, the following exchange takes place after Clark blows off an article for the Talon in order to spend time watching Lana ride her horse.

Lana: Chloe, it's my fault. I asked Clark to help me.

Chloe: No, Lana, I don't blame you.

The above exchanges perfectly sum up why a lot of people have such a negative reaction to the fetishism of Lana Lang. Lana's ascension came at the expense of several different characters, especially another female character. Not only was Chloe Sullivan's spine removed, she wasn't even allowed to protest the way Lana treated her and the way Lana provoked Clark to treat her. So in a figurative sense, Chloe Sullivan's character was not only attacked but also not allowed to even scream because her vocal chords were ripped out. It’s as if she’s absolutely desperate to keep Lana as a friend even when Lana doesn’t act much like a friend.

Lana has been presented as an object of desire/worship since the very beginning of the series. However, the kicker is that nobody in the series even thinks that it's strange that such an unusual number of people have such an intense interest in viewing and possessing her. There seems to be this underlying message built into the series that it's a given that everybody would want Lana because she is so beautiful and desirable. It is never stated explicitly because TPTB believe it to be apparent.

In Nocturne, she accepts love poems from Byron, a freak of the week, in a graveyard. She is pleased instead of frightened, which I find bizarre considering her previous misadventures and knowledge of other people's horrible experiences. When Clark expresses concerns, she gets defensive.

Lana: Come on, Clark. Tell me you've never watched somebody from afar.

This line seems to minimize all the frightening stalking behavior by all the people who have come after her. It seems that she accepts all the fetishization that comes her way.

In X-ray, Tina, one of Lana's childhood friends, idolizes both Lana and the life that she leads, even tries to become her. She views Lana and her life as being perfect. In Visage, Tina Grier returns, only she's interested in being with Lana not taking over her life as she was previously. The fact that she's female doesn't deter her in the least from impersonating Whitney, Lana's former boyfriend, and proposing marriage. Tina states, "Yeah. It was the worst mistake of my life. She rejected me and I acted without thinking. But I love her, and I'll do anything to be with her. I finally figured out who Lana wants to be with."

In a twist, Tina even impersonates Chloe in order to push Lana into chasing after Clark, which gives the viewer the sight of Lana's rival in the pursuit of Clark seemingly lusting after Lana. The meta vibe I get from this is that the writers don't have a problem seeing literally everyone in love with Lana Lang. There's always this undertone of fighting over Lana as an object rather than a person who makes her own decision about who to be with.

In Insurgence, Mrs. Small warns her that Mr. Small may not be the most stable of people to rely on when it comes to family attachments. She comes off as someone who could be telling the truth. However in Witness, she appears to be horribly jealous and downright freaky. Jennifer said that as long as she knew she was Henry's priority, she was OK. However, she goes on to say, "Since he met you, I am not sure that's true anymore." and that Lana is "*all* he talks about. You're a window to a happier time. I guess I am telling you this because... I'm admitting defeat. You win." Talking to Clark later, Lana states that " I, uh, ran into Jennifer Small today. Found out that she's filing for divorce from Henry. And I'm the reason."

Given the extremely squicky overtones, there's absolutely no discussion of how bizarre it is for a wife to react to her husband's biological daughter like this. Instead of stating that she and her children are being neglected and that this is the last straw, Mrs. Small reacts to Lana as if she's a mistress. Neither party even bother to acknowledge how completely inappropriate for them to think Henry would even think about Lana in the same way and on the same level of importance as his wife. This is one of the many times that the meta interferes with the story telling, when the fetishization of the character by her creators creates a major problem.

I think what I find extremely troubling about this fetishization is that almost all the relationships Lana has with almost other female characters outside of Martha Kent are predicated on hostile feelings, even and especially her relationships with Chloe and Nell. Notice in Drone, that Lana notes that Whitney managed to get his friends to attend. Meanwhile, she makes no mention of her former cheerleader friends attending her place. While she is supposed to be a popular person, it doesn't appear like Lana has any other place to go if she were to leave the Sullivan household despite the fact that things have gotten extremely prickly during S2. This characterization is extremely problematic since TPTB seems to be trying to get the female audience members to identify with Lana. It does, however, reflect a common claim of Lana fans that everybody else is "jealous" of her. This is echoed in Witness where Clark yells that Chloe is only complaining about his missed article because she is jealous.

But what seems to be the most troubling for many of the viewers is the way that writers have Clark fetishizing Lana. Though TPTB have in fact offered a much different explanation for Clark's desire for Lana a.k.a. the whole theory that Lana+Chloe=Lois, a large number of fans see Clark's "love" not as a desire for the person but as a symbol of his desire to remain "normal" and not be an "alien" even though TPTB have not endorsed this point of view. This in turn creates the argument that what he sees in her is merely a projection of his own desires, ignoring and even acting hostile towards anything and anyone who contradicts this "perfect" vision. The TPTB's fetishism is now mirrored in the minds of the viewers who perceive her as a fetish, not as a character, though with none of TPTB’s attendant adoration.

In the pilot episode, she is Clark's obsession as seen by his daydream of playing football and getting a kiss by the head cheerleader, who of course is Lana at the time. He also spies on her with a telescope during that episode and repeatedly during the first season. The series also introduces the picture of Lana as a fairy princess on Chloe's Wall of Weird. While Chloe and Pete joke about Clark's crush on Lana, they don't view it as anything abnormal. He's totally besotted with her despite the fact that he loses strength whenever he gets near her because of the kryptonite necklace and as a result have never really talked to each other despite being neighbors. That established, there is really no reason why he likes her besides the way she appears. His spying on her is never condemned or shown to have any repercussions on his relationship with her later in the series. In Metamorphosis, Greg also spies on Lana, using a video camera. I find it intriguing that Clark and Greg would share the same habit yet Clark's habit isn't treated as anything with dark overtones considering that Greg later goes on to try to mate with Lana after he mutates.

In Visitor, Lana confesses that she wouldn't feel comfortable with an alien and that she'd be "a little freaked out." Despite this, he still wants her even if she's not capable of accepting the alien part of him. While he seems extremely pleased by Chloe's statement that she'd love to meet an alien and that an alien would be a step up from humans, he never falters in his pursuit of her even after she jokes that a passing falling star is a spaceship.

In Precipice, Clark states his discomfort with Lana learning to protect herself. A telling comment is this:
Chloe: Or is it that you're secretly worried that if Lana learns to defend herself, she won't need a knight in shining armor to rescue her anymore?

It's really interesting that both Allison Mack and Kristin Kreuk had pushed for an episode where they wouldn't be victims to be rescued and this was the result. Because this is the one episode and seems to be the only episode where the fetishism is even slightly questioned though the spectacle of Lana being taught to box and defeating a frat boy undercuts what progress was made by that speech.

In Accelerate, it's shown that Clark doesn't want to hear the truth about Lana or see her as anything other than perfect. ** Here's an exchange between Chloe and Clark.

Chloe: I wasn't saying she's crazy. All I'm saying is there's a lot of things about Lana you don't know. I mean you don't hear her crying in her room at three o'clock in the morning. What you see is just a mask.

Clark: Why are you telling me this?

He disregards her statement because it doesn't fit the personality he's projected on Lana. He doesn't want to see that there are parts of her that don't fit the dream character he's made. Even when Lana states that she doesn't feel comfortable with the way he idealizes her, he insists that nothing can alter the way he sees her.

Lana: It's just that sometimes I, um... I feel like you've created this perfect picture of who I am.

Clark: That's what I see.

Lana: This might sound silly... but I have this fear that-- that one day you'll finally get a good look at me and... I'm going to disappoint you. That you'll see that I'm not as strong or as good as you think I am. And I'm afraid that it'll change the way you feel about me.

Clark: Nothing could ever do that.

It’s also telling that Lana goes back to being a damsel-in-distress.

In Calling, Clark’s statement in the cake scene strongly suggests that Lana was the first person to ever celebrate Clark’s birthday. The incident served as the finale of this campaign to make her “special.” It appears that Clark never celebrated his birthday until then, which is nonsensical, considering that 1) Martha badly wanted Clark, 2) Martha bakes all the time, 3) she'd feel bad about depriving him and 4) he went to grade school therefore I don't see how a small party would be out of the question even if it was only Ma, Pa and wee!Clark. Considering that Peter has been his friend from childhood and Chloe has been his friend for three years, it's completely bizarre that neither ever threw him a surprise birthday or even took him out to a movie. To make Lana special, they had his parents and his friends to completely ignore his birthday for all his life.

No essay about the fetishization of Lana Lang would be complete without discussion of the choices TPTB have made for her clothing and makeup.

Clark is often dressed in the colors of his future costume while Lex is dressed in black, gray and purple. The color that Lana Lang is dressed in is pink and often wears pink make-up. This particular color scheme is often the object of intense derision by various people while the other color schemes are only mentioned in passing and often with a light sense of humor at worst. Why is that? It is because the color scheme does not complement this particular actress' features. I've seen Reese Witherspoon and Ellen Degeneres wear pink and think that it works a lot better with their particular coloring. In fact, pink would work a lot better with Allison Mack's complexion. It wouldn't be as noticeable as a color scheme if it didn't clash so intensely with the wearer and bring attention to itself.

One sometimes gets the strange and rather uncomfortable feeling that the producers had a particular type of person in mind when they came up with this particular color scheme, someone like Mischa Barton who plays Marissa Cooper on OC. However, once they found Kristin Kreuk, they decided to use her but refused to change the color scheme. While she often wears pink throughout the series, the offness of her makeup color seems especially noticeable in Drone, Tempest and Accelerate. They instead tried to change her features to fit with unfortunate results. I went to the link below and compared the pictures from Edgemont to the pictures from Smallville and frankly, I think that her makeup seems more natural in the Edgemont pics.
http://www.kristinkreuk.cc/kknet/gallery/
Others comment that the off color makeup gives her face a mask-like, doll-like appearance. To me, it just gives the impression that instead of treating the actress as an individual and tailoring the make-up and clothing to the features of the particular actress, they insist on the color scheme that they wanted regardless of whether or not it works. The most frightening example of this was the one of the pictures from the photo shoot for the TV guide article where the color of the actress' face is noticeably lighter and pink then the color of her neck.
http://pages.prodigy.net/mobiusklein/tvguide_clana.jpg

Candid photos of the actress show her to be attractive with her own natural coloring. Also on the occasions that the character is allowed to wear something different, her appearance noticeably improves. During the end of Zero, the application of red lipstick and a gray dress actually suits her much better than her usual color pattern though I think I still see traces of the pink in her foundation. In Nicodemus, she appears to look good in black.

Why is the fetishism of this character so despised by so many people?

So far, Lana is not seen as someone who helps Clark in his journey towards becoming a superhero but a barrier, an obstacle. People who don't want to see Clark's transformation into a superhero as strictly a tragedy rather resent Lana for making it seem as if he really regrets becoming Superman and would throw it all away strictly for her, especially if they don't see why Clark finds her so worthy. Clark's fetishism of Lana is something that a large number of viewers do not understand and the tone of his "devotion" often takes on creepy overtones, much like the "adoration" of a Tina or a Greg. It's one thing to make Clark mopey, angry and unhappy at times, those are emotions people can connect with if not exactly approve of. It's when his actions take on a creepy, weird and obsessive tone that many people find themselves unwilling to identify with that aspect of his character and the more "devoted" Clark becomes, the less they want to do with him (and in some cases, become really angry with him when he hurts other characters emotionally in the process) and that ultimately damages the entire show, especially when the behavior of the other characters on the show serve to magnify and reflect this fetishization instead of trying to pull him back away from it.

*Notice the repetitions of variations of the phrase "Yeah, me, too." further on in the series, it's a device used by the writers to try to turn the attention towards Lana and make her sound compassionate but instead makes her sound really self-absorbed, IMHO. It's a strategy that backfired.

**I wonder if TPTB heard about the extreme negative reaction regarding their statement saying that Lana was perfect and wrote this into the script. However, I can't help but think that they're trying to have their cake and eat it too by having Lana announce that she's not perfect to Clark, but Clark reaffirms her perfection.

Note: The views of MobiusKlein don't necessarily represent the thoughts and feelings of everyone at KryptonSite. Talk about this column on the KryptonSite Message Forum!

Return home