Danger Gal Friday: Deputy Sheriff Josefina Lupo
“Try anything and I’ll deviate your septum.”
This week’s Danger Gal is Josefina “Jo” Lupo, deputy sheriff on the SciFi Channel show Eureka.
Lupo is a Jersey girl, a former U.S. Army Ranger and a very smart woman. She’s more than your average tough girl character who’s long on muscle and short on brains. For example, in the episode “God is in the Details” Lupo tells love interest Zane that she loves the opportunities available in a town like Eureka, such as “…assembling a chromium flash suppression barrel for my grenade launcher.”
I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t know a chromium flash suppression barrel from a grenade launcher, let alone how to assemble one. You?
More than intelligence and special forces skills, the writers have hinted at Lupo’s feminine side, a facet she may rarely display in public, but does possess. She tells Sheriff Jack Carter that as a girl she wanted to be a ballet dancer, and in the episode “God Is In The Details” she shows up for brunch date in a dress, throwing Zane off balance. Moreover, Lupo seems just as comfortable in a dress as she is in her deputy uniform.
The dress that Jo wears for her brunch date with Zane is virginal white sundress she also wore to church that morning. In a science-dominated town like Eureka, Jo is one of the few believers, and someone who has found a way for her religious belief and her interest in science to coexist.
When Zane shows off how conceited he is as a theoretical physicist the likes of which come up with the really important grand ideas, Jo responds with “[S]ome of us like a practical application,” and promptly ends their date, heading back to her job.
The virginal white dress Lupo wears for the date is an obvious statement that she hasn’t dated much, that this feminine side to Lupo rarely gets to play. Despite this vulnerability, when Zane stomps on her intellect and talents Lupo stands up for herself and refuses to play along. If he’s not going to respect her intelligence, Jo doesn’t want to have anything to do with Zane even if he is wowed by her ability to deviate his septum.
Hate to tell you, but girls cannot be U.S. Army Rangers. It is still an all male dominated enviroment.
True. I overlooked that when writing the post. In some character bios, Lupo is described more generally as being in “Special Forces,” but come to think of it, I don’t think any of the U.S. Special Forces admit women. I know SEALs don’t.
Regardless, she’s a great character. Glad to see others appreciate her.
Nope. The concept of females in special ops units (or any type of ground combat unit at all, for that matter) is and will always be nothing more or less than wet-dream fanboy bs. I mean, come on.
SciFi’s uninformed and uneducated bias in their continual characterization of the military as dumbasses with guns who can do little more or less than grunt “hooah” and blindly follow stupid orders from stupid CO’s is one of the main reasons I despise that particular cable channel. Their habit of portraying women as having the same potential as men for participation in armed conflicts is another. Please.
The argument that it’s just sci-fi or it’s just tv is bs as well. It’s not only just as easy to get it right, it’s better entertainment.
And Tracy, it’s a male-dominated environment for a very good reason. Be very glad of that. Count your blessings and be thankful for your freedoms.
This is highly disrespectful for anyone to claim something that they have not acheived. considering the fact that tracy is right the Army Ranger is a Male only organization something that I have proudly been apart of so please dont ever do this again thank you
Just to be clear, Lupo being an Army Ranger was never my personal claim. It was part of the character’s original bio from the SyFy Network. Now, it’s my bad for not fact-checking, but as soon as I realized the error, I made the correction on my blog. I can’t correct the source, however. It’s still part of her official bio.