I admit it. I never used to like Blue Bloods’ Erin Reagan.
I found her arrogant, rigid, and judgmental. I was irritated by her refusal to bend 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.
And yet, Frank is all of those things and is widely admired for his integrity and willingness to do what he thinks is right, optics be damned. Talk about a double standard!
Blue Bloods Season 14 Episode 12 Made It Clear How Similar Erin Is To Frank
Erin’s similarity to Frank should have been obvious, but it wasn’t until recently.
On Blue Bloods Season 14 Episode 12, Erin stood up to her supervisor, and not for the first time.
Kimberly Crawford has always been a pain in Erin’s butt who cares way more about optics than justice, and this episode made it clear by having Erin fight with her at the same time as Frank was standing up to Mayor Chase about looking the other way when an ex-cop pulled a gun for no reason.
In a nutshell, Crawford told Erin to influence a grand jury to indict an innocent cop for excessive force after a fleeing perp was hit by a car, while Mayor Chase intervened so that the NYPD couldn’t arrest a guilty ex-cop for pulling a weapon on a civilian during a bar fight.
The parallel was so obvious that I could no longer avoid the realization that a double standard was at play here.
Crawford: They wouldn’t have come to that conclusion without your finger on the scale.
Erin: I did exactly what you told me to do. I just used a different finger.
Erin’s response to Crawford’s whining was even similar to Frank’s, making me wonder how I’d missed all this time that they were basically the same person.
Is Gender Bias At Play Here?
The easiest explanation for why Frank is seen as a man of integrity while Erin is seen as a nuisance is old-fashioned misogyny.
It’s not a secret that qualities that are praised in men are often disparaged in women.
From that perspective, it makes sense that people see Frank as standing up for integrity when he refuses to be coerced into doing something he believes is immoral, while Erin is seen as too rigid when she does it.
That’s not necessarily the whole story, but it’s important to ask ourselves why we see Erin the way that we do.
It’s easy to fall into that type of thinking because of the social messaging all around us, including on the show.
Blue Bloods itself has sometimes reinforced the idea that Erin’s unwillingness to compromise is a problem in a way that it isn’t for Frank.
Erin’s brothers sometimes call her judgmental or hard-nosed, too, and Jamie has talked about feeling like that since he was a kid.
But that isn’t all simply because Erin is a woman. That plays into it, but there are some other dynamics at play here.
Blue Bloods’ Erin is Different From Her Siblings In Important Ways
Some of the reasons that Erin’s brothers have mixed feelings about her have to do with her being not only the only girl in the family but her place in it growing up.
For Jamie, in particular, who was the baby, Erin was the older sister who often played second mother to him.
I’m not sure how old the Reagan children were when their mother died. If they were children, teenagers, or in their early 20s, Erin might have felt even more of a pull to step in and replace her mother in their lives, which could also affect them.
Additionally, Erin has a different role in the justice system than her brothers, who are both cops.
Their job is to get the bad guys off the street, but Erin has to figure out how to prosecute them. Sometimes, that means letting a perp go because there isn’t enough evidence or it was collected inappropriately.
Thus, although Erin and the Reagan boys are all on the same side — that of justice — they have different purposes.
When Erin won’t look the other way on civil rights violations or is hamstrung by new bail rules that require her not to pursue bail except in extreme circumstances, it can seem to her brothers like she’s sabotaging them.
Still, would they react the same way if Frank was the ADA who was in their way?
It’s hard to tell.
All of the Reagans have butted heads with Frank sometimes, but he’s not in the same role as Erin, so it’s not directly comparable.
It’s also important to see these issues from Erin’s perspective.
As the only one in the family who isn’t a cop, she’s often treated as a quasi-antagonist when she is just trying to do her job.
No matter how much she wants certain people behind bars forever, she can’t ignore the law, so sometimes she has to do things that seem unjust.
She also shares Frank’s belief that Reagans should not get special treatment just because they’re related to her. From her perspective, her brothers take it for granted that they have an “in” at the DA’s office because of her position.
Half the time, Danny doesn’t consider the fact that Erin might have other cases she’s working on and barges into her office to complain about a perp being let go or demand a search warrant he doesn’t have evidence to support.
Why shouldn’t Erin be annoyed enough to put her foot down and tell her family in no uncertain terms that she is not there simply to do them favors on a whim?
And yet her strong opposition to this kind of nonsense, especially from Danny, is part of what makes her an unpopular character, which hardly seems fair.
It’s hard to tell if it’s due to gender bias, that the cops are supposed to be the protagonists in this show, or a little of both, but there’s no question that Erin gets judged as harshly as the audience accuses her of judging others.
How Do Frequent Clashes Between Erin and Frank Affect Erin’s Popularity?
Erin and Frank constantly butt heads, which is more proof they’re exactly the same.
Neither will give an inch, ever, and when they clash, it becomes a problem for the same reason that Erin’s clashes with her brother do.
Although Blue Bloods is supposed to be an ensemble show, Frank is considered the protagonist by many viewers, which makes sense.
The premise revolves around two things: his determination to be fair despite his love for his family and his refusal to give in to political considerations that he feels will hurt the NYPD.
Thus, every time Frank and Erin butt heads, which usually happens when DA office policy and NYPD policy contradict each other’s needs, Frank is automatically the character we root for.
And yet Frank isn’t always right either.
His Dream Team calls him out on it, and a lot of people love Abigail because she’s not afraid to speak her mind most of the time, yet people don’t like Erin when she does it.
That’s why it can’t be as simple as gender bias, even though it’s clear that’s part of the problem. Why do we love Abigail and hate Erin?
Could it also be because Abigail, as an outsider, can earn respect by being unafraid to stand up to Frank despite his reputation, yet Erin, as his daughter, is expected to respect HIM by being the one to back off if there’s a conflict?
The bottom line is that Erin is very much Frank’s daughter, yet the same intractability that makes him heroic can make us uncomfortable when it comes from her.
It’s a complicated issue, and one that fans will probably still be debating years after Blue Bloods ends when their kids and grandkids watch reruns and take sides on whether or not they like Erin.
Over to you, Blue Bloods fanatics!
How do you feel about Erin? Do you think there’s a double standard at play when it comes to her?
Hit the comments with your thoughts.
Blue Bloods’ final episodes air on CBS on Fridays at 10/9c.
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