Chapters 7 through 9 really delve into Laurie’s emotions and push her to the limit and expose some of her grittiest character flaws.

In chapter 7, she practically throws herself at Dan because… he looks good without glasses?

In chapter 9, she is visiting/being held captive by Jon on Mars, and fails again and again to understand a damn word that he is saying. This bothers me because I understood what he was saying, and so did pretty much every other woman who has ever read it… so how does that represent “real” women?

It just made her seem unintelligent and completely irrational to me. She also failed to realize the point she herself had proven to Jon at the end of their conversation that convinced him to return to earth.

I completely lost touch with the character at that point.

I have two takes on her disposition —

1 (my initial reaction):

Alan Moore is sexist and wrote only weak, annoying, stupid, slutty female characters into The Watchmen. >.<

2 (my conclusion after a little more reflection):

As I stated in a previous post, The Watchmen seems to be an analysis of what would happen if real people were to try to be superheroes. In doing this, it explores various character types and their defects. For example, on the male side, you have an overly aggressive character (Rorschach), a cynical character (Comedian) , a self-doubting character (Nite Owl 2), a power hungry character (Ozymandias), and an indifferent character (Dr. Manhattan). This stretches into the Minutemen as well with insanity, etc.

The primary female flaws are shown through the fewer female characters. Three dangerous/tragic paths and faults that women are often accused of are: becoming whores (Silhouette), having illegitimate children and losing careers as a result (Sally), and making decisions based on wild, random, and unchecked emotions (Laurie).

So, considering Laurie's annoying character flaws alongside the other characters' flaws, she is a little easier for me to swallow. I do maintain, however, that such a woman – as well as the type of woman that Sally was – would not have been drawn to being superheroes in real life. Perhaps the fact that Laurie was “forced” into it has something to do with her disposition?

I also wonder what kind of social experiment the book would have been if a woman had been thrust into Jon's omnipotent superhero position rather than a man.