Just to be clear, I'm on Team Pam. I could never be on Team Karen.
Karen is the popular girl, the one with really nice clothes and hair that is just so, straight and glossy and perfect. She smiles big and she flirts well. She probably wears heels to concerts, even if they're boots. She is able to vocalize her desire for a boy, instead of watching shyly. She GETS the guy, when she wants him (and I suspect that the writers of The Office will indeed have Karen get Jim, at least temporarily). And she will have no qualms about getting rid of him if she doesn't want him. She's the guy's girl--it's no surprise that Karen is the only woman in the Stamford branch. She's outwardly pretty; it's incredibly easy to see that Karen is a beautiful woman. There's nothing hidden there, and Karen knows it.
On the other hand, look at Pam. Her clothes are normal, her hair is frizzy and messy and all over the place, and she seems to have a hard time smiling big. She's not a flirt; what she does with Jim isn't flirting, it's being friends. Pam probably doesn't go to concerts, and if she did, she'd be practical and wear gym shoes and jeans. Pam went out with the first guy that asked her, probably, and she also agreed to marry the first guy that asked her, because she was probably surprised by the attention. Having a guy like her was a delight. Pam gets along with everyone, but her other scenes have either been as the put-upon secretary or gossiping with other women. She's a girl's girl. Her beauty isn't necessarily easy to see (though S maintains that Jenna Fischer is better looking, when all's said and done, than Rashida Jones, but that's when they're both made up, and Pam's not "looking frumpy"), but you know that when she smiles, it shines through.
Maybe I'm reading more into this than you think I should, and that's fine. I like Pam because I was Pam, and I've been friends with many, many Pams. Girls like me aren't friends with girls like Karen, and we sit by for years and watch girls like Karen steal the show (as I suspect Karen will do upon arrival at the Scranton branch). I root for Pam because girls like Pam never win, and just once, I'd like this Pam to get the guy. It's ridiculous, I know, but there you go.
I feel fairly certain that Pam and Jim won't be together any time soon, because that would satisfy me too much, and on shows like this, they have to keep you watching somehow. And this is one of the more interesting little love stories on TV right now, oddly enough. (In contrast to the love stories on Gilmore, Grey's Anatomy, and Studio 60, which right now leave something to be desired.)
Anyway, the point is, on Thursday night, I'll be watching The Office, and you can bet I'll be yelling things at the TV, and you can also bet that all those things will be anti-Karen, and pro-Pam.
What about you? If you watch, are you Team Pam or Team Karen?
I know this is going to be immediately dismissed because I'm a guy, but your argument is almost completely bullshit. I don't think we've seen any "pretty girl" obnoxiousness out of Karen. I don't think she flirts gratuitously, in fact it's almost the same type of flirting that Pam did. In this case, it seems as though you're arguing exclusively on the basis of her BEING prettier, rather than anything she's actually done. Which is just as bad as judging someone solely on the basis of their frumpiness.
I don't think Karen has seemed remarkably more confident than Pam, just more willing to leave herself vulnerable. It seems probable that a budding relationship between Jim and Karen will result in a sea change for Pam, and she'll get enough balls (proverbially) to, for once in her life, actually go after something. So, I'm sure that will be nice for her. I just think it's foolish to believe that Pam is somehow "better" primarily on the basis that she isn't as pretty. Sometimes pretty people have as much or more depth than frumpy people. Frumpiness alone is not a virtue.
Posted by: Tim | November 15, 2006 at 12:44 PM