Fall from Grace: Coronation Street’s Female Characters

(This post was originally posted by Yoork on the Coronation Street Blog in April, 2010, reposted to this blog with permission.)

This subject of this post came to my attention from Coronation Street Blog fan Monica.  She wanted to know why the Corrie writers have taken once great female characters and have sullied them with less than savoury personality changes. 
Now, of course, Corrie is a drama but it does try to mirror realistic character portrayals.  All of us have ups and downs in life and are far from being one-dimensional.  We can all be nice, nasty, naughty and neat!  However, some of our once favourite female characters have fallen from grace, and we can see hardly a glimmer of the character we enjoyed in the first place!
A few prime examples (let me know if I’ve missed a few):
Who: Molly Dobbs. 
Fall from Grace Factor: “Molvin”
Once a bright young woman whom overcame bullying, fell in love with Tyrone and got married.  Yes, in the past she’d tried to steal men from other women and hadn’t been a complete saint.  But she had some charisma about her, a spark and she was a woman who got what she wanted.  The relationship with Kev (the ubiquitous "Molvin") has just sullied her character.  I was so glad to see her stand up to Kevin finally, but up until then she’d been the LAST character I’d wanted to see on screen.  She lost all that she had that was good, personality wise, even in her own life until recently.  Do you think we’ll see the old Molly back again?
Who: Michelle Connor
Fall from Grace Factor: Break up with Steve McDonald and some new “plus twos” (breast augmentation)
Michelle came onscreen as a feisty new barmaid and a single mum who had a rough time of it, but was a survivor.  She was strong, smart, even a little classy (besides the tattoo) and had an understated sex appeal.  She dated Steve who did the dirty on her, but we all hoped that she’d come out of it well.  That didn’t happen so much.  She showed up on our screens with some new friends (plus twos) and all of a sudden a new personality.  Now she apparently rivals Rosie for “street slapper” so much to the point that even an ex-prossie (Leanne) called her so.  She’s a loose woman who’s lost much of what she once had.  Does she even sing anymore?  The personality change has made a lot of fans deem her rather irrelevant to the soap now.  Do you think Michelle will do her character justice or should she be written off?
Who: Rosie Webster (aka Dozy Plebster)
Fall from Grace Factor: Breakup with Craig Harris, affair with John Stape
Rosie Webster was once one of my favourite characters on Coronation Street.  She was smart, young, and in love.  I felt she was a character that would grow up well into the show and wondered where future storylines would take her.  I no longer care.  I can’t stand to see the vapid mess of a character turn up on my screen and just bore and tart it all up.  Rosie had always been pretty, she’d always been “physically gifted” let’s just say before John Stape came along.  Ever since her devastating break from teenage love Craig, Rosie went over to the dark side.  She no longer cared about being smart, or her future.  All she wanted to do was use the attention she received from men (which she first realized she could manipulate from her affair with Stape) to her advantage and screw the rest.  It’s almost as though she’s completely void of emotions now also.  It’s such a shame.  Do you think we’ll ever see the smart Rosie again, or will it all be cleavage and bad acting from hereon-in? 
Who: Fiona “Fiz” Stape
Fall from Grace Factor: John Stape
Once named “Fiz Bomb” Brown for all of her spunk and attitude, she was the one who wore the pants in the relationship.  Fiz was strong, funny, outgoing and well, happy, before she met John Stape.  She wasn’t going to let any man push her around, and when she got fed up, she got out as evidenced in her relationship with Kirk.  Those days are gone.  I can hardly recognize the Fiz I see on screen these days.  I even think her hair is a duller shade of red now.  Once one of my favourite strong female characters, she’s been reduced to slaving to some crazy man’s (John Stape) choices and now we hardly ever see a smile on her face.  Never mind a spark of what used to be a fizz.  Do you think the writers will ever resurrect our Fiz Bomb? Or is she just Fiona Stape now?

A common factor between all these ladies and their fall from grace is the men in their lives. Isn’t it time for Corrie, a show which has always highlighted strong women, to not put their personalities at mercy to the men in their lives?  All I can say is thank goodness for Carla Connor and Eileen Grimshaw!