Written by Israneski

I am a diehard Bette and Tina fan. Anyone who reads my fan fiction can attest to that. I love the way they could be - in my perfect little world. The world I have created for them. In the end, I always find myself saying, "Tina, how could you?" And "Bette, awww poor baby...wanna join me for some......?" Anyway, I speak to a good deal of women after each show and I always begin with, "And your impressions of the show?"

Invariably they say. "TOO MUCH JENNY!" I always seem to hang my head and avert my eyes as I say or type, "But I like Jenny...." I don't just like Jenny, I love Jenny! I admit it! Now realizing that probably makes me and ME who loves her character, I started to think about why more people do not like her and what I could possibly say in support of her..

I will never dispute that Jenny is confused, perhaps even odd. Weird comes to mind. "Off the wall" springs from my lips too. One thing I can say for her is that she always displays her BALLS! How can you not love that?

As I now begin my praise of Jenny, and probably watch my fan fiction ratings turn to the negatives, I will attempt to explain this character of Jenny as I see her, I truly believe she is the most well explained and well rounded character on the show. I love her because, put simply, she makes sense. .

First of all, as someone who worked for years in the field of mental health and addiction services. I learned to look at experience and behavior. In doing so, I have often found that the two are so incredibly tied together that it is impossible to separate them. Experience defines who we are and ultimately what we do. I am not saying that people can't change, but to some extent, our past dictates who we become. For those of you reading this who have suffered physical or emotional abuse of another human being, I want to make it clear that your past does not turn you into the person who harmed you, or even one remotely like that person. That is not to say that some people who are victims of predators do not repeat the cycle of abuse. Some become child advocates, rape counselors, social workers, etc.. Some certainly do repeat the cycle, and some certainly do not and will do anything in their power to stop the cycle from continuing.

Jenny made sense to me from the beginning - and I have no clue what that says about me - perhaps I am as weird and offbeat as she is. As the second season ended, everything made so much sense that I actually wanted to give poor little Jenny a hug and that is when my protective nature really kicked in.

Look at what this poor little cherub has endured. Oy Vey! Look at the fact that she survived a brutal rape as a little girl. Look at how she begged Tim not to leave her even though she had left him long before he left her. She has a wicked stepfather and a mother who couldn't, and didn't protect her and didn't even acknowledge what had happened to her until now.

So how does Jenny deal with her trauma? Well, she sleeps around a tad; she finds some of the most beautiful and most strange people to hook up with, and she becomes a stripper. I will never forget the look on her face during that scene on the stage. I am not sure if it was a look of relief or disgust. I am sure that it was a pivotal event in her recovery. I cannot forget the scene where she was cutting her legs. Weird? No...a behavior that makes so much sense that I believe many people just don't understand it. Is it too painful? Or do people just not understand why someone would inflict that level of abuse upon themselves? Maybe people do not want to understand because the entire issue of rape and abuse is just too much to deal with. It seems to me that it is much easier to sit around the television and look at beautiful women. Women who struggle with miscarriages, infidelity, breast cancer, pill popping, and all the other issues we see on the show.

Simply put, if it can be simple, Jenny cuts because the emotional pain is too terrible to handle. The cutting eases the emotional pain and I hear from some women who do cut, that they do not really feel any pain at all when they cut. They feel a release of the emotional pain and once again feel some connection with the real world.. They get out of their head and escape some of the memories that hold them captive.

I would encourage anyone who does not know the pain of abuse to do some research into the subject. If you are brave enough to do so I think, you might actually end up understanding Jenny and maybe even loving and embracing her character as I do

Finally, I want to applaud the writers for taking this character on and dealing with her in such a realistic manner. And to the person behind the character - thank you for sharing your story with us.

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