The SciFi Community and the SGU Controversy
You know what I've learned lately reading all the comments concerning the latest controversy surrounding SGU's infamous casting call sheets for Episode 15? There are a lot of bigots in the scifi community. There's a lot of very neat, open minded people as well but there ARE a lot of narrow minded bigoted people in a genre that seems like it would be a haven for the more 'liberal' among the population.
I do realize that the scifi community is more than simply 2001 'intellectuals'; it's made up of mutant bug movie enthusiasts and transforming robot fans, Halo gamers and families that watch Eureka together and so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that as with all groups, there's a shadow side to the community as well. A side that views gays in "their" shows as an unnecessary affectation to appease the 'liberals'. A side that views possible episodes involving rape and gender issues with prurient interest masquerading as a "let's wait and see flippant attitude" or simply bored indifference because 'someone's always b*tching about something on the blogs'.
I also realize that the scifi community can be elitist and snobbish not to mention patronizing in its self righteousness towards what it views as its more 'uneducated' members and that this attitude (clothed in the armor of political correctness) is often used to camaflouge the same type of narrow mindedness that it purports to disdain in others. However, the sheer level of willful ignorance as to why, after years of watching the SGU creators make a hash of story lines and characters, some people might be concerned that this episode involving body switching and possible rape of a lesbian character might be viewed with trepidation, floored me.
It's as if every move made by TPTB of the Stargate franchise is made in a vacuum; as if each action they take is separate and distinct and one is not allowed to point to a previous action and say 'but they've done this before and were brought to task, they were not ignorant of the possible ramifications'. No, they must always be given the benefit of the doubt and while I applaud the idea of innocent until proven guilty, I've always been rather fond of the Scottish verdict "Not Proven" myself; which simply means 'that it stinks to high heaven and we all know you're probably guilty but we just don't have enough to put you away (but the good Lord willing, some day, we will)'.
I guess for all my love of fan fiction and various fandoms, I really don't understand the 'fan mentality'. I guess I don't understand how people confuse the actors with the characters or the show with the creators. I suppose we all want to believe that something that gave us pleasure has some inherent 'goodness' in its makeup but the cold hard fact is that's not always the case and that even unpleasant people can weave a pleasurable spell. Why fairy tales are rife with such folk, so it's not as if it's a new concept, this idea of beauty on the outside, rot at the core.
Perhaps I'm one of the elitist types sitting in my Ivory Tower in self righteous judgment of others? Maybe I should say thank you to my mother more often for 'calling me' on making baseless assumptions when making a decision? Still I think there comes a point where if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it doesn't need to lay an egg to prove itself. Of course I also learned not to touch the stove after the FIRST time I got burned too. :(
I do realize that the scifi community is more than simply 2001 'intellectuals'; it's made up of mutant bug movie enthusiasts and transforming robot fans, Halo gamers and families that watch Eureka together and so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that as with all groups, there's a shadow side to the community as well. A side that views gays in "their" shows as an unnecessary affectation to appease the 'liberals'. A side that views possible episodes involving rape and gender issues with prurient interest masquerading as a "let's wait and see flippant attitude" or simply bored indifference because 'someone's always b*tching about something on the blogs'.
I also realize that the scifi community can be elitist and snobbish not to mention patronizing in its self righteousness towards what it views as its more 'uneducated' members and that this attitude (clothed in the armor of political correctness) is often used to camaflouge the same type of narrow mindedness that it purports to disdain in others. However, the sheer level of willful ignorance as to why, after years of watching the SGU creators make a hash of story lines and characters, some people might be concerned that this episode involving body switching and possible rape of a lesbian character might be viewed with trepidation, floored me.
It's as if every move made by TPTB of the Stargate franchise is made in a vacuum; as if each action they take is separate and distinct and one is not allowed to point to a previous action and say 'but they've done this before and were brought to task, they were not ignorant of the possible ramifications'. No, they must always be given the benefit of the doubt and while I applaud the idea of innocent until proven guilty, I've always been rather fond of the Scottish verdict "Not Proven" myself; which simply means 'that it stinks to high heaven and we all know you're probably guilty but we just don't have enough to put you away (but the good Lord willing, some day, we will)'.
I guess for all my love of fan fiction and various fandoms, I really don't understand the 'fan mentality'. I guess I don't understand how people confuse the actors with the characters or the show with the creators. I suppose we all want to believe that something that gave us pleasure has some inherent 'goodness' in its makeup but the cold hard fact is that's not always the case and that even unpleasant people can weave a pleasurable spell. Why fairy tales are rife with such folk, so it's not as if it's a new concept, this idea of beauty on the outside, rot at the core.
Perhaps I'm one of the elitist types sitting in my Ivory Tower in self righteous judgment of others? Maybe I should say thank you to my mother more often for 'calling me' on making baseless assumptions when making a decision? Still I think there comes a point where if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it doesn't need to lay an egg to prove itself. Of course I also learned not to touch the stove after the FIRST time I got burned too. :(