About the women in Whispers...
I've spent something like 12 hours in the car over the past four days, which explains all the tl;dr.
kroki_refur's SPN/Quantum Leap fusion, which is a brilliant crossover premise with great humor. It also hits the amnesia button hard- Dean is still so very DEAN, even without his memories. Gen.
Lib by sardonicsmiley, the first femslash to come out of Whispers. Which is hot, but also hits on a very interesting character moment I loved in that episode: the womens' different reactions to Teldy's "girl power" moment.
Andrew Rilstone's meta on the Dr. Who season 4 finale. As usual, I find his overall conclusion too harsh, because he doesn't value some things that I value in the show. Also, I wish he would stop using fanfic as a strawman punchline the way he accuses other people of using SF. That said, the problems he lays out here are very real and articulated better than I've seen anywhere else and I'm left thinking a lot more carefully about exactly what it was I objected to so much.
I just reccd gen and femslash. Hold me.
I didn't feel the need to say anything about Whispers, because my reaction to Joe Malozzi's idiocy is so very predictable. (You wanted us to be afraid for their safety so you made them all women? Oh, Joe.) But if you put aside eye-rolling at the writing, there are interesting things to be said about the characters.
For instance, the Fist Bump of Idiocy. Remember that Carson used to date Laura Cadman? I am betting that at first she thought his slight molly-coddling of her was a sort of romantic chivalry, that always offering to carry heavy things and such for her was more a statement about his feelings than his opinions of her competency. But then she got into a dangerous situation offworld, and was the vital part of the plan to, I don't know, rescue some hostages or something. And Carson flipped his lid about how she shouldn't have been allowed to be in such a dangerous situation, how her CO shouldn't have allowed her to take that role.
She kicked him out of bed so fast his head's still spinning, and the poor silly man still isn't sure what he did wrong. (John, on the other hand, was rolling his eyes at the fistbump so hard he almost sprained something. His highly developed sense of irony doesn't excuse, but it does mitigate.)
So Major Teldy is a good soldier, really. But she is out to prove a point, and does have a record of trouble for actual or borderline insubordination at the slightest hint of sexism (or homophobia) in a superior officer. When John pulled his "bunch of girls" thing she was completely prepared to hate him, even more so after his macho "keep the girls safe" plan. But then she realized that John's stupid risk-taking martyr-inclinations operate regardless of gender, and that his plan was bad not because of his machismo, but just because he's tactically not very smart. It may be (is) ridiculous, but she'd rather have a stupid CO than a sexist one any day. Her opinion of his tactical command ability isn't very high now, but she genuinely likes him.
When Teldy was given the go-ahead to put together her own team, she immediately picked the two best female soldiers available (and said they were the best of the best, which isn't strictly true, but close enough for government work). It wasn't any secret to Dusty or Vega what she was doing. Neither of them were invested in her political point, but their reactions to being on all-female teams were very different.
Vega was mostly glad to stop feeling like an outsider all the time. It's not like it was usually done deliberately, but there are always those times that the topic of conversation shifts abruptly while she rejoins the group, you know? When she can hear the things they must have been saying about sex and women in the awkward reshuffle for a new topic. It isn't always their fault, either-- she's sometimes absorbed in conversation with her team, only to split off to the showers and locker rooms and find that she's lost the thread by the time she rejoins them. And she's glad to be free of the harassment, too. I mean, Vega is straight, but she knows Teldy and Dusty aren't, and she knows maybe they look at her like that too, sometimes, but... it's never threatening. And it's not something they do to mark her out as different, the way it was with her other teams.
Dusty's never felt the slightest bit excluded on her previous teams. The subject of conversation never changes when she shows up, and she's just as crude as they are, and she's too threatening for most harassment, and as for the harassment and exclusion there still is, she's just completely oblivious. Unlike Teldy, she doesn't give a fuck about sexism in her superior officers; she is obviously the equal of any man, and anyone who doesn't see that is obviously deficient and not worth bothering with. Dusty doesn't give a crap about the all-female team thing; she came to this galaxy to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and can do that just as well on this team. She doesn't mind the eye-candy, though.
(Teldy totally has the hots for Dusty, but clearly will never do anything about it. She does admit that Dusty isn't as good a soldier as Vega- too brash, not careful enough.)
Allison Porter is the one who actively had problems with Teldy's agenda. She was awfully uncertain about her suitability for an offworld team, and she hates the idea that she's putting the rest of them in danger because she was chosen for her gender and not her qualifications. She doesn't know that she's the member of the team who really did get picked for being the best of the best.
Allison and Dusty have a thing, but it's just sex. Allison will flirt with other men in front of Dusty, and even sleep with them. Dusty laughs it off, but it makes her a little bitchy. The thing she hates is that she's better than all the guys Allison flirts with, like that stuttering, blushing, helpless Carson. Allison likes these guys because they go all shy and silly around her, because they see her as a woman first and a person second, and want to treat her like a girl. Dusty won't ever do that, and she hates that Allison wants it.
Sometimes I really like writing Not!Fic like that. It's a whole lot easier than actual fic.
kroki_refur's SPN/Quantum Leap fusion, which is a brilliant crossover premise with great humor. It also hits the amnesia button hard- Dean is still so very DEAN, even without his memories. Gen.
Lib by sardonicsmiley, the first femslash to come out of Whispers. Which is hot, but also hits on a very interesting character moment I loved in that episode: the womens' different reactions to Teldy's "girl power" moment.
Andrew Rilstone's meta on the Dr. Who season 4 finale. As usual, I find his overall conclusion too harsh, because he doesn't value some things that I value in the show. Also, I wish he would stop using fanfic as a strawman punchline the way he accuses other people of using SF. That said, the problems he lays out here are very real and articulated better than I've seen anywhere else and I'm left thinking a lot more carefully about exactly what it was I objected to so much.
I just reccd gen and femslash. Hold me.
I didn't feel the need to say anything about Whispers, because my reaction to Joe Malozzi's idiocy is so very predictable. (You wanted us to be afraid for their safety so you made them all women? Oh, Joe.) But if you put aside eye-rolling at the writing, there are interesting things to be said about the characters.
For instance, the Fist Bump of Idiocy. Remember that Carson used to date Laura Cadman? I am betting that at first she thought his slight molly-coddling of her was a sort of romantic chivalry, that always offering to carry heavy things and such for her was more a statement about his feelings than his opinions of her competency. But then she got into a dangerous situation offworld, and was the vital part of the plan to, I don't know, rescue some hostages or something. And Carson flipped his lid about how she shouldn't have been allowed to be in such a dangerous situation, how her CO shouldn't have allowed her to take that role.
She kicked him out of bed so fast his head's still spinning, and the poor silly man still isn't sure what he did wrong. (John, on the other hand, was rolling his eyes at the fistbump so hard he almost sprained something. His highly developed sense of irony doesn't excuse, but it does mitigate.)
So Major Teldy is a good soldier, really. But she is out to prove a point, and does have a record of trouble for actual or borderline insubordination at the slightest hint of sexism (or homophobia) in a superior officer. When John pulled his "bunch of girls" thing she was completely prepared to hate him, even more so after his macho "keep the girls safe" plan. But then she realized that John's stupid risk-taking martyr-inclinations operate regardless of gender, and that his plan was bad not because of his machismo, but just because he's tactically not very smart. It may be (is) ridiculous, but she'd rather have a stupid CO than a sexist one any day. Her opinion of his tactical command ability isn't very high now, but she genuinely likes him.
When Teldy was given the go-ahead to put together her own team, she immediately picked the two best female soldiers available (and said they were the best of the best, which isn't strictly true, but close enough for government work). It wasn't any secret to Dusty or Vega what she was doing. Neither of them were invested in her political point, but their reactions to being on all-female teams were very different.
Vega was mostly glad to stop feeling like an outsider all the time. It's not like it was usually done deliberately, but there are always those times that the topic of conversation shifts abruptly while she rejoins the group, you know? When she can hear the things they must have been saying about sex and women in the awkward reshuffle for a new topic. It isn't always their fault, either-- she's sometimes absorbed in conversation with her team, only to split off to the showers and locker rooms and find that she's lost the thread by the time she rejoins them. And she's glad to be free of the harassment, too. I mean, Vega is straight, but she knows Teldy and Dusty aren't, and she knows maybe they look at her like that too, sometimes, but... it's never threatening. And it's not something they do to mark her out as different, the way it was with her other teams.
Dusty's never felt the slightest bit excluded on her previous teams. The subject of conversation never changes when she shows up, and she's just as crude as they are, and she's too threatening for most harassment, and as for the harassment and exclusion there still is, she's just completely oblivious. Unlike Teldy, she doesn't give a fuck about sexism in her superior officers; she is obviously the equal of any man, and anyone who doesn't see that is obviously deficient and not worth bothering with. Dusty doesn't give a crap about the all-female team thing; she came to this galaxy to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and can do that just as well on this team. She doesn't mind the eye-candy, though.
(Teldy totally has the hots for Dusty, but clearly will never do anything about it. She does admit that Dusty isn't as good a soldier as Vega- too brash, not careful enough.)
Allison Porter is the one who actively had problems with Teldy's agenda. She was awfully uncertain about her suitability for an offworld team, and she hates the idea that she's putting the rest of them in danger because she was chosen for her gender and not her qualifications. She doesn't know that she's the member of the team who really did get picked for being the best of the best.
Allison and Dusty have a thing, but it's just sex. Allison will flirt with other men in front of Dusty, and even sleep with them. Dusty laughs it off, but it makes her a little bitchy. The thing she hates is that she's better than all the guys Allison flirts with, like that stuttering, blushing, helpless Carson. Allison likes these guys because they go all shy and silly around her, because they see her as a woman first and a person second, and want to treat her like a girl. Dusty won't ever do that, and she hates that Allison wants it.
Sometimes I really like writing Not!Fic like that. It's a whole lot easier than actual fic.