James Marsters Annoys Me Sometimes :-)
Torchwood Villain Enjoys Annoying People
IMHO, I think he's wrong to enjoy annoying people on things like this. Whilst annoying people might be enormous fun and worth doing sometimes...
1. Being annoyed by something can be a fear and hate-based reaction. That's not a good thing to deliberately inspire in people.
2. Annoyed people firebomb abortion clinics, they organise lynchings, they beat people up, they over-react, they lash out, they negatively influence others and they lobby the lawmakers to make dumb negative laws that make people's lives worse. Being annoyed is a pro-active reaction.
2. Annoying people does not educate, inform or normalize.
And, you know, I really don't think that's what Torchwood is about. It's never struck me as being about causing annoyance, but about normalisation. RTD even used the word "normalise" in an interview (which got me grinning like crazy!).
Normalising is not intended to cause annoyance, it's the opposite. Normalisation is about making something into something obvious, taken for granted as a given, as commonsense. The fluid nature of sexuality in Torchwood is something that's presented as a given. Any character can move their sexuality without being unduly freaked out. People do not react negatively to each others sexual choices because of the gender (or species!) of the partner. Captain John can get away with being attracted to a poodle and it's a joke rather than a big negative thing (although I think that's wrong but only because how could you be sure the poodle was a consenting adult?). He's the bad guy because he's a bad man, not because he'll shag anything! Sexuality itself is fluid and neutral in the equation. It's never defined as good or bad.
That attitude will be inherently annoying to people with deep seated opinions on the nature of sexuality but by presenting the situation as simple normality (with consequences that stem from basic humanity, rather than the sexuality itself), the show carries an inherently positive message that doesn't set out it's stall as deliberately offensive or challenging or intending to cause overt annoyance.
Annoying people gets an immediate reaction. It's the attitude that you MUST be doing something right because you're obviously poking them with a big stick and getting a response. Normalisation is the antithesis of that attitude. It takes a long time and a lot of patience to turn something considered weird or wrong into something that's just accepted as a fact of life.
It's nowhere near as much fun, but causing annoyance doesn't really bring about change. In fact, it can cause the opposite reaction and make things worse.
Torchwood may be annoying for many many many reasons, but the way it presents sexuality holds so much more promise than simply pissing people off.
IMHO, I think he's wrong to enjoy annoying people on things like this. Whilst annoying people might be enormous fun and worth doing sometimes...
1. Being annoyed by something can be a fear and hate-based reaction. That's not a good thing to deliberately inspire in people.
2. Annoyed people firebomb abortion clinics, they organise lynchings, they beat people up, they over-react, they lash out, they negatively influence others and they lobby the lawmakers to make dumb negative laws that make people's lives worse. Being annoyed is a pro-active reaction.
2. Annoying people does not educate, inform or normalize.
And, you know, I really don't think that's what Torchwood is about. It's never struck me as being about causing annoyance, but about normalisation. RTD even used the word "normalise" in an interview (which got me grinning like crazy!).
Normalising is not intended to cause annoyance, it's the opposite. Normalisation is about making something into something obvious, taken for granted as a given, as commonsense. The fluid nature of sexuality in Torchwood is something that's presented as a given. Any character can move their sexuality without being unduly freaked out. People do not react negatively to each others sexual choices because of the gender (or species!) of the partner. Captain John can get away with being attracted to a poodle and it's a joke rather than a big negative thing (although I think that's wrong but only because how could you be sure the poodle was a consenting adult?). He's the bad guy because he's a bad man, not because he'll shag anything! Sexuality itself is fluid and neutral in the equation. It's never defined as good or bad.
That attitude will be inherently annoying to people with deep seated opinions on the nature of sexuality but by presenting the situation as simple normality (with consequences that stem from basic humanity, rather than the sexuality itself), the show carries an inherently positive message that doesn't set out it's stall as deliberately offensive or challenging or intending to cause overt annoyance.
Annoying people gets an immediate reaction. It's the attitude that you MUST be doing something right because you're obviously poking them with a big stick and getting a response. Normalisation is the antithesis of that attitude. It takes a long time and a lot of patience to turn something considered weird or wrong into something that's just accepted as a fact of life.
It's nowhere near as much fun, but causing annoyance doesn't really bring about change. In fact, it can cause the opposite reaction and make things worse.
Torchwood may be annoying for many many many reasons, but the way it presents sexuality holds so much more promise than simply pissing people off.