(ramble month 15-16)
Quickly quickly because PEOPLE INSIST ON EXISTING IRL:
[5 fave gender-fuckery characters; for upupa-epops]I'm interpreting "gender fuckery" broadly fyi. It's not that the following characters TOTALLY UPEND gender norms but that certain elements of their presentation subvert what one usually would expect. In alphabetical order b/c that's the way I roll:
1) Buffy motherfucking Summers, a.k.a. the thing monsters have nightmares about. For being completely conventionally feminine and simultaneously a warrior woman. I know we all hate Joss and that he is Problematic &c. &c. but still, Buffy Summers exists. Your typical "ditzy" Californian blonde who only cares about shopping and gossiping about boys, whom every other horror story would deem fit to be killed off for her femininity. I am all for unfeminine women on TV, I really am, but -- much like my undying love for Legally Blonde -- it means a lot to me that Buffy didn't have to be masculinised in order to be the hero of the story. Her strength was in silly womanly things like emotions. And regardless of how you feel about the finale being PROBLEMATIC, I think we should all agree that taking an axe to everything the Council of Patriarchs stood for was in itself to be endorsed.
2) Darla. Because of that motherfucking first episode of BtVS where she opens the show in a Catholic schoolgirl uniform which, of course, she uses to lure the innocent male prey. When it comes to using traditional femininity as a weapon in order to eat men Darla is the role model to which we should all aspire. I also have a lot of feelings about her more or less being the boss of the Fanged Four, about how she was really the one who sired Angel and groomed him to be the monster he became (similar to Dru siring and grooming Spike -- lots of monstrous mothers in this verse). Behind every great man is an even greater woman, or so they say. (And yes, I am aware of how the horrific maternal plot over on AtS made Darla the expected sacrificial woman, but this is a happy post.)
3) Eowyn of Rohan. FORMATIVE BITCH. Fearless mofo who dressed herself up in dudes' clothes and went to fight for Minas Tirith in defiance of the gilded cage her family would rather have kept her in. (Some Mulan bullshit right there btw.) And when Witch-King dude got in her way and boasted that no living man could defeat him, Eowyn pulled off her helmet and said BOW DOWN BITCH FOR I AM NO MAN (#hairflip). Word.
4) Kara Thrace. Because gender-swapping the original BSG series' beer-sculling, cussing, womanising, thrill-seeking ~bad boy~ character was a stroke of fabulous. As opposed to 1) and 2) on this list, Kara was an emotional idiot. Her strengths lay mostly in the masculine space-battling domain -- she was pretty much the best fighter pilot in the fleet; meanwhile, her people skills left, er, something to be desired. She was a deep-feeling character, but she'd rather have a boxing match than talk about her feelings. (My woman.)
5) And I'm tentatively putting Katniss Everdeen here, too, after reading this article. (And no, we do not talk about the epilogue.) lbr Katniss's existence is also fuckery in a systemic sense in that it laughs at the idea that a woman-centric action movie franchise cannot sell.
[anne of green gables; for woobloo]I read the books/watched the movies a long, long time ago so bear with my memory. Random non-definitive FEELS:
[5 fave gender-fuckery characters; for upupa-epops]I'm interpreting "gender fuckery" broadly fyi. It's not that the following characters TOTALLY UPEND gender norms but that certain elements of their presentation subvert what one usually would expect. In alphabetical order b/c that's the way I roll:
1) Buffy motherfucking Summers, a.k.a. the thing monsters have nightmares about. For being completely conventionally feminine and simultaneously a warrior woman. I know we all hate Joss and that he is Problematic &c. &c. but still, Buffy Summers exists. Your typical "ditzy" Californian blonde who only cares about shopping and gossiping about boys, whom every other horror story would deem fit to be killed off for her femininity. I am all for unfeminine women on TV, I really am, but -- much like my undying love for Legally Blonde -- it means a lot to me that Buffy didn't have to be masculinised in order to be the hero of the story. Her strength was in silly womanly things like emotions. And regardless of how you feel about the finale being PROBLEMATIC, I think we should all agree that taking an axe to everything the Council of Patriarchs stood for was in itself to be endorsed.
2) Darla. Because of that motherfucking first episode of BtVS where she opens the show in a Catholic schoolgirl uniform which, of course, she uses to lure the innocent male prey. When it comes to using traditional femininity as a weapon in order to eat men Darla is the role model to which we should all aspire. I also have a lot of feelings about her more or less being the boss of the Fanged Four, about how she was really the one who sired Angel and groomed him to be the monster he became (similar to Dru siring and grooming Spike -- lots of monstrous mothers in this verse). Behind every great man is an even greater woman, or so they say. (And yes, I am aware of how the horrific maternal plot over on AtS made Darla the expected sacrificial woman, but this is a happy post.)
3) Eowyn of Rohan. FORMATIVE BITCH. Fearless mofo who dressed herself up in dudes' clothes and went to fight for Minas Tirith in defiance of the gilded cage her family would rather have kept her in. (Some Mulan bullshit right there btw.) And when Witch-King dude got in her way and boasted that no living man could defeat him, Eowyn pulled off her helmet and said BOW DOWN BITCH FOR I AM NO MAN (#hairflip). Word.
4) Kara Thrace. Because gender-swapping the original BSG series' beer-sculling, cussing, womanising, thrill-seeking ~bad boy~ character was a stroke of fabulous. As opposed to 1) and 2) on this list, Kara was an emotional idiot. Her strengths lay mostly in the masculine space-battling domain -- she was pretty much the best fighter pilot in the fleet; meanwhile, her people skills left, er, something to be desired. She was a deep-feeling character, but she'd rather have a boxing match than talk about her feelings. (My woman.)
5) And I'm tentatively putting Katniss Everdeen here, too, after reading this article. (And no, we do not talk about the epilogue.) lbr Katniss's existence is also fuckery in a systemic sense in that it laughs at the idea that a woman-centric action movie franchise cannot sell.
[anne of green gables; for woobloo]I read the books/watched the movies a long, long time ago so bear with my memory. Random non-definitive FEELS:
- CHILDHOOD.
- PERFECT SERIES.
- Formative bitch.
- Neurotic drama queen with a temper = intro post.
- Loved that she was defined/defined herself mostly by her brain.
- BUT also loved that she was super emotional and idealistic. I remember reading some article somewhere about how Hermione Granger is such a rare important female character because she's "allowed to be both super intelligent and emotional". Well, I ::heart:: Hermione, but HAAAAAVE YOU MET ANNE SHIRLEY?
- Although it wasn't a SUPER ANGSTY series, I liked how you could tell that Anne was kind of a sad and messed up person (at least at the start) in that she pretty much held herself together as a kid by escaping into her imagination. I understand you, Anne.
- As a kid I liked that it was a hopeful story insofar as Anne started off as an unwanted misfit batted around from foster home to foster home but finally found a ~place to belong~ with Matthew and Marilla and so was able to come into her own. (LISTEN, THIS SERIES IS LIKE ONE OF TWO THINGS I LIKED AS A CHILD THAT DID NOT FUCK ME UP FOR LIFE. TELL NO ONE.)
- Anne/Gilbert is the OTP. In fact, I am pretty sure they were the origins of my BEST FRIENDS WHO REGRETTABLY FALL IN LOVE kink. Though, they worked out in the end (thank God -- one Jo/Laurie is bad enough).
- Speaking of which, I also always loved that Anne was such an emotional idiot. One of my fave parts of the book/movie is when Marilla tells her that she's so hung up on stories and fantasies that she can't recognise her attachment to real people. I FEEL DATZZZZ.
- Yay @ Anne getting to see through her personal dreams and ambitions and get everything she wanted.
- But also yay that her coming of age arc was in a lot of ways about fantasy v.s. reality and, I guess, learning how to make the two co-exist. As in, life does not always turn out the way you have planned, and sometimes the things you thought you wanted turn out not to be what you really want after all, and that can be cool too.
- I like to think I could reread the series today and still feel exactly the same way.