Kevin Grazier Can Blow Me
Found out about this article via greycoupon.
Short version for those who don't want to click: Bawww! Fans hated the finale. That's cuz they just didn't GET it. They didn't get it cuz they're GURLZ SHIPPERS!
Ooooh, boy. You know, I thought I was over this. But apparently not. Guys, dismissing someone's opinion by calling them a "shipper" is old-school sexism at its finest. And by "old-school," I don't mean "old-school fandom," I mean third fucking grade.
I find this particularly hilarious? particularly something coming from Kevin Gravier, who used to hang out in the Kara/Lee shipper thread all the time, sucking up to the posters and trying to get a date. Er, I mean, I heard that from a friend. A friend who used to lurk in the K/L shipper thread occasionally for the lulz. Because goodness knows I would never do such a thing.
So many problems with the attitude expressed here. First, I got really sick of seeing posts right after the finale that outright dismissed anyone who took issue with any aspect of it as a "shipper." I saw plenty of this from both male and female fans, though it bothered me more coming from men. Because a "shipper" is a fan who's invested in the romantic relationships on the show, stereotypically a female fan. This attitude assumes that relationships are a less worthy aspect of the show to invest in. Yup, even though the writers purposefully develop them and tease them and promote them and devote lots of story time to them 'till some people scream, you're not supposed to care about them! And if you do you're kinda pathetic, and not worth being taken seriously.
I mean, let's think about that for a second. I've been pretty open about the fact that one of the biggest sources of disappointment with the finale for me was the Opera House "resolution." I mean, that was beyond lame and into 'not even trying.' Though to be honest, I probably would have forgiven any amount of cheesiness if the three women who'd been having the Opera House visions for over a season had had anything important to do whatsoever, rather than the whole thing coming down to Baltar and Cavil's existential crises and Chief throttling Tory. [And Kara being awesome, to be completely fair. But when is she not? *g*]
But for all my complaining, I've never once encountered anyone saying that I was wrong to expect more, that just because the writers played up the Opera House more and more over the course of the entire show doesn't mean they had any narrative obligation to pay off the expectations they raised, and if I think otherwise then I'm a whiny entitled fanbrat. See where I'm going with this? I don't think that just because shippers are invested in the part of the show that happens to have to do with human relationships***, that they're automatically less intelligent, less worthy fans, or less - entitled is obviously the wrong word, 'cause just try cashing that check, but entitled to want a decent payoff to the expectations the narrative has raised. In other words, to want an aspect of the story that they care about to be told well.
I mean, I personally was not much of a Kara/Lee fan at all by the end there, but I was always a fan of the show being good. And I do think the way that relationship was resolved was one of the lamest things in a final season full of lame. I am fine with it ending sad, just not with it ending so LAME, with pigeons and tables of "we've come full circle, because of this thing I just made up five minutes ago" retcon, and totally unsatisfying on any level final conversations. So I am disappointed that that's an aspect of the show that will always be a little bit tainted for me.
--> Side note, since Grazier alluded to some giant K/L vs K/S shipper catfight that, like most ridiculous things, mostly just exists on the Skiffy boards, though it occasionally rears its head here too: am I the only one who thinks that it should have been possible for both relationships to get a satisfactory ending? Obviously they couldn't both end up together since this isn't Big Love, but since no one was getting a happy ending anyway, I don't view it as a zero-sum game. I think they were both important parts of the show, and the show as a whole would have been better had they both had decent resolutions. CALL ME CRAZY.
Anyway, I strongly oppose the idea that this one aspect of the show is less worthy of investment or less deserving of decent writing than any other, and I particularly resent it because I suspect it's the fact that relationships are viewed as a "feminine" interest that furthers this attitude. I've also seen the anti-shipper bias extended to female character fans as a group, too. As in "I would take all these criticisms of BSG gender-fail seriously, but since it's all coming from shippers and Kara and Roslin fangirls, I don't have to." Like, I'm actually pretty sure I could find you someone who doesn't ship anyone and couldn't care less about either Kara or Laura Roslin to critique the gender-fail for you because it was that bad, but still, it's a qualifier that already dismisses a huge chunk of the female audience; the very people who are most apt to be concerned about sexism in the first place. (And I saw this all over the place, so this is definitely not a reaction to any one particular post.)
*** And let's also deal with the assumption that if someone (some GIRL) cares about the romantic relationships on the show, that's all she could possibly have room for in her pretty little head, because there's nothing problematic about that whatsoever. It's apparently not even conceivable that a Kara/Lee shipper could be disappointed about their ending but also let down by the mythology fail and science fail (yeah, take that, "science" "adviser") and morality fail (forgive genocide! pump Boomer full of holes! Whoo!) and basic logic fail and gender fail and the overall anti-intellectual and colonialist overtones of the ending?? (Or, you know, two or three of those things? *g*) I mean, I'm one of those Oppressors! evil Kara/Sam shippers, and while I may well be forgetting someone, contrary to what Grazier says I don't think I've encountered any other shippers who were upset about that aspect of the finale. I definitely wasn't. <3 It's far and away my favorite scene in Daybreak, and probably would be even if the rest didn't suck so hard. *g* Upset because Kara disappeared in the most vapid and meaningless way conceivable and that was a helluvan end for her character*, or because Sam got nonsensically hybridized and then sent into the sun for the most retarded reason ever? Sure, yeah, lots of us were upset about those things! Not to mention the aforementioned mythology fail and science fail and morality fail and basic logic fail and gender fail and the overall anti-intellectual and colonialist overtones of the ending. But specifically by the resolution of Kara and Sam's relationship, no, I think most of us were quite pleased by that!
*NB: I don't personally agree with all the finale/4.5 criticisms I just mentioned. I definitely don't think it was *that bad.* I'm just taking issue with the idea that all criticism of the finale is about shipping.
So, um. Yeah. Been holding that in for a while. And hey, obviously shipping can get awfully damn ridiculous (and occasionally fun to mock) when taken to extremes, just like every other part of fandom, but I also think there's a pretty clear sexist aspect to stuff like Grazier's anti-shipper rant. And frak that. Seriously.
*As I've said before, I've fanwanked my way (with help from my flist!) into being 99% okay with this, but as presented onscreen I maintain the actual last-Kara-scene was pretty pathetic. I love how Grazier thinks he can just site a bunch of examples to prove this is brilliant, or something. Dude, copying the formula does not make it good! There's a reason everyone loves Frodo's ending and Sheridan's ending, etc, and 90% of fandom hated the Poof. Hint: good writing is still important!
Short version for those who don't want to click: Bawww! Fans hated the finale. That's cuz they just didn't GET it. They didn't get it cuz they're GURLZ SHIPPERS!
Ooooh, boy. You know, I thought I was over this. But apparently not. Guys, dismissing someone's opinion by calling them a "shipper" is old-school sexism at its finest. And by "old-school," I don't mean "old-school fandom," I mean third fucking grade.
I find this particularly hilarious? particularly something coming from Kevin Gravier, who used to hang out in the Kara/Lee shipper thread all the time, sucking up to the posters and trying to get a date. Er, I mean, I heard that from a friend. A friend who used to lurk in the K/L shipper thread occasionally for the lulz. Because goodness knows I would never do such a thing.
So many problems with the attitude expressed here. First, I got really sick of seeing posts right after the finale that outright dismissed anyone who took issue with any aspect of it as a "shipper." I saw plenty of this from both male and female fans, though it bothered me more coming from men. Because a "shipper" is a fan who's invested in the romantic relationships on the show, stereotypically a female fan. This attitude assumes that relationships are a less worthy aspect of the show to invest in. Yup, even though the writers purposefully develop them and tease them and promote them and devote lots of story time to them 'till some people scream, you're not supposed to care about them! And if you do you're kinda pathetic, and not worth being taken seriously.
I mean, let's think about that for a second. I've been pretty open about the fact that one of the biggest sources of disappointment with the finale for me was the Opera House "resolution." I mean, that was beyond lame and into 'not even trying.' Though to be honest, I probably would have forgiven any amount of cheesiness if the three women who'd been having the Opera House visions for over a season had had anything important to do whatsoever, rather than the whole thing coming down to Baltar and Cavil's existential crises and Chief throttling Tory. [And Kara being awesome, to be completely fair. But when is she not? *g*]
But for all my complaining, I've never once encountered anyone saying that I was wrong to expect more, that just because the writers played up the Opera House more and more over the course of the entire show doesn't mean they had any narrative obligation to pay off the expectations they raised, and if I think otherwise then I'm a whiny entitled fanbrat. See where I'm going with this? I don't think that just because shippers are invested in the part of the show that happens to have to do with human relationships***, that they're automatically less intelligent, less worthy fans, or less - entitled is obviously the wrong word, 'cause just try cashing that check, but entitled to want a decent payoff to the expectations the narrative has raised. In other words, to want an aspect of the story that they care about to be told well.
I mean, I personally was not much of a Kara/Lee fan at all by the end there, but I was always a fan of the show being good. And I do think the way that relationship was resolved was one of the lamest things in a final season full of lame. I am fine with it ending sad, just not with it ending so LAME, with pigeons and tables of "we've come full circle, because of this thing I just made up five minutes ago" retcon, and totally unsatisfying on any level final conversations. So I am disappointed that that's an aspect of the show that will always be a little bit tainted for me.
--> Side note, since Grazier alluded to some giant K/L vs K/S shipper catfight that, like most ridiculous things, mostly just exists on the Skiffy boards, though it occasionally rears its head here too: am I the only one who thinks that it should have been possible for both relationships to get a satisfactory ending? Obviously they couldn't both end up together since this isn't Big Love, but since no one was getting a happy ending anyway, I don't view it as a zero-sum game. I think they were both important parts of the show, and the show as a whole would have been better had they both had decent resolutions. CALL ME CRAZY.
Anyway, I strongly oppose the idea that this one aspect of the show is less worthy of investment or less deserving of decent writing than any other, and I particularly resent it because I suspect it's the fact that relationships are viewed as a "feminine" interest that furthers this attitude. I've also seen the anti-shipper bias extended to female character fans as a group, too. As in "I would take all these criticisms of BSG gender-fail seriously, but since it's all coming from shippers and Kara and Roslin fangirls, I don't have to." Like, I'm actually pretty sure I could find you someone who doesn't ship anyone and couldn't care less about either Kara or Laura Roslin to critique the gender-fail for you because it was that bad, but still, it's a qualifier that already dismisses a huge chunk of the female audience; the very people who are most apt to be concerned about sexism in the first place. (And I saw this all over the place, so this is definitely not a reaction to any one particular post.)
*** And let's also deal with the assumption that if someone (some GIRL) cares about the romantic relationships on the show, that's all she could possibly have room for in her pretty little head, because there's nothing problematic about that whatsoever. It's apparently not even conceivable that a Kara/Lee shipper could be disappointed about their ending but also let down by the mythology fail and science fail (yeah, take that, "science" "adviser") and morality fail (forgive genocide! pump Boomer full of holes! Whoo!) and basic logic fail and gender fail and the overall anti-intellectual and colonialist overtones of the ending?? (Or, you know, two or three of those things? *g*) I mean, I'm one of those Oppressors! evil Kara/Sam shippers, and while I may well be forgetting someone, contrary to what Grazier says I don't think I've encountered any other shippers who were upset about that aspect of the finale. I definitely wasn't. <3 It's far and away my favorite scene in Daybreak, and probably would be even if the rest didn't suck so hard. *g* Upset because Kara disappeared in the most vapid and meaningless way conceivable and that was a helluvan end for her character*, or because Sam got nonsensically hybridized and then sent into the sun for the most retarded reason ever? Sure, yeah, lots of us were upset about those things! Not to mention the aforementioned mythology fail and science fail and morality fail and basic logic fail and gender fail and the overall anti-intellectual and colonialist overtones of the ending. But specifically by the resolution of Kara and Sam's relationship, no, I think most of us were quite pleased by that!
*NB: I don't personally agree with all the finale/4.5 criticisms I just mentioned. I definitely don't think it was *that bad.* I'm just taking issue with the idea that all criticism of the finale is about shipping.
So, um. Yeah. Been holding that in for a while. And hey, obviously shipping can get awfully damn ridiculous (and occasionally fun to mock) when taken to extremes, just like every other part of fandom, but I also think there's a pretty clear sexist aspect to stuff like Grazier's anti-shipper rant. And frak that. Seriously.
*As I've said before, I've fanwanked my way (with help from my flist!) into being 99% okay with this, but as presented onscreen I maintain the actual last-Kara-scene was pretty pathetic. I love how Grazier thinks he can just site a bunch of examples to prove this is brilliant, or something. Dude, copying the formula does not make it good! There's a reason everyone loves Frodo's ending and Sheridan's ending, etc, and 90% of fandom hated the Poof. Hint: good writing is still important!