Almost like homework for two v. different classes
Moment of Alexanderness for the evening: I was applying an Icy Hot knockoff (which sometimes works and sometimes just feels like burning) to my back, and felt something, and immediately thought it was part of my spine, and then said to myself, no, your spine isn't at your back. It's at your core, supporting you. That's a knot.
I saw a link about Joss Whedon getting an award for creating strong female characters, and it's true that he does. He creates strong, passionate, capable, loving, powerful, realistic, wonderful female characters. (Not always all of those at once.) However:
1.) He (or at least the writers in general) treats them like shit. SO many crappy things happen to them. (Well, and also Xander.) I'm not giving any spoilers here, and please don't in the comments, as many on my flist haven't seen all of Whedon's stuff and may yet do so, but damn do they frequently get the short end of the stick. (Also, the females tend to be the innocent victims more often. The males generally take actions that lead to the events of suckitude, while the females are often passive, unfortunate bystanders. I don't know what the exact implications of this are, but I think it's worth noting.)
2.) The more notably powerful females tend to have their powers come from outside sources, rather than having innate powers or developing the powers themselves. Furthermore, they often have no choice in whether or not they'll receive these powers. Buffy, the most obvious one, got her powers as sort of a transfer from the Slayer who came before her, and tracing that line back to the First Slayer shows that Slayerhood was forced upon her by three men. Note also that Buffy's Watchers, who trained her and tested her, were all male: the dude in the original movie, Giles, and Wesley. Quentin Travers, head of the Watchers' Council and general threatener of Buffy and Giles, is also a guy. Faith's powers traveled the same path. Cordelia got her link to the Powers That Be through Doyle, and later, spoilerier events involved Skip, a male demon. Anya became a vengeance demon by the power of D'Hoffrn, who's male. (Okay, I'm just guessing here that Skip and D'Hoffryn are male, but they appear male and are played by male actors, and the gender is unspecified, so they essentially are.) Dawn's very existance, along with the fact that she had a level of supernatural power, was due to the actions of male monks. River was quite intelligent, graceful, and empathic to begin with, but it was painful experimentation that enhanced these traits to a more superhuman level.
Man, that felt all nice and vaguely academic. Only vaguely, because it's late and I'm tired and much of my support is still just floating around in my head. But still nice. Worth being really tired at work tomorrow, I hope. Time to sleep.
I saw a link about Joss Whedon getting an award for creating strong female characters, and it's true that he does. He creates strong, passionate, capable, loving, powerful, realistic, wonderful female characters. (Not always all of those at once.) However:
1.) He (or at least the writers in general) treats them like shit. SO many crappy things happen to them. (Well, and also Xander.) I'm not giving any spoilers here, and please don't in the comments, as many on my flist haven't seen all of Whedon's stuff and may yet do so, but damn do they frequently get the short end of the stick. (Also, the females tend to be the innocent victims more often. The males generally take actions that lead to the events of suckitude, while the females are often passive, unfortunate bystanders. I don't know what the exact implications of this are, but I think it's worth noting.)
2.) The more notably powerful females tend to have their powers come from outside sources, rather than having innate powers or developing the powers themselves. Furthermore, they often have no choice in whether or not they'll receive these powers. Buffy, the most obvious one, got her powers as sort of a transfer from the Slayer who came before her, and tracing that line back to the First Slayer shows that Slayerhood was forced upon her by three men. Note also that Buffy's Watchers, who trained her and tested her, were all male: the dude in the original movie, Giles, and Wesley. Quentin Travers, head of the Watchers' Council and general threatener of Buffy and Giles, is also a guy. Faith's powers traveled the same path. Cordelia got her link to the Powers That Be through Doyle, and later, spoilerier events involved Skip, a male demon. Anya became a vengeance demon by the power of D'Hoffrn, who's male. (Okay, I'm just guessing here that Skip and D'Hoffryn are male, but they appear male and are played by male actors, and the gender is unspecified, so they essentially are.) Dawn's very existance, along with the fact that she had a level of supernatural power, was due to the actions of male monks. River was quite intelligent, graceful, and empathic to begin with, but it was painful experimentation that enhanced these traits to a more superhuman level.
Man, that felt all nice and vaguely academic. Only vaguely, because it's late and I'm tired and much of my support is still just floating around in my head. But still nice. Worth being really tired at work tomorrow, I hope. Time to sleep.