Garak/Bashir rec; Interspecies Mating Rituals by Kathern Ramage / politics
http://www.trekiverse.org/archive/2000/adult/ds9/InterspeciesCourtshipRituals
The first time I read it, which was actually just months ago, it was hot...and Garak was hot. The beginning? That was smoldering. Well, now that I'm reading it again, I wasn't caught up on the smoldering moment, and this part, this part stood out, in a very bad way;
"You give me every indication that you're eager to pursue a
more intimate relationship, but whenever I approach you, you refuse
me! You flirt--and then you tell me to stop. I only give you what you
desire--and you cry `rape.'"
He sounded genuinely aggrieved, as if he thought _he_ was being cheated
out of something he had a legitimate right to.
...and I think, had I been in Bashir's place, no matter how /otherwise/ attractive Garak is, that would be the point where I would call for security. Then while waiting for Odo to arrive, I would give Garak the shot in the pills he was obviously 'asking for', I'm Just Saying.
Kudos to Ms.Ramage for writing this, and I do enjoy the resolution.
One of the things that had been discussed on an ongoing basis at the Pandagon, was how the Patriarchy affects everyone, every woman, every man. Oh, certainly, a rapist is responsible for his own actions, but he is a product of the patriarchy. Every man who rapes, or who condones it, or who contributes to it by simply accepting but sustaining, the idea that a woman's body doesn't belong to her, that others owes it, and that anyone could be entitled to her if she attracts their attention, that the moral onus is on the woman not go 'get raped' and not for the man who raped her to NOT violate another person.
As a result of the patriarchy, many men have, to varying degrees, held such frightful dehumanizing beliefs. As we live in a patriarchy, these men, are the men in our lives. While there are now, as there always had been, /some/ men who are very enlightened...I don't think, it's realistic, to be able to completely disassociate ourselves from every man who held such beliefs. Oh, if he's a total asshole, vote with your feet and don't go near him, because men aren't diamonds in the rough, if an asshole is who he is, he won't change. If he is, in actuality, a kind, good, person...but somehow still retain these beliefs that he was brought up with, even if it does contradict his moral code...then I think, if he's otherwise worth it and willing to open his eyes, we might as well point out the reality for them. While it'll be nice to have a man who had never been an asshole, in this climate, one that had seen the errors of his way, and repented, is certainly good too. I have yet to read Pride and Prejudice, but from what I heard, "Mr.Darcy" /wasn't/ the gent he was culturally praised at, he was a jerk who felt himself entitled to the woman he picked, and that she should be grateful that he proposed. The thing about Mr.Darcy though, was that he realise that what he did was wrong, seek her forgiveness, and then became a better man than he was. Mr.Darcy wasn't a perfect gent, but he is indeed a gem.
ETA, while on the subject of the Not Romantic Really, see; The Black Hearts 100: The 100 Greatest Works That Get It...frankly, I'm surprised that William Shakespeare only got on that list three times, I think it was only three times, most deservingly for 'The Taming of the Shrew'. In which the hailed villain of the play employs CIA approved tactics before the CIA even stumbled into existence! Yee old sleep deprivation, starvation, mindfuck, this is the sort of work I would hold ye old Bard underwater after nine hundred ninety nine cuts for if I could ever travel back in time.
If one wants to see a movie about taming a shrew's temper, since no human has the right to 'tame' another human being after all, try My Sassy Girl (2001)...make sure that you get the Korean original, be you enjoy it through English dubbing or subtitle, the movie is great because the chemistry between the female and male leads made it believable.
# 93 Every Breath You Take
by The Police
That song that your cousin’s fiance sang when he proposed during a candlelit picnic on the beach? That’s going to be their wedding song? Dude, it’s about fucking STALKING!
ETA2: Speaking of time travel, wouldn't it be hilarious had William Shakespeare ended up on Sigmund Freud? When I was a student in Gay Youth Outreach Program drama class back in highschool, Shakespeare was an interest of mine...it interest me the way the Iraq War does, his plays are a series of wordy trainwrecks. Most of his comedies are actually very sad. I adore Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, but the main couple, whose names I have forgotten now, are really sad. So the groom saw a woman he thought to be his bride kissing another man in a window above him, and instead of being a gent about it, he waited until they got to the altar, to denounce her. The bride's own father called her a whore, I think something was said about her not deserving to live too. It is a TRAGEDY that those two ended up married at the end, when the only happy marriage was the one between Benedick and Beatrice, two people who actually respected one another as equals, who actually /talk/ to each other.
Prospero is a control freak, who, with his magic that he would most probably return to, will turn his country into a frickin police state. Miranda, if not in body, though I think in body she is most probably young as well, is very much like a child bride, it's creepy. Oh yeah, if Romeo and Juliet had not died, Romeo would have abandoned Juliet at the end of the year. At the beginning of the play, Romeo had professed his undying for someone else, and it was for that someone else that he snuck into the ball and fell in lust at first sight with Juliet.
The only Shakespearean play I enjoyed, that is actually good, would be Hamlet, since in this play, everyone was supposed to be fucked up.
The first time I read it, which was actually just months ago, it was hot...and Garak was hot. The beginning? That was smoldering. Well, now that I'm reading it again, I wasn't caught up on the smoldering moment, and this part, this part stood out, in a very bad way;
"You give me every indication that you're eager to pursue a
more intimate relationship, but whenever I approach you, you refuse
me! You flirt--and then you tell me to stop. I only give you what you
desire--and you cry `rape.'"
He sounded genuinely aggrieved, as if he thought _he_ was being cheated
out of something he had a legitimate right to.
...and I think, had I been in Bashir's place, no matter how /otherwise/ attractive Garak is, that would be the point where I would call for security. Then while waiting for Odo to arrive, I would give Garak the shot in the pills he was obviously 'asking for', I'm Just Saying.
Kudos to Ms.Ramage for writing this, and I do enjoy the resolution.
One of the things that had been discussed on an ongoing basis at the Pandagon, was how the Patriarchy affects everyone, every woman, every man. Oh, certainly, a rapist is responsible for his own actions, but he is a product of the patriarchy. Every man who rapes, or who condones it, or who contributes to it by simply accepting but sustaining, the idea that a woman's body doesn't belong to her, that others owes it, and that anyone could be entitled to her if she attracts their attention, that the moral onus is on the woman not go 'get raped' and not for the man who raped her to NOT violate another person.
As a result of the patriarchy, many men have, to varying degrees, held such frightful dehumanizing beliefs. As we live in a patriarchy, these men, are the men in our lives. While there are now, as there always had been, /some/ men who are very enlightened...I don't think, it's realistic, to be able to completely disassociate ourselves from every man who held such beliefs. Oh, if he's a total asshole, vote with your feet and don't go near him, because men aren't diamonds in the rough, if an asshole is who he is, he won't change. If he is, in actuality, a kind, good, person...but somehow still retain these beliefs that he was brought up with, even if it does contradict his moral code...then I think, if he's otherwise worth it and willing to open his eyes, we might as well point out the reality for them. While it'll be nice to have a man who had never been an asshole, in this climate, one that had seen the errors of his way, and repented, is certainly good too. I have yet to read Pride and Prejudice, but from what I heard, "Mr.Darcy" /wasn't/ the gent he was culturally praised at, he was a jerk who felt himself entitled to the woman he picked, and that she should be grateful that he proposed. The thing about Mr.Darcy though, was that he realise that what he did was wrong, seek her forgiveness, and then became a better man than he was. Mr.Darcy wasn't a perfect gent, but he is indeed a gem.
ETA, while on the subject of the Not Romantic Really, see; The Black Hearts 100: The 100 Greatest Works That Get It...frankly, I'm surprised that William Shakespeare only got on that list three times, I think it was only three times, most deservingly for 'The Taming of the Shrew'. In which the hailed villain of the play employs CIA approved tactics before the CIA even stumbled into existence! Yee old sleep deprivation, starvation, mindfuck, this is the sort of work I would hold ye old Bard underwater after nine hundred ninety nine cuts for if I could ever travel back in time.
If one wants to see a movie about taming a shrew's temper, since no human has the right to 'tame' another human being after all, try My Sassy Girl (2001)...make sure that you get the Korean original, be you enjoy it through English dubbing or subtitle, the movie is great because the chemistry between the female and male leads made it believable.
# 93 Every Breath You Take
by The Police
That song that your cousin’s fiance sang when he proposed during a candlelit picnic on the beach? That’s going to be their wedding song? Dude, it’s about fucking STALKING!
ETA2: Speaking of time travel, wouldn't it be hilarious had William Shakespeare ended up on Sigmund Freud? When I was a student in Gay Youth Outreach Program drama class back in highschool, Shakespeare was an interest of mine...it interest me the way the Iraq War does, his plays are a series of wordy trainwrecks. Most of his comedies are actually very sad. I adore Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, but the main couple, whose names I have forgotten now, are really sad. So the groom saw a woman he thought to be his bride kissing another man in a window above him, and instead of being a gent about it, he waited until they got to the altar, to denounce her. The bride's own father called her a whore, I think something was said about her not deserving to live too. It is a TRAGEDY that those two ended up married at the end, when the only happy marriage was the one between Benedick and Beatrice, two people who actually respected one another as equals, who actually /talk/ to each other.
Prospero is a control freak, who, with his magic that he would most probably return to, will turn his country into a frickin police state. Miranda, if not in body, though I think in body she is most probably young as well, is very much like a child bride, it's creepy. Oh yeah, if Romeo and Juliet had not died, Romeo would have abandoned Juliet at the end of the year. At the beginning of the play, Romeo had professed his undying for someone else, and it was for that someone else that he snuck into the ball and fell in lust at first sight with Juliet.
The only Shakespearean play I enjoyed, that is actually good, would be Hamlet, since in this play, everyone was supposed to be fucked up.