West Wing--no spoilers
I finally finished watching West Wing, and maybe I will write a big thinky post about it, because I have Opinions. But--what I want to say is--I want to grow up to be CJ Cregg.
I was talking with a coworker about how fans interact with media (we work at a publisher, this is totally normal office conversation). She had asserted it strictly as self-insertion. I argued that (as I read somewhere in lj-land years ago) that may be mostly true for men, who have abundant main characters ripe for self-insertion (Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, James Bond), for women, because of the lack of such ready made heroes, our interaction with media is a lot more complicated.
Then I finished West Wing and realized that sometimes it can be that simple, even for a woman fan with fewer targets. CJ Cregg is awesome. I want to be her.
Also, to everyone who told me to stop watching after Sorkin left cause the show went to shit--I think you are WRONG WRONG WRONG. The show lost focus, definitely, and the first half of season five they had no idea what direction they were going. But this is what I will fight you on: the show stopped being sexist. Sorkin left, and I stopped being annoyed at women only being secrataries or love interests and at how CJ was always punished for her romances when no one else was. Cause after Sorkin left? There are a GODDAMN LOT of women in main roles. There are entire plotlines that are JUST WOMEN TALKING TO EACH OTHER about NATIONAL SECURITY. Every sub group of characters had at least one, if not more, powerful woman in it. There are still some problems, I'm just saying. I will talk strong women in important roles over clever dialogue ANY DAY. I say good riddance to Sorkin.
The Dreamwidth copy of this post has
comments. Comment there or here.
I was talking with a coworker about how fans interact with media (we work at a publisher, this is totally normal office conversation). She had asserted it strictly as self-insertion. I argued that (as I read somewhere in lj-land years ago) that may be mostly true for men, who have abundant main characters ripe for self-insertion (Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, James Bond), for women, because of the lack of such ready made heroes, our interaction with media is a lot more complicated.
Then I finished West Wing and realized that sometimes it can be that simple, even for a woman fan with fewer targets. CJ Cregg is awesome. I want to be her.
Also, to everyone who told me to stop watching after Sorkin left cause the show went to shit--I think you are WRONG WRONG WRONG. The show lost focus, definitely, and the first half of season five they had no idea what direction they were going. But this is what I will fight you on: the show stopped being sexist. Sorkin left, and I stopped being annoyed at women only being secrataries or love interests and at how CJ was always punished for her romances when no one else was. Cause after Sorkin left? There are a GODDAMN LOT of women in main roles. There are entire plotlines that are JUST WOMEN TALKING TO EACH OTHER about NATIONAL SECURITY. Every sub group of characters had at least one, if not more, powerful woman in it. There are still some problems, I'm just saying. I will talk strong women in important roles over clever dialogue ANY DAY. I say good riddance to Sorkin.
The Dreamwidth copy of this post has
comments. Comment there or here.