Bela Talbot Is Better Than You, Well Maybe Not You, But Better Than She's Given Credit For

[juliet42]

womenlovefest

I was recently asked, "Why do you relate to Bela Talbot?"

I guess I relate to her because of her strength, ability to put on a brave face, refusal to play the victim, and her very matter of fact brutally honest opinions of life. At the same time I think I can relate to how alone she must feel in everything she's going through and the vulnerability, and loss of control that go along with her situation.

Of course there's also the fact that I like snark, femme fatales, and antiheroes...

And frankly I like Bela. I don't care if you think she was poorly written ( the character did have the unfortunate luck of making her debut in a season where a writer's strike cast a shadow upon the whole industry), or a bad person, or just "didn't like her disturbing the dynamic of the show". Everyone's entitled to their own opinion and I enjoyed her episodes, and continue to enjoy them.

And on that note...
colls made this for me for help_japan

Click to view

To me the character we are introduced to as Bela Talbot during season three of Supernatural, was an intriguing character and often the different perspective she provided to the events taking place was a refreshing breath of air. I'm not saying she was flawless or without fault, she wasn't. But she was or should I say is an awesome character nonetheless, and I have to say it kind of saddened me to to hear fandom's general reaction of her. Not only did it make me step away from the show for a while, it also made me question society as a whole. After all unless I had been watching a different show than everyone else it wasn't as if the two main characters, Sam and Dean Winchester, were without their flaws. Not by a long shot.

In a way the reaction to Bela reminds me of a song I recently included in Lilly Kane fan mix, Juliana Hatfield's 'There's Always Another Girl'. you can find the mix at petitemerci, but basically the song talks about society's need for strong, smart, beautiful, or independent women to self-destruct, and how they thrive off it because they need someone they can talk badly about. At the same time society tends to encourage or at least allow and accept less than stellar and even reprehensible behavior from men, it's a double standard. Sadly, fandom, like art, tends to imitate real life. Fandom has double standards for men, and that's what this whole We Love The Women Fandom Hates fest is about isn't it? When involved in fandom people will undoubtedly find fault wherever they can in it's female characters rather than accepting them as human or having human characteristics like they do with male characters, fandom tends to encourage people to ostracize them.

Hopefully over the next week the silent part of fandom will rise up and say " Hey, look we know these characters may not be perfect, but they're pretty freakin' epic in their own way, and it's time we acknowledge that."

...Next up Lilah Morgan, and Darla from ATS (and BTVS)

And over the next week expect fanvids, and fic for Bela. Maybe evena mini friending meme? Some more rambling in the form of meta? Who knows. Some recs, some by me. All inspired by Bela. And to my dear f-list, yes thy will be cut, but it's day 1 so please suffer with me. *hugs*