(no subject)
I have nothing to say about the latest wank that other people have not said. What I will say is that OMG, I hate this wank most of all because it makes me second and third and fourth guess myself. My head spins and I have rage issues and defensiveness issues and I feel attacked (even though no one is attacking me personally) and it's all not of the good. I really wish that some of the sane, rational people who have posted in the past day or so would've posted over the weekend because it would've saved me days of feeling like an awful woman for fanning SPN and then getting all defensive over that fact.
For the record, I do not think that SPN hates women. If I did I wouldn't watch it. And I think the argument comes down to people who find language critically important and people who find context critically important and both points of view are equally valid.
But it's no wonder that this issue always explodes every time it's addressed. I'm not the type to get involved in wank (beyond pointing and laughing from the sidelines) and look at how worked up it made me. This goes to the very heart of many fangirls' issues and so the kneejerk reaction is to attack. We feel an intense need to make sure that everyone in fandom agrees with us and if someone doesn't we have to make them agree. And then livejournal explodes and fandom eats its own young, again.
Human society is so fascinating, especially online where many of the inhibitions of polite society have been cleared away. I think the internet in general (cause fandom isn't the only source or wank. Have you people seen some of those political blogs?) is a great example of why anarchy wouldn't work as a general societal system. I know "polite" and "nice" can be considered bad words, especially when they're being used to describe oneself, but they have their place and they are aboslutely necessary to keep so many disparate parts functioning as a working whole.
This reminds me of a great short story Cory Doctorow wrote called, "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth." It was a great look at the internet and internet society in a time of global crisis. It did a great job at looking at the strengths and weaknesses of online culture, especially as compared to its alternative, RL.
I think the biggest problem with our reaction to SPN is while we know it's not a perfect show, we also know that it's trying. So when it doesn't reach our standards or it does things that ping us the wrong way they really, really ping us. And then everything ricochets and people get worked up and everyone gets defensive and feels attacked (or, at least, the people emotionally invested in the subject matter) and these past few days is the end result.
In sum, I will now quote to you some of what I vomited all over hiyacynth's inbox yesterday:
See, if show was showing us that Dean was always right, or that Dean was on some moral high ground, I'd have a problem. If it showed that the boys were somehow better than the female characters (even the demons) just because they had penises, I'd have a problem. If Dean ever treated a human being the way he treats Ruby, I'd have a problem. You know what show does? When Dean punches Ruby for calling him a 'spineless dick' she kicks his ass, and rightfully so. It shows us that Lilith is about a million times smarter than Azazel (cause monologue-ing ever helps anyone. If he'd just gone straight to the killing the Winchesters never would've been a problem). My only truly uncomfortable moment during the finale was Lilith's reaction to the switch flipping in Sam's head. Thankfully, I can credit my problem with the last bit to Katie Cassidy's generally ineffective acting. A better actor would've made her retreat seem much more tactical and much less, 'Oh noez, the big strong man is unaffected by my mojo.'
And the fact that show has, over the entire season, shown women who are in unfortunate circumstances does not make the show anti-woman, especially when these are the sorts of circumstances that women are actually in. Mothers of young children can feel like their kids are sucking their lives away, women by and large are more likely to have Munchausen's by Proxy, housewives are likely to feel unsatisfied and underappreciated and hence easily persuaded into what they think is a phony coven just for a little excitement. Yeah, the fact that show has chosen to show people who are trapped in unfortunate circumstances, sometimes beyond their control, sometimes not, to highlight Dean'n'Sam's situation and that those people are by and large women could be seen as offensive, if it weren't realistic. In my opinion, show is saying, 'wow, look at their situations, don't they suck in a similar manner to Dean selling his soul? let us highlight Sam'n'Dean's pain through use of these real world situations' I'd actually much rather see more realistic interpretations than what we see on other shows where men and women are coded as equal but there's an underpinning of men are more equal than women unless you're a very special kind of woman (like Sydney Bristow, or Buffy Summers, or Kate from Lost).
It's a shame that Samantha Ferris decided to not do the finale, it might have eased some troubled minds. But, either way, over three seasons show has shown that the divide in Dean's mind isn't about male/female it's about hunter/civilian and good/evil. Yes, I know language matters, I'm a writer and a law student, I kind of got the memo, but with a character whose vocabulary has not been augmented by years of serious education and a need to find the exact word to describe a situation/feeling/character, you do kind of have to look at actions more than words.
And, of course, your mileage may vary and your opinions may differ. For many people, people whose opinions I truly respect (hence the existential kittens I described at the top of my post) the use of the word, 'bitch' in any context is offensive. That word doesn't offend me, in and of itself, so my reaction is different.
Aaaah, the joys of the internetz. Sometimes I wonder why I love them so when they drive me so crazy.
And I totally did not mean to post the whole screed. I got a little carried away. ;-)
What I really wanted to talk about was how wonderfully awesome Prince Caspian is. People, the Narnia movies make me so ridiculously happy. I can point at them and say, "Yes, see, that's how you adapt books. You keep the spirit of the story alive while telling a story that excells in a movie format." I saw it again last night and I cried and cried, mostly because for the 2+ hours that I was in the theater I felt as if I was in Narnia and when the credits rolled on the screen I had to leave, again.
I wish I had a coherent reaction to put up, I really do. Right now it pretty much consists of, 'OMG, that scene, and then the one after it, and then the one after that!' and 'I love you all so much I'm going to burst!' and 'AWESOME topped with AWESOME covered in AWESOME-sauce!'
So, yes, I highly approve. Oh boy, do I.
*happy sighs*
For the record, I do not think that SPN hates women. If I did I wouldn't watch it. And I think the argument comes down to people who find language critically important and people who find context critically important and both points of view are equally valid.
But it's no wonder that this issue always explodes every time it's addressed. I'm not the type to get involved in wank (beyond pointing and laughing from the sidelines) and look at how worked up it made me. This goes to the very heart of many fangirls' issues and so the kneejerk reaction is to attack. We feel an intense need to make sure that everyone in fandom agrees with us and if someone doesn't we have to make them agree. And then livejournal explodes and fandom eats its own young, again.
Human society is so fascinating, especially online where many of the inhibitions of polite society have been cleared away. I think the internet in general (cause fandom isn't the only source or wank. Have you people seen some of those political blogs?) is a great example of why anarchy wouldn't work as a general societal system. I know "polite" and "nice" can be considered bad words, especially when they're being used to describe oneself, but they have their place and they are aboslutely necessary to keep so many disparate parts functioning as a working whole.
This reminds me of a great short story Cory Doctorow wrote called, "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth." It was a great look at the internet and internet society in a time of global crisis. It did a great job at looking at the strengths and weaknesses of online culture, especially as compared to its alternative, RL.
I think the biggest problem with our reaction to SPN is while we know it's not a perfect show, we also know that it's trying. So when it doesn't reach our standards or it does things that ping us the wrong way they really, really ping us. And then everything ricochets and people get worked up and everyone gets defensive and feels attacked (or, at least, the people emotionally invested in the subject matter) and these past few days is the end result.
In sum, I will now quote to you some of what I vomited all over hiyacynth's inbox yesterday:
See, if show was showing us that Dean was always right, or that Dean was on some moral high ground, I'd have a problem. If it showed that the boys were somehow better than the female characters (even the demons) just because they had penises, I'd have a problem. If Dean ever treated a human being the way he treats Ruby, I'd have a problem. You know what show does? When Dean punches Ruby for calling him a 'spineless dick' she kicks his ass, and rightfully so. It shows us that Lilith is about a million times smarter than Azazel (cause monologue-ing ever helps anyone. If he'd just gone straight to the killing the Winchesters never would've been a problem). My only truly uncomfortable moment during the finale was Lilith's reaction to the switch flipping in Sam's head. Thankfully, I can credit my problem with the last bit to Katie Cassidy's generally ineffective acting. A better actor would've made her retreat seem much more tactical and much less, 'Oh noez, the big strong man is unaffected by my mojo.'
And the fact that show has, over the entire season, shown women who are in unfortunate circumstances does not make the show anti-woman, especially when these are the sorts of circumstances that women are actually in. Mothers of young children can feel like their kids are sucking their lives away, women by and large are more likely to have Munchausen's by Proxy, housewives are likely to feel unsatisfied and underappreciated and hence easily persuaded into what they think is a phony coven just for a little excitement. Yeah, the fact that show has chosen to show people who are trapped in unfortunate circumstances, sometimes beyond their control, sometimes not, to highlight Dean'n'Sam's situation and that those people are by and large women could be seen as offensive, if it weren't realistic. In my opinion, show is saying, 'wow, look at their situations, don't they suck in a similar manner to Dean selling his soul? let us highlight Sam'n'Dean's pain through use of these real world situations' I'd actually much rather see more realistic interpretations than what we see on other shows where men and women are coded as equal but there's an underpinning of men are more equal than women unless you're a very special kind of woman (like Sydney Bristow, or Buffy Summers, or Kate from Lost).
It's a shame that Samantha Ferris decided to not do the finale, it might have eased some troubled minds. But, either way, over three seasons show has shown that the divide in Dean's mind isn't about male/female it's about hunter/civilian and good/evil. Yes, I know language matters, I'm a writer and a law student, I kind of got the memo, but with a character whose vocabulary has not been augmented by years of serious education and a need to find the exact word to describe a situation/feeling/character, you do kind of have to look at actions more than words.
And, of course, your mileage may vary and your opinions may differ. For many people, people whose opinions I truly respect (hence the existential kittens I described at the top of my post) the use of the word, 'bitch' in any context is offensive. That word doesn't offend me, in and of itself, so my reaction is different.
Aaaah, the joys of the internetz. Sometimes I wonder why I love them so when they drive me so crazy.
And I totally did not mean to post the whole screed. I got a little carried away. ;-)
What I really wanted to talk about was how wonderfully awesome Prince Caspian is. People, the Narnia movies make me so ridiculously happy. I can point at them and say, "Yes, see, that's how you adapt books. You keep the spirit of the story alive while telling a story that excells in a movie format." I saw it again last night and I cried and cried, mostly because for the 2+ hours that I was in the theater I felt as if I was in Narnia and when the credits rolled on the screen I had to leave, again.
I wish I had a coherent reaction to put up, I really do. Right now it pretty much consists of, 'OMG, that scene, and then the one after it, and then the one after that!' and 'I love you all so much I'm going to burst!' and 'AWESOME topped with AWESOME covered in AWESOME-sauce!'
So, yes, I highly approve. Oh boy, do I.
*happy sighs*