obligatory SGA meta crankiness
Am I supposed to be saying anything about the somewhat random queering of SGA characters by Mallozzi? Especially because at least one of them is active duty US military personnel?
Obviously, I'm annoyed by it. Not just because it's another "we don't need no stinkin' military advisor" moment, but also reduces yet another female character to prop status. Even worse, Very Special Episode prop status.
Vega was such a frustrating character -- she got all of this buildup, all of those announcements with casting and name-changing and episode appearances, but all she really was was a redshirt the way Major Leonard, Lieutenants Negley and Morrison, and every other military member apart from Lorne has been. It was just that her red shirt had tits underneath, the way Cadman's would have if all had gone according to plan. All of that heavy promotion was just a cheap-ass way of making us 'care' for the redshirt when she met her inevitable doom -- you know, so we'd have more vested in her than, say, Bacon Dude and his buddy from 'The Storm.'
The posthumous lesbianizing is just adding insult to injury. I'm not annoyed that they made Vega lesbian. I'm annoyed that they made her a stupid lesbian. There are thousands of gays and lesbians serving in the US military, all of them by necessity doing it quietly. Hitting on a high-ranking individual (of undetermined orientation) at your fishbowl of a place of employ is not doing it quietly. In theory, Alicia Vega is in the Stargate Program because she can sustain a very delicate security clearance. Which assumes that she can keep a secret. Say, that there are aliens. That same circumspection would also necessarily extend to her keeping her illegal sexual orientation below the radar by not asking the probably-straight CMO out on a date in a place where there is no privacy.**
All of which means that Vega's not only a token lesbian and military redshirt, she's also indiscreet and self-sabotaging. What was the point of this activity, Mallozzi? Female empowerment or standing up for gay rights?
As for the other silent gay in Atlantis... I think the popular odds favor either Zelenka or Lorne, mostly because they're the only two we'd be able to identify who are without canonical heterosexual relationships and they both fumbled around Elizabeth. I'd actually be fine with either -- and I'd suspect it would be Lorne because he's prettier and an artist and the SGA writers have never met a stereotype they didn't adhere to -- so long as it was handled with some modicum of common sense. Like, say, it not being a factor in his professional conduct.
(I have 'canonical' gays in my Atlantis battalion. One's got a name and a tag on my delicious page. You won't realize it because it's never come up because he's not an idiot.)
Personally, I plan on ignoring all of Mallozzi's statement. Vega's orientation will remain unknown and irrelevant; she will be assumed to be heterosexual because that's the default in the US military. Her 'outing' will be no more canonical to me than the supposed confirmation of Sam/Jack that was written in to 'Trio.'
** Sheppard may not personally care who or what Vega is orgasming with, but if Vega dates another woman in full view of all other military personnel, he's not going to have much of a choice if he wants to keep his own job. If you think the sensitivity of Atlantis means they'll keep Vega (or anyone else in uniform) regardless of sexual orientation, go talk to the surprisingly high number of homosexual servicemen working as Arabic translators who got booted despite the military being desperately short of Arabic translators. Military bureaucracy, like every other government agency everywhere, is not known for prizing common sense above all else and the rules are still the rules until they are no longer the rules.
Obviously, I'm annoyed by it. Not just because it's another "we don't need no stinkin' military advisor" moment, but also reduces yet another female character to prop status. Even worse, Very Special Episode prop status.
Vega was such a frustrating character -- she got all of this buildup, all of those announcements with casting and name-changing and episode appearances, but all she really was was a redshirt the way Major Leonard, Lieutenants Negley and Morrison, and every other military member apart from Lorne has been. It was just that her red shirt had tits underneath, the way Cadman's would have if all had gone according to plan. All of that heavy promotion was just a cheap-ass way of making us 'care' for the redshirt when she met her inevitable doom -- you know, so we'd have more vested in her than, say, Bacon Dude and his buddy from 'The Storm.'
The posthumous lesbianizing is just adding insult to injury. I'm not annoyed that they made Vega lesbian. I'm annoyed that they made her a stupid lesbian. There are thousands of gays and lesbians serving in the US military, all of them by necessity doing it quietly. Hitting on a high-ranking individual (of undetermined orientation) at your fishbowl of a place of employ is not doing it quietly. In theory, Alicia Vega is in the Stargate Program because she can sustain a very delicate security clearance. Which assumes that she can keep a secret. Say, that there are aliens. That same circumspection would also necessarily extend to her keeping her illegal sexual orientation below the radar by not asking the probably-straight CMO out on a date in a place where there is no privacy.**
All of which means that Vega's not only a token lesbian and military redshirt, she's also indiscreet and self-sabotaging. What was the point of this activity, Mallozzi? Female empowerment or standing up for gay rights?
As for the other silent gay in Atlantis... I think the popular odds favor either Zelenka or Lorne, mostly because they're the only two we'd be able to identify who are without canonical heterosexual relationships and they both fumbled around Elizabeth. I'd actually be fine with either -- and I'd suspect it would be Lorne because he's prettier and an artist and the SGA writers have never met a stereotype they didn't adhere to -- so long as it was handled with some modicum of common sense. Like, say, it not being a factor in his professional conduct.
(I have 'canonical' gays in my Atlantis battalion. One's got a name and a tag on my delicious page. You won't realize it because it's never come up because he's not an idiot.)
Personally, I plan on ignoring all of Mallozzi's statement. Vega's orientation will remain unknown and irrelevant; she will be assumed to be heterosexual because that's the default in the US military. Her 'outing' will be no more canonical to me than the supposed confirmation of Sam/Jack that was written in to 'Trio.'
** Sheppard may not personally care who or what Vega is orgasming with, but if Vega dates another woman in full view of all other military personnel, he's not going to have much of a choice if he wants to keep his own job. If you think the sensitivity of Atlantis means they'll keep Vega (or anyone else in uniform) regardless of sexual orientation, go talk to the surprisingly high number of homosexual servicemen working as Arabic translators who got booted despite the military being desperately short of Arabic translators. Military bureaucracy, like every other government agency everywhere, is not known for prizing common sense above all else and the rules are still the rules until they are no longer the rules.