Concerts and kerfluffles.
Sounds like the name of a band!
Tonight is the Duran Duran concert, which I had hoped to attend, but with the house and all, I just don't want to spend the fifty bucks.
Yesterday, the radio station I listen to was giving away a big Duran Duran prize pack, which included stuff like front-row seats and meeting the band and whatever. But I am well past the age when I would have thought being sweated on by Simon LeBon was a good thing, and besides . . . Roger was always my favorite. I called up the station and was the right number caller, so I asked them if I could just have the tickets and they could give the other stuff to someone else, but they pretty much laughed in my face.
Oh, well, the woman who won instead was a true fan who said she'd been dreaming of this since 1982, so I was glad that she had the opportunity.
I am consoling myself by playing all my Duran Duran albums on repeat.
Also, it is surprisingly chilly in my office today . . . especially for the end of May.
**************
Hm. So, apparently there is a kerfluffle currently occurring in the world of SPN fandom . . . something about misogyny and racism?
I dunno. Has it occurred to anyone that the writers are actually pushing the boundaries of acceptable language in broadcast television, rather than trying to make a political statement? It wasn't that long ago that nobody could say "hell" during primetime, and the first time I heard Buffy curse was shocking. OOf course the TV shows currently airing aren't going to just stop with a few tame damns and hells and bitches.
Granted, I'm starting out from the POV of being a Deangirl. There, disclaimer over, in case the three people who read this journal haven't figured it out already. And maybe I relate to him a little too strongly, in that I feel like I see similar characteristics in myself.
Like Dean, I don't have a terribly long fuse: I do not suffer fools gladly, nor indeed at all, and unfortunately, the combination of a smart mouth and a short temper often means that I instinctively lob the most hurtful insults possible at a target. I'm not especially proud of myself for that, but it's true . . . if I'm infuriated at a female, I'll refer to her as a bitch or a slut, even if those insults HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MATTER AT HAND.
Why wouldn't Dean do the same? Especially since he would have learned to do so in the sort of all-male company of hunters and his ex-military father? When I was growing up, family picnics *regularly* included at least an hour of racist and sexist jokes: it was how my father and my grandfather and my mother's brothers bonded. It was how their sons learned to interact with their uncles . . . and attitudes learned that young are difficult ( though not impossible ) to overcome.
How much more deeply was Dean indoctrinated, inculcated as he was with the desire to please his father? Sure, I bet John would have knocked him upside the head on occasion, if Dean said something really outrageous in front of him, but the everyday use of profanity and blasphemy and the attitudes of the people with whom they *did* interact would have had a far more lasting effect than a swat across the mouth for use of politically incorrect terminology. And that's not even getting into John's own beliefs, and how deeply they would have affected his sons, no matter how much of an absentee father he might have been.
That said, I do think it would be appropriate for someone to call Dean on his words. My dad was quick to correct my brother when he tried out a few choice epithets! Bobby would be the obvious choice, but I haven't noticed that kind of language being used around anyone except Sam-- which might mean that the word choices are deliberate on the part of the writers, and maybe we should wait and see where they're going with all this.
Although I still think that the most likely scenario is simply that the writers were too busy trying to cram an entire season into sixteen episodes, and their shorthand for the dichotomy of an emotional, frightened Dean was to present what they might have thought was a more masculine, aggressive public face, exemplified by the increased use of derogatory insults to, let's face it, TWO CHARACTERS WHO WERE DESIGNED TO PISS OFF EVERYONE.
The current outcry against the so-called misogyny and racism present in the show seems to me to be far too close to the battle being waged by the religious right against the same-sex storyline on Another World. What's the difference? It's just characters that somebody, somewhere, doesn't like, doing things that particular viewer doesn't approve of.
See, this is why I don't do meta . . . I started out saying one thing, and wandered off on kind of a tangent. Oh, well, it's just my vague thoughts and feelings, not a debate or anything.
It will be interesting to see where this kerfluffle goes in the next few weeks.
Tonight is the Duran Duran concert, which I had hoped to attend, but with the house and all, I just don't want to spend the fifty bucks.
Yesterday, the radio station I listen to was giving away a big Duran Duran prize pack, which included stuff like front-row seats and meeting the band and whatever. But I am well past the age when I would have thought being sweated on by Simon LeBon was a good thing, and besides . . . Roger was always my favorite. I called up the station and was the right number caller, so I asked them if I could just have the tickets and they could give the other stuff to someone else, but they pretty much laughed in my face.
Oh, well, the woman who won instead was a true fan who said she'd been dreaming of this since 1982, so I was glad that she had the opportunity.
I am consoling myself by playing all my Duran Duran albums on repeat.
Also, it is surprisingly chilly in my office today . . . especially for the end of May.
**************
Hm. So, apparently there is a kerfluffle currently occurring in the world of SPN fandom . . . something about misogyny and racism?
I dunno. Has it occurred to anyone that the writers are actually pushing the boundaries of acceptable language in broadcast television, rather than trying to make a political statement? It wasn't that long ago that nobody could say "hell" during primetime, and the first time I heard Buffy curse was shocking. OOf course the TV shows currently airing aren't going to just stop with a few tame damns and hells and bitches.
Granted, I'm starting out from the POV of being a Deangirl. There, disclaimer over, in case the three people who read this journal haven't figured it out already. And maybe I relate to him a little too strongly, in that I feel like I see similar characteristics in myself.
Like Dean, I don't have a terribly long fuse: I do not suffer fools gladly, nor indeed at all, and unfortunately, the combination of a smart mouth and a short temper often means that I instinctively lob the most hurtful insults possible at a target. I'm not especially proud of myself for that, but it's true . . . if I'm infuriated at a female, I'll refer to her as a bitch or a slut, even if those insults HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MATTER AT HAND.
Why wouldn't Dean do the same? Especially since he would have learned to do so in the sort of all-male company of hunters and his ex-military father? When I was growing up, family picnics *regularly* included at least an hour of racist and sexist jokes: it was how my father and my grandfather and my mother's brothers bonded. It was how their sons learned to interact with their uncles . . . and attitudes learned that young are difficult ( though not impossible ) to overcome.
How much more deeply was Dean indoctrinated, inculcated as he was with the desire to please his father? Sure, I bet John would have knocked him upside the head on occasion, if Dean said something really outrageous in front of him, but the everyday use of profanity and blasphemy and the attitudes of the people with whom they *did* interact would have had a far more lasting effect than a swat across the mouth for use of politically incorrect terminology. And that's not even getting into John's own beliefs, and how deeply they would have affected his sons, no matter how much of an absentee father he might have been.
That said, I do think it would be appropriate for someone to call Dean on his words. My dad was quick to correct my brother when he tried out a few choice epithets! Bobby would be the obvious choice, but I haven't noticed that kind of language being used around anyone except Sam-- which might mean that the word choices are deliberate on the part of the writers, and maybe we should wait and see where they're going with all this.
Although I still think that the most likely scenario is simply that the writers were too busy trying to cram an entire season into sixteen episodes, and their shorthand for the dichotomy of an emotional, frightened Dean was to present what they might have thought was a more masculine, aggressive public face, exemplified by the increased use of derogatory insults to, let's face it, TWO CHARACTERS WHO WERE DESIGNED TO PISS OFF EVERYONE.
The current outcry against the so-called misogyny and racism present in the show seems to me to be far too close to the battle being waged by the religious right against the same-sex storyline on Another World. What's the difference? It's just characters that somebody, somewhere, doesn't like, doing things that particular viewer doesn't approve of.
See, this is why I don't do meta . . . I started out saying one thing, and wandered off on kind of a tangent. Oh, well, it's just my vague thoughts and feelings, not a debate or anything.
It will be interesting to see where this kerfluffle goes in the next few weeks.