Comments | gamerchick: Of genre television, Helena Cain, and gender roles

gamerchick

Of genre television, Helena Cain, and gender roles

Nov 27, 2007 12:03

A couple of quick notes and disclaimers before I get into the meat of this post: I am speaking from a feminist perspective here, which I know may not appeal to all of my flist. If that's not something you want to hear about, you may not want to read past the cut. Also, what's behind the cut contains recent and not-so-recent spoilers for various ( Read more... )

battlestar galactica, feminism, rants, lost, heroes, farscape

Comments 15

splagxna November 27 2007, 18:20:53 UTC

is this safe to read if i have only seen the first two seasons?

gamerchick November 27 2007, 18:30:36 UTC

There is a medium-sized spoiler for Razor, which just aired on Saturday - not the sort that would ruin your enjoyment of the movie, but something that some might like to be surprised by. Apart from that, you're fine.

splagxna November 27 2007, 18:31:30 UTC

then i will wait and not read yet.

gah. season 3 hasn't even been ANNOUNCED for dvd yet, that i'm aware of.

gamerchick November 27 2007, 18:35:34 UTC

It hasn't been that I know of. That seems weird, particularly since season 4 is supposed to begin in March.

Thread 9

ziabandito555 November 27 2007, 19:13:28 UTC

Sorry I haven;t said anythign before now... its been a busy past few weeks... yeah thats my excuse 9.9 ( ... )

macaco November 27 2007, 21:02:35 UTC

Yep. I think the main thing is, with most female villains you end up just hating them and wanting them gone, whereas a lot of guy villains are able to pull off the whole "love to hate" thing. Like, I was always looking forward to Scorpy's bits, even if I knew he was going to be horrible, but Grayza? She was lame.

Cain was totally a villain I loved to hate.

Stopped watching BSG after she was Dealt With, though. I just got too frustrated with it (a show that's so good it's almost great is way lamer than a crap show that doesn't even try).

sophinisba November 28 2007, 01:34:32 UTC

I haven't watched any BSG but I sure see what you're talking about on Heroes, Lost, and Supernatural. And that's part of what's so disturbing, seeing the same patterns repeated over and over, with both the writers and a whole lot of the fans.

michael_b_lee November 28 2007, 02:34:46 UTC

I didn't mention it explicity in my previous Razor post, but I really, really hated the idea of Cain being seduced and betrayed by Gina. Because that pretty much turns Cain's treatment of her into a case of "woman scorned" instead of the horrific actions of someone traumatized by the loss of her entire race. The love affair didn't humanize Cain; in some ways, it cheapened her, in my opinion.

Her treatment of Gina was Cain's inner torment made manifest. Adama has his family on Galactica to give him solace. Cain had no one, and so she transformed her horror and pain into something cold and sharp.

gamerchick November 28 2007, 02:39:56 UTC

That, too, is a good observation. I think that may be why so many female characters get written into relationships that seem perfunctory or forced - the writers don't know how to motivate female characters with anything other than love.