Comments | pellucid: what's this, a real post?

pellucid

what's this, a real post?

Mar 02, 2010 18:12

I've been having a DAY, flist, so I'm breaking my non-essential internet sort-of-moratorium to bring you a post! With content! Or at least links to other people's content. Better than nothing, yes?

First, via cofax7, a really awesome post on Why Strong Female Characters are Bad for Women: I think the major problem here is that women were clamoring for “ ( Read more... )

farscape, bsg, vid rec

Comments 9

holdouttrout March 2 2010, 23:33:55 UTC

I just watched that first vid this morning, and I was like, "They really weren't on the same show... were they?" because it was so well done. Must watch again. And again.

archersangel March 3 2010, 04:38:35 UTC

I just watched that first vid this morning, and I was like, "They really weren't on the same show... were they?"

i had a similar thought

beccatoria March 2 2010, 23:42:09 UTC

Wow, thank you for the truly lovely rec. <3

And also for pointing out laurashapiro's vid which I had somehow managed to completely miss!

(And now I am embarrassed to discover I have neither a Dee icon nor an icon of Aeryn alone!)

(The comment has been removed)

pellucid March 3 2010, 03:40:33 UTC

Oh, Dee!!! Yes. I'm starting to get comfortable with the idea of ignoring everything after that first ep of 4.5. That allows me to think of Dee without regret/rage, and it also allows me to keep Chaila's "Hold On" vid as my canon for Laura Roslin without letting everything that happened afterwards to her mess me up too badly. It's not a bad place to leave Kara, either. I mean, it will still be a LOOOOONG time before I can actually go back to this show, if ever, but I am starting to get to the point where I can think of certain parts of what I loved without wanting to stab things, so we'll call that progress.

crossoverman March 3 2010, 01:51:43 UTC

Re: Why Strong Female Characters are Bad for Women

Here's why I think that argument is wrong/misguided. Because the people that want to write Strong Characters, Female - that's what they write. They want to write them, so they write them.

When Michael Bay and Megan Fox think her character is a "Strong Female Character", they are wrong. What they have done is taken the term and twisted it. They've ruined that phrase by using it wrongly.

Of course Strong Female Characters is meant to equal Strong Characters, Female. Just because some people think it means something else, doesn't mean the term is wrong. It's just being used wrong.

I've never - not once - considered that the term Strong Female Character meant anything other than a complex, complicated, flawed, interesting, well-written Character, Female.

If people like Michael Bay use it wrong, they should be called on that. The definition or the wording should NOT be changed because Michael Bay doesn't understand what it really means.

pellucid March 3 2010, 03:35:29 UTC

My internet time is really limited these days, so I don't really have time for a thorough response, and I doubt I'll be able to continue the conversation beyond this comment (sorry! it's these discussions I miss most in my fandom/LJ hiatus!). But my fly-by reply is that I didn't really read the article as being about terminology. I don't think the writer cares that much what, exactly, we call interesting, well-rounded, female characters with agency, and I know I certainly don't. I read her point as being exactly what you say here--to call out Michael Bay (and others like him) on the fact that he's doing it wrong. And playing with the terminology is one way of doing that, but I didn't read it as being really central to the argument but rather just one way of illustrating the point. *shrugs ( ... )

crossoverman March 3 2010, 04:24:40 UTC

I guess I never felt the term was easily misconstrued, but just misused. And since it's mostly misused by people who don't really care about complex characters (male or female), my immediate response is not to change the term just to make it suit people who are doing it wrong.

You make a good point, the article isn't necessarily about terminology. But it reads like that, simply because I've always thought strong = well-written.

(The comment has been removed)

ticketsonmyself March 3 2010, 07:05:48 UTC

I'm so ambivalent about characters in the Buffy/River mold, where the point is that they're cute girls who can kick your ass. And as much as I believe from everyone else's love for the show that Buffy is more than that...still ambivalent.

I love BtVS, but I am also ambivalent about it in many ways, and a substantial part of that has to do with the same feeling.

VID WARS, YAY!