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reflectedeveI've been having some very angry feminist days lately. Maybe it's time to cut down on reading WFA every day? Because much as I enjoy a lot of the writing there, I'm clearly hyper-sensitive lately. I mean, there is certainly plenty to be angry about (that last link = SPOILERS for "Death of the New Gods"), and that's just in pop culture/comics (and a very small sample at that). Our whole culture is sick. But it's not particularly useful to feel angry all the time, particularly when a lot of it is more of the same every damn week.
This kind of anger and frustration is really always at the edge of my consciousness (what I get for being a fan of comics and genre entertainment, I guess), but I think it's affecting me even more than usual. Certainly it's been impossible to escape or ignore when I'm watching TV, lately.
I think this may turn into a rant . . . it's been coming for awhile. Not to be expecting finesse. ^^; (Cut to protect recent spoilers, more or less, but if you aren't caught up on Heroes, Bionic Woman, and/or Stargate: Atlantis, you might want to skip.)
Heroes has never exactly been a shining example of happy-feminist television. The show's usually relatively multicultural and diverse (for mainstream American TV), at least with its male characters. But, last season, the only two major female heroes were very blonde and generically "attractive" (not that I don't love Claire, and Nikki's okay, but wow); the one really major female character of color was a textbook WiR, and quite a few other women were killed off as well. (Charlie's also a pretty WiRish example, though I did like Eden's heroic death.)
This season, we mostly have Maria, the whimpering woman who is uncontrollably and mysteriously destructive, and relies upon her brother to save her from herself. I am very unimpressed. We also have Monica, who I have high hopes for, but time will tell . . . and Kristen Bell's bratty ruthless killer (I'm somewhat attached to Bell, but still, yawn). I had very brief hopes for Hiro's new object of unrequited affection . . . I was kind of irritated that his great legendary Japanese hero was a gaijin (not terribly original), and her show of bravado made me wonder. But no, now she's a dazzled little sidekick, with the wool pulled over her eyes by Hiro's brief Cyrano act.
Claire's still pretty awesome, aside from being kind of stupid about this new boy; Peter's latest girlfriend has some potential; Angela Petrelli has also been kickass, though of course she was beaten down for it. Molly's in some kind of coma. Candice . . . oh right, she just got murdered. (What percentage of female recurring/regular characters has been killed off, I wonder? Seems like quite a large one.)
If we ever have two women interacting closely with each other on this show, however--particularly as friends or partners in the sense of Hiro/Ando, Noah Bennet/the Haitian (get that man a name already), or Mohinder/Matt--I may die of shock.
Bionic Woman, meanwhile, is a relatively average action show. Jaime's a pretty boring main character, lacking in much personality, but at least she looks great kicking ass (I know, I suck like a big hypocritical sucking thing sometimes). She can be a total idiot sometimes (she discovers that Will has had files on her since two years before they met, but he's still the only man she ever loved? wtf?), and I hated that unborn-baby-death-trauma BS they threw in for no reason, but at least Will died, so we don't have to watch her suck by trying to forgive him or continue to be in a relationship with him, which I'd worried about. Also, in spite of cooperating with them most of the time, Jaime remains healthily furious when the people who changed her try to control her. That's something.
Really, though, I'm watching the show for Sarah Corvis (AKA Katee Sackhoff, siiiigh), and particularly for the scenes with the two Bionic Women together. Their chemistry is incredible, and their relationship would be the most interesting part of the show even if they weren't so very fraught with subtext. (So very. Where are my boatloads of femslash, people?) If Sackhoff leaves the show, I might very well drop it, but . . . I've been starving for female relationships lately, and Jaime has both Sarah and her sister (which could be done better, but it's a start), so there's enough to keep me in there. That, and the fun ass-kicking. I have missed Buffy more, recently.
Lastly, of course, there is Stargate: Atlantis, arguably my biggest fandom show. I've been less in love with it lately, in large part because I am feeling so very female-oriented right now, and SGA has rarely done a good job with its women. Teyla is a really fabulous character, but they rarely seem to know what to do with her, so she usually takes a backseat to plots focusing on her male teammates (though she generally proceeds to be completely awesome in the backseat anyway). Elizabeth was apparently even more difficult for the writers to deal with, stumbling along 'til she was finally dumped. Which made me angrier than I expected, though I at least appreciated that she was allowed to go out more or less in a blaze of glory.
Of course, this new season did add two new female characters to the cast; Sam Carter, imported over from SG-1, and Doctor Keller. I've remained cynical, but I was actually pleasantly surprised by the most recent episode, "Doppleganger." It took me totally by surprise, because I was drawing and not paying the closest attention, but I eventually noticed that . . . there were women all over screen! Where did they come from? The episode started and ended with John and Rodney, as usual (and notably adorable enough to cut through even my recent apathy), but for a large chunk of the middle, the women actually dominated the episode! We had Sam, Dr. Keller, Dr. Heightmeyer, and Teyla all talking and working together, Bechdel test passed with flying colors . . . it was amazing! Of course, just as I was really starting to get into it, they offed poor Kate and went back to the guys. But then, lo and behold, Dr. Keller and Lt. Carter joined the team at their late-night hang-out, at the very end. The new core cast? There were actually as many women as men at that table! Dare I have even the littlest bit of hope?
I need to watch that episode again. It had women and boyslash. And I can even forgive Sam Carter for taking Elizabeth's place and constantly bringing up SG-1. (Have you ever heard about SG-1? They did all of this already! Argh. It's like Kon and his Tactile Telekinesis--just can't stop the comic references today--only not funny.)
At least there's always Avatar: The Last Airbender. Katara's a bit of the annoying self-righteous "girl is the heart and soul of our group" cliche, but she's often pretty kickass. Toph is amazing. Azula bores me, but her cohorts are fresh and fun. And yeah, those girls do relate to each other! (Katara and Toph could stand to do it more, but still.)
[ETA:] Note to self. Do not forget to do this!
This kind of anger and frustration is really always at the edge of my consciousness (what I get for being a fan of comics and genre entertainment, I guess), but I think it's affecting me even more than usual. Certainly it's been impossible to escape or ignore when I'm watching TV, lately.
I think this may turn into a rant . . . it's been coming for awhile. Not to be expecting finesse. ^^; (Cut to protect recent spoilers, more or less, but if you aren't caught up on Heroes, Bionic Woman, and/or Stargate: Atlantis, you might want to skip.)
Heroes has never exactly been a shining example of happy-feminist television. The show's usually relatively multicultural and diverse (for mainstream American TV), at least with its male characters. But, last season, the only two major female heroes were very blonde and generically "attractive" (not that I don't love Claire, and Nikki's okay, but wow); the one really major female character of color was a textbook WiR, and quite a few other women were killed off as well. (Charlie's also a pretty WiRish example, though I did like Eden's heroic death.)
This season, we mostly have Maria, the whimpering woman who is uncontrollably and mysteriously destructive, and relies upon her brother to save her from herself. I am very unimpressed. We also have Monica, who I have high hopes for, but time will tell . . . and Kristen Bell's bratty ruthless killer (I'm somewhat attached to Bell, but still, yawn). I had very brief hopes for Hiro's new object of unrequited affection . . . I was kind of irritated that his great legendary Japanese hero was a gaijin (not terribly original), and her show of bravado made me wonder. But no, now she's a dazzled little sidekick, with the wool pulled over her eyes by Hiro's brief Cyrano act.
Claire's still pretty awesome, aside from being kind of stupid about this new boy; Peter's latest girlfriend has some potential; Angela Petrelli has also been kickass, though of course she was beaten down for it. Molly's in some kind of coma. Candice . . . oh right, she just got murdered. (What percentage of female recurring/regular characters has been killed off, I wonder? Seems like quite a large one.)
If we ever have two women interacting closely with each other on this show, however--particularly as friends or partners in the sense of Hiro/Ando, Noah Bennet/the Haitian (get that man a name already), or Mohinder/Matt--I may die of shock.
Bionic Woman, meanwhile, is a relatively average action show. Jaime's a pretty boring main character, lacking in much personality, but at least she looks great kicking ass (I know, I suck like a big hypocritical sucking thing sometimes). She can be a total idiot sometimes (she discovers that Will has had files on her since two years before they met, but he's still the only man she ever loved? wtf?), and I hated that unborn-baby-death-trauma BS they threw in for no reason, but at least Will died, so we don't have to watch her suck by trying to forgive him or continue to be in a relationship with him, which I'd worried about. Also, in spite of cooperating with them most of the time, Jaime remains healthily furious when the people who changed her try to control her. That's something.
Really, though, I'm watching the show for Sarah Corvis (AKA Katee Sackhoff, siiiigh), and particularly for the scenes with the two Bionic Women together. Their chemistry is incredible, and their relationship would be the most interesting part of the show even if they weren't so very fraught with subtext. (So very. Where are my boatloads of femslash, people?) If Sackhoff leaves the show, I might very well drop it, but . . . I've been starving for female relationships lately, and Jaime has both Sarah and her sister (which could be done better, but it's a start), so there's enough to keep me in there. That, and the fun ass-kicking. I have missed Buffy more, recently.
Lastly, of course, there is Stargate: Atlantis, arguably my biggest fandom show. I've been less in love with it lately, in large part because I am feeling so very female-oriented right now, and SGA has rarely done a good job with its women. Teyla is a really fabulous character, but they rarely seem to know what to do with her, so she usually takes a backseat to plots focusing on her male teammates (though she generally proceeds to be completely awesome in the backseat anyway). Elizabeth was apparently even more difficult for the writers to deal with, stumbling along 'til she was finally dumped. Which made me angrier than I expected, though I at least appreciated that she was allowed to go out more or less in a blaze of glory.
Of course, this new season did add two new female characters to the cast; Sam Carter, imported over from SG-1, and Doctor Keller. I've remained cynical, but I was actually pleasantly surprised by the most recent episode, "Doppleganger." It took me totally by surprise, because I was drawing and not paying the closest attention, but I eventually noticed that . . . there were women all over screen! Where did they come from? The episode started and ended with John and Rodney, as usual (and notably adorable enough to cut through even my recent apathy), but for a large chunk of the middle, the women actually dominated the episode! We had Sam, Dr. Keller, Dr. Heightmeyer, and Teyla all talking and working together, Bechdel test passed with flying colors . . . it was amazing! Of course, just as I was really starting to get into it, they offed poor Kate and went back to the guys. But then, lo and behold, Dr. Keller and Lt. Carter joined the team at their late-night hang-out, at the very end. The new core cast? There were actually as many women as men at that table! Dare I have even the littlest bit of hope?
I need to watch that episode again. It had women and boyslash. And I can even forgive Sam Carter for taking Elizabeth's place and constantly bringing up SG-1. (Have you ever heard about SG-1? They did all of this already! Argh. It's like Kon and his Tactile Telekinesis--just can't stop the comic references today--only not funny.)
At least there's always Avatar: The Last Airbender. Katara's a bit of the annoying self-righteous "girl is the heart and soul of our group" cliche, but she's often pretty kickass. Toph is amazing. Azula bores me, but her cohorts are fresh and fun. And yeah, those girls do relate to each other! (Katara and Toph could stand to do it more, but still.)
[ETA:] Note to self. Do not forget to do this!
