(no subject)

[neadods]

tamnonlinear has an excellent post on women in refrigerators. She's talking in conjunction with Dark Knight, Dr. Horrible, and Hellboy II, and thus the link contains spoilers for all.

But the text is oh, so worth reading because it's about the much larger problem of woman as prize and motivation and not woman as, oh, *person.*

It's a really boring way to write women and it doesn't really make for a strong story because the women are too weak for us to care about.

Because while these were generally very good and interesting stories, they're relegating women to the role of trophy or tragedy. She is the nurturing figure who will finally understand and love you, or who will suffer in your stead, and possibly die tragically in your arms. This will fuel your further adventures. She only exists in realation to the men in her life, and while she is beautiful enough to inspire passion, she is passive and purposeless. She's so flat and thin a character that you can pretty much see her tragic death coming, because she's got sweet fuck all to do otherwise.

Comments

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

i watched dr. horrible last night, just to know what everyone was talking about, and will be seeing dark knight tonight, so i'm looking forward to reading that later. thankee, friend.

My thoughts on that vis-a-vis Dr. Horrible

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

Well, yes - Penny is a bit of shorthand. But I think part of that is due to the fact that this story is less than 30 minutes long. Not a lot of story-telling time, there. And then, the story isn't about Penny. It's about a two-bit villain who is teetering on the brink of redemption, and also how our culture tends to hero worship a certain type of person, no matter how ignorant or jerky they are (think Joss has issues?). (So my conclusion: Oh, yes, it falls victim to the foibles of many male-centered shows. But realizing its flaws, it was still enjoyable.)

I loved it, though I think I would have liked the ending better if what I thought would happen had happened (I expected her to see him off Capt Hammer and then publicly denounce him, which would have really been even more painful for Dr. Horrible.)

Also, I've had the songs stuck in my head for days now. ("...in their own not-that-heroic way...")

Re: My thoughts on that vis-a-vis Dr. Horrible

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Tam's commentary about Penny is much like the commentary on racism in Who... any single instance can be argued away as storytelling, but three in a row turns into a creepy pattern. I've only seen Hellboy and Dr. Horrible so far, but it really is getting to the point where I'd almost kill to see a solid female character who isn't sacrificed for the plot.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

OT - didja see this?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't! Squee! (I'm a member of that comm because it's the only way to comment, but I don't have it on a reading list because of the high volume... and with the occasional post, the high blood pressure.

THANK YOU for pointing it out!

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

well, it's high volume yes, but on the other hand i'm not a member of the 227 other Who comms out there, and you know why. thus, i'll stick to it plus the og_news feed and a few others, but i stay out of all of the specific doctor, specific companion, specific "ship" things that keep cropping up every 2 days.

i'm tempted to try to reactivate my who_commplaints comm again just to see if the current crop is as sarcastically impaired as they were 3 years ago. :)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

They probably are.

There are some interesting conversations going on in the single-character comms, or there were when I had time to read them. I miss that, sometimes - there's so much going on in my fandom and I just don't have time to play.