sundries

[rm]

Tonight Patty and I are having a stay-in date involving fondue and lots of Buffy.

We watched another episode last night.

So... is it just me or are lot of Buffy episodes semi-covertly concerned with rape? Jenny gets possessed by a demon against her will and then doesn't want her boyfriend touching her? And we've already mentioned the frat boy episode....

Meanwhile, Ethan... welcome to my department of mixed feelings. On one hand, I've totally known dudes like that (without the supernatural evil factor) and I love that he carries himself like someone who has done a lot of ballroom dance. On the other hand, I'm a bit put off by the level of cliche inherent in the "this is a queer character, but we won't say that explicitly" thing he has going on. On the other hand, again, I've known a lot of dudes who presented like that.

Okay, while I don't identify with Giles at all, I sort of am developing this deep, deep empathy for him. His life is not at all what he ever thought it would be, even as it's exactly what he's always know it would have to be. That's lonely, and Buffy is rally the only person who could understand that, but she's still a kid not matter what she's seen and done and he is ALONE.

Despite this deep empathy, I don't really get Giles. Is the meek librarian thing all an act or is he damaged by all sorts of stuff we don't really have a handle on yet? Weird guy.

I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT NOW I UNDERSTAND THE TORCHWOOD POODLE JOKE.

Magical tattoo as a plot device that's actually cool looking! Yay show. (Snake? Skull? Really, JKR?)

Willow telling people to get out of her library? Awesomecakes.

One of the things I really love int he show is the friendships between teachers and students. They are, perhaps, unrealistic, especially over here in 2010, but I certainly had teachers I ate lunch with and whose classrooms I hung out in and maybe they were doing their jobs and maybe we were really friends and maybe that was inappropriate, but I meant the world to me as a teenager and I recall these friendship as genuine and deep (and it's one of the reasons I get so so so angry when people make noise about Lupin's friendship with Harry in the third film being inappropriate and reading as a sexually inappropriate situation. Those sorts of friendships, which were not sexual, saved me life.)

Boa Sr has died. "She was the last member of one of ten distinct Great Andamanese tribes, the Bo." There are only 52 members of the Great Andamanese tribes remaining.

The men of Gallifrey One should not be sartorially dicksizing with me. They will lose.

Speaking of, apparently Patty & I are joining a friend and a friend of hers at the Plaza champagne bar soon so I have an excuse to wear the tux.

Oh crap, which reminds me. Gotta make (early) V-day restaurants reservations.

Comments

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

You must not have reached the episodes that talk about Giles' past and his journey on the way to becoming a Watcher...trust me, there is more to him. :-)

I definitely hear you on the rape-centric themes in the episodes. There will be more of them. Some of them are way more than a little disturbing, and I can't really gauge what Whedon's intent is when he centers the plot around rape and sexual power. I can't tell if it's his feminist commentary on it, perhaps trying to raise awareness in his viewers, or if he simply has a fixation on it.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I can't tell if it's his feminist commentary on it, perhaps trying to raise awareness in his viewers, or if he simply has a fixation on it.

I'm glad to hear you say this, but I'm not sure how I feel about it either whether I'm figuring in his intent or not.

I used to date a man for whom I was the only woman he'd ever been involved with who had never been sexually assaulted. Something about the two ways to read that and the two ways to read Buffy are synching in my head in ways that are... well, interesting, I suppose, if not pleasant.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Re: your ex, YIKES. He might not have been an abusive person himself, but that could still say a lot about who he is in a not-so-good way.

With Joss, I also wonder if the rape/possession themes are his way of reinterpreting a lot of old traditional monster stories. A lot of traditional monster stories/folktales, from which he seems to derive many of his demon characters, have demon/monster characters who have a habit of possessing people or violating them other bodily or mentally. Given that (according to Whedon) Buffy as a character is supposed to be the contrast to the male hero - a shero, if you will - I wonder if he also sees the fact that she's conquering a lot of those rape/possession-type demons as a message about victims and women fighting back rather than submitting and suffering. Or perhaps Whedon also saw a lot of rape-kink-sci-fi comics and is making fun of those, because his brand of sci-fi in Buffy seems to err on the side of campy-ness. They're both strong possibilities. I honestly haven't read enough of his interviews to know, though.

[realtsunamigirl.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about the rape thing. I know that Joss intended to create Buffy as a feminist icon, but in exploring a woman, especially a pretty, young woman, claiming power, it is impossible to ignore that a vast majority of the ways that women are oppressed are sexual. Besides flat-out sexual assault, other means of robbing a woman of her power are frequently accompanied by sexual insults or symbols. Female power is in most ways about refusing to be reduced to a solely sexual object; to portray it otherwise would be, I feel, unrealistic.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

What is it that you're disagreeing with, exactly? Because to me, it sounds like we're kind of on the same page. Perhaps I was not eloquent enough in my initial response.

[realtsunamigirl.livejournal.com]

Sorry. My brain is not necessarily on full throttle today:-)

What I'm trying to say is that I think that it's not some sort of sick rape/sexual violence kick that he has, like you see in some directors and producers, but rather an acknowledgement of a perversion that exists in our society and needs to be addressed.

Hopefully that clarifies things.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Ah...I was merely presenting the point about Whedon's possibly having a rape fixation as an alternative to my initial deduction. I like to try to see things from multiple perspectives, but I don't necessarily agree with all of them, or think that my first instinct is always correct. It's a Devil's Advocate sort of thing with me. :-) Sorry if I confused you.

[realtsunamigirl.livejournal.com]

No problem, whatsoever, it is, alas, occasionally easier to do than one would hope;-)

And I'm a big fan of devil's advocation, both doing it and responding to it. I think it keeps us all sharp.

[realtsunamigirl.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I don't know if you've seen this, but I've always thought that really clarified for me Whedon's position on women and power. Plus, it's really funny, although the intro is proof positive that just because someone, in this case Meryl Streep, is a brilliant actress, doesn't necessarily make them a great public speaker:-D