sundries

[rm]

On the train this morning a small child was singing: "Spider filled with rabies. Rabies rabies rabies. Spider filled with rabies. Rabies rabies rabies!" It made my morning.

Speaking of bugs, it's an exciting week in Rach and Patty land as we're going to see Ovo on Thursday.

shes_unreal needs some help getting a better job to get out of a bad situation. It's complicated, so I'll let her explain. Reliable source, real person, real situation. Please help if you can.

A fandom auction is being run to help thdancingferret who's job was evil and found a way to fire her for having cancer. Because the need is immediate, bidding closes tomorrow. Go now.

Yesterday on Twitter I linked to this giant sinkhole story before they included any info about the sinkhole, just the picture with no explanation whatsoever. Patty and I had a good time reading the comments (and subsequent ones on Twitter) to each other. They involved a remarkable number of references to "orbital lasers." But that sinkhole? Serious business.

Americans at the Bolshoi. One of the things that interests me is a passing mention that it is "all but taboo" for dance teachers to touch their students in California. I recall having a similar frustration in fencing -- take my limbs and show them where to go! That's how dance was when I was studying, but that was the 70s and 80s, and I guess the world changed; I am glad it hasn't everywhere.

Turns out there's more girls than boys in NYC's gifted programs and, as usual, The New York Times is alarmed. Meanwhile, people shrug and say "well, that's a shame" about all the ways boys of favored over girls. You'd think it would be okay for girls to be better than boys once in a while.

Lovely gay-themed ad for McDonalds from France. Although, when I first saw it, I thought McDonalds was going to be the host of this kid's coming out conversation with his father. But that's not the plot, which makes it all a little bit realer.

A history of trans and trans-like veterans that I should actually get around to checking out, since I reference stuff like this in that Snape, Gender and Heroism project I should actually write up for publication somewhere.

Last night on Buffy and Angel:

So, it was finally time for "Seeing Red," and my feelings are largely ambivalent. I don't think what Spike did (whether it was rape, attempted rape, threatened rape, etc.) was out of character -- we see him physically and sexually bully women both pre- and post- chip. I did find Buffy's response out of character -- not that she was startled, afraid and weak/injured, but just that what the show has argued as her automatic (not learned, most of us forget what we've learned when we're in danger) fighting abilities were not there. Also, I hated how the scene was overlit, although it was also interesting at the end how the scene where Buffy is talking to Xander before Warren shows up with a gun is also overlit. Also this whole thing doesn't stop me from being engaged with Spike as a character -- that's the great thing about fiction, I can like totally shit people who do totally shit things because their use in a narrative is brain stimulating on some level.

I found Tara's death to be startling, even though I knew about it (I didn't know it was this episode), and well done. I did not find it to be homophobic. Willow and Tara were the last couple standing, and if Whedon wanted all the couples doomed and they'd just gotten back together, that's what he had to do. I also appreciated that prior to the shooting Willow and Tara finally read like people who actually fuck, as opposed to the way lesbians usually read on TV, which is as people who pet each other gently and don't really have sex.

Xander was SUCH AN ASSHOLE in this ep I thought I was going to throw something at the TV.

Loved the Spike/Anya thing.

Meanwhile on Angel, Cordy is some mother goddess demon of love who I assume will eventually sacrifice her life so that Angel can become mortal. Connor is fucked up (and where do I know that kid from) and Holtz has bad make-up and a fucked up plan. Lila is courting Wesley and none of this is going to end well.

Comments

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

You know that kid from Mad Men.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I don't watch Mad Men

Touching when Teaching

[j-v-lynch.livejournal.com]

I am really uncomfortable touching people at the best of times, but when I'm teaching fencing it is sometimes the only way to get people in the correct position. You try and show them and they just can't get their bodies to do what they are seeing. So I ask permission and then move them around like a puppeteer and hope they don't move.

Re: Touching when Teaching

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yes, one or two of the fencing instructors would ask and then do, but were still really weird about it in a way that made me feel self conscious and hate my body, which is not really an experience that's common to me.

Obviously, with fencing there are differences -- people are holding weapons and you need to warn them before you touch so you don't startle. But in dance my body was a machine, not some terrifying sexual object that must be ignored even as it is central to the work.

The degree and manner in which people tried to avoid sexual harassment lawsuits in fencing was infinitely more shaming, uncomfortable and sexualizing than the 15 years I spent having teachers pick up my legs and put them where they needed to be. The body must be shown.

There's a lot of reasons my salle was probably an irrevocably terrible fit for me, and many of them were unique to that place, but this issue was perhaps merely me at odds with the modern world. In dance there is touching. That's how it works. Dancers touch in dance. Perhaps in fencing since you mostly never touch, the taboo is stronger.

[speedingslug.livejournal.com]

The sinkhole is awesome, is does look like a laser strike. Very sad about the people who died, like you I just saw images with the story.

[andrewducker]

Totally agreed on Willow/Tara - I was just starting to like the way the relationship was being drawn, and the character interaction was working for me.

[angstzeit.livejournal.com]

When I first saw that sinkhole picture I thought it was a fake. It's just too incredible.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

And I keep thinking I'd seen it before. A case of deja vu I'm still trying to figure out. (I have seen deep sinkholes before.)

[elisi]

What a lovely ad. Thank you. :)

Sinkhole. O.M.G. I've just sat staring at it. Also just a horrible disaster... :(

I don't think what Spike did (whether it was rape, attempted rape, threatened rape, etc.) was out of character -- we see him physically and sexually bully women both pre- and post- chip. I did find Buffy's response out of character -- not that she was startled, afraid and weak/injured, but just that what the show has argued as her automatic (not learned, most of us forget what we've learned when we're in danger) fighting abilities were not there.
This is pretty spot-on. And poor Tara. :(

Meanwhile on Angel Cordy is some mother goddess demon of love who I assume will eventually sacrifice her life so that Angel can become mortal.
LOL! Um... I shouldn't laugh. Sorry. It's just... you'll see. And really, I shouldn't laugh.

Lila is courting Wesley and none of this is going to end well.
Lilah/Wesley is probably my favourite AtS couple. Soooo screwed up, and yet... Oh Wesley.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Wait wait, DO LILAH AND WESLEY ACTUALLY HOOK UP?

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

"Seeing Red" is actually one of my favorite Buffy eps, because it has some gems of story telling. Willow and Tara getting back together and then being torn apart, jackass!Xander (though in my book he's pretty much always a jackass), and Spike finally snapping.

Buffy's reaction to Spike's attack was the one of the things that felt off. It felt as though the author's agenda took precedent over the character's story and past conduct. There was a lot of that in season 6 (see the magic=drug addiction story line).

[dulcinbradbury.livejournal.com]

Actually... Buffy's reaction didn't bother me. She's a warrior, yes. But, this was an attack from someone she trusted on some level. Someone she had really conflicted feelings about. I'd believe that on some level, she was somewhere caught between shock and thought.

touching when teaching

[graene.livejournal.com]

Yoga too. When I first started taking yoga classes down here the instructors would grab my hips and swivel them, massage our necks, lift our heads and straighten them for shivasana...now they are extremely careful to not touch skin as they lay a pillow over the eyes and that's all you get. Half the time they're repeating themselves three times as we all try to figure out who they are talking too as well as how to apply it to our bodies if its us. I miss the contact.

Well, mostly I miss the classes, but also the contact.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

• On the train this morning a small child was singing: "Spider filled with rabies. Rabies rabies rabies. Spider filled with rabies. Rabies rabies rabies!" It made my morning. — This brings back fond memories of the "Dead Pigeons" song my then six-year-old brother made up in Venice.
  
  
• I heard about the Guatemala City Giant Sinkhole at io9.com, where the lede was "No, this image is not Photoshopped." First the volcano, then the ongoing oil-spill nightmare in the Gulf, now this — when did life turn into a Roland Emmerich film?
  
  
• Also this whole thing doesn't stop me from being engaged with Spike as a character -- that's the great thing about fiction, I can like totally shit people who do totally shit things because their use in a narrative is brain stimulating on some level. — This gives me hope for all the girls who are nuts over Edward the Sparklepire.
  
  
• Meanwhile on Angel, Cordy is some mother goddess demon of love who I assume will eventually sacrifice her life so that Angel can become mortal. Connor is fucked up (and where do I know that kid from) and Holtz has bad make-up and a fucked up plan. Lila is courting Wesley and none of this is going to end well. — I'm fascinated by how your predictions for the show swerve from spot-on to way off. I think overall you've had more hits than misses. I'm not sure where you would have seen Vincent K other than Angel and Mad Men, but he's striking, isn't he?
  
  

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

I read the over lit spike attack on Buffy as a sort of starkness, a grim way of saying "We're not pretending this isn't what it is. We've had a threat of rape subtext for five seasons, but now we're dragging that into the light."

I have mixed feelings about Buffy not fighting back effectively. The times I've been attacked by friends/acquaintances, it shocked the fuck out of me, but I did keep my head and I did fight back effectively. (Go go gadget kung fu training). At the same time, I can easily see it be so shocking to the person it is happening it too that they would freeze. I've never been attacked like that by someone I'd been fucking. I bet that would be a hell of a lot more shocking.

I'd rather she fought back effectively, I really would. At the same time, I can see how it might go down the way it did.

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

I agree that Buffy's complete ineffectiveness at fighting back was startlingly inconsistent with how her fighting abilities and strength had been portrayed up to that point. When I managed to revisit the ep from a much more detached POV, as opposed to the first time I saw it which triggered some shit for me, that was one of the things that really stood out.

This, however, is why I can't deal with post-S6 Spuffy. I'm all for redemption themes and such, but I can't suspend disbelief enough to buy that somehow they go from there to any sort of romantic relationship. Which I realize is at least in part about my own issues and triggers, and is all tangled up with rage over the "falling in love with your (would-be, in this case) rapist" trope. However, as I've noted before, this is very much a minority view in Buffydom, as Spuffy does seem to be the dominant ship.

I was only tangentially in the fandom when "Seeing Red" aired, but I do remember the huge storm of anger that erupted over Tara's death. My initial reaction before seeing other fans' response was just to be sad that a character I loved, who had finally appeared in the opening credits, leading me to believe she was finally a firm part of the team, was gone. That was, in fact, one of the things that I saw people freak out over, some in the same way I had and some with a much more profound sense of betrayal by this. I quickly gathered that many young lesbian fans, in particular, were in a place of feeling deeply betrayed by the fact that not only had this much-loved character been killed off, but also that there was that setup at the start of the ep that gave a false sense of, "Oh, good, she's definitely here to stay." While that may have had more to do with giving Amber Benson a full credit before she left the show, it is something that had been done before deliberately (with Jesse in the very first episode), though not with an established character. I like to think that if Whedon and whomever else was involved with that decision had realized just how deeply personally some would take that bait-and-switch, they might have handled it differently, but of course, we'll never know.

The other thing that came up a lot was the trope of the "crazy, evil, or dead lesbian," in particular that the pattern in popular media of making a lesbian character lose her mind or get killed as soon as it's become clear she's actually having sex with her lover. It's not a pattern I'd recognized before or even heard of, but that was the theme of a lot of the enraged meta. Not that it was homophobic to break Willow/Tara, because as you point out, all the couples were broken one way or another by this point, so they were hardly singled out. But that the way it was done was perpetuating that stereotype. I'm ashamed to have to admit that all these years later, I still don't really have enough lesbian popular culture under my belt to speak to that myself, but I imagine that's a meta discussion that it would have been very interesting to hear you weigh in on at the time. I haven't the foggiest if I can even find any of it to point you to now however, though I think I'll poke around a bit this afternoon to try.

[rm.livejournal.com]

bait-and-switch

I'm sitting here with my jaw hanging open but that is probably the phrase I hear most often about some of the rage peopel feel about Ianto's death on Torchwood as various creators had said pre S3, that we'd really love CoE. And, while I did, a lot of people who were invested in it for Jack/Ianto _really_ didn't. The "false advertising" thing comes up over and over again, although in the case of Buffy I do see it as an intentional fake out, because at the end of "Seeing Red" you can't really be 100% sure Tara is gone.

As to what happened with CoE, I've not the energy to rehash and refute today.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Seeing Tara get shot broke my heart on Willow's behalf, especially since I'd been rooting for them to get back together ever since they'd started fighting. I'm not sure why people saw a homophobic undertone in that scene, though.

And about Spike, that scene horrified me and yet didn't totally kill my love for his character. I always felt weird about that. His role in the seventh season certainly helps.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Seeing Red: I didn't think Spike was out of character at all, I simply rather resented that Buffy's situation was so contrived; as well, I thought it was rather disingenuous of the show to treat Buffy's sexual bullying of Spike as humourous whereas when he did it back, it was all OMG RAPE. Their relationship had not been "safe, sane, or consensual" by a long shot, she is A LOT stronger than him, and she'd been using him as her sex toy regardless of his feelings (except for taking advantage of such), and on one occasion, when he'd been actually telling her "No" while she was doing it. But that was funny. Remember that episode of Angel, where Buffy shows up and hits him across the face, and then he just hauls off and hits her back? And she's like, "you hit me!" all girly and outraged, and he says, "you hit me first, and also you're stronger than me!" Anyway, I don't even think he did anything wrong, considering the parameters of their relationship; how was he to know that THIS TIME was different, and she wouldn't just stop him if she wanted to? But it's lit and shot like rape, and that's what I didn't like about it.

Willow & Tara: SNIFF. My only other problem with this is, though it was beautifully done, that I hate when they bring guns into the Buffyverse as it seems to invalidate all other occasions -- why does no one else do this, if it's an option? But all the emotional and cinematographical moments are drop dead gorgeous. (heh. literally.)

Connor & Wesley/Lilah & Wesley in general are literally the only things I would save from S4 Angel. The rest of it can die in a fire as far as I am concerned.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Seriously, was no one disturbed when just a few episodes age Buffy beat the shit out of Spike? I could barely watch that, and I don't think I'm displaying a gendered double-standard here.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Xander was SUCH AN ASSHOLE in this ep I thought I was going to throw something at the TV.

I know exactly how you feel. I have a hard time rewatching the show in large part because Xander's actions in season six made me hate him so much that I can't even go back and watch young Xander without wanting to throw stuff at my television every time he appears. He's such a controlling misogynist "nice guy (TM)" jerk and he never really gets called on it--I'm pretty sure the writers had no idea how offensive his behavior actually is.

Loved the Spike/Anya thing.

Yes. In my personal canon, they totally ran off and lived questionably-redeemed-demon lives together happily ever after. (There was a lot of good Spike/Anya fic at the time, from embittered former Spuffies who couldn't get over the beating in "Dead Things" and attempted rape in "Seeing Red.")

"Seeing Red" is such a problematic mess. I'm so angry about the writers using rape as a plot device to push their agenda (they thought the audience was too sympathetic to Spike and not sympathetic enough to Buffy, so they decided to punish us for liking the "wrong" character). It was such a shift from the previous portrayal of the Spike/Buffy relationship, which was very much "they're both messed up and they're both making mistakes." It was like, they wanted things to go back to Buffy = good, Spike = bad, and ... I don't know, attempted rape is such a skeevy way to get that emotional reaction from their audience, and it still doesn't erase the more complicated relationship that came before. At the same time, I can't really love Spike as a character any more, because as much as I felt that scene was a manipulation by the writers, it happened and it's horrible.

(The fan wars over that episode were so horrible. It still surprises me to see that people can talk about it without the comments turning into a friendship-destroying real tears flamewar.)

I didn't think Tara's death was homophobic, exactly--it would've been weird if every other couple fell apart but the lesbians were protected. This way they're real characters and suffer just like the others do. And the writers went way out of their way to make Tara sympathetic and to make Warren the most misogynist jerk imaginable--the audience was clearly supposed to love Willow/Tara and to mourn Tara. And, afterward, they still had Willow and she stayed gay (thankfully--it would've been horrible if she'd dated a guy next). But at the same time, I totally understand how broken-hearted and angry the Willow/Tara fans were--people were profoundly invested in that ship, much like I assume many Jack/Ianto fans were.

Don't want to spoil you, but am very curious what you'll think of developments on the Lilah/Wesley front.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

Xander started irritating me back in "The Pack" way back in season 1. The crap he gets away with astounds me. He regularly ties with Angel for being my least favorite character, primarily for how they both try to control the lives of the women around them.

[thunderemerald.livejournal.com]

AHHHH I love the McDonald's ad! You're right about it being more real -- but what clinched it for me was the son's smile at the end. It wasn't a pained look of "Oh no, when the day comes that I have to tell you, my life will be over" -- instead, it was "Wait till you find out MY awesome secret!" It was so positive, and now I am filled with glee.

[snakeling]

I saw the McDonald's ad at the cinema today, and it's quite cute. They actually showed two others, one with a mother lecturing her kid for forgetting her schoolbag at school, and then the kid lecturing the mother for forgetting her wallet at home, and the other featuring two old people chatting on a dating service and lying outrageously (she says she's a model and he says he's a surfer, etc.), then when the battery runs out they each go to the counter and meet (and still lie about themselves, but less outrageously XD)

They're all available on the French McDonald's website. Uncheck the box at the bottom left corner until only "films tv" is checked.

[citrinesunset.livejournal.com]

that's the great thing about fiction, I can like totally shit people who do totally shit things because their use in a narrative is brain stimulating on some level.

That's how I see it, too.

I don't think it excuses Spike's actions to say that the entire relationship between him and Buffy was very messed up, and Buffy was a big part of the problem there, too. The thing that bugged me a bit about the bathroom scene is that I felt it was portrayed as the breaking point where everything went to hell between them, but things had never been healthy.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I am still angry at the way the attempted rape scene was presented -- the lighting, the camera angles, Buffy's inability to fight back, all of it. Again, as I have believed all through season six, Spike is entirely in character, but Buffy isn't at all. And to top that off with what reads to me as POV Rape-o-Vision...oh, it makes me shudder. It feels completely exploitative and gross and I am very cross with some writers and producers, I am.

Also, boy do I agree about Xander.

[sevendayloan.livejournal.com]

Spike/Anya really brings out the douchiness in Xander, doesn't it? I mean, I love the character, I really do, but holy inappropriate reaction, batman! I was seriously ready to punch him in some of those scenes. I generally forgive him pretty easily for the left-my-favorite-character-at-the-altar thing, but seriously. Such an asshole.

I was also startled by Tara's death, even warned about it ages and ages in advance. I also never found it to be homophobic, despite some of the tropes in play here. I may be the only person who feels this way, but it all seemed very real and true to character.

As for Angel ... yeahh, good things don't happen too much on this show, do they? We did get Wes/Lilah out of it, though, which I love with all my shriveled little heart. Which probably says something about me

[1-mad-squirrel.livejournal.com]

The French Micky D's ad "I'm lovin' it!" Heh! Thanks for posting.

[dr-is-in.livejournal.com]

I feel for thdancingferret. My mom was forced by her employer to retire early while recovering from breast cancer.

[chaos-by-design.livejournal.com]

I had a really hard time with Seeing Red because rape is one of my no-go zones; I can't like a person or even see someone as a person if they've raped or attempted to rape someone. For me it's worse than murder.

And I really loved Spike as a character, so that was a problem. I finally got around it in my own way, but it always left me with a really yucky feeling. But what especially bothered me was Buffy's reaction, or rather lack of reaction. She never seems angry enough about what happened to satisfy me.

I would like to point out that I don't consider Buffy's treatment of Spike a-okay in that relationship either, but for me the attempted rape just overshadowed everything emotionally. Also, while a lot of people have pointed out that Buffy's behavior sucked, I always saw Spike as a bit pathetic for not just hauling ass out of there. I realize that's hard to do, but it's not impossible, and if you're stuck in a situation like he was in, well worth doing.

Connor became one of my favorite characters on Angel, but that's because he hit a lot of my character kinks: deprived childhood, brainwashed warrior, psycho woobie, etc.

[sanginmychains.livejournal.com]

see I kind of liked that Buffy didn't seem all that angry. Angry, yes, but not very -- not like Xander was angry. I liked the contrast. Xander has always been stupidly black-and-white about stuff, and it's been his weakness as a character. Buffy, about this, is kinda, "meh, you shoulda seen the stuff I did to him, man that was a fucked up relationship, oh well, over now." Her world isn't made of too many clear cut decisions. It's always been about balancing. That's the way I saw it, anyway.

[spicklething.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I swore I would never dip a toe into the wankpool of Seeing Red, but since this is actually a grow'd up conversation about it and not some grudge filled shipper wank of years past, I'm going to throw my two cents in.

I've only been able to stomach watching this episode once in my life. And if you push the writer (Marti Noxon's) motives for the rape metaphor aside, I actually don't have a problem with the bathroom scene.

I don't want to spoil anything since you are still exploring the series, but Spike as a vampire has done his share of horrible things throughout history as all vampires have...murder, torture, mayhem. As a vampire he has tried to kill Buffy and her friends. He's been the depraved monster. No one would bat an eye at this point if he tried to bite and turn (or murder) her. Had he tried to do that, I don't think we would have seen the regret and fear from him. This type of behavior would be hardwired and normal for a vampire. There's a realization on his face that he has finally crossed the line and there's no going back. And as his journey through the rest of season six progresses, I don't think he would have headed in the direction he did had it NOT been for the encounter in the bathroom. It is the catalyst for his character

If you look at the sequence where Buffy is invisible, she pretty much forces herself on him and no one bats an eye at Buffy molesting him. She's invisible, it's written off as comedy. And then there's The Pack where Xander also tries to rape her, yet it seems to be swept under the rug for the rest of the series. But it is Seeing Red that draws so much debate.

Throughout the season the writers keep jackhammering home that Spike is the abusive, bad boyfriend. But I think the writers had it wrong. Up until Seeing Red, the abusive partner was Buffy, and season six was about (whether the writers realized it or not)about heteronormative gender role reversal. She controls him sexually, she beats him, she controls him.

To compound things there is this implied consent through a lot of dubiously consented acts (the balcony sex, invisible sex, etc) where No often meant yes that the line between consent and nonconsent is rather fuzzy.

To me, the bathroom scene is this confusion coming to a head, and I feel quite sympathetic toward him. (Of course in reality I would zero sympathy for an attempted rapist regardless of the consequences.) It's about trying vie for control and failing. More importantly, it's about realizing that failure and accountability (at least for Spike.) Rape is an innately human weapon in this circumstance. The Spike the vampire would not have reacted so viscerally had he tried to bite or kill Buffy, but Spike the man was horrified by his actions. Thus this moment because a catalyst in the evolution of his character.

At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.