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

[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.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

*nods* I have the exact same problem with Xander and Angel and their controlling behavior towards women. I still haven't forgiven Xander for the lie in "Becoming 2." >:(

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

Argh! That lie irritates me to no end! And the lie that he didn't remember anything whilst possessed by the hyena that he's caught on in "Phases" (maybe, can't remember the ep. exactly, but he does this weird little role play about "snarling and prowling" and knowing the wolves because he'd been a hyena).

The writers let them laugh that off with maybe a raised eyebrow but Xander doesn't suffer any consequences for his actions.

[laughingirl.livejournal.com]

Ha! Was coming in here to say exactly the same thing... I waited *forever* for Xander to get called on the lie in Becoming and he never did... I never got over that and never really liked him again after that.