Do I really have to go to work tomorrow?

[jadesfire]

It's been an odd weekend. I've done more chores than I knew we had room for - seriously, how can a 5 room flat acquire so much stuff to do? - I've watched enough Masterchef to make me seriously hungry and I've slep more than I usually do in a week. Huh.

I've also written what I think is one of my best Jack character studies, and everyone's more interested in the cheese. *sigh* I guess it didn't help that torchwood_three put my fic link in with the icon posts. Either that, or the fandom's just in the right mood for crack!fic right now. The fact that miss_zedem wrote cheese!fic as well makes me feel slightly better.

I also finally cracked open a book I've had for way too long without reading. And discovered that I shouldn't read it in the bath, because I was seized with the urge to drop it in. The book is "Fighting the Forces" which is a series of essays about Buffy. This isn't really my field (although I know it is some of yours) but I found myself both intrigued and infuriated.


The basic point of the essay is that Buffy continually subverts and undermines its female characters by not allowing them to express their anger. Using Buffy, Kendra and Faith, the author argues that the three women are shoved into stereotypes and forced to express their frustration in a lady-like manner, rather than being allowed true freedom of expression.

I will admit to being unfamiliar with the feminist articles on 'women's anger' that the author refers to, and I did agree with some of her points. However, there was no explanation or reference in the book to what the author would have considered a healthy expression of the anger that the characters feel. She condemns the portrayals for not allowing true freedom of expression, with little regard for the psychology of the situations. There's no "she did this when she should have done this". No suggestion that the author has taken into account the circumstances under which the anger is expressed. This bothers me.

One of the biggest themes in Buffy is that of responsibility. Yes, Buffy does continually channel her anger into humour, dark sarcasm and the occasional over-enthusiastic slaying. (On the plus side she killed the bench, which was looking shifty). This allows her to deal with the frustrations of life as a Slayer without going crazy or killing someone. One of Faith's biggest problems is that she sees being a Slayer as her way out of a hellish life, and gets kicks from it, rather than seeing it as a burden to be carried. In the article, her killing of the Mayor's assistant is rather glossed over, which baffled me completely. Faith is a great example of what damage that unexpressed anger can do, and yet the author constructs her rather as 'oppressed woman'. There are no answers as to how Faith should have expressed the anger that eats her up inside, only a condemnation of the writing of her, for making her 'the bad guy'.

I'm not saying that Buffy is perfect in its portrayal of women, and certainly I have issues with Kendra, but the insistence on viewing the characters as either stereotypes or 'oppressed women' rather leaves out the opportunity to treat them as 'people'. There seems to be little regard for the positive expressions of anger in Buffy, and no answers to the question of 'what should they have done instead?'

If the rest of the book continues like this, next time, I won't resist the urge to send it to a watery grave...


torchwood_meta is going great (check out the interview with fandom_me) and everyone seems to be calming down a bit. I'm kinda bracing myself for the next episode, but hopefully people have learned their lesson. And yes, I'm also expecting a fly-by from the Porcine Display team...

Comments

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

It's a national holiday in the U.S. tomorrow, so no work or school for us. Yah! for sleeping late. Although if I sleep any later than I did today, my DNA may simple bond with the mattress. :)

I hear you on the chores and clutter. A seven room house with three people, a dog and a cat in residence is more like surfing a tsunami than keeping ahead of the cleaning.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Lucky things :P I only worked 3 days last week, so I kind of feel the need to prove to myself (and my colleagues - eek) that I can manage a bit more than that. It could be a long week...

*grin* the lack of pets probably helps, although our living room rug hoovers up every speck of dust that then refuses to go into the actual hoover. I swear that thing is evil...

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's the universe's sense of humor that no one will like the fics you like best...

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

It's always that way, isn't it? Especially in Torchwood, if I want to get comments, all I have to do is put Jack/Ianto in the header. *sigh* They always get much more attention than the ones I really worked on. I'm not ungrateful, I swear, just...bemused.

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

It's even more maddening when you get dozens of comments on something you wrote in your coffee break while you can hear the crickets in the comments to the fic you've been tweaking for months. *facepalms* Why do we keep doing this to ourselves again?

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

I've noticed this for years with meta, too. An essay that took days or weeks and 90% of available headspace to compose might get a comment or two, where an off-the-cuff spam post starts a huge comment fest. My theory is that the easier stuff to write is also easier to comment on. It's less effort to say "Ooh, great job" or "I heart you for this cheddar" or to describe and link a frivolous thing - stuff a person can do while shuffling papers during a coffee break - than it is to read and respond to something that makes you think. Alas! But maybe it makes the comments you do get on the serious/hard stuff extra valuable. :)

ETA - thinking about this some more, I should clarify that I do appreciate anytime people take the time to comment, whether it's a short comment on an easy post or anything else. (When I'm commenting, I know I sometimes agonize about what to say, and it's an accomplishment for me to say anything at all!) It's just when you consider comments collectively, it seems odd sometimes, the posts that get the most attention.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I knew what you meant, don't worry. It's just, well, I was so damn proud of that story and the work that went into it.

You've got something there about the 'easier to read' thing, though. I hadn't thought of it like that. I shall take comfort in it :)

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

You should be proud of it! I'm not trying to flatter, it's just it has had me thinking ever since I read it.

Sometimes I want to post a big general apology at the top of my journal, because I have often been guilty of reading things that gave me so *many* thoughts and emotions that I overwhelmed myself and had no words - or I wanted to come back to it in order to give it the time I felt it deserved, and then got busy and never went back. And that's nice for me to know, I suppose, but it's of no use whatsoever to the author! Lately I've started to see the courtesy of at least commenting briefly to say I've read the thing, even if there's more I want to say but can't. --Just more of a reader's perspective. :)

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I feel just the same about what I read. One of my New Year resolutions was that if I got to the end of the story, I should comment on it. Since I click away from about 85% of the stuff I start by the end of the first paragraph, that's not too onerous and I know how important comments are to me.

The other thing I've started doing is posting a 'must read' list, privately in my journal. Then when I get a minute and can't face scrolling through my whole flist, I know what I thought looked interesting!

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

You should be proud of that story. It's awesome. And if fandom doesn't appreciate it cos they're too caught up in their petty squabbles? Their loss.

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

There's no "she did this when she should have done this". No suggestion that the author has taken into account the circumstances under which the anger is expressed.

Gah. I find that frustrating whether I find it in an essay, or a speech or sermon. I like your analysis of the theme of responsibility in BtVS and how it relates to anger. Might not have been within the scope of the essay, but I think it would be interesting to bring later Willow into the discussion - I wonder how she would have been different if she'd had the constraints of a code of responsibility like the Slayers had (or should have had).

Good job on the chores! I'm about to start mine. I think it will be satisfying to do something that actually has clear results!

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

The themes in Buffy really interest me, since interviews with the producers suggest they're entirely intentional. Responsibility is the big one though - Joss Whedon clearly read Spiderman as a child...

That's a great point about Willow - hadn't thought of that. In some ways, what she does is like Faith, only times by a couple of hundred because she's got more power. Hum. One day I'm going to write something properly about rights and responsibilites in Buffy. I'll add to my list!

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

You should know by now that if you want something to get commented on in TW fandom, it needs to contain unnecessary amounts of Jack/Ianto. Sad, but true.

As for the Buffy study? The lesson I learned a long time ago was don't read anything with a feminist agenda, as it will make you want to throw things. Not that feminism is bad, just that most feminists that make it into print need a hefty clip round the ear...

Sleep is good, as are chores. Mindless occupation frees the brain to be more creative. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Which explains why I'm bouncing around the house at midnight, singing 'defying gravity'. Obviously.

And obviously the fandom wars are done and dusted now *coughs*

*admires flying pigs*

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

It's definitely sad but true about the fic. Not a lot to be done about it, I suppose.

I think you're right about the feminist agenda. The thing is, she had some really good points buried in there, but there was such an insistence on treating the characters as 'types' that it completely ignored the possibility that they were supposed to be people. *sigh* I got really cross because it approached things backwards - instead of looking at the show and thinking "huh, that's interesting" she seemed to have thought "I want to write about women's anger and Buffy is currently cool", and then made the show fit what she wanted to say. [/rant]

*raises eyebrow* oookay...glad you're enjoying Wicked! *backs away slowly* ;)

[eumenidis.livejournal.com]

"Fighting the Forces"--please do post & let us know if the book continues in the same vein; it's been on my to-read list, but if it's not worthwhile, I'd like to know so I can skip it.