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Entry tags:
Fall Show Status: in regards to gender and sexuality
I'm missing Buffy really hard this week. I just realized the other day that none of the shows that I currently watch have gay characters (and only two that I can think of that have acknowledged the existence of us queers in a positive fashion -- Smallville and Dexter. Doctor Who has both positive gay images and complex, strong, good women, but isn't currently airing). For all that Willow tended to be my least favorite Scooby and I found her passive-aggressive and frustrating, I miss having an acknowledged gay regular who has gay relationships on-screen.
Buffy had its race issues (though, by the last season, they were getting a bit better), but I really miss its pro-feminist/pro-queer slant.
Specifically, the notion that women come in a variety of personalities (and shapes) and that this is good. That women can be friends with each other (that women can be friends with men). That women can be leaders.
I am... both hopeful and fearful of where Supernatural is currently going, female character-wise. Dean appears to be objectifying women more and getting more misogynist in his descriptions of them. We have two strong, reoccurring female characters, but one is amoral and one is a demon (currently evil by definition). Jo, last season, really disappointed me in No Exit because she came across as very immature (like Dawn in S5 of Buffy, but Dawn was 13-14 as opposed to Jo's 19-21). Ellen, of course, was explicitly described as 'not a hunter' ("hunter's wife", actually, which is probably worse) in her introduction.
I really like both Bela and Ruby so far. There are a lot of really bad, anti-female places that Kripke could go with their characters. And that makes me nervous. Because the guy who likes the music that Kripke likes objectifies women (ETA: this was, in fact, a reference solely to Dean -- and now we see why descriptions rather than names are bad and confusing! 'the guy' = 'Dean').
I'm seriously considering dropping Heroes because the gender issues are making me uncomfortable. I still haven't watched last week's Prison Break because they killed Sarah, but T-Bag is still standing.
Dexter has embraced both 'women are cutthroat bitches in the workplace' and 'women can't handle the emotional stress of being in charge' stereotypes. Which is kinda impressive, in a depressing way (though prejudices are often contradictory -- that's part of what makes them so baffling).
*sigh*
And, of course, I've spoken about my issues with Larrin (though we can add her inexplicably revealing outfit to my list of annoyances.
Smallville is doing fairly well (when it objectifies, it does tend to objectify both genders). Bones, Numb3rs, and House have their issues but do not tend to ever actually offend me.
Buffy had its race issues (though, by the last season, they were getting a bit better), but I really miss its pro-feminist/pro-queer slant.
Specifically, the notion that women come in a variety of personalities (and shapes) and that this is good. That women can be friends with each other (that women can be friends with men). That women can be leaders.
I am... both hopeful and fearful of where Supernatural is currently going, female character-wise. Dean appears to be objectifying women more and getting more misogynist in his descriptions of them. We have two strong, reoccurring female characters, but one is amoral and one is a demon (currently evil by definition). Jo, last season, really disappointed me in No Exit because she came across as very immature (like Dawn in S5 of Buffy, but Dawn was 13-14 as opposed to Jo's 19-21). Ellen, of course, was explicitly described as 'not a hunter' ("hunter's wife", actually, which is probably worse) in her introduction.
I really like both Bela and Ruby so far. There are a lot of really bad, anti-female places that Kripke could go with their characters. And that makes me nervous. Because the guy who likes the music that Kripke likes objectifies women (ETA: this was, in fact, a reference solely to Dean -- and now we see why descriptions rather than names are bad and confusing! 'the guy' = 'Dean').
I'm seriously considering dropping Heroes because the gender issues are making me uncomfortable. I still haven't watched last week's Prison Break because they killed Sarah, but T-Bag is still standing.
Dexter has embraced both 'women are cutthroat bitches in the workplace' and 'women can't handle the emotional stress of being in charge' stereotypes. Which is kinda impressive, in a depressing way (though prejudices are often contradictory -- that's part of what makes them so baffling).
*sigh*
And, of course, I've spoken about my issues with Larrin (though we can add her inexplicably revealing outfit to my list of annoyances.
Smallville is doing fairly well (when it objectifies, it does tend to objectify both genders). Bones, Numb3rs, and House have their issues but do not tend to ever actually offend me.