A link

[lirazel]

I know a lot of you keep up with metafandom, so possibly you've all already read this long ago, but I just now stumbled upon it and I MUST SHARE.

Fiction, gender, women's pain, and MAN PAIN

If the Buffyverse, BSG, or gender stuff is relevant to your interests (and I know at least a few of you who are interested in ALL OF THE ABOVE), go and read this. It talks about our different reactions to men and women's pain and also explains why I can't stand Wesley Wyndham-Pryce and why I love Buffy Summers, among other things. Also there is Kara love and Adama hate, and even though (as you probably know), I'm pretty apathetic when it comes to Kara, I know a lot of you aren't and love her for very good reasons. So go forth and read!

Comments

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

OOps! That was me. I forgot to sign in.

[local-max.livejournal.com]

Ha, no problem.

For some reason, I didn't mind the quadrangle of death while watching. I zoomed through S3 on DVD and so never really stopped long enough to get upset. I never really hated anyone while watching the show, to be honest; it's more in thinking about it that certain characters stand out to me and make me angry.

One thought I've returned to on a number of shows with a number of characters in a number of fandoms is that motivation isn't justification. Just because I can understand why a character does something doesn't make that characters actions okay Something can be comprehensible and reprehesible at the exact same time. If you can pull that off and still have likability, you've done a really neat trick. If you can't, then deal with then recognize the fact that not everyone is going to cheer that character on in every situation.

I agree with this to an extent. The "to an extent" is, I think, partly that I tend to empathize with characters more than, perhaps, I should: I can still like characters who are in some respects awful people. When characters don't really own up to badness they're involved in, I do make note of it, and if I think the narrative is explicitly condoning them then I get angry. But if I don't think a character is being privileged as being "right" or "admirable" then I really don't mind. I am full of sympathy for pretty much everyone in season six of BtVS, for example, even though I understand why others aren't. BSG as an example did a good job sometimes of making it clear that these were just people, and that we shouldn't take their position as the right one. Other times, it seemed to side a little too much with the characters. It's a delicate science.