linkspam

[astridv]

my bookmarks are overflowing...

Starting at 1:40 in this Wire gag reel, there's a funny (and rather lyrical, heh) composition of characters cursing. Speaking of Fuck: Shut the fuck up!

THE WIRE - 100 Greatest Quotes (spoilers)
I just finished another rewatch of the show... since with that show, you can't rewatch just one episode, you have to view at least an entire season. And it actually gets better with each viewing, because of the sheer complexity. The writing is so tight. The acting is so good. (The acting is so good that there was a moment of dissonance when I saw them out of character in the gag reel...)

fandom meta: For all the women I have loved who were dragged through the mud
Talks about hostility towards female characters, possible reasons, possible ways to change this. An astute analysis, I thought. It's long, but worth the read.

excellent short film: This little girl explains autism creatively.

megatexas wrote a snarky, entertaining article about public art in Austin: But is it art? “Moments,” by Carl Trominski

20 Amazing Examples of Owl Camouflage

And on cakewrecks, belatedly: Jen Tells An Easter Story... which I'm mostly linking for the last two pics. :)

Comments

[legionseagle]

That fandom meta on women characters is excellent. I looked up my meta on The Deep the other day, to remind myself of it (I was having a hate on Sam Wollaston for the way he systematically denigrates shows with strong largely female ensemble casts and The Deep is a prime example of this, so I wanted to see what I'd said at the time)

And it occurred to me that The Deep had everything people keep moaning they never get to see on TV (strong female leads, Bechdel Test passes, plots which don't revolve around romantic entanglements, people in romantic entanglements not letting them get in the way of their being competent and professional, diversity....) and it sank without trace.

[princessofgeeks]

thanks for the link about hating female characters.

[jae]

God, that fandom meta about women characters makes me feel like a Martian.

-J

[astridv]

Haven't encountered this? I unfortunately have, in the past, but much less so more recently. It varies a lot from fandom to fandom.

[astridv]

Gladly.
I don't agree 100% with all points (mostly I would ascribe more weight to the 'die for our ship' factor) but mostly I think her analysis is on the money.

[jae]

I'm actually not sure I have encountered it in my fandoms, to be honest (though I've heard about it and read things about it, including your essays)--maybe that's because I've never been involved in a fandom about a speculative fiction show? (I started in West Wing, then moved on to Friday Night Lights, dabbled in the Good Wife, and now it's the Americans.)

What I meant, though, was more that I found myself saying things throughout the whole post like: "it would never OCCUR to me to...", and about pretty much EVERYTHING in it (whether it had to do with women or not). I mean, some people talk about coming to fandom and "finding their tribe" or whatever, but I so often find people's descriptions of their experience of fandom so freaking ALIENATING.

-J

[astridv]

Yeah. It irks me to see character I love and find interesting ignored or bashed while at the same time there's all this clamoring for strong female characters. Because those that exist are never good enough, apparently.

[astridv]

Yes, that's exactly the feeling. I ultimately had to leave one of my favorite fandoms because I felt so thoroughly alienated, I could not stand the thought of being anywhere near that mindset.

Shows like The Americans or The Wire create different kinds of fan followings, I think. Different dynamics. I mean, I would not be entirely surprised if someone out there composed some meta on why Elizabeth is a terrible character, but I also wouldn't expect it. And I would be able to laugh it off because it would be a minority opinion.
(btw, still unspoiled for the most recent ep.)

What's The Good Wife like? I heard good things. Worth checking out?

[jae]

I can't believe you haven't watched the Good Wife! It is SO the show for people who love interesting female characters! So yes, check it out.

Actually...if you want and it's convenient for you, we could do a trade: I could bring over all of the files of all of the aired episodes of the Good Wife, and you could transfer me the file of the new episode of the Americans as soon as possible on Thursday morning, April 25th (the laptop I'm bringing with me doesn't have the ability to do t****ts, and I've been tearing my hair out trying to figure how I'm going to get my greedy little paws on it). Would that work for you? You can email me at jaegecko at jaegecko dot com if you want to talk about options (egal in welcher Sprache *g*).

-J

[princessofgeeks]

I especially appreciated the point she made about how if an individual fan has a good reason to hate a specific character, that makes it easier to remain in denial about how pronounced and widespread the hate for the female characters is.

I do have the difficulty writing female characters based on over identification, but I'm working on that and I posted about it recently.

But she's right that it happens in every single fandom without exception.

[princessofgeeks]

So glad you've avoided it.

The absolute worst I ever saw personally was for the new version of Uhura.

[astridv]

I especially appreciated the point she made about how if an individual fan has a good reason to hate a specific character, that makes it easier to remain in denial about how pronounced and widespread the hate for the female characters is.

And the thing is that every single individual fan probably thinks they have a good reason for their hate.

[astridv]

Oh god, all the anti-Uhura "meta". I've almost forgotten that. I hope it won't happen like that again when the new movie comes out.

[jae]

I should clarify in retrospect that what I meant by 'alienating' was on a much broader level than just the 'hating women' tendency. Pretty much everything in that essay pinged my 'wow, the assumptions behind this have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with why I'm in fandom' feelings. (I often feel that way when reading about fandom, but it hit me harder in this essay than it often does, I think.)

-J

[jae]

Do tell!

-J

[princessofgeeks]

Oh, I didn't save links. It would be easy to find.

Just a lot of hate for Uhura, hate for the way the character was portrayed, hate that the movie put her together with Spock.

I quit reading it very soon.