Not Anonymous

So, like, I know I'm the party-pooper when it comes to the fun of Fandom.

I know I'm Waldorf to someone else's Statler (or vice versa), but I am irked.

It irks me when things like this are received with a *squee* and nary a side eye.

As per the link, there was a panel at SDCC on X-Men and the subject of LGBT themes came up. Zack Stentz, who was involved in writing X-Men: First Class is quoted:

[...]
Stentz basically confirmed Erik/Charles (he called First Class, “the tragic romance of Charles and Erik”) and went on to describe how if certain events/personal ideologies/chosen paths hadn’t forced them apart, Erik and Charles would most certainly be together. According to him, it’s one of those “they’re meant for each other, but fate refuses to let them stay together” situations.

That's nice.

Really it is.

About as nice as being told Professor Dumbledore was gay, two years (if IIRC) after he died.

The fandom went wild, as did I at the time, until I thought about the implications of outing him post-mortem.

And this, oh, the tragic love story of two men who have never ever in the canon shown any kind of evidence beyond subtext that we need to look for, that they loved each other in a way that went deeper than friendship, or even brotherhood.

That quote, right there, that feels like pandering. It feels like fan service. It feels like, there was a big loaf of bread somewhere when it came to who got the benefit of being represented in an honest way in a genre movie.

I don't want to have to have the "Word of God" confirm subtext they put in there so that they could be implicit, rather than explicit, about character development and desire. I don't want a panel at SDCC to tell me that the margins of the text are slightly wider than they were before.

I don't want to be happy about the fact that a movie filled with plausible deniability is a vindication of queer readings in a film, chock full of code and subtext that exists to make the aforementioned deniability hold strong.

The most we can say is "thank god no one is running for the hills due to queer implication" and no it doesn't really matter what the sexuality of the creators are - what matters is what is conveyed and while what is conveyed in the movie is brilliant, this is not a movie that has queer people in it. It is a movie that has queer themes and implications running through it.

Nuance is fun, ambiguity is one of my favourite things. But not at the cost of real, actual, honest to god, LGBT representation.

When am I getting my Batwoman movie?! Oh, never? Thought so. Is Northstar ever going to be something other than a gay Canadian Speedster? No, oh well.

Apollo? Mignighter? Maybe on HBO or Showtime? Yeah, maybe.

Crossposts: http://eumelia.livejournal.com/547114.html

You know something, coming from a country in which the vast majority of men are circumcised, the whole debate seems a bit incongruous, but I understand and am personally in the opinion that male circumcision is an unnecessary procedure and would encourage parents to really think about whether this something they want to inflict on their male child.

I still don't think that people who do end up circumcising their male child are morally reprehensible, or that the baby is in real danger from such a procedure - any more than any other complication that can happen from a modern medical procedure.

It is a tradition I think is passée, but I understand why Jewish people feel it is a necessary one.

However, when intactivists chose to vilify a religious tradition be resorting to Antisemitic rhetoric and imagery I can't say I feel too compelled to root for your cause.

Because seriously, what is this shit?

An evilly grinning Jewish man in "traditional" Jewish markers of a Talit and a Shtreimel? A mohel (the guy who does the cutting) covered in blood? And an Aryan looking man defending the poor defenceless mother and baby from the Evil Jews out to main the baby?

California activists, this is a summary fuck you from a Jewish grrl who finds your tactics more than nauseating. I don't usually side with the Anti-Defamation League, but in this case they are not wrong.

And if anyone tries to compare male circumcision to female genital mutilation, know that you are only showing your ass and that comment will be frozen and you yourself may be banned from commenting on this journal.

I hate this female character flow chart with a passion I try to keep within me for causes that matter.

Luckily, this is one of them.

I am not the first to be irritated by it, no god no.

My main problem with the flow chart is that it reduces all female characters into foils of the male characters.
All of them.
It is especially irksome when Yoko Ono is there as well, being an actual person and all.

Sarah Connor, a heroine which we are afraid to see in this day and age, reduced to "Mama Bear".
Miss Piggy, one of my personal heroes, a performer of the highest calibre and one of the few regular female presence on "The Muppet Show", reduced to her mood swings, rather the hilarious comedienne that she is.
Lieutenant Uhura is useless?! In what freakin' universe!?!? A woman who held her own on the bridge of a Star Ship. I just... Ah!

Look at the flow-chart and judge for yourselves.

But judging is all that ever goes on when it comes to female characters, huh. It's all about whether they fit a paradigm of looks, abilities and personae.

Do male characters not fit that flow chart. You bet they do, but will there ever be a flow chart so demeaning? No, of course not, that flow chart will be critical and thoughtful and be about the characters as Characters, not the characters as "men".

The chart also demonstrates the notion that archetypes and tropes are a bad thing. I beg to differ, archetypes and tropes are what make a story work. If we look at the shortest form of a story, a joke, the comedy (and tragedy) of the tale works because we understand the history of the character as an archetype and we understand the situation the character is in because it is a common trope.

A horse walks into a bar, the bartender says, "Hey, why the long face"

Despite that joke being as old as the hills, it demonstrates my point - the characters, of which there are two, are in a common setting (a bar) and the funny is in the way is treated (as a human) by the bartender.

The joke wouldn't work without the archetype of the bartender and the trope of being sad in a bar.

Is a "strong female character" someone who manages to overcome the archetypes and the tropes? No, a strong character, regardless of gender, orientation, race, nationality, ability and more, is a person who works those things beautifully.

It is of course worth mentioning, that gender, orientation, race, nationality and ability do matter, because of the white-supremacist masculine-centric hetero-normative society we live in, those characters who do not fit well into the social paradigm listen above are scrutinised, because they have been more often than not been stereotyped, instead of archetyped and as such their stories are, at best, written in order to appease the long laundry list of hierarchies listed above.

The thing is, when it's the feminists (hi there!) who create that chart and continue to critique female characters as though they cannot stand on their own, as though they really are simply gender foils to male characters - well then, what exactly is the point?

Other articles to read regarding our loving and/or loathing of female characters would be Harridans, Harlots and Heroines: women of the classical world, all of which would likely fit in that chart as either Fickle Woman, Lady of War, Shrew, Suffering Wife or an Ideal Woman.

And Connecting with Female Characters in Geek Television which goes in quite a bit about the truly irrational hatred of Gwen Cooper of Torchwood and River Song of Doctor Who - two women characters which have garnered a lot of fandom hatred to the point where it seems to be almost a fetish to write fic that simply bashes them.

I will admit that I didn't like Gwen (though not to the point of murdering her in fic for the sake of calling her a whore and getting rid of her from the lives of Jack and Ianto... yes, I've seen it! *shudders*) in the beginning, but fandom taught me to love her and River is someone I loved from the moment I saw her.

When feminists participate in this kind of misogyny, not to mention racism, check this article out from Den of Geek that came out in July... Martha Jones. Martha "I walked the Earth for a year in order to save the Universe and all I got was a boatload of female Doctor Who fans who hated me for it" Jones.

This is me, giving that article and that flow chart the two fingered salute, the birdie and the request to stop perpetuating sexist ideas about what female characters are supposed to be like in order to be "strong".

Sometimes, being a feminist fangrrl is just no fucking fun at all.

It's too early in the fandom to expect a crossover with Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" isn't it?

On the other hand, I'm finding it odd that I haven't found any fic of that kind. The two fandoms are begging to meet each other!

At least... in my mind.

I have like a bazillion tags open regarding using Pinkwashing language regarding human rights, but instead of that serious business, I'd rather talk about fandom.

For serious.

neo_progidy blogs about comic books and fandom on his LJ from a progressive perspective focusing on the inclusion of women (feminist/womanist perspective and issues), QUILTBAG*, non-white/poc (perspective and issues) in comic books!

Yays!

His new blog can be found here: Strange Days and In Between All Things.

In addition, you can follow the rss reeds on LJ - strangedays_rss and on DW - strange_days_feed.

*The acronym of awesome: Queer/Questioing, Undecided/Up Yours, Intersex, Lesbian, Trans*, Bisexual, Asexual/Allies, Gay/Genderqueer.

---

Last year, today, I watched the entirety of Torchwood: CoE in five hours straight. I watched it twice more over the next week.
It was a doozy.
It was brilliant.
It broke my heart and the way I viewed television and my own participation in fandom changed. I'm still not a huge participator, being the uncreative standoffish person that I am. I have many ideas for various fics in various universes, but I'm a lazy ass and don't really take the time to write. The last fic I wrote was for Iron Man two years ago.
Gah.
My Meta still flows out of me like I dunno what, but that too, is often curtailed for writing about local politics and my own perspective of them.

My fangrrl self cannot be removed from my actual self, so my personal politics very much informs me on the way I view media, which is kind of why I never considered creating different blogs for the mish-mash of subjects I talk about here.

Speaking of which, onto some squeeage... of sorts. Tonight the new episodes of True Blood and Leverage will be airing and I'm happy, though honestly, both of the shows previous episodes left a bad taste in my mouth for different reasons. ( My reasons, let me show you them, cut for spoilers )

And that's all for now.

You see, I've never seen Christmas.
Never.
Not ever.

Why? Well, I don't live in a country in which it is celebrated at large and I'm not Christian so I wouldn't celebrate in small.
Also, December is an awful time for traveling to a cold place!

And in addition, there's ( XKCD )

At least the days are getting longer again. I'm sick of the Dark! I can't wait for the arbitrary date to go by all ready!

When some one links to an article titled The War on Science Fiction and Marvin Minsky on a website called The Spearhead and the Author's nick is Pro-male/Anti-feminist Tech; you know you're in for some fun sci-fi critique!

My first thought after reading that diatribe of misogyny, homophobia and exclusionary nostalgia, was pretty uncharitable, petty and mean.
Not even the most "one of the boys/I'm not a feminist" female-geek wouldn be able to consider this person particularly tasteful.
Seeing as he's laying out misogyny and homophobia pretty fucking thick. Without any shame and certainly without any self-reflection.
But That's what cowards do.

I'm reminded of my entry into the comic book world, there are women there (readers that is) and I gravitated to the classics (Batman, Superman, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, the Justice League - yeah, I'm a DC grrl) and to horror-fantasy (DC's Vertigo line; Sandman, Hellblazer, Fables, Lucifer etc).
This is not an odd thing, most people like more than one kind of genre in they chosen form of medium, but I definitely felt the overwhelmed by the amount of boys in this medium and how my reading of the stories being feminist (even before I could articulate why it was feminist - I was 15 when I got into comics) made me iffy about getting into discussion with other Batman fans - many of them, somehow, ignoring the fetish gear he dons in order to fight crime and the only women he's ever been interested in sexually (he doesn't do romance) have been other criminals who wear costumes.
I digress.
( This is cut for length )

Times they are a changing, and guess what, they've been "changing" and "changed" since the mid-60's, you, Pro-Male/Anti-Feminist Tech failed to get on that boat and complaining about us women and queers taking over your genre and taking your jobs in science...
This is not a tree-house club and there are no more Wendy houses.
This is a sandbox - please stop peeing in it.

ETA: I couldn't stop myself. I commented, sans a link to this blog. I don't need to make easier for them to find me.

If you still want in on this meme, you can fill it out here.
But now, the lists!

There is no hierarchy to this Top Five Lists, all are equally awesome in my mind!

( Top Five Catchphrases )

( Top Five Musicians )

( Top Five Fights )

( Top Five Books )

( Top Five Comic Book Characters )

( Top Five Dream Jobs )

Any questions?

A few years ago, I must of been in my early teens, I saw a movie on television which I've never seen since.
Mainly because I could never forget it.
The movie is When the Wind Blows.
The film horrified me.
I had nightmares for days, it was like when I went to the Planetarium when I was about seven or eight years old and was convinced the sun would expand and destroy all life on earth... today.

I've always been terrified by scenarios I know can, have and will happen eventually.
I suppose it's one of the reasons I'm a sci-fi/fantasy fan.

Someone has put up When the Wind Blows in eight parts on YouTube.
Here they are for posterity.

When the Wind Blows (playlist permalink)


I will most likely not watch this movie today, or even tomorrow. But I feel that as a piece of culture it's important for me to know where to find it again.
As I said, I've never really forgotten this movie and having found it again I don't think I'll be able to stop myself from sitting down and watching and being thrown back into my early teen pre-Buffy brain and bawling like a baby at the nightmarish reality that that couple is living through.

I'm finding the coincidence of finding this movie again, right after seeing Watchmen and interesting coincidence.
Story of Watchmen takes place during a fictional Cold War reality, brinkmanship is a reality and the Doomsday Clock is only a few minutes to midnight.
In both versions a calamity descends.
And we never really see the aftermath.
When the Wind Blows is that aftermath.
At least, that's what my coincident prone brain told me.

So much to write about, so little time!
Exam on Monday, which I just can't wait to get over with! On Tuesday there are the Elections, which I haven't decided if I'm going to be live-blogging or not.

On the fandom front (Gosh it's been a while since I written anything fun!) I'm now in possession of Torchwood Series 1 and 2.
My *squees* are un-ending. Yes I've seen all the episodes, but I like owning things, especially when they come free.
Which means I will have the chance at re-watching all the eps before watching series 3:


Who knows when it will come to Israel and who knows when there will be enough people sharing it for download.
Oh, Torchwood, you are my crack!
I think Doctor Who and Torchwood have definitely taken a place in my huge fangrrl heart right there next to Buffy, Sandman and Batman.
Seeing as Jack behaves like a hyped up Batman (sans the secret identity) and Ianto is like a sexy, sexy Welsh combination of Giles, Alfred and Wesley... but with a baby-face and homoeroticism... there is no bad there!

BTW, if it should happen that Ianto dies in this mini-series (this season is built as a five episode arc which will be shown consecutively over the week, in the US and UK - dunno about other places at this point)... I think I may end up being sadder than when Angel got sent to hell at the end of BtVS season two.

*gasp* What if Gwen dies?
*gasp* What is this is Jack's last Hurrah and they plan on cancelling the show after this?!
*gasp* Okay... must remain calm. The likelihood of any of the Mains dying in this mimi is remote.
That's what the series 4 finale will be for!

I now have the episodes for prosperity and I will have this mini-series as well.

Cannot wait for Torchwood: Children of the Earth!