Ideology is sneaky
Oct. 12th, 2007 09:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethSo in class at the moment we're pulling stuff apart to hunt for the ideology. It's kind of fun, apart from the whole spitting with rage phase once you notice exactly what they're trying to slip in under the smiles.
One thing about ideology that explains a lot is that it isn't some cynical dish cooked up by powerful and swallowed by powerless. It's for everyone. It doesn't just persuade the disempowered to stay down, it persuades the powerful they really are doing the right thing in staying up.
I watch stuff like Torchwood, and read about Stargate Atlantis, and it makes me worry. Both shows have an ep where a guy uses chemistry to get sex. And while I thought Torchwood had a whole karma arc going on, had Owen set up to be the bad guy on purpose, some of the writers have voiced opinions that left me real disappointed in them. Same, as I read, with SGA. They write this stuff, and we the (mostly female) readers can see it is rape, but the (mostly male) PTB are quite gobsmacked and thought it was a funny. The Torchwood one left me feeling queasy because they pretty much said she was asking for it. And their evidence was that she made eye contact.
There was an advert on the radio while I was being driven home today and it was one of those public awareness things. This one was about alcohol, not drinking too much. A woman talked about how she'd had too much to drink, got overconfident, and got raped. A male voiceover told her/everyone to be aware of drink, drink responsibly, something like that. I tried not to think about it at the time because spitting rage in the almost-taxi isn't terribly helpful. Bad enough the male voice effectively tells off the stupid drunk womens. But... why is it the woman's story? Why is it a story of drunk-vulnerable-raped? Why is it not the statistically massively more likely story of drunk-stupid-fought? Or, the exact same story from the male point of view - stupid drunk and ignored no.
Because it's never about that. All the education is about how not to get raped. Where's the teaching how not to rape?
Because you'd think it's easy. You'd think it's obvious. It has to be a consciously malevolent act, right? It's crystal clear, the issue of consent, and anyone ignoring no has to be setting out to be the bad guy.
Except... if that's the case, why can't they see it here?
I'm not calling the writers rapists. No. But I'm saying that somewhere not even in the subtext, somewhere so clearly in the main message of the story we look right past it, some guy thinks that women don't have the right to choose what they shag or what chemistry they interact with. Because that's what they're saying, when they say Owen's a hero and that section was just for funny. They're saying that woman didn't have the right to ignore him, that by looking at him she was giving up control of her body for the night. And it's deeply fucked up, that such a thing can be thought. And part of what makes Torchwood an interesting example is it isn't only the woman that is treated like that - the exact same thing happens to a man too. And how did the writers perceive that? How was him yelling at Owen construed as an invitation to sex? Well I don't know, because the interview I read just flat ignored it. All their justifications were about the woman, and the man that didn't fit the story simply got ignored.
And that's how ideology works. Things get rearranged, the idea of them, the perception of them, so the bits that don't fit go invisible and the bits that are left are seen as simply common sense. It's comedy - if you see rape you're reading it wrong. Obvious.
... I'm making myself feel sick here. Sorry.
But that's the part that's most worrying to me. Not just that these two stories were a bit of a ghastly mess from certain angles. That there's an ideology out there that can make this be perceived as all right.
And this is why it's important to not stop complaining. Because invisible is where the poison lives, so we have to analyse it and make it visible again.
One thing about ideology that explains a lot is that it isn't some cynical dish cooked up by powerful and swallowed by powerless. It's for everyone. It doesn't just persuade the disempowered to stay down, it persuades the powerful they really are doing the right thing in staying up.
I watch stuff like Torchwood, and read about Stargate Atlantis, and it makes me worry. Both shows have an ep where a guy uses chemistry to get sex. And while I thought Torchwood had a whole karma arc going on, had Owen set up to be the bad guy on purpose, some of the writers have voiced opinions that left me real disappointed in them. Same, as I read, with SGA. They write this stuff, and we the (mostly female) readers can see it is rape, but the (mostly male) PTB are quite gobsmacked and thought it was a funny. The Torchwood one left me feeling queasy because they pretty much said she was asking for it. And their evidence was that she made eye contact.
There was an advert on the radio while I was being driven home today and it was one of those public awareness things. This one was about alcohol, not drinking too much. A woman talked about how she'd had too much to drink, got overconfident, and got raped. A male voiceover told her/everyone to be aware of drink, drink responsibly, something like that. I tried not to think about it at the time because spitting rage in the almost-taxi isn't terribly helpful. Bad enough the male voice effectively tells off the stupid drunk womens. But... why is it the woman's story? Why is it a story of drunk-vulnerable-raped? Why is it not the statistically massively more likely story of drunk-stupid-fought? Or, the exact same story from the male point of view - stupid drunk and ignored no.
Because it's never about that. All the education is about how not to get raped. Where's the teaching how not to rape?
Because you'd think it's easy. You'd think it's obvious. It has to be a consciously malevolent act, right? It's crystal clear, the issue of consent, and anyone ignoring no has to be setting out to be the bad guy.
Except... if that's the case, why can't they see it here?
I'm not calling the writers rapists. No. But I'm saying that somewhere not even in the subtext, somewhere so clearly in the main message of the story we look right past it, some guy thinks that women don't have the right to choose what they shag or what chemistry they interact with. Because that's what they're saying, when they say Owen's a hero and that section was just for funny. They're saying that woman didn't have the right to ignore him, that by looking at him she was giving up control of her body for the night. And it's deeply fucked up, that such a thing can be thought. And part of what makes Torchwood an interesting example is it isn't only the woman that is treated like that - the exact same thing happens to a man too. And how did the writers perceive that? How was him yelling at Owen construed as an invitation to sex? Well I don't know, because the interview I read just flat ignored it. All their justifications were about the woman, and the man that didn't fit the story simply got ignored.
And that's how ideology works. Things get rearranged, the idea of them, the perception of them, so the bits that don't fit go invisible and the bits that are left are seen as simply common sense. It's comedy - if you see rape you're reading it wrong. Obvious.
... I'm making myself feel sick here. Sorry.
But that's the part that's most worrying to me. Not just that these two stories were a bit of a ghastly mess from certain angles. That there's an ideology out there that can make this be perceived as all right.
And this is why it's important to not stop complaining. Because invisible is where the poison lives, so we have to analyse it and make it visible again.
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-12 09:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-12 09:19 pm (UTC)I've seen fandom - both genders - argue this as well. Oh, she made eye contact for half a second; she must be up for it. Never mind that she says she's not interested. Never mind that we find out two minutes later that she's in a relationship (and was presumably waiting for her boyfriend in that bar). And Owen sprays it on himself, not her, so that must be okay.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-12 09:26 pm (UTC)have had similar responses on poll and when mentioned before.
cannot understand it.