Merlin is making me sick

[beccaelizabeth]

There's a basic built in problem with the Arthur story, the way its been told lately. It's about a good king and a wicked witch. And it worries me greatly that this remains popular. Two different tellings lately focus on Arthur and Morgana both claiming the throne through their father. Both of them have Arthur be The Good One and Morgana be The Bad One. Arthur has his supporting cast of knights, and Merlin, and Gaius, and Gwen who has very few lines lately but pouts and worries very prettily in low cut dresses. Which is pissing me off. Morgana had women on her side once, but this season she killed them and there's more men everywhere. Does that make it better or worse? That she can't claim power on her own, she just messes around with a man doing all the doings? Worse, I think. It's all about how her claim to power isn't legitimate and Arthur's is. Why? It keeps on being gendered. With Merlin there's a whole theme of oppressed magic going on, and Uther was plain evil, and freeing the magic users would seem like a good idea if there wasn't a new and different deadly magical threat every week. Then it just looks like he had a point. Stupidly messed up telling, that. But this week we meet a magic user who chooses sides, and decides Morgana is The Bad One, and rejects her, and oh look, even the torturer rejects her, how wicked is she? So it isn't Evil Magic Users. There's magic users choosing Arthur. So what's the difference? Is it that one side uses secrets, lies, concealment? Well no, both sides do that, it's just apparently there's good lies and bad lies, and do I ever have a problem with that. No, it pretty much looks like one side is all blokes, and they're rejecting this uppity woman.

I don't know what story they're trying to tell, but with the structure of the setup, that's the story they're telling. Woman trying to claim power? Eeeeeevil! Stop her! Go work for the bloke, even when they're oppressing people, because hey, still got the important qualification for the job.

If there were an equal number of stories about a queen trying to hold on to a righteous land while her evil brother plotted against her, it wouldn't be a Thing. But are there even ANY stories like that? Not so much. Not on TV. Not in popular culture.

And it remains so popular.

I know, I watched it, why watch when I always end up complaining? I watched this season of Merlin because it was on the recorder box and I wanted to wash my brain out. Well, it didn't do that. This isn't a story of good vs evil. It just pretends to be. And who gets painted as evil? Every bloody time?

I need things to watch where women get to be strong and not be punished for it. Where women get to be strong and its a legitimate and valid occupation. Where women get to be strong and get celebrated for it in their own culture.

It would really really help if right now I could think of any.



PS: there's a secondary rant about black people, invisibility of, reduction to serve story of angsty white dude, etc etc et bloody c. One of the knights is black, yaays. Is that the knight that gets all the stories? Is that the knight that gets any of the story? Is it heck. And it's not like there's a shortage of bits with knights in them. I could go on at length, but, you know, second verse, same as the first. It's always the same.

Comments

[sahiya]

Have you seen White Collar? The protonists are male, yes, but the supporting cast is mostly female and they're all awesome.

[beccaelizabeth]

it does not appear to be on in the UK, at least on the free channels.
also it has less aliens and demons than my usual TV.
but awesome women sounds nice.

[sahiya]

Ah, no, it's not on in the UK. I think most of my friends who watch it in the UK either have the DVDs or watch it streaming (or through Other Means).

Someone recommended "The Good Wife" to me recently. Also no demons or aliens but lots of awesome women (and sometimes you just can't have everything).

[aurorra.livejournal.com]

Have you considered that it's a children's story in the most part? Therefore it has to be super simple.

Also, set in medieval times, therefore gender rules do apply unfortunately, as well as mostly white people.

They only just made it so a first born girl could inherit the throne LAST MONTH.

Not everything can be written using today's rules. It's up to today's authors to level the field and write the fairer stuff more than ever.

x

[beccaelizabeth]

broadcast at 8pm it is not a children's story, it's family viewing.
the gender rules of medieval times involved a hell of a lot of women doing business and running things, up to and including countries (Empress Matilda (c. 7 February 1102 – 10 September 1167)).
and it is fantasy set in an absolutely made up caricature that does not follow the rules of any particular time.
when they're wildly making stuff up they have absolute freedom to wildly make up stuff with better gender equality.
everything *CAN* be written with today's rules. Especially in fantasy land.

even if it were an absolutely accurate portrayal of historical gender inequality, it wouldn't have to make the oppressed side of the equation eeeeeevil.

They have the freedom to choose stories with more equality. So yeah, it's up to today's writers to write fairer stuff. Especially in children's TV.