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beccaelizabethI watched Merlin tonight because I happened to sit down to eat just as it started.
I haven't watched it for a long time, and I knew I gave up watching it for Reasons, but hey, how bad could it be?
I want to punch Arthur in the face.
I gave up on Arthur stories because after a while they all seem to be about how wicked women are. Not just about some women being wicked. I haven't watched, I don't know all the characters, but I just assumed any women in this who weren't Gwen would turn out to be evil and hey, wow, what a surprise, look at that!
(And this is why stereotyping is bad on a purely narrative aesthetic level, because why should your audience pay attention when it's going to be that predictable? Unless they just want to see women be evil and lose a lot.)
To be fair it does seem to have improved about killing black men. When I gave up it was killing them practically once an episode. Black men did not survive. This time, black men merely did not speak, you could see they existed and were still breathing at the end of the episode. That's an improvement.
But the women... Gwen is there purely to tell men how awesome they are and follow them around and snuggle them and gaze up at them adoringly (while having absolutely no chemistry... seriously, there was a moment Arthur moved in for what at that point in the story ought to have been a kiss and just turned it into a hug and I wondered if it was just my imagination or if he was actually creeped out about kissing this friend person. Or is possibly in this story they actually aren't married. But then they were sleeping in the same bed together so *shrugs*.)
Women that aren't Gwen? Evil. To be fair there were only two of them. But FFS there were only two of them, and at least eight speaking parts for men. Is 50/50 really that difficult? Don't give me the thing about medieval women, this is fantasy and medieval women did all the things anyway, especially in times of trouble, when people die a lot the ones left standing can't afford to ignore the contribution of half the human race.
Maybe the season set up some grand story arc, maybe there's a Reason that Morgana is supposed to be evil, but the stuff I've actually seen just has her being the enemy, just opposing Arthur, and her entire supposed unfitness to rule is all about her genitals. Not just in Merlin, in a bunch of Arthur stories. It's creepy as hell.
Arthur's supposed fitness is about waving a sword around. And it's all very well being brave and willing to lead from the front, but the man's a general, not a King. He's giving a speech about how he's protecting his people from tyranny, but he's a King because he's the strongest guy and son of the strongest guy. I'm not generally sold on monarchy, and I'm not specifically sold on Arthur.
So here's this story about the white guy with a sword standing up to the evil wicked woman and her bloke with a sword - and there's handy color coding in the hair colors, which is creepy, and does Morgana actually own a comb? Because combs are very ancient technology and entirely suitable to magic people as well.
And it winds me up so much.
In theory I like stories with swords and magic and dragons, but in practice I just want to punch the King in the face and watch something else entirely.
Oh, also? I have been watching martial arts films with magic in them, and when someone in one of them has one of those mystical realisation moments and finds their power, it's often because they've understood a philosophical principle or called on Buddha. In western films and television, it's usually because they've been told to believe in themselves. That's kind of creeping me out. I mean, believing in yourself is all well and good, but I'd rather the key to magic be compassion and a willingness to help others. Otherwise what are you believing in? Believe you are powerful and you have power? Why is that a good thing?
And it persistently pisses me off when it's all about how you're born.
I might have to watch Captain America for antidote. I'm not keen on the America part, but when someone asks what makes him special, he don't reckon he is. He's just a guy who trained up and took his vitamins and tried real hard to be a good man.
I think I should start writing again. I keep watching stuff that pisses me off, I should put my money where my mouth is and try and write something better. I would start by making a character list and make 50% of the world female.
Actually I did that for the novel I got more than 50K into. That was working pretty well.
But I had to do college work. And still do. And, er, usefully could be doing so right now.
... where I will be studying gender roles in Doctor Who, which manages to have quite a lot of women quite a lot of the time. And they quite often get things to do and make decisions and kick a lot of arse and sometimes even don't get punished for it.
Doctor Who is best. Why don't all the TV notice why Doctor Who is best?
I haven't watched it for a long time, and I knew I gave up watching it for Reasons, but hey, how bad could it be?
I want to punch Arthur in the face.
I gave up on Arthur stories because after a while they all seem to be about how wicked women are. Not just about some women being wicked. I haven't watched, I don't know all the characters, but I just assumed any women in this who weren't Gwen would turn out to be evil and hey, wow, what a surprise, look at that!
(And this is why stereotyping is bad on a purely narrative aesthetic level, because why should your audience pay attention when it's going to be that predictable? Unless they just want to see women be evil and lose a lot.)
To be fair it does seem to have improved about killing black men. When I gave up it was killing them practically once an episode. Black men did not survive. This time, black men merely did not speak, you could see they existed and were still breathing at the end of the episode. That's an improvement.
But the women... Gwen is there purely to tell men how awesome they are and follow them around and snuggle them and gaze up at them adoringly (while having absolutely no chemistry... seriously, there was a moment Arthur moved in for what at that point in the story ought to have been a kiss and just turned it into a hug and I wondered if it was just my imagination or if he was actually creeped out about kissing this friend person. Or is possibly in this story they actually aren't married. But then they were sleeping in the same bed together so *shrugs*.)
Women that aren't Gwen? Evil. To be fair there were only two of them. But FFS there were only two of them, and at least eight speaking parts for men. Is 50/50 really that difficult? Don't give me the thing about medieval women, this is fantasy and medieval women did all the things anyway, especially in times of trouble, when people die a lot the ones left standing can't afford to ignore the contribution of half the human race.
Maybe the season set up some grand story arc, maybe there's a Reason that Morgana is supposed to be evil, but the stuff I've actually seen just has her being the enemy, just opposing Arthur, and her entire supposed unfitness to rule is all about her genitals. Not just in Merlin, in a bunch of Arthur stories. It's creepy as hell.
Arthur's supposed fitness is about waving a sword around. And it's all very well being brave and willing to lead from the front, but the man's a general, not a King. He's giving a speech about how he's protecting his people from tyranny, but he's a King because he's the strongest guy and son of the strongest guy. I'm not generally sold on monarchy, and I'm not specifically sold on Arthur.
So here's this story about the white guy with a sword standing up to the evil wicked woman and her bloke with a sword - and there's handy color coding in the hair colors, which is creepy, and does Morgana actually own a comb? Because combs are very ancient technology and entirely suitable to magic people as well.
And it winds me up so much.
In theory I like stories with swords and magic and dragons, but in practice I just want to punch the King in the face and watch something else entirely.
Oh, also? I have been watching martial arts films with magic in them, and when someone in one of them has one of those mystical realisation moments and finds their power, it's often because they've understood a philosophical principle or called on Buddha. In western films and television, it's usually because they've been told to believe in themselves. That's kind of creeping me out. I mean, believing in yourself is all well and good, but I'd rather the key to magic be compassion and a willingness to help others. Otherwise what are you believing in? Believe you are powerful and you have power? Why is that a good thing?
And it persistently pisses me off when it's all about how you're born.
I might have to watch Captain America for antidote. I'm not keen on the America part, but when someone asks what makes him special, he don't reckon he is. He's just a guy who trained up and took his vitamins and tried real hard to be a good man.
I think I should start writing again. I keep watching stuff that pisses me off, I should put my money where my mouth is and try and write something better. I would start by making a character list and make 50% of the world female.
Actually I did that for the novel I got more than 50K into. That was working pretty well.
But I had to do college work. And still do. And, er, usefully could be doing so right now.
... where I will be studying gender roles in Doctor Who, which manages to have quite a lot of women quite a lot of the time. And they quite often get things to do and make decisions and kick a lot of arse and sometimes even don't get punished for it.
Doctor Who is best. Why don't all the TV notice why Doctor Who is best?