What can I say?
Jan. 25th, 2009 02:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenDo I think this is a hyperbolic review of the latest Battlestar Galactica episode? Not really. (Spoilers at that link!) Some douchenozzle replied to the post about how sexist BSG isn't, and how none of the women suffer any more than the men (nor are they punished any more than men are for their missteps).
Bullshit. We know it's bullshit. The past two seasons have seen the steady humiliation, degradation, and diminution of the previously strong female characters, many of whom are punished above and beyond their "crimes" while male character guilty of stupider or more morally black decisions just keep on keeping on. The last time a man was punished as harshly as some of the women have been lately was way back in season two when Crashdown lost his shit on Kobol and had to die. And he's also just about the only example I could think of. How depressing is that?
Why are women punished for their failures more than men are? This show wanted to be the post-sexism show, and all it has done is prove that the show's society can be no more post-sexism than our own. It's not enough that the power holders on the show are yin-yang, male and female. They have to be given the same amount of respect, both by characters on the show and in the viewer's estimation, and be held to the same standards when they, as humans will do, fail.
That just doesn't happen. When Roslin fails to be strong for humanity, she completely turns her back on all responsibilities and lets everyone twist in the wind. If she wants to throw herself a pity party and go, "I need my space, ga-awd," fine. But she's also the woman who worked through cancer before, until the unpleasant end was nigh, working on preserving humanity. If she's given up hope and needs to immolate and martyr herself, go ahead. At least figure out a way not to let Zarek completely undo all the good stuff she did do before that happens! Nope. Women! So fickle in their dedication to duty.
Or to anything, period. Starbuck is out to pasture with nothing to do but to serve as the asshole who justifies Gaeta's hostility. Gaeta has reasons to be hostile, many, in fact. (I told people that I thought the webisodes meant he had less cause to be pointing fingers, and he does. But he's human and is shoving away from personal responsibility to blame Cylons and Cylon-lovers entirely. Whatever.) But instead the show shoves him and Starbuck into a pissing-each-other-off match. That way the queer(ish) guy and the stupid female are responsible for the revolution that is coming. Frakkin' great. Doesn't Starbuck have about fifteen different plotlines she could be resolving? OMG husband is a Cylon? OMG am I a Cylon? OMG Earth, wtf?
Nope, not important. Instead, let's revisit the one human female for whom all human females should feel obligated to apologize! From beyond the grave, Cally gets to suck some more. In the process, her entire motivation for her life-ending breakdown was completely destroyed. Supposedly she knew that Nicky was Hot Dog's kid. If Nicky isn't Tyrol's kid, Cally never would have tried to airlock him because there's no reason to punish that child. But even leaving that aside, in addition to hounding Tyrol with her unrequited attraction, killing his lover, guilting him with her forgiveness of her abuse, hounding him constantly about not being the man she wanted him to be (instead of who he is), harping on him constantly, and accusing him of infidelity shortly before trying to bash his skull in...Cally also cuckholded him and tricked him into thinking her lover's baby was his. To the point that she told everyone in the medical bay, apparently. If there were any possible way for her to suck any more as a human being, I can't think of it. Unless she were really the last Cylon who ordered the nuking of the colonies in the first place! You never know, that might be the case.
Oh, as a bonus, Dee? Not missed. Like at all.
Sure, male characters act crazy some times. I think Zarek might, if only because the show is ending, be headed for a fall, but he's basically gotten a get-out-of-jail free card every single time, including that first time where he was literally let out of jail. His character's dramatic shift from idealism with a pragmatist into...whatever he is now, is ridiculous. He exists only to make trouble as opposed to being the guy who makes the very cogent point that the fleet is being run by a dictator and that that cannot stand, especially when one half of that partnership is a crazy woman with her religious visions telling her what to do and who has no plan beyond the point that they stop producing results.
No plan. Stopped producing results. Yeah, sounds familiar.
Bullshit. We know it's bullshit. The past two seasons have seen the steady humiliation, degradation, and diminution of the previously strong female characters, many of whom are punished above and beyond their "crimes" while male character guilty of stupider or more morally black decisions just keep on keeping on. The last time a man was punished as harshly as some of the women have been lately was way back in season two when Crashdown lost his shit on Kobol and had to die. And he's also just about the only example I could think of. How depressing is that?
Why are women punished for their failures more than men are? This show wanted to be the post-sexism show, and all it has done is prove that the show's society can be no more post-sexism than our own. It's not enough that the power holders on the show are yin-yang, male and female. They have to be given the same amount of respect, both by characters on the show and in the viewer's estimation, and be held to the same standards when they, as humans will do, fail.
That just doesn't happen. When Roslin fails to be strong for humanity, she completely turns her back on all responsibilities and lets everyone twist in the wind. If she wants to throw herself a pity party and go, "I need my space, ga-awd," fine. But she's also the woman who worked through cancer before, until the unpleasant end was nigh, working on preserving humanity. If she's given up hope and needs to immolate and martyr herself, go ahead. At least figure out a way not to let Zarek completely undo all the good stuff she did do before that happens! Nope. Women! So fickle in their dedication to duty.
Or to anything, period. Starbuck is out to pasture with nothing to do but to serve as the asshole who justifies Gaeta's hostility. Gaeta has reasons to be hostile, many, in fact. (I told people that I thought the webisodes meant he had less cause to be pointing fingers, and he does. But he's human and is shoving away from personal responsibility to blame Cylons and Cylon-lovers entirely. Whatever.) But instead the show shoves him and Starbuck into a pissing-each-other-off match. That way the queer(ish) guy and the stupid female are responsible for the revolution that is coming. Frakkin' great. Doesn't Starbuck have about fifteen different plotlines she could be resolving? OMG husband is a Cylon? OMG am I a Cylon? OMG Earth, wtf?
Nope, not important. Instead, let's revisit the one human female for whom all human females should feel obligated to apologize! From beyond the grave, Cally gets to suck some more. In the process, her entire motivation for her life-ending breakdown was completely destroyed. Supposedly she knew that Nicky was Hot Dog's kid. If Nicky isn't Tyrol's kid, Cally never would have tried to airlock him because there's no reason to punish that child. But even leaving that aside, in addition to hounding Tyrol with her unrequited attraction, killing his lover, guilting him with her forgiveness of her abuse, hounding him constantly about not being the man she wanted him to be (instead of who he is), harping on him constantly, and accusing him of infidelity shortly before trying to bash his skull in...Cally also cuckholded him and tricked him into thinking her lover's baby was his. To the point that she told everyone in the medical bay, apparently. If there were any possible way for her to suck any more as a human being, I can't think of it. Unless she were really the last Cylon who ordered the nuking of the colonies in the first place! You never know, that might be the case.
Oh, as a bonus, Dee? Not missed. Like at all.
Sure, male characters act crazy some times. I think Zarek might, if only because the show is ending, be headed for a fall, but he's basically gotten a get-out-of-jail free card every single time, including that first time where he was literally let out of jail. His character's dramatic shift from idealism with a pragmatist into...whatever he is now, is ridiculous. He exists only to make trouble as opposed to being the guy who makes the very cogent point that the fleet is being run by a dictator and that that cannot stand, especially when one half of that partnership is a crazy woman with her religious visions telling her what to do and who has no plan beyond the point that they stop producing results.
No plan. Stopped producing results. Yeah, sounds familiar.
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Date: 2009-01-26 03:44 pm (UTC)Instead, all that drama and empathy gets to be undercut because Nicky sucks and is less worthy of examining as a Cylon breeding product than the Cylon-on-Cylon baby that Caprica is having. With Tigh. (That whole development is still WTF to me.) I was pissed off enough when they made Cally suck so much in her last episode to justify Tory airlocking her. Now she airlocked her, it didn't matter, no one misses her and her kid isn't even important--Nicky is just one more way to fuck with the (ex-)Chief. I love when women are reduced to being means of character development for men! I can't wait until they have the obligatory moment where Tory is exposed as the murderer and beaten/killed herself!!!
I feel Dee lost a lot, too, as Cally did when she became a man's appendage. Her relationship with Billy was closer to equal than her relationship with Lee, such that they could trade opinions back and forth and comment on the situation and disagree. Dee and Lee were just Lee says this, she believes it. Bullshit. So I used to respect her character a lot until she ceased to exist as anything more than Apollo's head cheerleader. She spent every episode since they got married providing fluff jobs to his ego. The Chief is/was at least interesting. Apollo is a fucking boring-ass jerk with no ambitions or ability to think for himself. Dee deserved so much better.