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trinityvixenBecause they make my points waaaay better than I do.
From "The Passion of Mr. Gaeta": (Spoilers at the link for the end of Battlestar Galactica!)
Popular media has consented to allowing queer characters to exist, but only if their sexuality never has to be seen as equivalent to the hetero characters' relationships. If we are quiet and closeted, in other words, we are just fine. If you are a pushy queer, like that bossy Cain woman, expect the worst.
This is a pretty half-assed approach to queer liberation. Covert representations of queer characters are better than no representation at all, I suppose. The problem with such “open secrets,” though, is that they reenforce the closet more than they tear it down. To find out about these queer characters’ sexualities, one has to do more sleuthing than Angela Lansbury. Queer sexuality becomes information only for those “in the know.” Keeping that information out of the canonical representations implicitly upholds the notion that queer sexuality is something that needs to be guarded against lest that it scare the horses or offend the general public. Eve Sedgewick reminded us many years ago that closetedness is a performance “by the speech act of silence.” Well, BSG’s silence around queer Gaeta and Hoshi’s sexuality was deafening. Apparently in space, nobody hears you come out.
Remember: silence is a commentary, too. This sort of blinders-on thinking is what caused that RaceFAIL nonsense to implode. (Or so I gather--jesus christ I'm not commenting on that I never said anything PLEASE DON'T HURT ME) Basically, you're responsible for what your work puts out into the ether, whether you intended it or not. Your control over the interpretation ends with the first person who sees it who didn't help make it. And it's a given that one of those people who sees it--be he/she the first or fifty-millionth--is going to have issues with it. Picking fights with groups that aren't just the oddballs screaming into the internet but are, say, 10% (gay) or 50% (female) or roughly 80% (not white) of the world's population by closeting, hampering or marginalizing them, respectively, is just Not A Good Idea. It's also hurtful and maddening to counter since we're still at this "But we made Dumbledore gay!" (see link for why that's bullshit) level of "progressivism" vis a vis minority groups.
From "The Passion of Mr. Gaeta": (Spoilers at the link for the end of Battlestar Galactica!)
Popular media has consented to allowing queer characters to exist, but only if their sexuality never has to be seen as equivalent to the hetero characters' relationships. If we are quiet and closeted, in other words, we are just fine. If you are a pushy queer, like that bossy Cain woman, expect the worst.
This is a pretty half-assed approach to queer liberation. Covert representations of queer characters are better than no representation at all, I suppose. The problem with such “open secrets,” though, is that they reenforce the closet more than they tear it down. To find out about these queer characters’ sexualities, one has to do more sleuthing than Angela Lansbury. Queer sexuality becomes information only for those “in the know.” Keeping that information out of the canonical representations implicitly upholds the notion that queer sexuality is something that needs to be guarded against lest that it scare the horses or offend the general public. Eve Sedgewick reminded us many years ago that closetedness is a performance “by the speech act of silence.” Well, BSG’s silence around queer Gaeta and Hoshi’s sexuality was deafening. Apparently in space, nobody hears you come out.
Remember: silence is a commentary, too. This sort of blinders-on thinking is what caused that RaceFAIL nonsense to implode. (Or so I gather--jesus christ I'm not commenting on that I never said anything PLEASE DON'T HURT ME) Basically, you're responsible for what your work puts out into the ether, whether you intended it or not. Your control over the interpretation ends with the first person who sees it who didn't help make it. And it's a given that one of those people who sees it--be he/she the first or fifty-millionth--is going to have issues with it. Picking fights with groups that aren't just the oddballs screaming into the internet but are, say, 10% (gay) or 50% (female) or roughly 80% (not white) of the world's population by closeting, hampering or marginalizing them, respectively, is just Not A Good Idea. It's also hurtful and maddening to counter since we're still at this "But we made Dumbledore gay!" (see link for why that's bullshit) level of "progressivism" vis a vis minority groups.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-10 12:37 pm (UTC)I remember reading an interview with Jamie Bamber (sp? I'm too lazy to look it up) in Out Magazine a while ago where he thought it was rediculous that BSG didn't have a gay character/couple. Which is interesting, to say the least.
Oh and don't even get me STARTED on Dumbledore. I was ANNOYED AS FUCK when she came out and said "Oh, Dumbledore's gay" like she's some awesome-sauce or something. If he was gay, you SHOULD HAVE JUST FUCKING SAID IT IN THE FUCKING BOOKS. All this bullshit about not saying it for the kids is exactly that. Bullshit. What about kids who have gay parents? Did she ever stop and think that there might be kids out there that would identify more if she just had the stones to say Dumbledore was gay in the books? And what exactly are we protecting kids from anyway? Scary gays? Christ.
And saying that revealing Dumbledore's sexuality is somehow progressive is like saying feminism is over because we have a female Speaker of the House.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-10 02:50 pm (UTC)And your icon! Oh man, Captain Jack. Before being gay was his "thing," I remember what a breath of fresh air he was. It's not just that he flirted with anything that moved (omg he got to kiss Christopher Eccleston!!! heeee!!!! WANT TO DO THAT!!!!) but that he was so unashamed of his sexual interest. That was really awesome--that someone could go "I want that" and not feel dirty or have to cloak his interest.
And yes, he flirted with everything that moved, which was AWESOME. Because television is full of pretty people. And I'd hit it--all of it--if I were there, too.
Back on topic: like the man said, gays existing at all are supposed to be such an advance. That's not good enough. (Especially since they're being used so poorly, to say the least.) The thing with Cain being evil is used to argue that BSG is feminist, too, which pisses me off to no end. Because she's able to be villain? Oh, wow, we can vilify the other now? That's so progressive! ::headdesk:: And now she's an evil space lesbian! All the better!
Bottom line? In her case, making any disappointed relationship with a Cylon be the reason she went psycho is bullshit. They already had a good reason she went crazy and that was that they didn't have the tempering need to preserve humanity. Her ship went long enough without encountering anyone to lose hope, to the point that when they did encounter people, they didn't bother to try to keep humanity alive, they were already too far gone on revenge. (The fact that they were grounded at the time of the attack and had been invaded and crippled by a Cylon agent probably made it REALLY hard to trust anyone they met, too. "Stranded humans" probably made a very tempting honey trap, and she never would risk it.) So Admiral Cain went from being the only sane woman in an insane world (she chose the path of most security, least risk, and most immorality as a result) to being a disappointed lover. Yeah, that added a lot. Thanks, show.
(TL;DR: Cain is like my Dumbledore.)
no subject
Date: 2009-04-10 05:18 pm (UTC)I never really thought about the whole Cain fuckery, so thanks so much for shedding light on it! :D Cause it is, through and through, major fuckery.
That Jamie Bamber/James Callis clip sounds ADORABLE. I must find it.
Also, your icon made me lol.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-10 06:22 pm (UTC)If you do find that clip again, let me know. I haven't hte faintest idea where I saw it.
And MST3K: Making a mockery of movies my mother would otherwise enjoy for over twenty years!