random bits

[meganbmoore]

1.  havocthecathas made a pimp post for Army Wives, a show that completely escaped my notice, but which I may have to check out.

I like female characters. I want strong female characters with emotional growth that get to blow shit up like the boys do, or talk about their feelings, if that's their forte instead. I will never say that a female character must possess typically male personality traits in order to be a strong female character. Trust me. (Also, my mother would smack me upside the head and I'd never hear the end of it if I were do say something so patently ridiculous.)

In Army Wives, I get that. I get strong female characters. I get them remembering everything that's happened to them. I get them reacting based off those things. I get conflict, both emotional and physical, I get characters who learn things and don't forget them. Yes, you get women who are identified, in part, by the men in their lives. That's an inescapable part of the show's premise. But you know what? You get women who refuse to allow themselves to be solely defined by the men in their lives. I'll take it.

2.  Earlier today, she also directed me to two articles that essentially said yes, writers are told that they must write all about the white, heterosexual male and everyone else must be there to admire them, and women can't talk about about anything but how great the white male is, or the audience will get bored, think they're gay, or get the silly idea that the guy may not be the best thing in the world.

This is an old rule I learned in screenwriting around the time I was taught your lead character must be a white, straight man (like the target audience): if you have a woman right there in front of your leading man and she’s not stirred by him, the insecure young men film and TV target will wonder what’s “wrong” with him. Is he gay? Is she? The real reason, I was informed, to put women in a script was to reveal things about the men. Any other purpose I assigned to the women was secondary at best, but I could do what I wanted there as long as the women’s purposes never threatened to distract the audience from the purposes of the men. Once I realized that merely passing the Mo Movie Measure test was enough to “distract” the audience from the men, I quit screenwriting and have never regretted it.

...

Only to learn there was still something wrong with my writing, something unanticipated by my professors. My scripts had multiple women with names. Talking to each other. About something other than men. That, they explained nervously, was not okay. I asked why. Well, it would be more accurate to say I politely demanded a thorough, logical explanation that made sense for a change (I’d found the “audience won’t watch women!” argument pretty questionable, with its ever-shifting reasons and parameters).

At first I got several tentative murmurings about how it distracted from the flow or point of the story. I went through this with more than one professor, more than one industry professional. Finally, I got one blessedly telling explanation: “The audience doesn’t want to listen to a bunch of women talking about whatever it is women talk about.”

This is me not being bitter.  Is it working?  (Seriously, I have love for the white, heterosexual male.  I also have love for the gay or bi white male, not to mention the asian, black, hispanic, indian, arabic, etc. male of any sexual orioentation.  Not to mention the female of any ethnicity and sexual orientation.)

In other news, I think I need to expolre thehathorlegacy.com

3.  To end on a happier note:  Today I had chinese dumplings, fried scallops, and fried shrimp, with ginger sauce to go with them.  This may be irrelevant to anyone else, but it made me happy.

Comments

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

Jesus. What century is this again?! I especially love the bit with the professor falling all over himself to explain it's not HIM, he doesn't believe those things, it's just that stupid audience.

...UH NO.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Yes. And then the audience takes the message as the gospel truth and say male characters rock and female characters are dull/uninteresting/stupid/useless and accept it as the way the world is meant to be. Sadly, those asian things we're so obsessed with aren't much better.

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

This depresses me.

I think Army Wives escapes a lot of people's notice because it's on the 24 Hours of Victimization Channel, aka Lifetime. (Although Lifetime isn't all that bad. I mean, they aired Blood Ties.)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Indeed. It just confirms that things like SGA are just doing what they're told, but not pretending otherwise.

People perhaps need to sell me on Blood Ties.

[havocthecat]

People perhaps need to sell me on Blood Ties.

*incoherent noises of fangirlish glee*

I'll have to see if I can con [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] into doing this. Because, yes. (Though there's an ep with voodoo that will have you cringing. But that's the exception, and not the norm.)

[havocthecat]

I'm kind of stalking the comments here. I admit it.

But yes. I completely agree. I nearly didn't watch Army Wives because it was on Lifetime, but I caught the first ep on a whim. It transcends the network it airs on.

Hence the fannish pimping post for Army Wives. :)

[fivil.livejournal.com]

Ughhh this fills me with rage towards modern American TV writing. Not that I, you know, follow much of it but still.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It's not like anything else is much better. (And it's not just US TV.) With most stuff out of Asia, after all, all you have to do is replace "white male" with "asian male."

[fivil.livejournal.com]

True, I suppose. Though comedies in general tend to work slightly differently as some are filled with anti-heroes or some people who simply don't lead very successful love lives. But still.

[havocthecat]

Oh, thank you for the links. I'm glad you found them both interesting. There's some good discussion in the comments, if you're curious.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

In theory, I'll check out the comment threads later.

[havocthecat]

In theory, we all have enough spare time to do so. :)

[surgingshark.livejournal.com]

on #2:

Can that article explain why everybody's favorite character on Heroes is Nakamura-san?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

A total freak event. Obviously, people are just trying to be PC.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

You see, I find the authors' views crazy. But I also confess I am in the fiction for strong male characters (race doesn't matter), female characters optional. However, I don't like when female characters are "just there for". I am full of contradictions.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Whereas I've reached the point where I really can't be bothered if there's no female character around I like, most of the time.

I actually find the author's views pretty spot on with what annoys me about fiction and fandom: that a vagina automatically makes one less important and interesting.

ETA: I'm sorry, my comment was kind of snappy earlier. It was a bad day in terms of fandom and fiction for me.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Oh, Please don't worry - it absolutely wasn't! I really appreciate how you can always express your point without negativeness.

I understand your frustration - I agree that the fandom seems to be mainly about men, men men, always men. I happen to be interested mostly in men and I can easily LOVE a show without any women where it makes sense, like "Generation Kill". The things I am not particular keen are when the female characters in a show are not "done right". This usually means that I am not going to watch the show anymore.

On this point - I wonder if you ever watched "Battlestar Galactica", one of the recent shows that abounds with strong female characters of various descriptions. There are HUGE fandom followings of Six, Starbuck, Boomer/Athena, Laura Roslin. When one sees a BSG icon it is 70% an icon of a female character.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Good to know. I was a touch cranky yesterday.

I think fandom's obsession with men has caused me to pretty much be disinterested in them unless something really jumps out at me. Which is kind of sad, as I do like men. (Most recent case: I watched and enjoyed Atonement today, but while I found James McAvoy's character likable and charming, there's wasn't much to make me notice him above and beyond being a good character for his type. Briony's aspect of the story, however, fascinated me. Keira Knightley's character stood out a little more to me, but that's because I have a bit of a thing for proper/traditional girls who want more.)

I watched a bit of BSG(the mini and a few eps) but bounced off it hard. I could see why it was good, and why I was expected to love it, but it pushed itself a little hard to me.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

Oh man, no wonder I find so many movies and shows unwatchable, with gatekeepers like that on the job.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Reading that was like "oh, so what I've always suspected is true?"

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

That is so enraging that the emotionan doesn't even register.

I'm numb with anger.

That said, I'm also tempted to list all the dozens of show which aired recently or are airing right at this very moment that pass the bechel test with flying colors.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yup. I suspect, though, that the writers had to prove and prove and prove themselves before they were allowed to do such things.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

THat just gives me more respect for them, and honestly, less respect for the woman who walked out rather than try to change anything. (I understand where she's coming from, but if everyone did that, nothing would change.)