Eppy ([info]lizzypaul) wrote,
@ 2008-05-09 10:22:00
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Current mood: pissed off
Entry tags:spn, spn eps

*headdesk*


FUCKING SUPERNATURAL.

Let me get the squee out of the way first. *deep breath* OMG KAVAN SMITH!!! Yes, he died and that was sad, but OMG! Yay!

Also, I thought the MOTW was creepy as fuck and while it crossed my squick line (I had to close my eyes and cover my ears a couple times) I thought that whole storyline was totally awesome.

But the episode still sucked giant monkey balls.

1. Dean. What the fuck. "Don't flatter yourself." WHAT THE FUCK. I'm almost incoherently angry right now, and I'm better than I was last night. That was it for me this season. I have been trying to defend Dean's increasingly misogynistic behavior, but that's indefensible, that is SO FUCKING OFFENSIVE, and just taken with all the shit that he has said and done this season...gah. Pissed as hell.

It's shitty writing, most of all, and I still can't believe that line was penned by a woman. Because I cannot like the guy who threatens a girl with sexual assault (and yeah, so he didn't say "I'm gonnna rape you", he had a gun and it was body language, and any chick on the fucking planet would get that vibe) and then says, "Don't flatter yourself". Because that's not UNUSUAL, okay? I've had assholes do that to me, most of my friends have had a situation like that occur, and it's horrible and deeply offensive on so many levels. (And if you need someone to explain why...well, first, go hit yourself with a brick for me, and then read this.)

2. Bella storyline. Because we can't have a ruthless, badass chick. No, that would be too much. She was molested, that explains it. It's annoying on two levels, really...the first being that a woman couldn't be self-serving without some underlying (sexual) trauma, the second that a woman who is sexually abused will grow up damaged and evil. Sigh. I don't have words for how much I hate rape as a plot point. I despise it in fanfic, and it drives me nuts in TV and movies as well.

You didn't need the molestation subplot. There were other ways to make Bella sympathetic...the first being that she made a deal when she was a child. (Because, come on, at 14? Can you imagine how many 14 year olds would make stupid-ass, horrible crossroads deals?) So annoying!


Yeah, I'm gonna keep watching the show, because I love the characters and I really believe that at it's best, SPN is a phenomenal. But I'm starting to feel a little like Luke Skywalker, here. I know there's good in the show! I can feel it!

Sigh. I'm gonna glut myself on fanfiction tonight.

(PS: The discussion in [info]esorlehcar's post is pretty good.)


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[info]thecityofdis
2008-05-09 07:12 pm UTC (link)
Where on earth are you picking up #2? I just finished catching up on all the episodes and I didn't pick up on a molestation storyline anywhere. Was this in an interview or am I just immeasurably dense?

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[info]lizzypaul
2008-05-09 07:20 pm UTC (link)
Last night's ep: the flashback to young Bella, sitting on her bed, when a large man enters the room and the door shuts behind him. All creepy-like? And then she kills her parents?

I guess it could be interrpreted otherwise, but I think it's pretty clear that they were trying to show Bella's dad was abusing her. ::shrug::

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[info]thecityofdis
2008-05-09 07:24 pm UTC (link)
Wow - okay, Wikipedia's backing you up on this, that it was "implied sexual abuse", and judging by the tone of the show in the last few episodes, I guess that's more likely. I just read that scene in an entirely different way - I thought we were flashing back to just after they'd already died, and she was crying on the bed upon hearing the news.

But then, I didn't sleep a whole lot last night, so.

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[info]lizzypaul
2008-05-09 07:35 pm UTC (link)
It might be a girl thing too, honestly. My mom, little sister and I immediately got it, while I had to explain it to my dad (though my little brother picked up on it right away).

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[info]thecityofdis
2008-05-09 07:40 pm UTC (link)
I think part of it is just that I wouldn't expect the show to go there. And I've read the thread that you linked to in the meantime, and I think it's funny because I used to pick up on a lot more misogyny in Seasons 1 and 2... and I felt like they'd gotten a little better because Jesus, at least this season we had women characters, but yeah, the one comment in there really struck me about Season 3 being a holiday for killing black characters. It was like OH SHIT THAT'S SO TRUE. (And now, gay ones too - thanks Kripke!) This all is getting to be a little, um, yuck.

I still parsed the first point differently - much as [info]zillah975 did, but mostly because knowing Bela's character I was flashing back to her "When this is all over, we should really have angry sex" line.

This is v. v. troubling. :/

Edited at 2008-05-09 07:41 pm UTC

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[info]lizzypaul
2008-05-09 08:06 pm UTC (link)
Oh, God, don't even get me started on the SPN racism. When you're suprised at the end of an episode that the black guy is still alive, there is a serious problem.

I really didn't see too much misogyny in seasons one and two...season two especially. I really liked both Ellen and Jo. Every once in a while things rubbed me the wrong way, but...

This season has been so stepped up. First of all, Dean can't talk about women without using a sexist insult (much worse than 1-2), there's the stylized, almost pornographic killing of female characters (I'm thinking specifically of Malleus Maleficarum, but also in Fresh Blood), and really, the entire fucking episode of Malleus Maleficarum, which I think takes the cake as one of the most misogynistic episodes to ever air on television. You know, any one of those things by themselves I might, might have been able to overlook or excuse (as I have been excusing Dean's behavior for the past two years), but all together, it's just too much.

Edited at 2008-05-09 08:08 pm UTC

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[info]ataniell93
2008-05-10 07:35 am UTC (link)
I dunno, Erin. I agree with you that last night's ep was totally lame, but Malleus?

This is not a universe where witchcraft is going to turn out to be feminist empowerment, dancing around and hanging out praising the moon goddess.

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[info]lizzypaul
2008-05-11 05:00 am UTC (link)
This is not a universe where witchcraft is going to turn out to be feminist empowerment, dancing around and hanging out praising the moon goddess.

That really wasn't my problem with the episode at all. They could have done an "evil witch" episode without having it drip with sexism. But I do think there's a difference between witch lore and, say, vampire lore, because when you talk about witch hunts, you're talking about, conservatively, tens of thousands of women who were brutally killed for no reason other than their gender. I think if they wanted to do a witch episode, they should have handled the subject more sensetively, and not added so many other sexist plot elements (the Fatal Attraction set-up, the women dying in their underwear, Dean's inability to talk about women without using 'bitch', etc.).

I dunno. I might be oversensitive.

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[info]ataniell93
2008-05-11 05:55 am UTC (link)
OK, I've read that "Your Friends Aren't Watching The Same Show You Are (And That's OK)" essay, and I agree with it, but I'm really curious about this extra sexist version so many people seem to be getting--particularly since they don't seem to be enjoying it much. In the "Incredibly Awesome Story of Two Doomed Brothers Who are Sekritly in Love" one that I've been watching, Dean uses the word "bitch" to describe Sam, female demons, and Bela (who actually is one, and who has turned them into the feds, stolen their weapons, and generally fucked him over at every opportunity). When speaking of women he's rescued, women he runs into on jobs, women he flirts with, his mother, his ex-girlfriends, and women Sam flirts with, he never uses this word.

tens of thousands of women who were brutally killed for no reason other than their gender

Um, no. I will grant you that many more women were killed than men during the witch hunts, but it was quite common for whole families to be killed, and most of them included men. Furthermore there were plenty of women who weren't killed. The persecution of witches occurred at the same time as the height of the Spanish persecution of Jews and, not coincidentally, around the same time as the Reformation. Both the Catholics and the Protestants were feeling insecure about things and were killing anyone and everyone who disagreed with them whether or not they actually did.

Malleus was actually one of my favourite episodes because of the Ruby backstory. I love Ruby all to pieces, you see. I loathed Bela, but before last night I did think she was a great villain and I enjoyed hating her. I'm as irritated as everyone else is that they pulled her fangs before they killed her by making her a poor abused woobie who only did it because Daddy raped her (despite the fact that many incest survivors never become vicious villains).

Similarly, while I'm irritated that so many of the black guys have died, I cling to the fact that we haven't seen Henriksen's body and he was initially a villain. And Gordon never stopped being one.

Edited at 2008-05-11 05:59 am UTC

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