Of The Day's Annoyances

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Pet Peeve #409

 

Feminists who demand that every single female character be a feminist super badass who doesn’t take shit from nobody. Don’t get me wrong, those are very cool, and we do need more strong female characters, but if you make every character the same, then they’re still one-dimensional (as karjackpoints out), and it severely limits your stories when every single moral is "Women rule!"  What we really need is diversity in female characters.  I want some that are flawed, some that are strong, some that are not so strong, some that are cool, some that aren’t, and most preferably having some combination of the above.  I want full female characters. Just like what’s done with, you know, male characters.

 

Pet Peeve #785

 

Dear Parents Who Are Taking Their Six-Year-Olds To The Dark Knight,

 

Look, I’m sure that little Jaden loves Batman.  I’ll bet he’s got a Batman lunchbox and a Batman backpack and a Batman T-shirt and watches the Batman cartoons and spends all his free time with his Batman action figure fighting battles against the Joker.* But—this is important—this does not mean you need to take him to see The Dark Knight when he’s six.  Unlike that lunchbox, this movie is not geared for six-year-olds.  This movie is bloody messed up, and there is death and blood and some seriously scary-looking shit in there, and for a small, literal-minded child, it’s going to inspire some psychological trauma and a hefty dose of pure terror.  Hell, we grown-ups were freaked. And when I was that age, I was scared of the Batman cartoon.** I am willing to present you with a thumbprinted and sealed document signed by four witnesses in their own blood guaranteeing that if the Joker doesn’t scare the piss out of little Jaden, Two-Face sure as balls will.

 

My recommendation: tell him he can see it when he’s older.  And if you want to see it?  Get a sitter.

Pet Peeve # 1027 

 
That all the available jobs are on the other side of the universe.  Maybe I should make them pay me in gas.

This has been your list of the day’s annoyances.  Now back to my much more important story revamp.

 

 

*Also against Megatron or the Hulk or Barbie or Spidoman or the Bratz or old-ass Indiana Jones or whoever else Kids These Days are getting as toys.

 

**“The Laughing Fish.” Ironically one of my favorite episodes now, but when you’re small, insane laughter followed by rictus grin followed by the closest cartoons can come to death?  THIS WILL KEEP YOU UP. 

Comments

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

Yes Penny was one-dimensional. So was EVERYONE ELSE except for Dr. Horrible and he maybe got 2.03.

Cuz it's less than an hour long and they spend a fair amount of it singing and some being witty ('and get jobs and get rocket packs and fly to the moon and become florists') and there ain't a lot of room left for deep character development.

Personally I hoped that she'd be the deep-cover Observer for the Evil Leage of Evil.

And a real horse? bwaaaaahah!

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

*grin* What makes you think I was talking about Dr. Horrible?

Okay, yeah, I was, in a roundabout way ... I just don't react as much to Joss Whedon's stories as everyone else does--either as a feminist or as a storyteller, but I think it's a matter of taste.

I'm reacting much more strongly to the--well, the reaction, because I hear this kinda stuff all the time, and I get sick of it. "If not every female character is strong and independent all the time it is BAD FEMINISM" is definitely my pet peeve, and it's coming out in force now. *grumble*

But as to Horrible--you are so right. Maybe some stories don't have strong female leads. That's okay. JUST LET THEM TELL THE STORY.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

Why do you hate womyn? Why!?!?!

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Clearly because I'm either a dupe of The Patriarchy or because I just plain hate my sex. Take your pick.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you're a self hating dupe of the patriachy! Don't sell yourself short!

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

There are so many people who saw “Here Come The ABCs” and so think it's appropriate to take their kids to an ordinary TMBG concert.

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

When I was small, the My Little Pony movie scared me. I can't imagine what it would've been like had I been taken to something like Dark Knight.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Care Bears terrified me. And not, like, No-Heart or Cold Heart or whatever ... it was an episode where they went to a place where you slowly turned grey and stopped caring. I suppose it all worked out, but I wouldn't know because I turned it off and NEVER WATCHED IT AGAIN.

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

Oh god that would have got me too. D:

[gryfindormia.livejournal.com]

Don’t get me wrong, those are very cool, and we do need more strong female characters, but if you make every character the same, then they’re still one-dimensional (as [info]karjackpoints out), and it severely limits your stories when every single moral is "Women rule!"

STOP TRYIN' TO PUT THE MAN DOWN.


To the Idiot Parents With Six-Year-Olds At The Batman Movie:

Sometimes, just sometimes, violence IS more morally objectionable than sex.

[nobleplatypus]

Re: #409--UGH. YES. Feminism does not equal the belief that all women are completely awesomely perfect all the goddamn time without fail, and that anyone who doesn't agree is a misogynist. But apparently a very vocal group of women missed that memo.

[nobleplatypus]

... Also, I find it hilarious that you were referring to "Dr. Horrible"--my mind immediately went to the POTC fandom.

Then again, when it comes to batshit crazy pseudofeminism, the POTC fandom is where it's at.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm actually referring to the trend in general, but it was set off by the latest bitchfest on Dr. Horrible. But the peeve crops up any time someone starts whinging that the story sucks because the protagonist wasn't an Independent Woman. POTC would work, too!

[dinogrrl.livejournal.com]

There was a four-year-old boy sitting behind me when I saw the Dark Knight who would not shut up and would run up and down the stairs of the theater, even though he and his mom were sitting in the middle of the row, and his dumb-ass mom wouldn't get the hint when I kept turning around VERY POINTEDLY and glaring at the little shit-she even shouted for him to get back in his seat when he was running around at one point. No wonder kids these days are so horrible--parents don't give a damn. I wasn't allowed to see PG-13 movies until I was literally 13 years old...and even then, my parents still screened movies ahead of time to make sure they were okay for me, even though it was a well-known fact that I could handle all the scary/heavy/messed-up/gory stuff that the rest of my family couldn't, thank you Discovery Channel (to this day, I'm still the one who has to tell my mom and sister when to look away and when they can look again when watching scary movies). Two-Face always scared me, and he most definitely lived up to that in this movie.
/rant about kids

[kiaransalyn.livejournal.com]

Technically, living in Germany we should be able to get a babysitter. However, that old language barrier gets in the way. So, we'll wait until it is out on DVD and watch it after our little Duchess has been tucked up for the night.

I guess we'll have to wait a few months more for the DVD release but I guess Batman wins in the end. :-)

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

How about that 5 year old at the recent remake of Dawn of the Dead?

Yeah.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

#409:
The moron who said they'd blame Joss in their suicide note made angers and depresses me. Nothing like using an over-dramatic emotional bludgeon to cement a deliberate misinterpretation of someone's ironic point as its literalistic opposite.

And yeah, not enough writers go to the trouble of making scenes involving women that aren't "about" them being women, not that women don't face specific sets of issues, but the fact that men also would never made every scene men were in be about them being men.

#785:
There were parents behind me who'd brought a child under 10 to see The Cell in a theatre. I didn't think that was a very smart move.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

#409:
That's exactly the problem--that it's making Being Female into the entire point of a character. It's once again suggesting that maleness is default, but femaleness comes with its own special problems--which it does, but it's done to the exclusion of any other problems. I have the same problem with "Women's studies" courses--it seems to push women off to the side, so that you have "Math, Language, Art, Science, History, and Women." I'd prefer to incorporate women into the other courses so that they don't get their own little spot to deal with.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

Ahh, I see what you're saying, yes. I guess I didn't look at it the same way having been about something which I almost thought of as sketch comedy, but on the other hand, I realize that putting stories in specific categories like that is an ideal way to keep a blind spot blind. I have to say I don't think "queer studies" is much of an excuse to keep downplaying queer roles in regular history, so I definitely can't argue with the same about "women's studies" either.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the movie yet because I have a duty pager this week, and don't want to be halfway through the movie and wind up getting yanked out to answer a call. Didn't know that Two Face was in it. :(

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Ah, sorry. But Harvey Dent was in all the trailers, so I kinda figured everyone knew.

Aaron Eckhardt does very well, for the record. We're trying to figure out how they achieved his Two-Face effect. Enjoy the movie!

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

Well, Harvey was introduced in Burton's 2nd Batman but not Two-Face till later. Plus, Joker was introduced at the end of Batman Begins, I thought they might repeat the pattern.

If they could do a Dr. Freeze as good as the 90's animated series, that would rock.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Point.

If they could do a Dr. Freeze as good as the 90's animated series, that would rock.

You could easily replace "Dr. Freeze" with pretty much anything from the Batman universe in that sentence and still get an accurate assessment of my feelings toward these movies.