Buffy Comment and Project Runway Stuff
Feb. 2nd, 2005 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperxBuffy
Still reading the comments to Barb's excellent analysis of Buffy's victim mentality in Season 6. One thing I see in the responses is the explanation that Buffy was depressed. I agree, she was. However, I don't believe that it absolves her of her free will or responsibilty for her own decisions. And I think it's entirely wrong to say she conceded any power over her life to anyone else. She might like to pretend to herself ("he took me over") that she did. But she didn't. And even unto Season 7 she never admitted that to herself and that's really one of my primary sticking points with her. That she was depressed is understandable. That it excuses her behavior is not. (I also don't believe that depression adequately covers her actions. She was depressed but her actions had a lot of other issues attached to it. It wasn't just depression. Then I read people say that Buffy was traumatised and that's why the depression makes sense (and it does). But, again, it's not an adequate answer for her behavior, nor does it mean that she was not behaving solely under her own power and thus is wholly culpable for her own actions in every, single, solitary way.
The truth is, I just sort of step back and ask... would any of the on-screen heroines I actually ADMIRE have reacted the way that Buffy reacted? Would Aeryn Sun ever in a million years claim that someone else made her do something? Would she ever say that she was powerless? Would Scully ever claim that she didn't make her own choices? Would she cast herself as victim? Surely both Aeryn and Scully count as female characters who had every right to talk about hard, cruel, unfair lives. They both had truly horrific things done to them. But the reason that I have great affection for those two fictional heroines and contempt for "iconic" Buffy is that Aeryn and Scully were women who stood on their own feet -- good, bad, or indifferent. They refused to play victim. They refused to blame-shift. That's why they are heroines in my estimation, and Buffy was ultimately just a brittle little girl with superstrength and a temper.
Sigh. Still have Buffy issues. Thanks, Marti. Thanks, Joss. Why does this character press so many of my buttons? I really need to figure that out.
Project Runway
Damn it! Project Runway's Wendy still wasn't eliminated. She's the only one of the designers who treats this like a reality show rather than a great opportunity to impress industry people. (Did read today that some designer was so impressed with Jay's work that he's been given space in her showroom). But Wendy plays mindgames and whines. It's really annoying. Why hasn't she been eliminated already?
And, hee! Jay was the most interesting part of the show tonight (since they were designing new Post Office uniforms it wasn't going to be their designs which were intersting.) I had to laugh out loud when his model was a no-show and when asked what he was going to do, he decided to dress Austin up and send Austin out as his model. And his comment, "Thank god Austin didn't look like a drag queen." ROFL!
(And Austin gets a head-pat for his equally funny observation of Wendy saying that they'll probably find her "wandering around in bad make-up and orthepedic shoes." Heh.)
Other Jay Jems of the night:
"Rob is a dog. A monkey-dog. Rob is a horny monkey-dog" at Rob leafing through the Victoria Secret catalogs as they delivered the mail.
And then, when Wendy wasn't eliminated (to her face) "You're like a cockroach!" (she laughs). "No! You're like a cockroach," he repeated. It would have been cruel if it hadn't been so, so true... and if it hadn't been what everyone else was also thinking.
Still reading the comments to Barb's excellent analysis of Buffy's victim mentality in Season 6. One thing I see in the responses is the explanation that Buffy was depressed. I agree, she was. However, I don't believe that it absolves her of her free will or responsibilty for her own decisions. And I think it's entirely wrong to say she conceded any power over her life to anyone else. She might like to pretend to herself ("he took me over") that she did. But she didn't. And even unto Season 7 she never admitted that to herself and that's really one of my primary sticking points with her. That she was depressed is understandable. That it excuses her behavior is not. (I also don't believe that depression adequately covers her actions. She was depressed but her actions had a lot of other issues attached to it. It wasn't just depression. Then I read people say that Buffy was traumatised and that's why the depression makes sense (and it does). But, again, it's not an adequate answer for her behavior, nor does it mean that she was not behaving solely under her own power and thus is wholly culpable for her own actions in every, single, solitary way.
The truth is, I just sort of step back and ask... would any of the on-screen heroines I actually ADMIRE have reacted the way that Buffy reacted? Would Aeryn Sun ever in a million years claim that someone else made her do something? Would she ever say that she was powerless? Would Scully ever claim that she didn't make her own choices? Would she cast herself as victim? Surely both Aeryn and Scully count as female characters who had every right to talk about hard, cruel, unfair lives. They both had truly horrific things done to them. But the reason that I have great affection for those two fictional heroines and contempt for "iconic" Buffy is that Aeryn and Scully were women who stood on their own feet -- good, bad, or indifferent. They refused to play victim. They refused to blame-shift. That's why they are heroines in my estimation, and Buffy was ultimately just a brittle little girl with superstrength and a temper.
Sigh. Still have Buffy issues. Thanks, Marti. Thanks, Joss. Why does this character press so many of my buttons? I really need to figure that out.
Project Runway
Damn it! Project Runway's Wendy still wasn't eliminated. She's the only one of the designers who treats this like a reality show rather than a great opportunity to impress industry people. (Did read today that some designer was so impressed with Jay's work that he's been given space in her showroom). But Wendy plays mindgames and whines. It's really annoying. Why hasn't she been eliminated already?
And, hee! Jay was the most interesting part of the show tonight (since they were designing new Post Office uniforms it wasn't going to be their designs which were intersting.) I had to laugh out loud when his model was a no-show and when asked what he was going to do, he decided to dress Austin up and send Austin out as his model. And his comment, "Thank god Austin didn't look like a drag queen." ROFL!
(And Austin gets a head-pat for his equally funny observation of Wendy saying that they'll probably find her "wandering around in bad make-up and orthepedic shoes." Heh.)
Other Jay Jems of the night:
"Rob is a dog. A monkey-dog. Rob is a horny monkey-dog" at Rob leafing through the Victoria Secret catalogs as they delivered the mail.
And then, when Wendy wasn't eliminated (to her face) "You're like a cockroach!" (she laughs). "No! You're like a cockroach," he repeated. It would have been cruel if it hadn't been so, so true... and if it hadn't been what everyone else was also thinking.
