One question it has raised for me is why do so many people feel the need to lecture girls/women on their sexual fantasies? We've run across this phenomenon for years online. There are tons of fanboys to opine about this on various boards, coming up with accusations about how 'messed up' women are for liking 'the bad boys.' Fury certainly felt the need to openly lecture female fans that they were liking the wrong character. Marti Noxon did as well. And, in his way, given how many times he returns to the 'bad boyfriend' trope, Joss felt the need to do that through story.
It's funny that you posted this because I was just mulling over a post on the same topic. I'm still pissed off about James Marsters' "If a man is bad, he'll be bad to you" lectures, and David's Fury's "I wouldn't let my daughter date Spike." It's so condescending--how dare these men tell women what it's okay to fantasize about.
I was thinking about it because I just watched Dark Angel, which spends much of its time ripping on the "bad boy" (who's an infinitely more fun and interesting character) in favor of the dull, self-righteous, controlling "good boyfriend" type. Which gave me flashbacks to BtVS and the whole Riley/Xander lecturing Buffy about sleeping with Spike, of course, and also to Veronica Mars, where Logan was clearly a more complex and emotionally-connected character than Duncan, but the show was insistent about pushing the Veronica/Duncan pairing, down to playing Garbage's "Bad Boyfriend" over a Logan scene.
I tend to think it all goes back to the condescending jealousy and entitlement of Nice Guy (TM) syndrome, the myth that it's all womens' faults that loser men can't get the women of their dreams simply by existing. (I don't know why women write it too, except that they've also bought into the myth.)
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It's funny that you posted this because I was just mulling over a post on the same topic. I'm still pissed off about James Marsters' "If a man is bad, he'll be bad to you" lectures, and David's Fury's "I wouldn't let my daughter date Spike." It's so condescending--how dare these men tell women what it's okay to fantasize about.
I was thinking about it because I just watched Dark Angel, which spends much of its time ripping on the "bad boy" (who's an infinitely more fun and interesting character) in favor of the dull, self-righteous, controlling "good boyfriend" type. Which gave me flashbacks to BtVS and the whole Riley/Xander lecturing Buffy about sleeping with Spike, of course, and also to Veronica Mars, where Logan was clearly a more complex and emotionally-connected character than Duncan, but the show was insistent about pushing the Veronica/Duncan pairing, down to playing Garbage's "Bad Boyfriend" over a Logan scene.
I tend to think it all goes back to the condescending jealousy and entitlement of Nice Guy (TM) syndrome, the myth that it's all womens' faults that loser men can't get the women of their dreams simply by existing. (I don't know why women write it too, except that they've also bought into the myth.)