Funny CW moments page 341

[Owly]

THANK YOU for this. I don't understand why everyone thinks Joss Whedon's stuff is so feminist. His female characters all suck. Kaylee is a stereotypical bubbly girly character who's basically the Horse Whisperer of machines. She's not "logical" in her work; she "feels" her way through it with feminine intuition. *~Sparkles~*! Because god forbid she be good at something stereotypically masculine AND have strong, stereotypically masculine personality traits. What is this, a show for hairy feminist bulldykes? NO, we need more *SPARKLES*~!!~

Yes, I know there is another female character that is more "tough", but she has like no personality at all. She fades into the background so much I couldn't even tell you much about her based on what I remember from watching the show.

BSG has waaaay better female characters. Forget Starbuck, even. How about Cally? She's small and she works with machines, but she's not lame and seemingly obsessed with proving she's still girly under all the grit like Kaylee. The female characters in BSG are primarily PEOPLE who happen to be female, not caricatures.

I am a big fan of this article.

Oh, I suffer under no illusion that Whedon is some great feminist. I just sort of have a crush on Kaylee (and wish she hadn't been written as such an unrelentingly straight woman--I want more queerness on TV, and I don't mean in the form of hawt lesbians written for sexual titillation). I agree that Kaylee is sparkle-ized, but I also kind of dislike it when only butch women are portrayed as being good with mechanical stuff because I find it problematic when "masculine" women are the only ones shown as being techie types because it reinforces the association of mechanical skill with maleness.

But like you, I wish more women characters were written as people and not a bundle of stereotype and objectification. Sigh. A girl can dream.

[onalark]

THANK YOU for this. I don't understand why everyone thinks Joss Whedon's stuff is so feminist. His female characters all suck. Kaylee is a stereotypical bubbly girly character who's basically the Horse Whisperer of machines. She's not "logical" in her work; she "feels" her way through it with feminine intuition. *~Sparkles~*! Because god forbid she be good at something stereotypically masculine AND have strong, stereotypically masculine personality traits. What is this, a show for hairy feminist bulldykes? NO, we need more *SPARKLES*~!!~

Yes, because a female character who is basically a guy in a skirt is so much more "real".

BSG has waaaay better female characters. Forget Starbuck, even. How about Cally? She's small and she works with machines, but she's not lame and seemingly obsessed with proving she's still girly under all the grit like Kaylee. The female characters in BSG are primarily PEOPLE who happen to be female, not caricatures.

I am a big fan of this article.

Why choose between them? I like both series just fine. Buffy can stake Bella and Edward anytime, for all I care.

FYI, BSG was co-executive produced by Jane Espenson, who got her start with Whedon on Buffy, and wrote an episode of Firefly ("Shindig"). I find it charming that you love one and hate the other.

[Gravyboat]

Actually, my love for Kaylee stems from the fact that she ISN'T the typical femme. She is the engineer type for that universe (score 1), she's not afraid to be herself (ala the episode with ball when she was talking shop with the guts after being snubbed by the chicks) (score 2), and while she is more stereotypically feminine than I'd care for (esp her room and some of her bubblier moments), I do identify with her. She is the character most like myself. That is why I like her.

Hey, if you identify with her and like her for that reason then I'm not going to tell you you're wrong. Personally, my crusty feminist agenda renders me unable to take a liking to an adult character who seems to be modeled after the unlikely combination of 14 year-old girl and hotshot male fantasy. Too calculated, too pandering, too gross (imo).

I want more queerness on TV, and I don't mean in the form of hawt lesbians written for sexual titillation).

You and me both!

I agree that Kaylee is sparkle-ized, but I also kind of dislike it when only butch women are portrayed as being good with mechanical stuff because I find it problematic when "masculine" women are the only ones shown as being techie types because it reinforces the association of mechanical skill with maleness.

Fair enough; and overly-masculine is just as much a stereotype.

Yes, because a female character who is basically a guy in a skirt is so much more "real".

I don't like those either. In fact, I find Starbuck annoying as hell. What I like is characters that aren't combinations of gender stereotypes. Going the exact opposite way isn't any better.

[Corvidae]

YOU GUYS YOU GUYS YOU GUYS!!!! ...we should take the nerd talk to a new thread, just like the pets talk got spun off. Ill start one here if it hasnt already...

[Meegeek]

Loving the thread jack y'all...just sayin

Especially all the FF references.......

[Alex Good]

The new bsg sucks. They gender-swapped all of the characters and made the storyline a teenaged emo's fantasy. The old bsg was good though. The only reason I didn't freak out when I found out that they only made one season was because Dirk Benedict was needed for the A-TEAM.
DUH DUH DUH. DUH DUH DUH. DU-DU-DU-DUH DUH DUH, DUH DU-DU-DUH DUH. That was the theme song for the A-TEAM.

[Gravyboat]

a teenaged emo's fantasy.

Are you sure you weren't watching Twilight instead?

[Alex Good]

"Oh *sob sob* I'm a cylon" "Oh *sob* I'm a crazy douche who's in love with a cylon who only exists in my mind!"
It's like they got their inspiration from the later seasons of Smallville and Lost.

[canio6]

"Oh *sob sob* I'm a cylon" "Oh *sob* I'm a crazy douche who's in love with a cylon who only exists in my mind!"

LMAO. Ah, funny Alex is back. I have to agree. The doctor dude in that show irritated the piss out of me and the cylon wasn't even that hot.

[canio6]

Hey, if you identify with her and like her for that reason then I'm not going to tell you you're wrong. Personally, my crusty feminist agenda renders me unable to take a liking to an adult character who seems to be modeled after the unlikely combination of 14 year-old girl and hotshot male fantasy. Too calculated, too pandering, too gross (imo)..

Oh please, crusty feminist types are a lame stereotype all unto themselves. Everything is thinly veiled patriarchy and the man (literally) keeping them down. Lets not accept personal responsibility for our shitty situation, lets instead blame entrenched gender discrimination. The truth is some women like sparkly shit. Some like stuffed animals and unicorns. Hell, my wife who is about as ungirly as possible, is a mathematician/computer programmer, and thinks more RAM is a romantic gift goes nuts over new shoes (stereotype much? Yup, also true. Though thankfully shoes = sketchers or boots not some high heeled monstrosity). So Kaylee fixes stuff by intuition. So what? So did Scotty from Star Trek. He just had a knack with the machines. Was that some anti-future-Scottish bias? Let's face it, all of FF was one big stereotype. Hunky, roguish captain, jealous slightly inept but at the same time amazing when he needed to be pilot, interracial strong wife who was also sexy, resident ambassador/sex worker with oh so much sexual tension, girly tomboyish mechanic chick, crazy girl (does Summer Glau play any other role?), totally metro and probably gay doctor...yeah, do I need to go on? The American TV watching public is not that deep. We like our captains studly, our space women hot and sometimes a touch crazy, and in the end we like it that the slightly nerdy pilot dude hooks up.