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I don’t believe that authors have to (or should) make all characters morally upstanding or have them make choices I agree with all the time, but sometimes, I feel like shows have a responsibility about the stories they tell, even if I’m not comfortable with putting that responsibility on them.
Basically, I don’t like it when shows support ideological beliefs that I see as actively damaging and prevalent in the culture at large.
I was thinking about this in the context of Spike’s attempted rape of Buffy and the end of Lane’s arc on Gilmore Girls.
First, the attempted rape on Buffy.
I realize that some of the writers were really unhappy about how much fandom loved Spike and how people viewed him as a romantic hero but FUCK YOU. You dug that grave for yourselves, with the ‘almost getting married because of a spell episode’, and “Fool For Love”, and lines like, “I know I’m a monster but you treat me like a man.”
Plus, the actual consensual sexual relationship.
So I find it really egregious that on a show built around female empowerment and billed as such to the mainly female audience, they had the clearly designated romantic lead attempt to rape the heroine… and while there was some fall out, Spike stayed on the show, he had an arc about getting a soul for love of Buffy (maybe? it wasn’t clear, though Word of God says it was deliberate), and in the next season Spike is once again positioned as a romantic lead, with rom-com-eque meeting in the hallway in less clothes than expected, with cute banter.
I don’t think the world needs more stories about how that attempted/actual rape wasn’t that bad and you should totally keep your rapist in your life and also don’t press charges. (I know there are survivors of assault for which all of these things are true; but I don’t think a show –any show – should normalize that.)
Now, with Lane, here is what we know about Lane at the end of Gilmore Girls:
-the sex that knocked her up was bad.
-abortion or adoption was never mentioned as an option
-did sex get better? we don't know.
-she never got her musical break (but her husband did)
-when she had the chance to be in a position for a musical break to potentially happen, she had to give that up to take care of her kids.
What a wonderful ending that is for a vibrant, likable, dynamic character, right? Bad sex and children that destroy any chance for happiness outside of the sphere of the domestic! Glad to see that despite years of struggling for freedom of expression under the tyranny of religious indoctrination and a insanely strict mother, Lane ended up keeping house in the small town she grew up in.
Basically, I don’t like it when shows support ideological beliefs that I see as actively damaging and prevalent in the culture at large.
I was thinking about this in the context of Spike’s attempted rape of Buffy and the end of Lane’s arc on Gilmore Girls.
First, the attempted rape on Buffy.
I realize that some of the writers were really unhappy about how much fandom loved Spike and how people viewed him as a romantic hero but FUCK YOU. You dug that grave for yourselves, with the ‘almost getting married because of a spell episode’, and “Fool For Love”, and lines like, “I know I’m a monster but you treat me like a man.”
Plus, the actual consensual sexual relationship.
So I find it really egregious that on a show built around female empowerment and billed as such to the mainly female audience, they had the clearly designated romantic lead attempt to rape the heroine… and while there was some fall out, Spike stayed on the show, he had an arc about getting a soul for love of Buffy (maybe? it wasn’t clear, though Word of God says it was deliberate), and in the next season Spike is once again positioned as a romantic lead, with rom-com-eque meeting in the hallway in less clothes than expected, with cute banter.
I don’t think the world needs more stories about how that attempted/actual rape wasn’t that bad and you should totally keep your rapist in your life and also don’t press charges. (I know there are survivors of assault for which all of these things are true; but I don’t think a show –any show – should normalize that.)
Now, with Lane, here is what we know about Lane at the end of Gilmore Girls:
-the sex that knocked her up was bad.
-abortion or adoption was never mentioned as an option
-did sex get better? we don't know.
-she never got her musical break (but her husband did)
-when she had the chance to be in a position for a musical break to potentially happen, she had to give that up to take care of her kids.
What a wonderful ending that is for a vibrant, likable, dynamic character, right? Bad sex and children that destroy any chance for happiness outside of the sphere of the domestic! Glad to see that despite years of struggling for freedom of expression under the tyranny of religious indoctrination and a insanely strict mother, Lane ended up keeping house in the small town she grew up in.