Comments on "Don't yuck my yum: it's all I've got" - Faerye Net

2016-07-11T14:48:58+00:00

I totally agree with you! Let the kids eat

2013-07-31T07:24:27+00:00

I have this problem all the time! I love movies and TV shows, and I have gotten very good at connecting with “my” characters, and imbuing them with all the emotional meat they may be lacking in reality. As a result, when people try to point out flaws in those characters or stories I become very defensive. I try not to take those sorts of things personally, but it can be difficult to break away from something you’ve invested so much emotional energy on.

Fortunately I know a wide enough swath of film/tv appreciators to find kindred spirits. But I do have a tendency to spend a lot of time with folks who are either extremely picky, or, well… just plain pretentious. Which is fine really, and I enjoy our discussions, but I find it hard sometimes not to feel hurt, or even stupid, for liking the things that I do. Even though I know that was never my fellow viewer’s intention…

*I agree. Those “standard dismissals” as you put it, are incredibly aggravating! And, unfortunately, sometimes justified, when it comes our culture’s lack of solid, ready-made heroines… : \

2013-07-25T06:02:10+00:00

I agree that the role as written is nearly gender neutral. But I think Weaver made more of the character than could any male actor I can imagine in the role. Maybe it’s just that Ripley can’t survive by smashing the enemy with his/her fists, but wins by keeping his/her head under incredible pressure — a male gives up half his arsenal if he can’t confront the baddie head on — and thus I just can’t see a male action movie actor in the role.

2013-07-24T23:01:14+00:00

Hey Dad!

Well, yes. There are lots of other female characters I love besides Princess Leia. Although there’s no way you would have let me watch Alien at the age I watched Star Wars, and more power to you on that!

But the Smurfette Principle observes that most movies with groups of heroes/characters have only one girl (and that often she’s a romantic interest for the hero or defined largely by her Girlness.) If a kid loves the (movie) Avengers and loves Black Widow, tearing down Black Widow for her just means “hey kid, you should have no hero to identify with in this story.” It isn’t that she wouldn’t still have other characters to love from other media — it’s that her entry point and identification character for that particular story has been trashed and humiliated.

Sidebar on Ripley: I’ve read that the Alien script was written gender-neutrally, which does explain the (refreshing!) lack of emphasis on gender in the movie (although I’d say there are some directorial gestures about gender here and there.) I have also heard Ripley dismissed, therefore, as a “man with boobs” character, which is one of my perennial least-favorite dismissals of a female character*. Activities culturally tagged as masculine are not off-limits to women. Women do all sorts of jobs. Women have all sorts of personalities. Seeming real and human (which is sometimes incompatible with poorly-imagined displays of over-the-top femininity) is way more important to me as a viewer/fan than engaging gender directly.

*The fact that there are a bunch of standard dismissals of female characters, which I’ve heard many times, is part of the problem, I think!

2013-07-24T22:14:35+00:00

Ripley? (Yes, I know there are fans and anti-fans of the movies, and the quality of the writing is uneven. But looking just at the Ripley character — she’s smart, gutsy, resourceful, indomitable, and good-looking (parenthetically). On the other hand, I must admit that her gender seldom matters to the story, except as subtext in her problems with authority figures.)