For the record, I have never ever said that Joss Whedon is a homophobe or that Steven Deknight is a homophobe. Steve is an ass for sure. The lesbian cliche applies not because of intent but because of the impact it has. The story that apparently they are trying to tell could have been done with Anya, it could have been done with Buffy, they chose to do it with Willow and Tara and that I will never understand or forgive. I am not taking back any of what I have said, I think the connection between magic and lesbianism is disturbing , when it is magic that leads to Willow's downfall. Killing Tara right after sex is unforgivable and I never want to see that again. And like I said he lost track of the characters because he got too busy trying to tell a story that he forgot he was dealing with Willow, who has shown nothing but love for humanity and this thing presented to us now is not Willow and will never be Willow.
There is the whole obvious, "I am going to make Willow like Vamp Willow" thing, because she's a geek and has control power issues. I don't buy that. That is not a story to me. That's too contrite.
So, all season I have been seeing the misogyny, relentless. I have been crying for a twist at the end that makes it all right. And instead I get a willow that is the season's big bad. So not only are women attacked all season long but they are blamed for everything and made to seem like the biggest bad that ever lived.
But, is that really what I am supposed to think? I'll be honest, I watched bits of the show, villains. Nowadays, I can't bear to watch the show in sequence. So I watch bits, out context so that they don't impact me in the same way. I can't deal with pain right now. So I watched Willow get Warren. I wasn't thinking of this as Willow. It's not her. That made it easier. I saw a warrior, getting my revenge. I saw her destroy, humiliate, torture and kill Warren.
Let me tell you, I know some will think I am freak but I enjoyed every minute of it. This guy is the worst kind of scum that ever walked the earth. A woman hater of the worst kind. Clearly Warren had it against women and he killed the type of woman I would imagine he would hate the most, earth loving, gentle kind lesbian. During Villains, he is confronted by dead Katrina who calls him on his shit and he has the nerve to say "because you deserved it bitch." whoa Then later to Willow "women, you're just like the rest of them, mind games." whoa.. again. What a bastard. What a pig. But DMW takes care of him, and honestly, it wasn't enough. I hope you all know that this is fiction and not reality and I am not blood thirsty in real life.
This whole season has seen an attack on women and here finally is the avenger. DMW. But is she evil like Buffy would have us think, are we supposed to hate her for being so cruel? Or are we supposed to cheer her on for bringing this triumph to women? I am thinking the latter, at least in this episode, I am not hip on the details of the next 2 and what DMW's motivations are.
As I drove home today, I remembered an interview I read a long time ago, where Joss talked about "I spit on your grave." If you haven't seen this movie, don't rush to see it. It's horrible, exploitative and just ick. But it has some of the most gruesome revenge sequences you can find. I watched this before I read this interview because my gf had been interested in seeing this cult film, cause she'd heard about it. So I paid close attention when Joss talked about it:
Quote:
SE-G: A lot of manga (Japanese comics -- ed.) features cool women characters that I think you would dig.
JW: On the one hand it seems diggable, but I'm a big fan of puberty and people who've been through it.
SE-G: There's that perception about manga, but a lot of manga heroines are actually teenagers. I think the Japanese culture or media just isn't as puritan about showing a 17 year-old undressed. Younger ages are considered adult in other countries. Sometimes manga can seem overrun with that, but I don't believe many mainstream American comics are better.
JW: There's a comics artist I won't name who I've talked to. His creation is really popular, I guess, but there's this weird thing, where I guess she was molested, and that's part of the story. But you know, she's a young girl who looks like a Playboy model in her undies. I wanted to molest her, too, you know? The message that sends is weird, and I don't go for it.
Because of stuff like that I went away from comics for a long time. Everything seemed to be soft core and all of it was disguised as empowerment. "I have the power to have my shirt ripped, and now you can see my nipples! Ah-ha!"
The other thing is that, inevitably, something that is fringe culturally will probably yield the most exploitative and the most feminist stuff. The most radically political stuff gets mixed in that way, like the '70s horror movies. I Spit on Your Grave is like that.
SE-G: That's pretty much a genre of its own -- exploited women coming into their own and taking their anger out on the people who hurt them.
JW: Yeah. They show this woman being raped, and they keep raping her, but then she gets this incredible revenge. A lot of the Romero movies were the same way, with incredible feminist icons that nobody really noticed. It's amazing to me that there isn't more of it in our culture.
Is DMW an incredible feminist icon? This may not be the kind of feminism everyone is comfortable with. As a fan of Hothead Paisan, I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't say I am comfortable with this kind of feminism. However, I don't think it is a type of social commentary that your typical network viewer can handle. Both of these examples are clearly not mainstream.
I can't speak for Joss Whedon and what his intentions were, but there is evidence that he has given this kind of plot some thought. DMW is perhaps the avenging force for women this season, though it all depends on how she is portrayed in the next few episodes. While this event may be triumphant, the effects of it may be too damaging. I hope not, I hope that DMW is not eventually seen as the true enemy in her quest to end the world.
Again, for this theory I really had to set aside the fact that this is Willow, I could see myself pulling a DMW before I could see her doing it. I also had to set aside that he had to kill Tara to do this. I don't think either one of these is necessary, it wasn't necessary to use the lesbians to do this. Buffy perhaps would have been a better vehicle, perhaps even Anya. Because it is too easy to cross the line between man hater and lesbian, where those issues would not be present in an Anya or buffy scenario and you wouldn't need to touch the lesbian cliche.
Unfortunately a misguided Joss Whedon failed to see the repercussions of this storyline, failed to anticipate the lesbian cliche and the fact that most people won't see DMW as a feminist icon but merely a murderer. He failed to see the damage that this would do. I am not saying the message is right even if people get it, I am not saying this is the right kind of feminism to see. I am saying that this is what I think Joss Whedon was trying to do. I think that it has turned out to be the biggest mess he has ever made. It's all fucked up now.
But thinking about this makes me feel better, because I can think that I have not been completely betrayed. I am still tremendously angry and hurt and the only true way to even begin to make this up to me is to bring back Tara.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
"Everything is turning out so dark..."
"No, it's okay. Lost is good. Willow and I always know how to find each other!"
at: 5/14/02 5:13:16 pm
Thanks, Xita, for starting it, and the others for delivering so many indepth posts already. There's definitely an intelligent bunch of kittens to be found here. Since I'm gonna write my thesis about "amazons" next year, if I pass this year, everything resembling feminism, is immensely intriguing to me. (If amazons weren't allowed, I would have asked if I could portray "the image of witches/witchcraft in English literature" -> a gal'gotta have a good back-up plan