I'll say it anyway. Winifred Burkle. Go.

[elisi]

Serendipity is a funny thing...

This whole Joss mess has come along exactly as I decided to finally delve back into the AtS 'verse and finish a WIP I abandoned years ago. (As it happens, it's the only fic I've ever properly planned out, so I found my extensive notes and actually know where the story is going!)

Now, before beginning to write I figured I should probably watch a few episodes, just to make sure I had their voices right in my head; so I watched A Hole in the World and Shells. And it's a fascinating exercise in doublethink (doubleview?).

Like, I love the 'verse. I love the characters. I love the story. I will always be grateful to Joss & co for creating this world.

But there is also the fact that (the very very special) Fred has SIX men standing around her bedside. All of them going to go out and try to SAVE her. (See subject line...)

As you know, the only other women (still standing) in the extended cast are Harmony (who is delightful, but mostly comic relief) and Eve, who is very powerful yet lost all agency the second she lost her boyfriend. ETA: Oh and there's Nina too. I like Nina. It's sad her role never extends beyond Being The Girlfriend.

The interesting thing is that the same week my girls decided to watch [the new movie version of] Les Mis.

And it was exactly the same thing:

- Men make things happen.

- Women have things happen to them.

This is why Buffy (and Wonder Woman, Rey, et al) are so special. They make things happen.

(Possibly more musings later, but this is a pretty well-trodden path, and I'm preaching to the choir...)


Also I'm realising this is probably a pretty awful way to try to get people to read my 'Spike & Angel & Illyria go on an epic quest to undo the power of W&H' story, as it's rather male-centric. AH WELL. It's not like LJ is teeming with people reading AtS fic anymore. Although I should probably point out that there's a good deal of Buffy & her Slayer army in it too...

For those who want to try (and the lovely handful which read the first few chapters back in 2013 when I started posting and might want to have another look), you can find the fic here (well, the first 7 chapters):

Divided Destiny

More chapters coming soon! :D (*crickets*)

Comments

[promethia_tenk]

Oh AtS . . . you had some greatness about you, but truly some of the most appalling treatment of women I've ever seen on tv.

[orangerful]

Just because it is "male-centric" doesn't mean there is anything wrong with it. Now, if you posted "I am only writing male centric stories because men are better' THEN that would be wrong. You just connected with a story you wanted to tell and told it.

It's sad that so many writers do have to make that conscious effort and then have to make the effort to write female characters that take action as much as men. :\

[greensword]

When I think about how good the gender politics of a show are likely to be before watching it, I usually ask a set of questions something like:

- Is the main character a woman?
- Is the main relationship or one of the main relationships between two women?
- Do women make up more than 50% of the characters?

The answer to all of the questions doesn't have to be yes but if none of them are I tend to skip it. This is based in part on shows like Angel. I found Angel especially disappointing not because it was especially terrible - I mean yes, it was full of sexist tropes, but a lot of shows are, and it had good parts too - but because it spun out of Buffy which was its opposite in so many ways. To the extent that A Hole in the World has a BtVS equivalent it's probably Tara's death in Seeing Red and while it was fucked up in its own way (stop killing queer characters!) there was so much more to the characters' responses, they were so differentiated, like I still get chills thinking about how Dawn sat with Tara's body for hours because she didn't want her to be alone. And Willow sought vengeance and Buffy sought justice and Xander felt helpless and Anya put aside her own anger and alienation to come help them and I don't know, there's just a richness to it that Angel always seemed to lack.

I also found it telling that the Illyria plot twist was written to showcase Amy Acker's range. Like, maybe try writing a bigger range of emotions and behavior for your female characters rather than having them killed and their bodies possessed by entirely different characters.

Anyway, I'll stop using your post as an excuse to rag on Angel. ;)

[jerusha]

Oh, god. Fred...

What killed me about that whole storyline is that they didn't just kill Fred, they literally destroyed her soul. FOR MAN PAIN. I loved Buffy and Angel, I really did, but S5 of Ats was just incredibly problematic in how it dealt with the female characters.

Here from the Sunnydale Herald

[punch_kicker15]

But there is also the fact that (the very very special) Fred has SIX men standing around her bedside. All of them going to go out and try to SAVE her.

Ha, I had exactly the same thought when I rewatched those episodes as background for a fic I wrote a few years ago (it was an AU with the focus on a couple of women saving Fred, so I can't say that I did much better by Fred than canon did, at least in that story.) I realized that's why Buffy (the show) resonates so much more with me than Angel (the show).