Re: new thoughts, part two

Date: 2008-09-29 03:10 pm (UTC)
Oh, I definitely think that there's a lot to be said for what you're raising here. I haven't seen Iron Man, so I'll have to confine myself to SGA in responding, but I can see this, yes. And it's good to remember - Jewel is a great actress, but she's also stunning, and has a legion of fans from Firefly, which has a lot to do with why she was hired. And I imagine that when TPTB wrote their spec for the character of Keller, stunning was high up on their list. They are not, shall we say, particularly evolved, when it comes to imagining something new instead of falling back on tired and tested tropes (and perhaps that's partly a business decision, but such business decisions thrive because of societal conditioning that expects certain things of men and women and . . . swiftly, this makes us all crazy).

However - :D - I don't think that it's solely a problem with women in the way you've raised it here. Carson (oh, Carson, you lucky dog, always our fall back :D ) wasn't a genius, wasn't a hero, wasn't particularly special - except for having the gene as gnine points out in the first essay. But that's an accident of birth, not an actual quality of character or education or training or experience, and if you look at who he is / was, he's that ordinary person you describe above. How did Carson end up head of medicine? We have no back story for him that suggests he has years of applicable experience (which . . . I don't know what applicable experience would look like. ER? In that you never know what's coming through the door?) or that he'd published, researched, worked for the military for a long time, whatever it would be. He was an ordinary dude - and indeed, continued to *be* an ordinary dude, without exceptional heroism or medical breakthroughs at his hands (indeed, instead, we had medical disasters). And as gnine pointed out, in season two he said everyone he was interviewing to join his team was more qualified than him.

And then there's John, god love him. His assent to Lt. Col. is incredibly, not-readl-world fast, especially because of the black marks on his file. His exceptional-ness (. . . uh, pretty sure that's not a word :D sorry!) is largely based on his loyalty, his commitment to protecting those around him down to putting himself in danger (as he did when he went back for those guys in Afghanistan, too). The qualities of Big Damn Hero that make us love him SO hard are not qualities beloved by the military - he's actually a very ordinary guy doing an extraordinary job. (And what's more hilarious, is that he does it really badly. Pretty much every week, bless his heart, he makes a plan, and Ronon raises an eyebrow because it's a dumb plan, and something goes wrong, and then they get out of it). Now - thats' not quite your point, because you're saying that Keller has no particular spark that makes her belong, whereas John clearly has character quirks by the buttload that make him unusual (right back to Rising and his smirk and ability to talk to Teyla with respect about Ferris Wheels while Sumner glowered and was an asshole). But I raise it just the same because John is atypical, career wise, on lots of levels.

So I both agree with you on one level - yes, it's profoundly irritating to suspect a character has been written primarily to be hot on screen - and yet thing, again, we give guys a pass when the same things happen to them. It's very, very muddy.

And I get the sense from the beginning of your comment that this all perhaps devolved into bitter mud-slinging, and taken a toll on you both. I haven't read the rest of the comments here, and I'm sorry if that occurred - it's disheartening to attempt something with the best intentions, with a clear mind and a good heart, and find it all messed up. ♥
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