She's like us, and that fucks with our transference, because we STILL don't want to be like Keller
You emphasize the *still* don't want to be like her, despite her being like us, but for me it's *because* she's too much like me. It's fun to see the characters you love have traits in common with yourself, but for me, I want to love them first (and that love often comes from their uniqueness) before I start finding similarities. My affinity for them develops from their coolness/funniness/badassness, etc, all the ways they're not me. After that, seeing that there's a bit of me in there too is always fun, but if it's just me in there, I don't want to watch it. For me, my fiction is about true escapism, it's why I've never been a big fan of sitcoms or slice-of-life dramas. But I do enjoy the dichotomy of the fantastic juxtaposed with the mundane.
And she's like us, we know her, so we snap to that greatest gift patriarchy has given us - the ability to see competition, not alliance, in a woman who's our peer, all from about fifty paces - and we want her off our screen so that she's not taking up the time of the men who are ours, goddamit, we staked them out ages ago.
One of the things I so love about John and Rodney being together is how perfect they are for each other. They're both humongous dorks AND they're big damn heroes AND they're smart AND they have similar senses of humor. I love them and I have things in common with them, but the truth is, I don't think I would be unique enough, big damn hero enough...crazy enough ^_-. And if she's like me, how is she right for them?
Sort of a corollary to this, you said we don't latch on to Teyla and Elizabeth in the same way as the guys, because their roles in the story are just less appealing, leader and administrator just fundamentally not that interesting. But there I disagree, point again to the failings of the writers to write as captivating women. It's not that we failed to connect because those roles can't be the fun, adventurous, "big damn heroes" but because the writers don't write them that way. And I can't help but wonder if it's because they were giving those roles to women, so just assumed they couldn't be/didn’t take the time to make them as cool, not vice versa.
I can think of many shows across the board that the administrator or leader of the people was the big damn hero, was AWESOME. Captain Picard from ST:TNG, Sheridan from Babylon 5, Delenn, also from B5. They rock the house, and fall into the same category as Elizabeth or Teyla's functions do. Even Woolsey, this season, has been getting a LOT of love from the fans, mainly, my personal theory is, due to being hysterically funny.
Re: new thoughts, part two
You emphasize the *still* don't want to be like her, despite her being like us, but for me it's *because* she's too much like me. It's fun to see the characters you love have traits in common with yourself, but for me, I want to love them first (and that love often comes from their uniqueness) before I start finding similarities. My affinity for them develops from their coolness/funniness/badassness, etc, all the ways they're not me. After that, seeing that there's a bit of me in there too is always fun, but if it's just me in there, I don't want to watch it. For me, my fiction is about true escapism, it's why I've never been a big fan of sitcoms or slice-of-life dramas. But I do enjoy the dichotomy of the fantastic juxtaposed with the mundane.
And she's like us, we know her, so we snap to that greatest gift patriarchy has given us - the ability to see competition, not alliance, in a woman who's our peer, all from about fifty paces - and we want her off our screen so that she's not taking up the time of the men who are ours, goddamit, we staked them out ages ago.
One of the things I so love about John and Rodney being together is how perfect they are for each other. They're both humongous dorks AND they're big damn heroes AND they're smart AND they have similar senses of humor. I love them and I have things in common with them, but the truth is, I don't think I would be unique enough, big damn hero enough...crazy enough ^_-. And if she's like me, how is she right for them?
Sort of a corollary to this, you said we don't latch on to Teyla and Elizabeth in the same way as the guys, because their roles in the story are just less appealing, leader and administrator just fundamentally not that interesting. But there I disagree, point again to the failings of the writers to write as captivating women. It's not that we failed to connect because those roles can't be the fun, adventurous, "big damn heroes" but because the writers don't write them that way. And I can't help but wonder if it's because they were giving those roles to women, so just assumed they couldn't be/didn’t take the time to make them as cool, not vice versa.
I can think of many shows across the board that the administrator or leader of the people was the big damn hero, was AWESOME. Captain Picard from ST:TNG, Sheridan from Babylon 5, Delenn, also from B5. They rock the house, and fall into the same category as Elizabeth or Teyla's functions do. Even Woolsey, this season, has been getting a LOT of love from the fans, mainly, my personal theory is, due to being hysterically funny.