Hmm, the secretary thing, good good point. And I think that we might actually be responding to Woolsey, in all his even more paper-pushing glory, better because he is a man. A woman we'd be just "so they're a glorified secretary, oh, thanks so much". Which is again, reverse sexist in a way, but it is, like you said...somewhere...above (goes looking for the thread ^_-), these societal issues that are so important to question, not just brush aside.
Also, on a bit of a different note, I mentioned the competition thing above, how I'm not sure how closely I relate to that. One other theory I have about that, and this is again where I think male writers have a tendency to falter, is that we so rarely get to *see* women being friends. As you say, a woman, like us, in a position of power, we should be rooting for and instead we go competitive (a patriarchal instinct, as I think you put it). And I think, part of what plays into that instinct, is that we're rarely shown the alternative, in the series. We see male/male interactions and female/male interactions, but female/female get so much less weight. We don't get to see these female characters that we may be feeling threatened by making nice and being really close to the other women. If we did, we might be able to have more transference of the friend nature in that respect. Oh, she's so close to all the women around her, maybe she'll be friends with me, too.
They do give it to us occasionally, like "Missing", and I liked them for that. But the bond that formed/should have formed between Teyla and Keller seems to come and go. The closeness that we see time and again between John and Rodney, or John and Ronon, or Rodney and Carson, or John and Teyla, etc, we never really see as deep a bond between the women. In a moment of crisis, they're working together, sure, but we never get a scene of just them hanging out, chatting about boys, etc. (Sunday gave us a smidgen, but then they went and blew one of the girls right up). That emotional reliance, just being good, happy *girlfriends* we never really get to see.
I think it'd be easier for us to chose friendship over competitive urges if we *saw* how good these female characters could be at being female friends. Err, does that make sense?
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Re: new thoughts, part two
Date: 2008-09-29 04:39 pm (UTC)Also, on a bit of a different note, I mentioned the competition thing above, how I'm not sure how closely I relate to that. One other theory I have about that, and this is again where I think male writers have a tendency to falter, is that we so rarely get to *see* women being friends. As you say, a woman, like us, in a position of power, we should be rooting for and instead we go competitive (a patriarchal instinct, as I think you put it). And I think, part of what plays into that instinct, is that we're rarely shown the alternative, in the series. We see male/male interactions and female/male interactions, but female/female get so much less weight. We don't get to see these female characters that we may be feeling threatened by making nice and being really close to the other women. If we did, we might be able to have more transference of the friend nature in that respect. Oh, she's so close to all the women around her, maybe she'll be friends with me, too.
They do give it to us occasionally, like "Missing", and I liked them for that. But the bond that formed/should have formed between Teyla and Keller seems to come and go. The closeness that we see time and again between John and Rodney, or John and Ronon, or Rodney and Carson, or John and Teyla, etc, we never really see as deep a bond between the women. In a moment of crisis, they're working together, sure, but we never get a scene of just them hanging out, chatting about boys, etc. (Sunday gave us a smidgen, but then they went and blew one of the girls right up). That emotional reliance, just being good, happy *girlfriends* we never really get to see.
I think it'd be easier for us to chose friendship over competitive urges if we *saw* how good these female characters could be at being female friends. Err, does that make sense?