(no subject)

I've been too busy to watch TV, mostly, but during lunch/tea breaks I've been watching Ringer in bits, and loving it. I felt vindicated when one of my favourite TV actors turned up in it - Jason Dohring.



He's playing a teacher, which is a nice bit of irony - in Veronica Mars he played the school's bad boy. I keep wanting to call him Jason Echolls, just because Logan was my favourite of his roles. I guess that story will never be resolved... and in my mind, it's Veronica/Logan forever. (Troubles and all.) This makes me wonder what's happened to Kristen Bell since Heroes - where her role was, at best, forgettable - and I see the answer is, not much. I hoped she'd do more clever/gutsy roles like Veronica Mars, but I guess there's more call in Hollywood for fluffy blondes.

She's the perfect Supergirl, though.

Knowing others...

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power. — Lao Tzu (6th cent. A.D.)

Sex and sexism at DC...

I read this article, The Big Sexy Problem with Superheroines and Their 'Liberated Sexuality' today, and then I was sorry I did, because I found it disturbing. Not because of the things that angered the author, Laura Hudson, but because the more she tried to explain what angered her, the more I failed to understand.

I am a feminist, and a comic book reader, and yes, there is sexism is comics. But I think there is more sexism in television and in advertising. I am upset by the changes in characterization of DC's characters with their latest reboot, because so many of the heroes seem less heroic than they were - I'd be ranting more if I was more of a DC fan. But that isn't what's bothering Laura Hudson. It doesn't seem to be so much the bad characterisation that bothers her, but the combination of bad characterization, sexist art, and the red lacy bra.

I read her reasons for her anger and I felt vaguely guilty: as if I'm a failed feminist or a bad comic book reader. I don't know if I'd like those comics - I haven't read them - but should I feel guilty that I think the idea of Batman and Catwoman having sex on a rooftop is, well, kind of hot? And pretty much in character, too.

I can't tell if the problem is what happens in the comic, or how it happens. Bad dialogue, or bad ideology, or both? I am tempted to read these comics - well, the Batman/Catwoman story, anyway - to see what I think. Sometimes I read articles like this, and I wonder if the author is just reacting to any depiction of sexuality that includes what men like. I don't think Hudson was doing that - but I wondered why she reacted so strongly to these stories.

Problem is, it's one of those triggery subjects that I don't even like to bring up. Because so many people feel so very strongly when they see things as wrong, particularly demeaning depictions of women - and yes, so do I. I just seem to have... unusual triggers. Frankly, Hudson's anger made me feel so uncomfortable I didn't finish the article. Why, and why not? I don't know. I'll have to think about it.

I do wish we saw a half-dressed Batman more often. But he has his moments. And generally speaking, I love the stories where Batman gets sex or romance.

An nice antidote to this article was reading the latest issue of X-Men Legacy by Mike Carey this evening; a comic full of strong and interesting women. And strong and interesting men, too.