Unpopular feminist blogosphere opinion of the day

[lizbee]

Man, Sady Doyle is just firing on all two cylinders at the moment. 

I mean, I haven't managed to take Tiger Beatdown seriously since either Doyle or one of the guest bloggers unilaterally decided that Patti Smith didn't count as a female rock musician (...because she is insufficiently feminine), but it seems like every time Tiger Beatdown has crossed my radar this year, it's been failtastic.  Even when there's a good point to be made, it's lost in the sheer wankery that surrounds it.  You can only have one good female character in Harry Potter!  Not a single woman likes Moff-era Doctor Who! 

I mean, it gets embarrassing after a while.  These days I automatically think less of anyone who links to a Doyle or Tiger Beatdown article.  Because if nothing else, originality and she are not friends, so you can always find exactly the same point being made by someone else, in a way that isn't completely ridiculous.

Comments

[andraste]

Not a single woman likes Moff-era Doctor Who!

Er ... *double-checks gender status* ... nope, still a woman.

(Not that I've always been perfectly happy with the treatment of women in Moff-era Who, but then I've never been perfectly happy with the treatment of women in any era of Who. Somehow I have managed to enjoy it anyway. And it's not like it hasn't always had its awesome points, as demonstrated by my icon.)

[lizbee]

*double-checks*

Yep, also female.

(And, same. To be honest, as long as we never go back to the extreme low of Six telling Peri she's fat, I'll cope. I mean, cope in the sense of grumbling and wishing things could be better and wondering why it's been almost 50 years since the series had a female showrunner, but ... y'know.)

[trouble]

I certainly saw people who linked to that post with "Oh thank goodness, I've felt I can't say that I don't like Amy's storyline without being attacked!" but that hasn't been my experience with the fandom. But then, I hang out with people who I feel I can disagree with and discuss things and also squee about loving things with so and thus.

[tree_and_leaf]

Yep, me too! Amazing.

[trouble]

I've mostly been frustrated by her seeming-assumption that she's somehow discovered feminist critique of fandom-popular genre shows.

On the other hand, I'm horrified that the response to this stuff is rape threats. Not surprised, but horrified none the less. *sigh*

[lizbee]

I've mostly been frustrated by her seeming-assumption that she's somehow discovered feminist critique of fandom-popular genre shows.

Yeah, the sense that she's writing in a vacuum and isn't familiar with other people's commentaries is probably what contributes to my overwhelming sense of deja vu whenever I read her work.

On the other hand, I'm horrified that the response to this stuff is rape threats. Not surprised, but horrified none the less. *sigh*

Likewise. Between that and the "Alex Kingston is a woman in her forties with sexual confidence! She, personally as an individual, needs to die!" column in a British tabloid yesterday ... yeah.

Thanks for your other comment, btw.

[trouble]

Alex Kingston is exactly who I want to be when I grow up. She is so freaking awesome. I just look at her all like this: ♥ _ ♥

[lizbee]

If I had a patronus, it would be Alex Kingston.

[rj_anderson]

I don't anticipate ever getting into cosplay, but if I did, I would totally be River Song.

[lizbee]

And you have the hair for it!

[rj_anderson]

I know! All I need is a bit of mousse! That's the best part!

[holyschist]

Not a single woman likes Moff-era Doctor Who!

Wait, is half my reading not women and they don't realize it?

*sigh*

I like s.e. smith's posts, and I still think Doyle's post on Cameron's Avatar was funny, but otherwise...bleh. And even for the potentially interesting posts, I can't be bothered to c/p into text-edit because apparently their site design is broken in both Chrome and Firefox on a Mac.

[lizbee]

It's broken on my Windows and Linux versions of Chrome as well. I have to run it through a widget to make it readable.

[holyschist]

Hmm, I think they may have fixed it partially; I just got a page to load correctly.

Still don't much care, though.

[lizbee]

Apparently the problem is fixed now.

I ... still don't care very much. I try not to follow links, so these days I only come across Doyle's stuff when it crosses my path on Tumblr and have to keep scrolling.

[sqbr]

I'm not sure that's a very unpopular opinion these days, most of the links I've seen to Tiger Beatdown lately have been critical.

I still read the site, partly out of inertia and partly because I still sometimes find it interesting, but...yeah.

[lizbee]

I'm not sure that's a very unpopular opinion these days, most of the links I've seen to Tiger Beatdown lately have been critical.

Are they? It seems to turn up in linkspams on my friends and reading lists a lot.

Also, everyone thinks their opinion is the unpopular one. UNPOPULAR OPINION TIME: I think chocolate is a bit tasty.

[yiduiqie]

IS IT THE CHOCOLATE I GOT YOU? *seeks approval of self* *looks at chocolate in work bag*

[lizbee]

IT IS AMAZING. I don't usually like dark chocolate, but the sweetness of the berries overcomes that!

[yiduiqie]

Berries (and other flavours) is the secret to making dark chocolate palatable, because I also am not a fan of dark chocolate. Hooray!

[sqbr]

ATTOLIA ICON WOO

*cough*

There's definitely been an uptick in the amount of disapproval I've seen, but it's possible I'm subconsciously glossing over the amount of approval.

UNPOPULAR OPINION TIME: I think chocolate is a bit tasty.

I would disagree based on how sick it makes me, but I really can't deny the tastiness. I'm sure someone out there genuinely dislikes it, and they must feel unpopular indeed.

[marinarusalka]

I've come to the conclusion that while Doyle can have interesting things to say about mainstream feminism, when it comes to anything to do with fandom or geek culture in general, she's utterly useless. And by "useless" I mean "utterly ignorant, condescending, and borderline misogynist toward geek women."

The current post is a perfect example. Women in GoT fandom have been discussing the gender issues in the books for well over a decade now. Doyle not only didn't bother informing herself about what GRRM's actual female fans have to say, she's explicitly denied the possibility that they could say anything of value about the books, ever. Nice going, Sady.

[lizbee]

That about sums it up. Although I'd be willing to extend it to pop culture in general.

[selvage]

Sady Doyle's inability to thoughtfully engage with feminist fans has left me trembling with rage on more one that one occasion. I'm also reliably informed that she tends to view constructive criticism as a pile-on.

Yeah. I have no time for her. (But I do like s.e. smith's writing, that's the only time I deign to visit TB).

[amaresu]

The thing that pisses me off the most about the Doctor Who article is the idea that because Amy got pregnant suddenly she is nothing more than a womb. Her entire character will now revolve around this pregnancy and nothing else is important! Which, isn't really a feminist assumption to be making.

And basically saying that it was a horrible thing for Amy to get married. When it was what she wanted to do. Somehow this is a terrible, terrible, thing for a companion to do. Because their life should revolve around the Doctor? I don't get it. I mean I thought the Doctor gave her the idea for remembering him based on the "something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue" because it was relevant to her upcoming wedding and thus would probably stick in her head.

But the fact is that the actual, physical Amy has not done a single thing so far this season except give birth and hope that her various men would come and save her.

This line in particular gets me because it's wilfully ignoring how Flesh works. Amy's real body may have been in that box, but her mind was right there with Rory and the Doctor. Amy did a hell of a lot this season. Also, in the middle of a secure military facility with a newborn, how exactly was she supposed to escape on her own? Waiting for a rescue seems like a good plan to me.

And anyone who thinks Amy's entire arc has been about giving birth to River has been watching a different show than me. This article just pissed me off because it's wilfully ignores large chunks of Amy's character so it can focus on the "anti-feminist" image the author wants to present. Don't like Amy! That's okay! It's okay to just dislike characters. It's okay to dislike Amy's storyline. Don't pretend it's because she's anti-feminist.

And apparently I had my ranty pants on. Sorry. Tiger Beatdown has just been really annoying me lately.

[lizbee]

I enjoy your ranty pants! And I agree with your points!

Also, speaking of feminism, companions and the wider context of the show, I'm still a bit excited that the companion gets married at the end of the season, AND DOESN'T LEAVE. And has known her new spouse for more than five minutes.

[amaresu]

Yes! It's not new to marry off a companion. It's new and exciting that the companion and her new husband still travel with the Doctor. The fact that Amy's known Rory for years shouldn't be novel, but it really is.

Contains discussion of (fictional) blood/bodily fluids. And a digression about Excel Saga.

[terajk]

Not a single woman likes Moff-era Doctor Who!


Confession time: I thought something like this recently. I was reading a horror manga that appeared in a shoujo magazine. "What female person would read this?" thought I, a female person. Then I got to the end and was sad there wasn't any more.

But then, I like highly problematic things. Sometimes problematic things have interesting things to say. Sometimes they're a good (or the only) place to find characters with certain traits, even if those characters are always villains. And sometimes, if they are trying to be funny or possibly offend the audience, they treat their/some marginalized characters like anyone else in the cast. I've been watching an anime called Excel Saga, about an "evil" organization trying to take over the world. One of the agents coughs up blood and dies--constantly. (How much blood is directly proportional to how ridiculous/offensive the writers are trying to be at the time). Her boss has no qualms sending her on missions. And she is wonderfully unapologetic about being disabled in public--or at least, no more apologetic than if she'd bumped into someone on the subway. I like her more than I probably should. Especially since I think her boss is supposed to have an "evil split personality" (eyeroll).

But, yeah, it's REALLY ridiculous to say "No one in Group X would ever like this!" It is even more ridiculous to explicitly insult the fanbase of whatever thing you're writing about, as if that makes you superior.

Re: Contains discussion of (fictional) blood/bodily fluids. And a digression about Excel Saga.

[amaresu]

Wait until you get to the last episode of Excel Saga. It's amazing. It was intentionally made to violent and obscene for tv and thus is only on the dvds.

Now I wanna watch it again. After digging out my stuffed MenchiEmergency Food Supply.

More Excel Saga!

[terajk]

"Going Too Far!" I actually spoiled myself and skipped to it early on, and it is indeed amazing. The violence and obscenity are so rapid-fire I don't think I caught even one-third of it. One of my favorite scenes is when Excel and Hyatt switch bodies and the first thing Excel does (after checking out Hyatt's breasts) is end up in the hospital. I like to think it's because she doesn't know how Hyatt's body works and drained all her spoons.

You have a stuffed Menchi? Awesome!

I'll probably read the manga after I finish, even though they aren't that related. I love the series, but feel like I'm missing half of everything. (Excel talks fast!)

Re: More Excel Saga!

[amaresu]

Before my friend started showing it to me she told me all about the episode and I was utterly confused. But once I got to it I laughed through the entire thing.

You have a stuffed Menchi? Awesome!

My one and (so far) only trip to Sakura Con they were everywhere. It was like the Menchi year. I couldn't not get one. It even has a little tag on it that says Emergency Food Supply.