tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65334702049834647002024-03-13T21:07:06.849-07:00Going RampantOpinion articles including analysis of fictional media, alongside episode reviews and some off-topic/personal posts. (Generic spoiler warning)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-21014353595842226972018-01-24T16:14:00.000-08:002018-01-24T16:14:25.953-08:00Due to problematic outdated material, I will be deleting all posts that do not contain useful comments that it would seem problematic to deny the world (i.e. authors clarifying details). Modern content can be found on YouTube and Tumblr.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-63974366484388725592013-07-11T01:45:00.004-07:002016-07-08T13:14:18.090-07:00Blog UpdateYeah, I've been neglecting this blog in favor of the YouTube channel, no doubt. The thing is, people respond and engage more on YouTube, so I have more incentive to keep up with YouTube than this blog. I'd still like to have some items in the text medium, though, so I'm going to keep blogging, just probably not here. I've made a <a href="http://goingrampant.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Tumblr blog</a>, and I'm hopeful that it give me a better experience. I'll be reposting Blogspot posts there along with new stuff. I probably won't blog here again. (I don't know; maybe sometimes.)<br />
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Edit: On second thought, I could still post here as well so as to not mess up anyone's RSS feeds. It's not like I've never cross-posted things. Just, I find it difficult to keep up with posting blog posts, so when I eventually forget to come back here, try the Tumblr link.<br />
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Edit 2: Yeeaah... That didn't happen. Go to Tumblr.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-28245433484291834942011-12-21T21:18:00.000-08:002011-12-21T21:18:00.178-08:00Dollhouse Is Feminist (Part 11: 1x09)<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Written for the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31H2eWBDhng">video version</a>)</i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br>
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">The ninth <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dollhouse</i> episode “A Spy in the House of Love” is a partially nonlinear story following the four main Actives in separate storylines that intersect with each other. The first part is a set up that doesn’t follow anyone specifically.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br>
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">It starts out with Echo as a dominatrix talking to Boyd about her job. I have issues with the portrayal of BDSM here, but I’ll leave that to the previous post <a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2009/08/s-barbie-dollhouse.html">“S&M Barbie”</a>. I’ll just point out that Echo’s outfit is incredibly revealing and even though she’s supposed to be dominant, she comes off as just a sex object for the male gaze. Anyway, she talks to Boyd about the importance of trust and how it’s beautiful when a submissive trusts a dominant enough to submit to her. Boyd talks about how it’s dangerous to trust people, and it has the implication that the Dollhouse can’t be trusted and he feels bad for lying to her. Trust and specifically misguided trust is the theme of the episode.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2011/12/dollhouse-is-feminist-part-11-1x09.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-33967818585392552011-11-17T02:14:00.000-08:002011-12-19T21:22:20.455-08:00My Thoughts on Supernatural 7x08 "Season Seven, Time for a Wedding!"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NQshgx1Xs6I/TsTQke0lPvI/AAAAAAAAAho/9XJfWLh8UdQ/s1600/Roofied+Sam.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NQshgx1Xs6I/TsTQke0lPvI/AAAAAAAAAho/9XJfWLh8UdQ/s200/Roofied+Sam.png" width="200"></a></div>Considering all the hits I've been getting from <i>Supernatural</i> fans looking at <a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2008/12/in-bed-with-sexism-wedding-crashers.html">my post</a> on the <i>Wedding Crashers</i> male rape scene to compare it to the latest <i>Supernatural</i> episode "Season Seven, Time for a Wedding!" (thanks to whoever started sending that link around, by the way), I thought I'd write a post sharing my feelings on the episode. This is that post. "Season Seven, Time for a Wedding!" is a problematic episode involving obsessed <i>Supernatural</i> fan Becky giving Sam a love potion, and they become a cutesy couple until the potion wears off in the third act... and it's still too cutesy.<br>
<br>
A lot of feminists think <i>Supernatural</i> is misogynistic, but I generally don't see it. The main complaint is that female characters are often killed in a way where the camera lingers over their pain and/or to hurt Sam and/or Dean in a women in refrigerators situation. Well, it's a horror story featuring gruesome deaths all around. The focus is on two male characters and everyone keeps dying around them, anyway. They even liquified Castiel (though possibly not for good). That said, there are a few things here and there that annoy me as a feminist, like practically the entire episode of "Season Seven, Time for a Wedding!".<br>
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<a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2011/11/my-thoughts-on-supernatural-7x08-season.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-3846867683584585542011-11-10T12:42:00.000-08:002011-11-10T12:47:10.978-08:00The Dollhouse Rape IssueA lot of feminists complain about <em>Dollhouse</em> being a big display of rape without anyone ever acknowledging it. I think it is acknowledged through the shorthand of "prostitution" and "human-trafficking", but I can understand people not recognizing it. I think rape does happen in the normal operation of the Dollhouse, but it's hard to say how this rape exactly occurs given the weird science-fiction element of the show. The problem is that we are just not used to conceptualizing of this kind of thing because it never happens in the real world, and we want to think about this kind of fantasy scenario in the way normal life operates where a person is both mind and body simultaneously and indistinguishably, but that's not accurate to these scenarios. I have some thoughts on how to conceptualize identity in these scenarios, breaking it down to three distinct parts.<br>
<a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2011/11/dollhouse-rape-issue.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-41055322732923630212011-09-27T15:20:00.000-07:002011-09-27T15:22:28.137-07:00Feminist Analysis of Halo Wars<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Written for the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dx1ALDT04Y">video version</a>)</i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br>
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Halo Wars</i> is a real-time strategy game made by Ensemble Studios. This was the first venture outside of the first-person shooter genre and with a company other than Bungie Studios. The writing is cornier than ever, though the dialog never quite tops <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Halo 3</i>’s “to war”, and despite involving epic things like a Dyson sphere contained in a planet, it’s actually a very simplistic story. It’s a prequel to the main trilogy, set twenty years prior to the events of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Halo: Combat Evolved</i>.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br>
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">It starts out with Captain Cutter of the ship <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spirit of Fire</i> narrating about how hard it’s been to reclaim the planet Harvest from the Covenant. Despite the UNSC feeling they own it now, they’re still fighting Covenant off the surface. He then talks to the ship’s AI, Serina, about preparing for dropping troops.<br>
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">Serina is probably my favorite character in the game, an aloof and sarcastic AI who lampshades some of the cornier aspects of the plot. Her avatar design is much less sexual than Cortana’s. While Cortana’s a naked hologram, Serina wears a normal outfit. She comes off as just a woman, a digital member of the crew, in contrast to Cortana’s appearance setting her apart from the others, though they considered Serina’s clothes having a similar style at one point.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2011/09/feminist-analysis-of-halo-wars.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-77664910185778092592011-08-29T17:47:00.000-07:002011-08-29T17:47:41.159-07:00Feminist Analysis of Halo: Combat Evolved<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(I wrote this specifically for a Going Rampant <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hTy2WC-0vo">video</a>)</i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br>
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">The Xbox first-person-shooter <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.halopedian.com/Halo:_Combat_Evolved">Halo: Combat Evolved</a></i>, made by Bungie Studios, became one of the most popular American games after its release in 2001 and spawned the long-running <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Halo</i> franchise. A <a href="http://www.halopedian.com/Halo:_Combat_Evolved_Anniversary">revamped version</a> of the game will be released this November, what we all recognize as a desperate grab for cash but what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Halo</i> fans will get anyway because we’re just that geeky. While the success of the franchise encouraged Bungie to appeal to women in later games, the first one was centered on the generic male market with a lot of homages to their mostly male established fanbase. Even though this is the future where all the countries have combined, it looks pretty much like modern day America in space.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2011/08/feminist-analysis-of-halo-combat.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-52882711037034636192011-07-17T22:49:00.000-07:002011-08-11T22:33:43.688-07:00The Bechdel Test is FlawedThe Bechdel test, used for determining female presence in movies, is flawed. It wasn't started to be a concept for serious feminist film analysis; it was just a joke in a <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zizyphus/34585797/">one-shot comic</a> where a lesbian character describes her rule for seeing movies. Because it wasn't defined in a sufficiently thorough way, it becomes difficult to use it for analysis.<br>
<br>
The original Bechdel test (actually written by Liz Wallace, so it should be called the Wallace test) had three rules:<br>
<ol><li>The film has to have at least two women in it</li>
<li>Who talk to each other about</li>
<li>Something other than a man</li>
</ol>The character then notes that <i>Alien</i> passes because Ripley and Lambert talk to each other about the monster.<br>
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<a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2011/07/bechdel-test-is-flawed.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-61763073313607958062011-06-02T01:04:00.000-07:002011-06-05T12:20:02.909-07:00Buffy vs. Dracula<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(See the video version <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-xyhzattIk">here</a>)</i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br>
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">Count Dracula: classic movie monster. He ruled with tyranny over the Romanian people for centuries before making his move on England. With dark sex appeal, his power over characters Lucy and Mina fueled women’s rape fantasies for over a century.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br>
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">Buffy Summers: symbol of girl power. Her superhuman strength and excellent fashion sense enables her to effectively protect the denizens of Sunnydale from the vampire menace with style. With wit and attitude, her subversion of classic damsel-in-distress imagery provides a feminist twist to the horror genre.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br>
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">What would happen were these two characters to meet and interact?</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br>
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dracula: “I am Dracula.”<br>
Buffy: (starstruck) “Get out!”</i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br>
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">The first episode of the fifth season “Buffy vs. Dracula” allows for a contrast between the classic vampire fiction of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dracula</i> and the modern ‘90s’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i>. While generally looked down upon for having absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the season, I think it’s an entertaining standalone episode offering a contemplative look at the implications of the series and how it relates to vampire fiction overall. The title is simply a reference to the goofy crossovers common to horror movies, but it can also be thought of as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Buffy</i>, the series vs. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dracula</i>, the general story.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2011/06/buffy-vs-dracula.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-76544636240454104362011-03-23T03:48:00.000-07:002011-03-23T03:48:15.304-07:00Eli's Gender (LTROI)<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a28KYI01ghY/TX6IZWGvakI/AAAAAAAAAgw/uQclYrCC9Ec/s1600/TG+-+Eli2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a28KYI01ghY/TX6IZWGvakI/AAAAAAAAAgw/uQclYrCC9Ec/s1600/TG+-+Eli2.png"></a>For the past few weeks, I've been surfing the "<a href="http://www.let-the-right-one-in.com/">We, the Infected</a>" forums for <i>Let the Right One In</i>, and no topic seems to be as persistent as Eli's gender or possible lack thereof. While only briefly touched on in the Swedish film and blatantly ignored in the American remake <i>Let Me In</i>, the novel <i>Let the Right One In</i> plainly reveals the apparent vampire girl as an androgynous boy. People don't know what to make of this. The following is a summary of the information and points raised by users. Because Eli's gender identity is hard to ascertain, I will be using gender-neutral pronouns ze and hir.<br>
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<a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2011/03/elis-gender-ltroi.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-75908646962172737592011-01-11T02:23:00.000-08:002011-01-11T02:23:28.516-08:00Goa'uld and Yeerk Sexuality (Stargate/Animorphs)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">So, I’ve watched all of <i>Stargate SG-1</i>, and I’m confused about the sexuality of the Goa’uld (and Tok’ra, which I’m just going to call Goa’uld because it’s easier<sup>1</sup>). How do they reproduce? Do they have genders? If they do have genders, how are they distinguished? This confusion is worsened by exposition that seems to change the nature of the Goa’uld physiology over the course of the show, retroactive continuity change that isn’t clearly resolved, specifically in regard to the Goa’uld queens.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br>
</div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2011/01/goauld-and-yeerk-sexuality.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-79738589474664324122010-06-25T01:10:00.000-07:002010-06-25T01:10:46.755-07:00A World Without Feminism (Childhood's End)<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><i>Childhood’s End</i>, by Arthur C. Clarke, was written in 1953 and it shows its age in more ways than its attitude toward racism. The book also displays a fair amount of sexism, not hatefully, but just in the way Clarke presents the role of women in his futuristic utopian society. For all his great speculation of the latter half of the twentieth century, Clarke was unable to predict the rise of feminism or even imagine a society that is not a patriarchy even when gender makes very little sense as in the case of the Overlords.<br>
</div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2010/06/world-without-feminism-childhoods-end.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-18257211365217887382010-06-25T00:59:00.000-07:002010-06-25T01:11:25.836-07:00Flawed 1950s Anti-Racism (Childhood's End)<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><i>Childhood’s End</i> by Arthur C. Clarke is a science-fiction novel about aliens known as the Overlords taking over humanity to prepare us for the next stage of evolution. Prior to the book’s story, the author places the disclaimer “The opinions expressed in this book are not those of the author” to keep people from thinking that he had changed his mind about being optimistic about space travel, which readers might infer from the Overlords declaring that “the stars are not for Man”. Despite this, I believe the author’s own opinions snuck in there as pertains to how the Overlords saw fit to run Earth, such as condemning animal cruelty and racism. The attempt to challenge racism is an interesting part of the book, specifically how Clarke tries to do it as a white man writing a book in 1953. It is a hopeful, idealistic cry for a post-racial utopian society, and is in itself a message meant specifically for other white people.<br>
</div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2010/06/childhoods-end-flawed-1950s-anti-racism.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-86529652149611870022010-06-16T19:08:00.000-07:002010-06-16T19:08:16.670-07:00More Anti-BDSM Stuff on Bones<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">I’ve been continuing to watch the series <i>Bones</i>, and have come across more annoying anti-BDSM sentiment. The eighteenth episode of the first season, “The Man with the Bone”, is an entertaining take on an old Canadian folk <a href="http://www.oakislandtreasure.co.uk/">legend</a> about pirate treasure. Unfortunately, the episode also features a creepy and perverted coroner, Harry Tepper, who, it progressively becomes obvious, is a masochist and bisexual. This is problematic because it is implied that his sexual preferences are a part of what makes him perverted.<br>
</div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2010/06/more-anti-bdsm-stuff-on-bones.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-15442955844874182722010-06-10T11:21:00.000-07:002010-06-10T11:21:06.499-07:00Sexist Content in Timecrimes<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480669/"><i>Timecrimes</i></a> (originally <i>Los Cronocrímenes</i>), written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo, is an intriguing time travel strange loop movie. In the style of a classic science-fiction short story, the protagonist Hector is an average guy (actually kind of a doofus) who winds up in strange circumstances, rather than a scientist or someone who knows what he’s doing. The film has some elements of sexism, though I’m not sure how much was unintentional. The two female characters, Hector’s wife Clara and The Girl in the Forest (<i>La Chica en el Bosque</i>), are disrespected by Hector within the story and are treated more like objects as he tries to manipulate the timeline.<br>
</div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2010/06/sexist-content-in-timecrimes.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-47301800987519002822010-06-06T00:57:00.000-07:002010-06-06T00:57:24.624-07:00Superwoman Is His Mom (Boy Meets World)<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">I love the sitcom <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_Meets_World">Boy Meets World</a></i>, its characters, jokes, and sometimes quite wacky storylines. I do have to note, however, that its moral messages can be a bit immoral by my standards. One example is the sexism in the first season episode “<a href="http://boymeetsworld.wikia.com/wiki/On_The_Fence">On the Fence</a>”, about 11-year-old Cory coming to appreciate the work his father, Alan, does to take care of the family. While a nice sentiment, it blatantly ignores the equal work put in by his mother, Amy, whose contributions are accepted as the default of housewives and therefore not as special as the breadwinning father.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br>
</div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2010/06/superwoman-is-his-mom-boy-meets-world.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-55494255932699897682010-05-31T17:27:00.000-07:002010-05-31T17:27:16.831-07:00Poor BDSM Portrayal on Bones<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">So, I’ve started to watch the crime drama series <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bones_%28TV_series%29">Bones</a></i> from the beginning via Netflix, and have been enjoying it so far. The protagonist Temperance Brennan is a strong female character who is both an atheist and has high-functioning autism. She’s great, I love her, and she makes a great role model. And then comes the inevitable episode featuring <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BDSM">BDSM</a>. Other crime dramas like <i>CSI</i> and <i>Castle</i> have flawed but reasonably positive portrayals of BDSM, but <i>Bones</i>’ episode “The Girl in the Fridge” goes the negative route with murderous practitioners whose lifestyles are evidence of a crumbling romance.<br>
<br>
</div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2010/05/poor-bdsm-portrayal-on-bones.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-32136790495116085932010-05-14T21:43:00.000-07:002010-05-14T21:46:50.043-07:00Breathe the Nish'ta (Stargate)<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_m8swAxB2Da0/S-4mLmjH3MI/AAAAAAAAALo/--B_n9HFiKk/s1600/stargate_hathor-nish%27ta.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_m8swAxB2Da0/S-4mLmjH3MI/AAAAAAAAALo/--B_n9HFiKk/s200/stargate_hathor-nish%27ta.JPG" width="200"></a>In the <i>Stargate SG-1</i> season one episode “Hathor”, the titular character appears as a Goa’uld “goddess” who attacks the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. The one who formed the basis for the Egyptian goddess of “sex, drugs, and rock and roll”, to quote Jack O’Neill, Hathor is essentially a serial rapist who contributes to the System Lords by breeding Goa’uld through mating with humans. Hathor is an evil female presence capable of being defeated only by the women of SGC. While I suspect “Hathor” was written with the intention of being feminist, it flopped in its message and came out with a very poor portrayal of rape.<br>
<br>
</div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2010/05/breathe-nishta-stargate.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-73425370480669993952010-04-25T21:20:00.000-07:002011-04-17T09:38:29.823-07:00Examination of Female Characters - Part 4 (Halo)<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><i>(Crossposted from <a href="http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Blog:Examination_of_Female_Characters_-_Part_4">Halopedia</a>)<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_m8swAxB2Da0/S9UUcF6HH-I/AAAAAAAAALY/VaFNUbnkanE/s1600/Shoot.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_m8swAxB2Da0/S9UUcF6HH-I/AAAAAAAAALY/VaFNUbnkanE/s200/Shoot.png" width="200"></a>And I’m back with part four in my series to judge whether or not <i>Halo</i> is sexist with its female characters, as well as to analyze gender roles in general. See also parts <a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2009/07/examination-of-female-characters-in.html" title="Blog:An Examination of Female Characters in Halo">one</a>, <a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2010/01/examination-of-female-characters-part-2.html" title="Blog:Examination of Female Characters - Part 2">two</a>, and <a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2010/03/examination-of-female-characters-part-3.html" title="Blog:Examination of Female Characters - Part 3">three</a>. Continuing the look at <i><a href="http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Halo:_Evolutions_-_Essential_Tales_of_the_Halo_Universe" title="Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe">Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe</a></i> started in part three, I will now cover everything from <i>Palace Hotel</i> to <i>The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole</i>. (Warning that discussion of <i>Human Weakness</i> describes themes of rape.)<br>
</div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2010/04/examination-of-female-characters-part-4.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-18033447242998962222010-03-31T10:18:00.000-07:002011-04-17T09:33:58.944-07:00Examination of Female Characters - Part 3 (Halo)<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i>(Crossposted from <a href="http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Blog:Examination_of_Female_Characters_-_Part_3">Halopedia</a>)<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Continuing my examination of the female <i>Halo</i> characters (parts one and two can be found <a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2009/07/examination-of-female-characters-in.html" title="Blog:An Examination of Female Characters in Halo">here</a> and <a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2010/01/examination-of-female-characters-part-2.html" title="Blog:Examination of Female Characters - Part 2">here</a>), I will now focus on the short stories featured in <i><a href="http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Halo:_Evolutions_-_Essential_Tales_of_the_Halo_Universe" title="Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe">Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe</a></i>. I had intended for part three to focus on the original <i>Halo</i> novel, <i><a href="http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Halo:_The_Fall_of_Reach" title="Halo:
The Fall of Reach">Halo: The Fall of Reach</a></i>, but I just (finally) picked up <i>Evolutions</i> to read on my spring break vacation to Mexico. With the stories fresh in my brain, this seems the best piece of literature to use. Part three will cover stories from <i>Pariah</i> to <i>The Mona Lisa</i>. To reiterate, this article series is to answer whether or not <i>Halo</i> is sexist, and <b>comments like “I think the female characters are hot!” are <u>inappropriate</u></b>.<br>
<o:p></o:p><br>
</div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2010/03/examination-of-female-characters-part-3.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-45718482485468206902010-03-02T23:55:00.000-08:002011-10-21T01:42:42.125-07:00From Here to Misogyny (Angel)<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_m8swAxB2Da0/S44VIa7VXLI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/b72Z7dx52Lg/s1600-h/Cordy+aims+at+Billy2-small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_m8swAxB2Da0/S44VIa7VXLI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/b72Z7dx52Lg/s200/Cordy+aims+at+Billy2-small.jpg" width="200"></a>There are very few episodes in <i>Buffy</i> and <i>Angel</i> that I find outright scary. One of the exceptions is “Billy” from season three of <i>Angel</i>. I used to actively avoid it, skipping around it when watching my DVDs, and only fairly recently have I felt comfortable watching it. Instead of a scaly demon or fanged vampire, the titular villain is very human in appearance, and his power evokes human evil. Joss’ thing is that he tries to promote feminism, and “Billy” might be his most overt attempt with a villain that exists as an embodiment of misogyny.<br>
</div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2010/03/from-here-to-misogyny-angel.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-21193757064763487602010-02-18T20:24:00.000-08:002010-02-18T20:24:22.839-08:00Doyle is Still a Rapist (Heroes)<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_m8swAxB2Da0/S34STasRf1I/AAAAAAAAAJw/Juy_M3kq3Zs/s1600-h/Doyle+rape.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="101" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_m8swAxB2Da0/S34STasRf1I/AAAAAAAAAJw/Juy_M3kq3Zs/s200/Doyle+rape.png" width="200" /></a>So, on February 10<sup>th</sup>, David H. Lawrence XVII linked to my “Rapists of <i>Heroes</i>” post on his Twitter account. It seems his <a href="http://www.facebook.com/DavidHLawrenceXVII#%21/DavidHLawrenceXVII?v=feed&story_fbid=299054712410&ref=mf">Facebook page</a> also displays his Twitter feed in the wall section. I found the tweet there, and it has a few people commenting on liking the link. Thanks, folks. I do disagree with the opinion of DMaria Scaglione, who posts:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><i>This opinion is just too dark for me.Everyone is has one (an opinion). I don't see Doyle as a rapist. To me the character is a man in pain and uses his powers to have people listen to him. Doyle reminds me of the dark side of the clown Emmett Kelly. The quiet clown who sadly no one would listen to. Yet, Doyle may be a face in the crowd, he uses his powers to be heard. Oh crap...I am tired. hopefully I made sense. Good night.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal">In none of that does she explain why Doyle isn’t a rapist. Rape: any act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person. Rapist: person who performs rape. It doesn’t matter what his motivation might be.</div><div class="MsoNormal">I suppose I might have been mistaken when I described Doyle as a sociopath, though. That was more speculation on my part. It could be that he’s not a sociopath, but surely the vast majority of rapists aren’t sociopaths. A quick Google search brings up <a href="http://objectifythis.com/?p=525">these</a> statistics about rape. I believe the number of sociopaths is 1 in 25?</div><div class="MsoNormal">Sociopaths aside, it just doesn’t matter that Doyle is a man in pain. I’ll agree that he is in pain. He wants romance, he’s attracted to Meredith, but he can’t get her unless he forces her. It’s okay to sympathize with the character; however, he <i>is</i> a rapist. That should be recognized.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Even if he doesn’t actually forcibly have sex with Meredith on the show, there is a very strong rapist vibe about him. He forces her to participate in a date against her will, which is at least sexual violence. He <i>does</i> rape a woman in the graphic novel <i><a href="http://www.nbc.com/heroes/novels/index.shtml?novel=128">Puppet with No Strings</a></i>, in which he forces a couple to let him in their house, eats their food, and has the woman undress for him. There is the strong implication that he then has sex with her, which is rape.</div><div class="MsoNormal">As for Emmett Kelly, I hadn’t heard of him before this, but he seems nice from his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Kelly">Wikipedia article</a>. I’m not sure how to really apply him to Eric Doyle.</div><div class="MsoNormal">So, yeah, Doyle’s still a rapist, or at the very least a sexual predator. There are shades of grey to many of the villains, but their crimes should never be overlooked because they may be sympathetic. Samuel was obviously in a lot of very understandable pain when his girlfriend dumped him, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a mass murderer because the act of destroying the town was brought forth from the place of pain.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-50996367924454665322010-02-11T13:34:00.000-08:002010-06-10T11:30:53.131-07:00Brief Abuse (Stargate)<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">As I’m rewatching <i>Stargate SG-1</i>, I just watched season one’s “Brief Candle” episode. This one, I remembered fairly well, and I remembered liking its quaintness. O’Neill teaches a bunch of Kool-Aid-drinking human slaves that their god lied to them, shows them to live life more fully, and he comes to appreciate life more himself. It’s that, true, but there’s also an incident of rape that is completely ignored because it’s a female doing it to a male. Not only is this presented as essentially okay, but it forms the basis of a romance portrayed as healthy. <i>Stargate</i> thus continues to perpetuate the sexist meme that men are unable to be raped by women.<br>
</div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2010/02/brief-abuse-stargate.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-21033211957512328852010-02-05T15:19:00.000-08:002010-02-05T15:19:49.328-08:00Kyle Loh is not a Cannibal<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_m8swAxB2Da0/S2ynQ2yBooI/AAAAAAAAAJY/SZKypdCyyBg/s1600-h/Cannibal_Holocaust_movie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_m8swAxB2Da0/S2ynQ2yBooI/AAAAAAAAAJY/SZKypdCyyBg/s200/Cannibal_Holocaust_movie.jpg" width="147" /></a>So, Kyle Loh, who is a prominent user at Halopedia, put out some <a href="http://bigthink.com/kyleloh/ideas">videos</a> at Big Think about 10 months ago, in which he talks about being a stem cell researcher at Harvard. In the video <a href="http://bigthink.com/ideas/13911">Kyle Loh Introduces Embryonic Stem Cells</a>, Kyle discusses the need for embryonic stem cells and how because extracting an embryonic stem cell from a human embryo causes the destruction of the embryo, and all the ethical issues there, his team is working on developing a way to chemically turn other cells into embryonic stem cells. It all makes sense to me, which shows how much he must have dumbed it down, and he gets his point across pretty clearly.</div><div class="MsoNormal">In the comments section, however, this guy Michael Roach posted the following:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><i>Not only religious people, but most followers of Aristotle or other philosophical Realists and some Pragmatists would argue that since the soul is the form of the body (animating principle), the destruction of one individual, although less developed, for the sake of another, more developed is both a murder (the intentional killing of an innocent) and an act of cannibalism (the consumption of one individual of a species for the sustenance of another of the same species). This ethical burden deserves more attention than it got in your otherwise excellent presentation. I look forward to reading yours and other’s comments.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal">This completely misses Kyle’s point. He was specifically trying to avoid getting into the ethical concerns of abortion, instead promoting a way to get embryonic stem cells without abortion even coming into it. I suspect Michael Roach watched the video looking for an ethics discussion and was so disappointed by Kyle’s barely touching the subject that he didn’t bother to learn what the point of the video was really supposed to be.</div><div class="MsoNormal">That aside, I find Michael Roach’s reasoning poor. I’m not very knowledgeable about Aristotle, so I can’t comment on that directly, but I think ancient philosophers aren’t good representatives of biology in comparison to modern day biologists. While the ancient philosophers may have developed good ideas about insubstantial <i>a priori</i> concepts, anything scientific is sure to be obsolete. Modern day science shows us things that the ancient philosophers never had any clue about.</div><div class="MsoNormal">I don’t believe in a soul per se. There may be some metaphysical part of every human that represents their personhood, but there is no empirical evidence to suggest such. It is a purely faith-based concept.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><i>“The brain controls every human action, voluntary or involuntary. Every breath, every heartbeat, every emotion. If the soul exists, scientifically speaking, it exists in the brain.” <br />
</i>–Chandra Suresh, <i>Heroes<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal">If we’re talking about the soul in a metaphorical way, in that a soul is simply a word to indicate personhood and identity, I would agree with Chandra Suresh from <i>Heroes</i> and say that the brain is the only part of the body that would be the soul or be host to it. The other parts of the body support the brain, support reproduction of genetic material, or serve no useful purpose.</div><div class="MsoNormal">On the subject of abortion, I take the controversial stance I usually take and say that there’s no personhood to embryos. They may be capable of developing personhood later, but in the fetal state there’s nothing but an empty vessel. Even if there is personhood, I think the woman has a right to abort given that it’s her body subjected to the parasitism with all its negative effects. I won’t go into that, as that could be an article in itself, but I’ll make it clear that I’m in favor of the women’s right to choose whether or not to terminate pregnancy.</div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s the claim about cannibalism that baffles me. How is this cannibalism? There’s no… consumption. The cells aren’t <i>consumed</i>. It’s a part of a human body that is more or less implanted in another body to support the latter’s life or life functions. Does Michael Roach think organ donations are cannibalized? Blood transfusions?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><i>“Eating people alive? Where does that get fun?”</i><br />
–Jayne, <i>Serenity<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal">Just by slapping the label of cannibalism on this, he thinks that it would automatically imbue it with immorality. I question that. Cannibalism brings to mind the image of the savage island peoples in the South American region, generally exaggerated by the European settlers. I’m not sure what’s real, but there at least were some peoples for whom the practice of cannibalism after military raids was an accepted cultural norm. This is often seen as horrific.</div><div class="MsoNormal">What’s really horrific is that people can war, often senselessly. I won’t get into an anti-war rant here, but the point is that the murder is the bad part. What’s done with the corpses afterward is largely irrelevant. Now, eating a dead enemy may be done in a way to hurt the enemy’s living family, but if there’s some accepted cultural practice or if the dead guy let it be known that he wants his corpse eaten or something, then cannibalism is not innately harmful.</div><div class="MsoNormal">In the case of organ donation, it’s entirely voluntary for the person from whose body the organs are taken. It’s after their death, so no harm there. They’re most likely not going to be killed by the government for use of their organs. And if a person can live longer because of this, that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned. Is it cannibalism? No, in that there’s no literal consumption. Even if you were to stretch the meaning of cannibalism to have voluntary organ donation count, it wouldn’t be innately bad because cannibalism is not innately bad.</div><div class="MsoNormal">And now we come back to the stem cells. Let’s just skip over the whole abortion issue here, as Kyle wasn’t even advocating that, and talk about what he was talking about. To take a non-embryonic stem cell and turn it into an embryonic stem cell is not bringing forth an embryo, but rather giving the cell qualities of a cell that might otherwise be found in embryos. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this does not even necessitate another human being donating such base cells, and that the same human with the injury could provide the cells from another organ. Even if that’s not true, I don’t think it matters ethically. Even if it is cannibalism, which it’s not, it’s not automatically immoral.</div><div class="MsoNormal">So, to sum up: Kyle rocks, and Michael Roach really missed the point. Harvesting stem cells is not cannibalism, and even if it were you have yet to explain why it may be bad.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533470204983464700.post-60277140045755918102010-02-03T03:10:00.000-08:002011-05-05T11:17:48.818-07:00The Rapists of Heroes<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><i>Heroes</i> is a dramatic show that has many common themes, such as sexuality and violence. A theme that runs between those two is that of rape and other sexual assault/violence elements. Some of <i>Heroes</i>’ sexual predators have been used to bring sex appeal to the show, engaging the viewers while simultaneously repelling them, while others are meant simply to disgust and terrify. Characters Brody, Doyle, Sylar, Flint, and even Elle to some extent have threatened our protagonists with sexual violence.<br>
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</div><a href="http://goingrampant.blogspot.com/2010/02/rapists-of-heroes.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1