If I could tag this entry “random rant”, I’d do it. So let’s pretend that’s what I did. This here is a small rant. About the following:
When was the last time you saw an on-screen conflict between a man and a woman which didn’t result in a passionate kiss, or at minimum where it wasn’t implied that the anger was just a thin layer over something more… carnal.
Because I haven’t seen that happen in for-ever.
Sexual tension sometimes manifests as something more hostile. But, jeez, every single time? Way to overwork a plot point. And infinitely more dangerous than bad storytelling, I think it is so pervasive that it’s starting to take away from a real world woman’s credibility when she *gasp* has genuine, well-founded dislike for a man. I’m almost getting nostalgic for when the female character was allowed to just hate the guy, but was portrayed as a cold bitch (of course, almost, but not actually).
I haven’t noticed this being overplayed to the same degree in same-sex on-screen pairings. My impression is that it’s more commonly a male-female character dynamic. I could be wrong, lemme know if that’s not your experience.
It’s sad. Because I can’t think of a way of explaining it happening over and over and over ad nauseum other than that the idea that women are a more confused and less logical sex is making a comeback. A ‘she doesn’t know what she really wants’ attitude, and the more you dig into that, the more disturbing it gets.
I don’t get angry with people very often. Getting angry at concepts? Poor urban planning? Environmentally unsound policies? Inanimate objects? Heck yes. Only yesterday I gave a stern talking to my kitchen knife for not being able to hack into a young coconut (stupid tasty but impenetrable coconuts…). A little localized rage over irresponsible character ‘development’? Surely. Oh wait, I’m doing that right now.
But I don’t just get angry at a person for doing their thing, having their flaws. Or because I super sekkritly want to ask them out. If I’m angry at a person, there’s a darn good, focused, coherent reason. So if I’m gonna throw down with you, by gum I mean it. It’s not a mental misdirection from my loins. If I’m tearing a strip off you, the /last/ thing I want is a kiss. Unless I’m wearing some sort of slow-acting incapacitating lipbalm. Hmmm….
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one comment
Haha, Catherine, you are right! If I had money for every time one of my straight dude-y male friends (as opposed to my male friends who are more interested in knocking down traditional expectations of themselves) said "Yo, she just doesn't know what she wants"...well, I'd have enough money to pioneer an incapacitating lipbalm.
I never made the connection between dudes insisting that all relationship problems stem from the fact that women just don't know what they want, and the way that conflict always turns into a make-out party - but now that you mention it, that does make a lot of disturbing sense.
Geez, I hope that everytime I tell some dude off for calling someone a "bitch-ass-ho" they don't think I really just want to get into their pants...
Posted by Thea
March 11, 2007, 12:27 PM
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