Re: Re: :SPOILERS For next week's ep. plus rambling

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Oh, 

sorry

to 

have 

lost 

you

because 

I 

was 

vaguing 

things 

up

and

didn't

want 

to

bother 

making 

Spoiler Space,

Molly.


The quote I'm referring to is Joss saying that he couldn't NOT kill Tara
because she was gay, because that would be just as bad as killing her
because she was gay. You know, how gay people got equal treatment what
with Tara being a pointless random murder victim whose death doesn't
spring from the character's own actions, just like all the heterosexual
main cast characters this has happened to...or Willow going totally
psychotic and becoming a murderer herself, just the same way Giles tried
to end the world when Jenny died...or how reducing the gay population of
the show to Andrew the evil, incompetent, virgin dork throwaway
character is entirely equivalent to the fact that heterosexuals comprise
the main cast, the heros of the show, and all that Spuffy that we have
to watch (and will probably have to endure again...). 

(That was sarcasm, in case anyone's still confused.)

I was just very annoyed that what I felt was a CYA attempt by Joss was
taken as "ooh, yes, he's so right, oh the burdens poor Joss bears being
attacked by these crazy lesbos." I think Joss's attitude here is
exactly the same as the bigots': "If you make me stop doing hateful
things, then you're imposing 'political correctness', and that's just as
wrong. I need to have freedom to call blacks 'nigger' (or in Joss's
case, to kill my gay character and make my Jewish characters immoral
weaklings, while glorifying my steadfast Christian men, including Crayon
Christ Boy Xander), or else YOU'RE the bigot, not me."  

IMO, it's a twisted logic that equates STOPPING hate crimes with the
hate crimes themselves, and I was saddened to see so many BtVS fans
(here and elsewhere) buy into it.

As for my own opinion on the meat of this debate (and the fact that
discussion of Joss's attitude towards the gay community is built on the
"Willow: gay or bi?" question and thus spoilers for "Him" is why I still
think we need Spoiler Space, even at this late date), I've always
believed that Willow was bi (see her post-Tara attractions to Giles, Oz
and Dracula) and that the "GAYGAYGAYGAYGAYGAYGAY" anvils in the dialogue
were ME's attempt to get us to invest more in W/T so that we would weep
for Tara and believe that PsychoWillow was somehow in character. (Not
only did this not work for me, it was counterproductive. The more they
tried to exalt St. Tara [especially in "Older and Far Away"], the less I
liked her.)

That said, I think that having Willow immediately go back to Boystown
and making Tara just an unfortunate lesbian blip on her otherwise
straight life would be grotesquely insulting, **particularly** since
they tried to play our heartstrings by making W/T a thing of destiny and
so on. I think if they ever were to put Willow back with a guy, she
should first have a bad experience with a female (Anya, perhaps?) and
then come to the conclusion that what she loved about Tara was the
person, not the gender. And I still think that would be a copout
considering how smug Joss was about "look at me! I'm so progressive!
I've got lesbians on my show! Thank you for your awards and praise and
let's fight those bigots together!"

Of course, as I keep saying, the only way that Joss could logically have
thought his shoddy treatment of Tara and W/T would be excusable was if
he had something big planned...

...like hooking up Willow with the title character, say...

(okay, I'm dreaming, but let me be...)

Dan

who knows that many people who were fans of Tara and W/T, specifically,
would in fact NOT feel it was all worthwhile just because B/W eventually
hooked up--I'm just saying that JOSS might be thinking that they would
be.