A Wife Beater's View of the World: Our Mrs. Reynolds - Part 2

[zelda_queen]

Hello, gentle Viewers. This might be a bit of a confusing message to see here, particularly for anyone who previously read this post when there was a sporking of an angry essay here. I shall explain.



For those who stumbled here for the first time, way back when I first started sporking, in 2010, I sporked a series of essays by a blogger by the name of Alecto. Those essays focused her ire on Joss Whedon and the series Firefly and largely accused it of being filled with all sorts of racism and misogyny and of Whedon himself being an abusive rapist. At the time, it all seemed very ridiculous.

Right. Hm.

Here's the thing. I've actually been giving thought to removing these sporkings for awhile now. Honestly, I ran into them when I was young and dumb and said stuff in sporkings that, in retrospect, makes me cringe. I was also still pretty naïve about a lot of issues, which means that a lot of the initial rebuttals I made in the sporking where, in hindsight, incredibly ignorant and not nearly as well-analyzed as I try to do with current sporkings.

I'd waffle off and on to myself about whether to remove the posts entirely, redo the sporking itself, or leave the sporking as it was and add a disclaimer at the top about taking what I said with the knowledge that I was young and stupid at the time and try to do better now.

As of today, 02/10/2021, however, I cannot in good faith leave these posts as they are. I still have a great deal of fondness for Firefly, though I do see now that it has its share of problems. I love a great many works Whedon worked on. But with the accounts coming out of Whedon's behavior, I decided the sporkings had to come down. I'm sorry to anyone who did enjoy it, but I couldn't leave up posts defending Whedon and his works against something that I know now is (A) quite true and (B) caused so much trauma to the actors and actresses he's worked with.

Some of you might be wondering why in the world I'm leaving the post intact at all and not just straight-up deleting it. That was something I considered, but there were a few reasons I decided against it. Part of it is that I'm the sort of person who just has a massive issue with deleting or getting rid of anything in its entirety. I'm a bit of a pack rat in the real world and that mentality can overlap with digital content. Part of it is also me hating the feeling when some work -- fanfiction, art, webcomic, etc. -- I love to revisit is suddenly gone without a trace. By not deleting the post outright, anyone who might return to reread this can have some idea of what happened, at least.

Finally, part of it is me not wanting to pretend past mistakes I made didn't happen. Like I said, the sporkings themselves were cringe-worthy and, should I have stumbled across them for the first time at this point in my sporking career, I probably would have left them alone entirely. The sporkings were a stupid thing I did and I won't pretend I didn't do them. To anyone in Viewerland who I may have inadvertently made uncomfortable with my arguments but, for whatever reason, chose not to speak out, I wholeheartedly apologize.

For anyone who wanted to revisit the sporkings for their arguments against Alecto, I will sum up my general thoughts in hindsight. Some of her points (particularly about bringing awareness to abusive treatment of women of color, especially aboriginal women of Australia, and about sex through pressure from social, financial, or emotional factors being forms of rape) I do think are valid to certain extents. I am not going to go back and re-read her essays because 2021 has plenty to keep me occupied, but I do think it's valid and admirable to fight against domestic abuse and racism, as well as address the intersectionality between them.

THAT BEING SAID, I also think that a lot of the conclusions she draws are still bass-ackwards. Her argument that Walsh and Zoe's relationship being a given as abusive simply because it's interracial and she never has seen an interracial relationship that wasn't abusive is, to say the least, flawed. The same goes for her assuming Whedon's relationship with his partner, Kai Cole, was abusive. Kai has come out as saying he was abusive, but that doesn't mean make Alecto's argument that Kai must be a gold digger who deserves then-unverified abuse. I also disagree with her adhering to second wave feminism and essentially equating any sort of sex work or sexual content as evil. It really doesn't help spread the message of Sisterhood that she dismissively refers to Inara as a "fuckbuddy".

Thank you for sticking with me through this. I'm still working on sporkings, so please feel free to check out my other content! I hope to continue to improve and provide you with something enjoyable, to take away at least a bit of the ongoing craziness that we're all dealing with.

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Return to the Sporking Chamber

Comments

[kawaiicow.livejournal.com]

*I’ve finally finished the damn thing. I won’t be allowing comments from anyone who is not a radical feminist (or pro-radical feminist) or a lesbian feminist/separatist. Yes, I am pro-censorship. Boohoo.*

Is it me, or is there something wrong with this statement? Also, her remarks on male feminists make my blood boil. To me, feminism is about equality of the sexes and it dosen't matter who is trying to bring this equality about. I had a friend who (as a social experiment) dressed up as a woman while his female friend dressed up as a man. Why would that make him a sexist 'woman-hater'? Why dosen't she see female drag as the same? Because she's sexist.
I also hate it when people censor thier evidence, you immediatley can't take them seriously.

If I were you, I would post this spork to the bitch, but then she would probably call you rude names and spam you. Well done for tolerating this shit.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

The utter idiocy of it all is that Allecto has posted on her profile that she's quite happy to debate with the women who read her stuff (she makes it pretty clear that she only expects women to be posting), but then gives a huge list of things that she deems worthy of post-deleting. Those things basically go down to "people who don't agree with me". So in other words, she is fine with debating people, but doesn't give them much chance to actually post an argument. And when they do, she ignores it (one person pointed out that he/she found it very unlikely that Saffron and Mal had actually been married. Allecto responded by saying that she failed to see the point of that and went on a rant about how Saffron was just a female figure put in by Whedon for bashing). She reminds me of the dude who runs Conservapedia. Like Conservapedia though, I have word that there are a ton of trolls who post ridiculous stuff just to see if they can get past her radar. XD

I know, right? Either that girl's had such terrible luck with men in her life that she hates the entire sex or she's just...I don't know what. That's like saying that there were no white people who were supporters of the black civil rights movements. It's utter idiocy. And I have absolutely no idea where she got her ideas on crossdressing. I've seen it used for comedy, I've seen it used in experiments like the one your friend did, and I've even seen it used for guys who just like to dress that way (oh but wait, I think that she hates transgendered people too *sigh*).

I'm seriously tempted to show her these. I doubt she'd directly relatiate, but I just doubt it'd get through her pointed head. She'd probably insist that I wasn't really a woman or that I was a male-dominated anti-feminist. Plus she also insists that "if you insult me, then you're insulting yourself so don't bother" so yeah...

Thanks! This one was quite ridiculous, almost as much so as her last "essay". Which tackles "racism" with the only Firefly episode to have a black antagonist. Charming.

[kawaiicow.livejournal.com]

I had a quick look at her site, and she had written an article saying that firefighters who had been raped had 'asked for it' by joining the service, but then wrote a disclaimer saying that she didn't believe what she had just written and had been angry that 'horrendous abuse' had been used instead of 'sex scandal' that had (apparantley) been used in an article about footballers raping a woman. While she had a point from me about the terminology, WHAT THE FUCK!!?!

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

See, that's the problem with people who go so far over the top when they analyze something or make a point. There are a couple of points in her Firefly "analysis" that I'd be willing to give her (like there being a potentially phallic symbolism behind Jayne's love of huge guns). But since she is so bat-crazy, I don't want to give her those points. Instead of getting people who think "Oh, those were some pretty good points you had there", she gets people thinking "Is she screwed up in the head? Did she walk in while her parents were having Fun Time? Is that why she's so hateful of sex?" By making outlandish and outright hateful or nasty claims, she's really negating a ton of potential support.

And yeah, I saw that firefighter post. I didn't read it though. I was afraid my head would 'splode. =.=

[beacon80.livejournal.com]

It's like Trelawny's predictions in Prisoner of Azkaban. Some of them came true (Neville breaking a cup), some of them were only true if you if you skewed the facts enough (Lavender's rabbit dying), but most of them were utterly, blatantly wrong. Trelawny, being a bit of a con artist herself, knows that if you throw enough of them out there, people will remember the ones that prove true, and forget the ones that never happen.

Allecto seems to honestly believe what she says, but a stopped clock is still right twice a day.

[kawaiicow.livejournal.com]

Ignore my comment about the firefighter post, I willfully missed the point.
The language of people who use her site gives me a giggle though, but that's probably because I think that sepratist feminists are usually unlikeable people (like white supremacists, black supremacists, religious fundamentalists etc) who have persecution complexes and don't actually help anyone.
But maybe that's just me.

[white-wolf03.livejournal.com]

Men rape babies, they buy, sell and trade women (real, live, thinking, breathing human beings) as sex, they kill each other, they bash, rape, mutilate, torture us day in and day out, for not being subservient enough, for being too subservient, for being too ugly, for being too beautiful, for not conforming enough, for conforming too much, in short for being born female. And women are the ones who get called crazy and weird.

Uh, maybe this missed her radar, but WOMEN DO THIS TOO! You know, it IS possible to have an abusive relationship with the female the abusive one. Check out Small Sacrifices, A Heart Full of Lies or Everything She Ever Wanted by Ann Rule for one. Those women criminals are just as bad as their male counterparts.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

And that's just what gets me so annoyed about her complaining about this series. I said this in my other sporking of Allecto's work, but there were exactly two female villains in the series. So all I'd take from that is...le gasp, women can be villainous just as much as men can. It's not sexist to point out something that's true.

[beacon80.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of the fuss some people raised about Left4Dead 2. Why were they upset? Because there were black zombies (I believe there's a 50-50 chance that a zombie will be black or white).

To fully appreciate how much of a wallbanger, there are two things you need to know about Left4Dead 2:
1. There are four protagonists. Two of them are black.
2. The game takes place in New Orleans, which has something around a 60% African-American population. It would be racist for there not to be black zombies!

[kitsune9tailed.livejournal.com]

Boy, you sure know how to find 'em. :)

This kinda reminds me of something we talked about in one of my classes: The Single Story. It's the idea that many stereotypes and racist/sexist opinions we cling to are generated by this concept of a "single story", that we hear one story from somewhere (often Hollywood or books) and use that as the sole source of information about a people, culture, political POV, what have you (like the Hollywood depiction of a person from Africa as tribal, makes homemade trinkets, poor, etc.).

This nutcase gives us a very negative "story" of feminism: the "man-hating lesbian" who has it out for the entire gender. This single story is unfortunately one of the most commonly heard by laypeople, hence this single story comes to mind when they hear the word "feminism". And that makes them scared, dismissive, or pejorative about the entirety of that political/social viewpoint.

So, really, this wacko is doing more to damage feminism than anyone, because she is reinforcing that "single story" instead of correcting it.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

I do, don't I? XD

It's not even an accidental image. Gehyi said that the "insane man-hater" wave of feminism was what the media latched on to, in an effort to make it look like all feminists are nuts. So Allecto is just giving people ammo. -_-

Unfortunately, it's probably neigh impossible to tell Allecto
that. She's decided that every single man is out to get women (and yes, she does in fact think that brothers and dads and so on hate their female family members) and also hates any girl who doesn't agree with her or doesn't hate all men. She calls them "Athenas" for some reason (weird, since Athena was a shining example of a female character in mythology who was worshiped for being strong, just, and wise) and outright said that she doesn't think men or "Athenas" deserve freedom of speech. And she says it doesn't make sense to hate a woman for not being as liberated as yourself.

[bluekevlar16.livejournal.com]

I could explain to you why she probably calls them Athena if you're morbidly curious. Basically, Athena's not really as cool as she often gets made out to be if you have a more thorough knowledge of the myths.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know Athena did some terrible things (for instance, see Medusa). Nearly all of the Olympian deities did. And going to Medusa, I know that was an example of victim-blaming in regards to rape. In the eyes of the ancient Greeks though, who, depending on which region you were in, weren't the most enlightened folks on equality for women, she was held in very high regards for those virtues. Athena also wasn't portrayed in a particularly sexual way, or at least not that I recall. It just seems that if Allecto here had to use a Greek goddess as an insult, she could have, say, used Aphrodite. After all, Aphrodite's main draw was her beauty, she was lusted after by many people, both mortal and Greek, etc and so on.

I also think I found another extremist feminist interpretation of Athena which I'm pretty sure Allecto used, and I don't recall her victim-blaming or such things being in there. I seem to recall her relationship with Zeus, but I might be mistaken.

[bluekevlar16.livejournal.com]

I think she may be partial to Aphrodite because Aphrodite is so often slut-shamed. On the subject of another goddess, Artemis could also be quite horrible to women, but she at least had that hunter ripped apart for seeing her naked, which I'm sure Allecto thinks is just awesome.

There's also the fact that, from what I know, Athena only aided male heroes. I know people who know the myths better than I do, and not even they can think of an instance where Athena helped a woman.

As for her relationship with Zeus, maybe they're referring to this lovely quote? "There is no mother anywhere who gave me birth, and, but for marriage, I am always for the male with all my heart, and strongly on my father’s side."

[legal-assasin.livejournal.com]

Jeez, this lady's nuts.

I'd hate to think what would happen if she ran into Dick Masterson. He's the author of "Men are Better than Women." One of his beliefs is that all women are whores because they trade their bodies for money when they marry a man (that and "women have never contributed anything meaningful to society"). Not sure if he's for real or just a troll.

Anyways, there might be a real-life death battle if Dick and Allecto met.

[bluekevlar16.livejournal.com]

But you're ignoring the fact that Mal isn't. He's a man in his prime who, by his own admission, hasn't been laid in a while and has a pretty naked woman practically begging him to take her and he still is holding back.

That's what I wanted to scream at her. But apparently simply being tempted to is the same as actually doing it.

[beacon80.livejournal.com]

Allecto is also missing a very key element in here. Mal was just about to walk away. As Zelda Queen pointed out, Mal is used to dealing with tough, assertive women. Saffron was something that needed to be protected and nurtured until she could stand on her own.

He finally falls for her tricks because she stops presenting herself as submissive. For the first time in the entire episode, she becomes assertive. She states that this is what she wants, and not just a wifely obligation, that even if she can't be his wife, she still wants this.

But that doesn't make good anti-masculine* rhetoric, so Allecto just ignores that part.

* I refuse to refer to this garbage as feminism.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

Which makes sense, because she's trying to play him. She'll do whatever she has to to get him to kiss her. From what she says later in the episode, the frail, frightened girl routine was normally all it took to get her targets to jump her. Mal was the first one to be put off by it, so she responded in a way that she knew would go over better with him.

[bluekevlar16.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but of course with Allecto she'll just nitpick away to paint every man in the worst light possible.

I'm more on the fence about whether it's real feminism. I haven't studied it in depth, but most feminists I've seen would agree it's not GOOD feminism. I've seen some feminists say something like "this isn't the 80s anymore" when seeing Allecto's batshit rants.

Villains are not good guys

[(Anonymous)]

There is an irritating tendancy for people to take actions and quotes of characters out of context to bash the author. Like in Harry Potter, moral guardians claimed it was teaching poor morals to kids, using the line "There is no good or evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it" as evidence, while ignoring the fact that it was the villain saying it. Apparently the views of all characters in a piece of work, no matter how wrong they are shown to be, are actually the true beliefs of the author. In the same way, Allecto seems to think that Saffron's actions as a subserivent women are actually Joss Whedon's Guide to Marriage (available in a store near you) rather than, y'know, the clearly manipulative and wrong actions of a con artist, despite that being very much spelled out at the end. But no, we should realise that because Joss wrote it he must therefore believe it.

Re: Villains are not good guys

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. I once saw a stupid criticism that Toy Story 3 promoted silencing women...because Lotsa yoinked off Mrs. Potato Head's mouth so she couldn't talk. Even though Lotsa did many, many horrible things in the movie, which the filmmakers certainly didn't intend for viewers to do also (you know, like holding people prisoner or brainwashing them).

Of course, Allecto also chooses to ignore how Mal (and the rest of the crew, for that matter) are disturbed by Saffron's submissive behavior and are implied to see it as an effect of her environment. Book even warns Mal not to take advantage of her apparently belief that a woman owes her husband sex. Yes, Book explains it in a snarky way, but he clearly holds to the belief that having sex purely because a person feels they owe it is marital rape.

Men are always wrong

[(Anonymous)]

I think part of the problem with this 'analysis' is that Allecto has gone into it looking to prove Whedon is anti-women (I think that's her point anyway) rather than looking at the episode itself. If we imagine a gender-flipped version - say, Kaylee ends up with a husband who makes dinner for her and wants to have sex, but then turns out to be a conman who kicks Zoe in the head and tries to kill the crew - then I'm pretty sure Allecto would use the husband as an example of how Joss treats women, while lamenting poor innocent Kaylee and Zoe for their perils at his hand. But because the plot is a lone woman versus a group of men and women, Allecto's decided that Saffron must actually be the good guy.

Re: Men are always wrong

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

I'd say that's pretty much how she works, yeah. Any good points she might have made get buried under clear bias and determination to see things as wrong.