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zelda_queenHello, 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.
Return to the Sporking Chamber
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.
Return to the Sporking Chamber
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-23 03:23 am (UTC)I love you.
It is now 3:20am and I have stayed up this late reading this in the freezing cold. I swear this last one was the most amazing thing I've ever read and now I want to go and read Firefly fanfic (something I haven't done before) because damn, I miss these characters and your portrayal of them here was... brilliance. I could hear Zoe's lines in Gina Torres' amazingly sexy voice XD
Anyway, not the most constructive comment ever, I get that, but I can't feel my fingers and I'm tired and I'm still laughing at this (and considering showing it to my dad, but I'm not sure he'd get the context without the previous sporkings and probably wouldn't make it through all of those but oh god he'd find this funny) and I wanted to leave a comment (which I don't usually do! *lurks like a lurky thing*).
It's at times like this I love fandomsecrets... (found a link to these in a thread on there).
You're amazing ♥
*will stop being a creepy stalker person now* *slinks away*
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-23 04:58 am (UTC)Ha ha, I know the feeling! I've been up at midnight, reading or watching something and expecting my mom to come up and ask why I'm still awake. XD
I was linked somewhere? O_O *feels rather self conscious now*
Anyway, thank you so much, it really means a lot to me! :)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-23 01:18 pm (UTC)FandomSecrets♥ (*whispers* I'm only in it for the wank~)
And I truly believe if you can write the Firefly characters like that, you should be writing fanfic XD
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-24 05:28 am (UTC)Well, I have written a bit of fanfiction. ^^;; None for Firefly though, mostly it's for the Legend of Zelda.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-06 03:53 am (UTC)That being said, I thought this essay was absolutely.....hysterical! Well done. Great dialogue. Joss Whedon...woman hater? Come on!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-06 04:44 am (UTC)And yes, I know about the history of black portrayal in media. The problem is, Allecto doesn't consider any other factors, like the notion that the portrayal of most any group in media is a reflection of how they stand in society at the time. There's also the fact that her examples were pretty much the most controversial things she could have picked ("Birth of a Nation" was considered so bad that Andrew Sarris said "Classic or not, Birth of a Nation has long been one of the embarrassments of film scholarship. It can't be ignored ... and yet it was regarded as outrageously racist even at a time when racism was hardly a household word")
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-06 05:02 am (UTC)I've just perused a little of your writing and I'm really kind of in awe of it and the amount of research and humor you put into your work. *Go zelda_queen Go* Waves virtual pom pom.
I will now shuffle along to my simpler little corner of fandom!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-06 03:43 pm (UTC)And they're playing Firefly on TV? :D I love the series so much! I actually saw the movie first, and thought it was just a really well-made stand-alone movie. Then I saw the series and fell for it. ^^
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-21 08:18 pm (UTC)As a straight "whitemale", and a "unicorn" to boot*, Allecto amuses me (in a brain-hurting way) by her double standards. You simply cannot win unless you are as sexist and racist as she is.
A black protagonist? He's an Uncle Tom!
A black antagonist? He's a sexual monster (Note: Early said he got "no pleasure at the idea" of raping Kaylee. It was a tool to get the job done, nothing more.)
A loving man and wife? He's a rapist!
A loving lesbian couple? Pandering to "whitemale" lust. (Note: I'm referring specifically to Willow and Kara, one of the most tastefully done lesbian romances I have ever seen)
A man treats a woman like a normal person? He's enforcing his dominance!
A man tries to protect a defensless woman? He's "putting on a unicorn costume", no matter how in character his actions are. (Seriously, Mal will protect anybody who's defenseless, regardless of gender. Why do you think he brought Simon on board?)
I'd imagine she'd be the type of person who would say that the Bride from Kill Bill, Bellatrix Lestrange, etc. are "amazing female role models" despite being violent psychopaths, if she wasn't too busy hating them for being written by men.
She's the reason many feminists started calling themselves "egalitarians."
* I voted no on the thrice-damned Proposition 8. I'm an aspiring writer, and most of my work involves female leads.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-21 10:09 pm (UTC)Speaking of her double standards, btw, she thinks lesbianism is the way to go but HATES gay men. Apparently it's some philosophy that male homosexuality is hurtful to women because it excludes women from the picture even though she also thinks women shouldn't be with men and it all makes my head explode. -_-
She HAS said that Bellatrix is feminist, or at least as close as anyone in Harry Potter as gotten. (She made a comment that Bellatrix is the only one "the only woman with a backbone and a purpose (albeit a screwed up one) in the whole movie" for HBP, because clearly Hermione, Ginny, and Luna had no purpose at all). She did admit that she likes Ginny, but then bitches that Ginny is underused and her achievements are glossed over and serve only to emphasize the "love" between Ron and Harry. Something about her only being a tool because, le gasp, Harry worries about jeopardizing his friendship by dating said best friend's sister. -_- Never mind that Ginny was a independent girl who knew what she wanted and had just as much hand in hooking up with Harry (more so if you take into account the implication that Ginny always loved Harry and dated other boys so she wouldn't be so painfully shy around him). Allecto also got pissed that Tonks ended up with Remus because OMG, Lupin is "a gross, boring old man" Boring is a case of mileage varying, but gross? Old? David Thewlis??? Really? (Also, Allecto seems under the impression that the HBP movie had a scene where Ron and Harry climb into bed together. No idea where that came from. O_o)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-22 03:37 am (UTC)The funny part is that she allegedly wants to improve women's rights (I really think she just wants to complain), but she's adamantly unwilling to concede any ground. I'm all for equality, and if a woman wants me to make some sacrifice for the sake of equality, I'm willing to consider it. If a woman wants me to die in a fire for the sake of female supremacy, why on Earth would I want to listen to her?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-22 04:37 am (UTC)What gets me is that Allecto can't seem to grasp that just becomes someone's feminist doesn't mean they're on her batspit-crazy level. One of the big pushes for feminism, for example, is the right to sexual freedom. We see that in Firefly, mostly with Kaylee, the happy girl who enjoys sex but not in a way that's played up as being overly slutty or fanservicy. Yet Allecto bashes Kaylee because she wants sex! With a MAN! Erm, yeah. But basically, Allecto says that a girl who wants sex or a relationship is brainwashed and being taken advantage of by default, which is infuriating and sounds a little too close to the believe that women are lustful creatures who need a good, firm hand to keep them in line because they can't control their own sexuality. >_<
Yeah, a lot of people forget that, unfortunately. Equalization does not mean total dominance. -_-
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-22 05:28 am (UTC)But really, I think the best way to sum up Allecto is this:
Lady, you are not my kind of stupid.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-27 02:44 pm (UTC)Allecto broke my brain.
Again.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-02 05:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-16 04:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-10-21 03:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-10-21 11:49 pm (UTC)In fact, apparently a lot of pissy straw feminist-types hate the Molly Weasley/Bellatrix Lestrange duel in Book 7, feeling that Rowling wrote the stereotypical housewife "triumphing" over a free, New Woman. Or something. I dunno. -_- People don't always make sense.
(Oh, and there also is the fact that Bellatrix shows her alleged freedom by killing and torturing people both to please her boss and for her own enjoyment. I don't get how people overlook THAT)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-16 04:58 pm (UTC)Harry Potter is FULL of powerful, strong women. I can't think of a single woman in that series who's genuinely weak and pathetic, not even Petunia (I'd imagine she'd jump in front of Dudley to stop the Killing Curse without a second thought). Even Molly, the stereotypical house wife, is a badass woman. It's clear who wears the pants in the house and is the only one who can control the twins, and DH showed her to be a badass fighter as well.
Wow... Just wow...
Date: 2011-12-19 05:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-12 02:43 pm (UTC)Slow applause begins
...STANDING OVATION!!
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-10 09:13 am (UTC)*applause* I love any sporking where canon characters help out, and you captured them quite humorously. :D The subject of criticism, however, makes me want to bash my head on something. This woman's nuts. Then again, I suppose you have to wonder about someone who shares a screen name with a violent and damn crazy villain from Harry Potter.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-10-13 10:12 pm (UTC)Actually, she didn't take her username from Harry Potter. She took it from a Fury in Greek mythology who was born when Cronus castrated Uranus and spilled blood from that wound onto Gaea.
Explains a lot, huh?
(no subject)
Date: 2013-10-14 12:24 am (UTC)Either way it does explain a heck of a lot.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-19 12:53 am (UTC)Look at Early's response when he realizes Inara is trying to manipulate him. He immediately brings the conflict to a physical level, then reminds her verbally that he's physically stronger than she is.
This suggests that he's afraid of Inara, that he knows she can out-maneuver him if he gives her the chance. The strong, scary mercenary is weaker than the courtesan.
Also, she's quick to point out a few sexually suggestive scenes about Inara and Kaylee, but of course, completely ignores any beefcake we see, like Nathan Fillion's ass, or Sean Maher walking around shirtless (the girls in my group were... appreciative of that scene).
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-22 02:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-23 04:32 pm (UTC)And yeah, sex scenes (particularly gratuitous ones) tend to bore me, but as long as there's not something unintentionally creepy going on during them, I just leave it as "Well, to each their own".
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-16 05:04 pm (UTC)As such, I played a little game with Allecto.
Bingo in two ways!
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-17 12:55 am (UTC)And does "Shut up" count if she told several commenters on her LJ post of Firefly that she was ignoring/deleting their input for being pro-prostitution and anti-feminist?
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-17 03:37 am (UTC)Oh, that does count! I forgot about that. So it's Bingo in three ways!
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-26 09:49 pm (UTC)