Originally posted by vaberella
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Aye...What is this obsession with female writers?! What in Captain Cook's name makes people think that a female writer will care about a female character?! Is it something gender specific? Biological? I'd like to know. That's like the essentialist point of view that "all women are great mothers"---we know this to be not the case. That's like saying, "all women can relate and understand women"---if that was the case Feminism and Womanism would not be the case. Shoot, all women would be singing kumbaya. We definitely know this is not the case. So where does the idea of women writers are better for women or percieved to be better stem from?
I say this only because I don't think that's the case and never thought the failure of the writers in regards to women as because they couldn't write women. Teyla is a complex character that I felt was hit in the face by fans harder than any other character; let me be more specific, fans on this site and a few other Stargate sites I've haunted. Especially when she was compared to Weir. This is undeniable. Her character was not hyper-sexualized, actually the writers made sure to defeat that, she was attractive--but you leave that to John's salivating, ditto for Beckett and McKay. However the fans of the show, or I should say many slapped her down before even really giving her a chance. That's not the failure of the writers.
I take big issue when people claim female writers for something more than male writers. And I'm probably the biggest WOMANIST one could meet. This is the case mainly because I find that the female characters had something going for them to begin with, or they would never have had a fan base. That would say the men writers do know what they're doing. The loudest fan base for Weir on this and many other boards were women, this was the same for Teyla.
Now if people were to clarify they're point by saying. I wish there was a FEMINIST female writer or a WOMANIST Male/Female (Womanism has male members which is more inclusive than feminism--which is underlied by racial, economic and gender tensions) writer, then I'd be prone to agree. Why? One thing is for sure, the women would outshine the men more than one time.
I don't know much about men's fantasies. But Larrin, if she was that, she was a poor excuse. I thought men, might have preferred a woman who could hold her own, not a "damsel in distress" in leather. Maybe I'm comparing Red Sonja to Barbie in black pleather. Larrin is Barbie in Black leather. The thought of her being on the show irks me to no end.
As I have stated previously, I hate everything about the character. I was shocked to learn that she was a leader of her people because she didn't show it. Her interaction with John was disgusting to the exreme because it undermined her leadership. She seemed at times to be uber horny.
Further more I hated the fact she used her sexuality to "thrawt men". What the hell was that?! As leader of a people, who should have some combat skills. She had ZERO. She used sexuality and I couldn't understand the purpose. Plus the acting was smacking me in the face screaming "I'm crap!!". I was like it was so bad, I wasn't shocked that she was on Blade or why it was cancelled, since I was like this actress is not feeling her character at all.
Grace Jones where are you!!! She would have made Larrin wicked, although when you add Grace Jones to a film, you have to give her some martial arts or something. In any event, the actress was killing me and Shep's character looked worse. I felt that JF spent his time giving and trying to extract something from a wall with no primer.
In any event, I think this idea of "woman writer" is nonsense and needs to be a bit more clarified. Majority of the fanfic writers I know are women and a lot of them give Teyla nothing. Even the Teyla fans or writers, the general writers are times seem to be better. Don't get me wrong, there are some who utilize her, but they still pump Shep/McKay as the "creme de la creme" and Teyla is either not in it, or marginalized. Other's who ship her, have her depend on a man and really romanticize the character to oblivion. This is not all mind you, but a good majority. To get a good balance, between story, characters and especially with Teyla as a lead female....if I were to use female fanfic writers for SGA as an example of possible writers for SGA----I don't see a bloody improvement. Which defeats the idea a woman is necessary.
But a promotion of a WOMANIST writer, Womanists can be men as well, then I would think there would be a vast improvement. I don't think though bell hooks or Alice Walker do scifi. Although they should, as a Black woman who loves scifi, Black women have been staples in scifi since Star Trek---thank you Uhura (Nichelle Nichols). So that could be fundamental.
Otherwise I think the men are doing a fine job and I'd refrain from issues of masculinity versus femininity and think the writers just need more so an understanding of their character and revisiting of the character than actually having this "ideal" female writer which has been pimped since the time of Weir.
I say the above because I strongly think that Shep and McKay need work as much as Teyla. So it's not gender specific. The issue is across the board, and I have been saying this since S2. Larrin, in and of herself is the worst and most awful character I have come across, punctuated by what I find to be ridiculously drab and undynamic "acting"---or what was claimed to be acting. I was never sold on the character. Where as Teyla, was sold to me fairly well although just never pushed to her outer reaches. Lucius (played by a good actor) is more in line with Larrin's awful character. Yet, she was worthless to really carry any scene. I had to sit there and wonder the point of Travelers, on many occasions. Because if they wanted to bring in a new enemy/ally, there are better ways of doing that, without using the Larrin character
I say this only because I don't think that's the case and never thought the failure of the writers in regards to women as because they couldn't write women. Teyla is a complex character that I felt was hit in the face by fans harder than any other character; let me be more specific, fans on this site and a few other Stargate sites I've haunted. Especially when she was compared to Weir. This is undeniable. Her character was not hyper-sexualized, actually the writers made sure to defeat that, she was attractive--but you leave that to John's salivating, ditto for Beckett and McKay. However the fans of the show, or I should say many slapped her down before even really giving her a chance. That's not the failure of the writers.
I take big issue when people claim female writers for something more than male writers. And I'm probably the biggest WOMANIST one could meet. This is the case mainly because I find that the female characters had something going for them to begin with, or they would never have had a fan base. That would say the men writers do know what they're doing. The loudest fan base for Weir on this and many other boards were women, this was the same for Teyla.
Now if people were to clarify they're point by saying. I wish there was a FEMINIST female writer or a WOMANIST Male/Female (Womanism has male members which is more inclusive than feminism--which is underlied by racial, economic and gender tensions) writer, then I'd be prone to agree. Why? One thing is for sure, the women would outshine the men more than one time.
I don't know much about men's fantasies. But Larrin, if she was that, she was a poor excuse. I thought men, might have preferred a woman who could hold her own, not a "damsel in distress" in leather. Maybe I'm comparing Red Sonja to Barbie in black pleather. Larrin is Barbie in Black leather. The thought of her being on the show irks me to no end.
As I have stated previously, I hate everything about the character. I was shocked to learn that she was a leader of her people because she didn't show it. Her interaction with John was disgusting to the exreme because it undermined her leadership. She seemed at times to be uber horny.
Further more I hated the fact she used her sexuality to "thrawt men". What the hell was that?! As leader of a people, who should have some combat skills. She had ZERO. She used sexuality and I couldn't understand the purpose. Plus the acting was smacking me in the face screaming "I'm crap!!". I was like it was so bad, I wasn't shocked that she was on Blade or why it was cancelled, since I was like this actress is not feeling her character at all.
Grace Jones where are you!!! She would have made Larrin wicked, although when you add Grace Jones to a film, you have to give her some martial arts or something. In any event, the actress was killing me and Shep's character looked worse. I felt that JF spent his time giving and trying to extract something from a wall with no primer.
In any event, I think this idea of "woman writer" is nonsense and needs to be a bit more clarified. Majority of the fanfic writers I know are women and a lot of them give Teyla nothing. Even the Teyla fans or writers, the general writers are times seem to be better. Don't get me wrong, there are some who utilize her, but they still pump Shep/McKay as the "creme de la creme" and Teyla is either not in it, or marginalized. Other's who ship her, have her depend on a man and really romanticize the character to oblivion. This is not all mind you, but a good majority. To get a good balance, between story, characters and especially with Teyla as a lead female....if I were to use female fanfic writers for SGA as an example of possible writers for SGA----I don't see a bloody improvement. Which defeats the idea a woman is necessary.
But a promotion of a WOMANIST writer, Womanists can be men as well, then I would think there would be a vast improvement. I don't think though bell hooks or Alice Walker do scifi. Although they should, as a Black woman who loves scifi, Black women have been staples in scifi since Star Trek---thank you Uhura (Nichelle Nichols). So that could be fundamental.
Otherwise I think the men are doing a fine job and I'd refrain from issues of masculinity versus femininity and think the writers just need more so an understanding of their character and revisiting of the character than actually having this "ideal" female writer which has been pimped since the time of Weir.
I say the above because I strongly think that Shep and McKay need work as much as Teyla. So it's not gender specific. The issue is across the board, and I have been saying this since S2. Larrin, in and of herself is the worst and most awful character I have come across, punctuated by what I find to be ridiculously drab and undynamic "acting"---or what was claimed to be acting. I was never sold on the character. Where as Teyla, was sold to me fairly well although just never pushed to her outer reaches. Lucius (played by a good actor) is more in line with Larrin's awful character. Yet, she was worthless to really carry any scene. I had to sit there and wonder the point of Travelers, on many occasions. Because if they wanted to bring in a new enemy/ally, there are better ways of doing that, without using the Larrin character
I want teyla to stay but hopefully they will do a better job with her character this season.
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