we do not fault colors for being different.

[intertribal]

Lenny:  Gosh, Homer, I would have thought a man with two wives would be happy!
Carl:  No, you're thinking of a man with two knives.
Moe [holding two knives]:  I gotta admit, this is pretty awesome.
- the Simpsons

this is from an article in The Age, a really stupid Australian newspaper.  it's one of those articles that reeks of popular unintelligence - completely pedestrian opinions based on trends that were read in People or the TV guide. 

Thomson says writing the series around two men would have produced a completely different — and probably far less interesting — dynamic. "Women tend to give you much more room to move in a character-based drama," he says. "Males generally — in life and in fiction — tend to fall into stereotypes. When you see a male character, you expect him to fit into a certain pigeonhole. And as a writer it's very tough to pull them out of those pigeonholes. With female characters, very rarely is what you see what you get. Life for women is never black and white. It never is and it never can be. So you automatically have conflict there. Drama is conflict, and inner conflict is the most powerful conflict of them all."

and because of this, we decide to write more female characters, the article argues.  instead, that is, of challenging male stereotypes, we reinforce female ones - that women are full of drama, especially around other women.

"With the super heroes there's that wonderful physicality," Turnbull says. "Xena was physically a very big woman but Buffy or the Cheerleader are these petite blondes who are also incredibly strong and resilient. They don't have to be butch to be powerful. And that's immensely inspirational for some people."

immensely inspirational that not only do the petite blonde cheerleaders have everything else, but they get to be all-powerful superheroes that beat people up as well?  who's inspired?

Comments

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

it's funny, because women are full of drama. at least, I talk/act differently with my female friends because I know from experience that I stand a better chance of offending them for inane bullshit. (this doesn't, of course, apply to all women, which brings me to the point...)

however, it's true that that doesn't mean we need to reinforce stereotypes. they're boring, too.

petite blonde cheerleaders don't have everything. not by a long shot...

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Ah, yeah, I suppose it's like that with female friends that I don't particularly like... with ones that I'm comfortable with, there's usually nothing. At any rate, it's hardly Desperate Housewives, which is what this article was going on.

I suppose my high/middle school resentment against petite blonde cheerleaders still exists...

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

I suppose I might be talking about a different sort of drama, really--that stems from insecurity and the insistence on interpreting what people say as somehow indicative of one's own inferiority.

Gossip and love lives and stabbing people in the back is more the "girly" sort of thing that I can't stand, that happens when I hang out with more socially involved folks at Reed. I was bitching about this with regard to feminism to Tara (because these people all insist that they're feminists and if you have a different opinion, you must be some horrible sexist), and she thought I hated women until she was forced to hang out with some of these sort at her boyfriend's house. What it really is is gossip and traditional gender roles, disguised as liberalism, where girls get together and bitch about how awful guys are and how such-and-such girls aren't good enough and who's dating who and who we should all hate now. But to them you have to be super polite, you know, or they don't talk to you anymore. I'm no longer invited to parties among my freshman year dormies, and yet she still invites like token black people that she isn't even friends with. Ugh, this place functions like a small town.

In any case, I've never seen Desperate Housewives, so I have no idea what those women do, although apparently they're married, without careers, and desperate, so I've got a vague idea...

Yeah, I think your resentment toward the blonde cheerleading type is a bit out of proportion. I was trying to figure out awhile back why I thought blondes were so unattractive, and I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with fact that you hated them so much. I think this is why I dyed my hair. I guess, more importantly, I just never wanted the friends they had, the men they got, the lives they led, the thoughts they had...their entire being just kind of disgusted me, and I didn't want anything to do with it. But I didn't resent them most of the time, because they're just too pathetic...it reminds me of, of all things, Family Guy:

Connie D'Amico: You know, Meg, there's no dogs allowed here, so you're gonna have to leave, but Brian can stay.
[she and another couple laugh]
Brian Griffin: You know, Connie, I think I have a theory about why you're such a bitch.
Connie D'Amico: Excuse me?
Meg Griffin: Brian, let's just go.
Brian Griffin: No, no, no, no, no, hang on. Hang on, Meg, hang on. You see, Connie, you're popular because you developed early and started giving hand jobs when you were 12. But now you can't stand to look at yourself in the mirror because all you see is a whore. So you pick on Meg to avoid the inevitable realization that once your body's used up by age 19 you're gonna be a worn-out, chalky-skinned burlap sack that even your stepdad won't want. How's that, am I in the ballpark?

I guess, I resent more the insistence of Hollywood and the popular girls and and anyone else who continues to place this false beauty and charm and innocence on these blonde fucking cheerleaders. But I don't believe it and I don't want it.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

I think my initial objection to the article was that I felt like it said men were strong and silent, and women were emotional dramaqueens, and while some women are dramatic and pathetically cliquey (like my "friends" from freshman year), it reminds me of the evangelical show on Godly marriage (where the phrase "we do not fault colors for being different" comes from) - he speaks blue and she speaks pink and that's why they're unhappy.

Dude, I influence your opinion too much. I suppose it is hard for blondes because everyone else hates them because they supposedly get all the attention. I think it's not even that they get attention in real life, but that they get attention in fantasy life, in TV and movies. So you're right, it is more about the way Hollywood always (used to, I think this is changing now) casts the good girl as the blonde and the bad girl as the brunette. I think it's sort of an extension of the white man's burden to be honest, not that blonde girls have the same power as the white man, but that's the kind of power they're perceived to have by the other girls, who are basically taught to be jealous and resentful whether or not that's rational.

I mean, before I ever met a blonde I had read Little House in the Big Woods, where brunette Laura is jealous because everybody says Mary's (blonde) hair is so beautiful, and Mary rubs it in her face, so she... pulls Mary's hair or something? She acts out, and her father punishes her, then tells her not to feel bad because he likes brown hair better - he has brown hair. And I immediately identified with Laura, of course, even though I had never personally experienced anything like this, given I was still in Jakarta.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

oh god...auuughaghghghgh. that is my response to the colors thing, as an anthropologist. take us back to totemism, why don't they! uhh, right.

yeah, but at least you know i really value your opinion (insert cheesy grin).

i completely agree. yeah, i have noticed blondes going slightly out of style, too... god, talk about objectifying. now i'm talking about people as fads we consume. but they are! images, at least.

funny, i identified with laura too...but i don't remember those books very well, even though i read like every single one in third grade.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

well, I'm glad we agree on colors and their differences.

I don't want you to value my opinion to the point of DYING YOUR HAIR! after all I am a childish person.

your thing about people as fads we consume triggered this quote by my mother: "people as commodities are only valuable when they're young."

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

well, it only lasted four years...my hair is back to normal now! anyway, it probably wasn't just you that made me hate blonde hair so much.

true that.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the long comment...

In case it's not clear, I'm really agreeing with you, I think even about the cheerleaders (?)

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

So yes, the entirety of the comment was pointless. Goddamn it!

I'm really desperate for social interaction, you have no idea...

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

I understand. I can get that way sometimes.