krickets: (SHAMELESS. k. her own choices.)
So I have been talking with people about Karen Jackson a lot lately, and so I thought I'd make a sort-of meta-y type post that sums up some of the conversations I've had in the comments and other places about this girl and the wank surrounding her character throughout season 2. This post is for [livejournal.com profile] stainofmylove, by the way.
karenlip
it's me or the baby )

.238

Nov. 17th, 2010 08:46 pm
krickets: (Default)
Yeah, so I'm a a bit of a feminist -- not in any studied way. But a lot of my thoughts tend to lean in that direction. And yeah, I did get a tad worked up about seeing some people (not just one person), calling Lori a "whore" or "slut" on The Walking Dead. And I guess there's two reasons that this sort of thing bugs me. And it's not specific to this show, or to any of my lovely flisters. Lori is just a convenient example.

One reason can be (mostly) summed up by what I saw someone post today about the Fringe fandom:

-- Hm, well, coming from the perspective of someone who gets upset when people use words like ‘slut’ and ‘whore’ at any time—not just in Fringe fandom, or in fandom in general, but whenever—it’s because such words carry baggage with them, whether we intend them to or not. They carry negative implications about female sexuality. One of my favorite quotes about the use of these words is this: “[Slut-shaming] is about the implication that if a woman has sex that traditional society disapproves of, she should feel guilty and inferior.”

Whatever our reasons are for calling a character a slut or a whore are, the fact of the matter remains that we are, in the process, promoting a worldview that shames female sexualities, especially those that are considered to be “untraditional”. I understand that this is most often not the intention when calling someone a slut, but in the end, it’s not the intention behind the action that matters. It’s the results of the action.
- vengeancebuiltmehastily

And that really is a huge part of why it just makes me crazy when I see this sort of thing. But on top of that spoilers )

In the end though, I know the specific details don't really matter. No matter what a character has done, what her motivations are, or what kind of a person she is, when I hear those words it's always incredibly offensive to me. I have the same problem with the b-word the majority of the time -- but not always. Even when used in a supposedly positive manner. (Or maybe even especially.)

And don't even get me started on the whole "hbic" thing.

I don't really have much more to say on the matter except that 99% of the time I'm most likely to ignore it. There have been a lot of fictional ladies before Lori that have faced the same judgment -- Kate from Lost being a big one, along with Dexter's Rita -- whether they're being called sluts or bitches or whatever. So it's not exactly a shocker.

My thoughts on this matter are in no way comprehensive, but seeing that Fringe post made me feel like I should address it.

.238

Nov. 17th, 2010 08:46 pm
krickets: (Default)
Yeah, so I'm a a bit of a feminist -- not in any studied way. But a lot of my thoughts tend to lean in that direction. And yeah, I did get a tad worked up about seeing some people (not just one person), calling Lori a "whore" or "slut" on The Walking Dead. And I guess there's two reasons that this sort of thing bugs me. And it's not specific to this show, or to any of my lovely flisters. Lori is just a convenient example.

One reason can be (mostly) summed up by what I saw someone post today about the Fringe fandom:

-- Hm, well, coming from the perspective of someone who gets upset when people use words like ‘slut’ and ‘whore’ at any time—not just in Fringe fandom, or in fandom in general, but whenever—it’s because such words carry baggage with them, whether we intend them to or not. They carry negative implications about female sexuality. One of my favorite quotes about the use of these words is this: “[Slut-shaming] is about the implication that if a woman has sex that traditional society disapproves of, she should feel guilty and inferior.”

Whatever our reasons are for calling a character a slut or a whore are, the fact of the matter remains that we are, in the process, promoting a worldview that shames female sexualities, especially those that are considered to be “untraditional”. I understand that this is most often not the intention when calling someone a slut, but in the end, it’s not the intention behind the action that matters. It’s the results of the action.
- vengeancebuiltmehastily

And that really is a huge part of why it just makes me crazy when I see this sort of thing. But on top of that spoilers )

In the end though, I know the specific details don't really matter. No matter what a character has done, what her motivations are, or what kind of a person she is, when I hear those words it's always incredibly offensive to me. I have the same problem with the b-word the majority of the time -- but not always. Even when used in a supposedly positive manner. (Or maybe even especially.)

And don't even get me started on the whole "hbic" thing.

I don't really have much more to say on the matter except that 99% of the time I'm most likely to ignore it. There have been a lot of fictional ladies before Lori that have faced the same judgment -- Kate from Lost being a big one, along with Dexter's Rita -- whether they're being called sluts or bitches or whatever. So it's not exactly a shocker.

My thoughts on this matter are in no way comprehensive, but seeing that Fringe post made me feel like I should address it.

Profile

krickets: (Default)
krickets

April 2025

S M T W T F S
  12345
6789101112
13141516171819
202122232425 26
27282930   

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 6th, 2025 10:44 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios