writerly ways

[cornerofmadness]

So here we go, another Sunday of what to write and I think I’m finally ready for this one. It seems right after the way Whedon finally blew up over the week (though I’m still shaking my head over the fact that Ray Fisher was mostly ignored and then FIRED but the women listened to. And why is this firing NOT a bigger deal though we know gender/race is why)

I’ve been sitting on this link for over a year trying to think about it and then I was talking with a few people recently about rape tropes in stories and Spike was in this article. If you don’t read it all let me share this excerpt: Since the attempted rape in Buffy season six was to redeem Spike in preparation for a romance arc, he then ends up in a relationship with his victim. For many alienated fans, this felt like an endorsement of his rape attempt. Instead of strengthening the romance, the attempted rape tainted it. In stories, rape is an act that’s over the moral event horizon – a character should not be redeemed after that, because many audience members will never like them again.

Yep it alienated the hell out of me. I shifted to mostly writing in the Angel verse and quit watching Buffy (there was a lot of S6 & S7 I hadn’t seen and I was not happy Spike was on Angel though it worked better than I feared). I loved Spike. This made me hate him as a character for a long time. I wouldn't have disliked Spuffy so much if not for the rape attempt. Honestly my friends did far better with Spuffy as a relationship than canon ever did.

What got me thinking about writing about rape was about how badly I’ve seen it done. I don’t think it needs to disappear entirely (rape happens, recovery happens) but it really needs to be done better. As I said last week I saw the end of two of my series with book three thanks to how they handled rape. Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid (which I really liked) might get picked up again but after the titular hero was okay if a character was raped by ice giants I’m like um…. Okay? Patricia Briggs’ coyote shifter (blocked her name) was raped and her biggest concern was how it would reflect on her alpha wolf lover and his status in the pack. Nope, bye. There was one I can’t even remember title or author (I expunged it entirely apparently) faerie story set in Pittsburgh (I was excited you don’t get Pittsburgh often) where the lead was nearly raped and she wasn’t that mad at the rapist and literally called him a poopy head (no she was not a child)

I think the article does a good job but fails in two ways. 1) it didn’t address rape as a punishment or at least not as its own bullet point. That’s how I often see it done. 2) it just wanted the trope gone entirely but if that is a major point then how to address it wasn’t discussed.

I think in a way the rape trope was one of the ways I started thinking Whedon was not a good person almost 20 years ago (back when me and ELD were pilloried for saying so). There were clues in interviews with him, with others. Sarah and James had mentioned toxicity (though laid some of that at Noxon’s feet too) back then. Sarah hated season six (though this article tries to pretty up the rape so boo to that. Noxon and Whedon weren’t some genius with this trope, not at all IMO)

Amber told me and ELD at a con about being harassed over her weight and appearance. There was an article with Vincent Kartheiser about how uncomfortable he was being forced into a sex scene with Charisma (and her on the bottom), making it sound like they tried (and failed) to get out of it and he was very worried about hurting her and no one cared. (This was long before Charisma’s posts this past week about the 1 AM shoot times and her Braxon-Hicks contractions.) It’s long been debated that Whedon rewrote Connor’s arc to basically destroy Cordy (and very purposely Charisma’s career) because let’s face it, the pregnancy could have been written off as Groo’s (they were lovers around the time after all). He went out of his way to be as icky as possible.

But think about how often we saw rape as a trope on Buffy
1. Buffy and Parker (date rape is still rape)
2. Buffy and Spike (and was very triggering for me based on my own experiences)
3. Angelus and Spike very obviously raped people to show they were bad (namely Drusilla that we know of)
4. It’s hinted Faith was sexually abused growing up
5. Faith having unsuspecting Riley as a lover while looking like Buffy (addressed in the article)
6. My personal worst nightmare Andrew, Warren and Jonathan finding women to turn into sex slaves, Andrew whining about having to go second and him STILL being popular with fans
7. Even Cordy/Connor is dubious consent at best. She decides he’s 18 (somehow) so legal but do we think he even knew what sex was? That his hell fire and brimstone ‘father’ would have explained sex and if he had it would have been an 18th century idea of it.
8. Xander tried to rape Buffy, yes he’s possessed by a hyena spirit but it happened

I’m probably forgetting some. We certainly also had slut shaming from Faith to shows all but built around it (the one night and you’re instantly pregnant one for example). There is this undercurrent of rape culture and rape as power throughout (which played into my long ago conviction Whedon was not the feminist-leaning guy he proclaimed to be).


Have some links

From Betty The First Page

How to Launch a New Book Using BookBub’s Marketing Tools

Believing in Yourself as a Writer is Vital


KDSPY Review: Get an Edge in Book Sales

Five Bad Habits Writers Learn From Movies and TV

Five Ways to Make a Selfish Character Likable

Podcast 313 – Cutting Clutter

Relationship Thesaurus Entry: Exes

5 Tips for Writing Stellar Romantic Subplots

Opening Scenes: 3 Critical Elements

From around the web Worldbuilding Creating a Magic System for Superpowers I admit it. I clicked this one just because of the Darker than Black image

Marketing A Book (Beyond Social Media)

Write Your First Draft Like A Movie Script

Nine Idioms Traced To Their Origins


This is How You Find Your Readers: Book Marketing in 2021
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Comments

[aaronlisa]

I think I could have bought the S7 Spike redemption arc, if the writers hadn't tried to shove a Spike/Buffy romance down the viewer's throat. I recall watching the S6 finale and at no time did I (or my cousin who was watching it with me) felt that Spike was trying to get his soul. Even after my rewatch last year, I don't feel that Spike had gone off to get his soul. I still firmly believe that he had gone to that demon to get the chip out so that he could make Buffy pay. Even without the attempted rape, the violent relationship that Spike and Buffy had during S6 is one that I found to be full of dubious consent issues on both sides. I also find it ikcy that the writers tried to bring up the whole issue of whether or not Spike can/could love. Especially in light of Season Two, when the Judge felt that he and Drusilla reeked too much of humanity and I am pretty sure that Buffy & the Scoobies were aware that Spike, even without a soul, was capable of love. I always felt that in some respects, the writers decided to crap all over Spike because they were largely directionless. That said, I felt that the Spike/Buffy arc in S7 was icky on so many levels. While, I can understand Buffy accepting that she needs Spike to help defeat the First, the soft and almost loving relationship between them is off-putting in the context of S6. And it's one of the reasons why I have a hard time with the whole Spuffy ship.

That said, aside from S6 and it's many issues around consent, the first season has several episodes that deal with dubious consent poorly: The Pack, Teacher's Pet and even I Robot, You Jane. While I understand that it can easily be argued that some of the monster of the week episodes in the first 3 seasons (and even parts of S4) are more or less, morality plays that the network wanted the writers to deal with, it's still squicky how much dubious consent and/or predatory behaviour play a role in these stories. There's also the whole Faith/Xander arc and issue with dubious consent.

However, I am willing to give the show a slight pass when it comes to the issue of dubious consent in the earlier episodes, largely because it's a product of the era in which it was made. If you look at a lot of popular media of that era, they are all fraught with dubious consent (and consent issues on a whole) and slut shaming. I mean in April of 1997, The X-FIles had "Small Potatoes," Which tries to make the issue of dubious consent (and a man who basically rapes women to get them pregnant) off as a joke.

I want to be clear, that while I may give the earlier seasons of Buffy a slight pass because it's a product of it's time, it does become a little more sketchy when you look at later seasons would go and if you look at the allegations made against Whedon.

[cornerofmadness]

Honestly you and I agree point for point on the last two seasons of Buffy. I definitely thought like you that him going to get his soul for Buffy was a retcon based on fan reaction. I thought he wanted the chip out too.

And honestly him becoming good without a soul was so much more interesting.

Yeah there is a lot of dubious content in that era. I actually liked small potatoes but it is definitely the rape by false pretenses which is in the article (and surprised they didn't mention it)

[aaronlisa]

I agree with you, having Spike be redeemed whilst still having a soul would have been a far more superior storyline. That said, I think it was probably far more nuanced for a show like Buffy that seemed to deal more in black and white than shades of grey. I think if Spike had been on ATS, we may have seen that story being told. Now I want a fanfic that deals with Spike becoming a hero whilst still being a soulless vampire.

With Small Potatoes, I also like that episode.I only brought it up because, I think it's far too easy for people to bash the Buffyverse for consent issues, slut shaming, and so on but forget that the show was a product of it's time. I think too many people have bought into the BS about the show being feminist or that Whedon is a feminist. While I will agrue that the movie!Buffy was definitely a good example of a strong female lead in a genre where characers like Buffy tended to be the victim, I don't think TV!Buffy the stand-alone strong female character in the horror/sci-fi/fantasy/supernatural genre. Perhaps she's the first teen character of that time that refused to be damsel in distress but I think too many people are buying into the hype of the show rather than dealing with the fact that it's a horribly dated show from the late 90s that doesn't always deal with certain subject matters very well.

[cornerofmadness]

That fanfic is probably out there somewhere.

I think the reason Buffy gets brought out so often for these things is that it was so big, but yes it's getting close to 30 years old somehow. Yikes

[aaronlisa]

Yes it probably is.

I was thinking about why it is that BtVS (and ATS) get so much flack for their failures, when it's been almost 30 years, and I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that it was (and in some ways) still hyped up as this "deep" show that has such deeper meaning when it comes to feminism and so on. And perhaps it was so accessible for so many people unlike some other popular shows of that era.

[cornerofmadness]

I think there is a lot of truth in that. You probably remember back when the show was on, MANY academic books were written about it, more than any other show I can think of except maybe Star Trek. It was held up as a feminist icon so yes it's accessible in ways others weren't

I'm hoping in many ways that this ends the idea of rebooting Buffy. I have never wanted to see that.

Also I'm just going to say it, I think the writers at MythCreants LOVE tearing down beloved shows. They think of themselves as super 'woke' and are terribly superior in this. I don't always share the articles Betty sends me because they're so insufferable

[aaronlisa]

I have a few of those books. And I think the fact that people still study the show on an academic basis more so than other shows also leads to this.

That site sounds like a more upscale Screen Rant.

[cornerofmadness]

You're right I think