Amusement and rant...

[partly]

News article I found today:

Longhorn victory jolts President Bush from sleep in which it was reported that Bush fell asleep during the Rose Bowl game and woke only in time to watch the Longhorn's come-from-behind-victory.

So what, you ask? Well with all the "Don't you think Bush looks tired" going around the LJ-world, it cracked me up.

Now on to a rant.

Why is it that no one can write a decent, strong female political character on television. Here we had a wonderful female character who was the Prime Minister. She was strong, practical and competent. She didn't panic and was firmly established as a caring and open-minded person.

And they totally destroyed every good thing -- every established thing -- about her character in the last five minutes of the show.

She panicked and destroyed an entire ship of defeated aliens for no reason. It was completely outside of her character. And the reason she gave to The Doctor? "Like you said, they would tell others". That's not what he said. He said the humanity was calling attention to themselves, not that aliens were going to raise the alarm.

There was no good reason (or any bad one I can think of) to ruin the character. But what really ticks me off is how the writer's chose to ruin her. Her downfall didn't come from her actions, or her ideology, or her politics. No. It was on her looks: "Don't you think she looks tired?"

You want to destroy a woman in power? Go after how she looks. It's a wonder they didn't say: "Don't you thinks she's really bitchy?" Because, you know, she did firmly state her opinions and pressed to get what she wanted. How dare she.

Wil says I'm being overly feminist about it, but really. Brought down because she looks tired. Good grief.

What a waste of a great character.

Comments

[donnickcottage.livejournal.com]

Perhaps GW is turning into Reagan. His aides will need to carry a cattle prod so as to wake him long enough to nod in response to world leaders:)

[partly.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of people fell asleep during the game, to tell the truth.

By the way -- I love your icon.

[finabair.livejournal.com]

You're not really being overly feminist; it IS a problem, like the guy at my old job I had to get another guy to explain math to because he wouldn't listen to ME, it's insidious and something you run into all the time.

Most of us just deal with whatever is being tossed at us expectation-wise, but every once in awhile, it makes us cranky, and rightly so. And that bit - well, I don't think it was woman-trouble, specifically, I think it was greed to get a political statement into the show whatever the cost, but it still IS a problem in TV and the media in general and the statement wouldn't have worked so well on a guy, they'd have had to use something else. So...not OVERLY. Yes, feminist, but it's a legitimate viewpoint.

*hugs*

[partly.livejournal.com]

I'll buy the whole "political statement" thing if only I could come up with some political message from it. I mean, what statement are they making? Being a politician makes you stupid? When faced with aliens, a politician will always kill them?

We've got aliens who came to earth to destroy us but were defeated and were leaving the planet and taking the message that the Earth was protected and off limits. These are the aliens that she destroyed. Where is the political comparison here?

I'm not saying that wasn't the plan by the powers that be, I just don't get it. In fact, I see no political statement at all.

[partly.livejournal.com]

Wait! Wait! I thought of one:

Don't bother trying to defeat a politician on ideological or political grounds -- go after the superficial!

[finabair.livejournal.com]

It was an anti-war statement, I'm pretty sure. 'cuz, y'know, shooting someone who is fleeing in the back is JUST LIKE real life, don't you know.

It's possible I've spent entirely too much time reading opinions on the internet, of course.

[finabair.livejournal.com]

There was that, too.