Women in Being Human

[sqbr]

I just finished episode 4 of the six part miniseries "Being Human". For those who've watched it: does it continue having all the women fall neatly into one of the Victim/Evil Whore/Hag categories? Should I go ahead and not let myself get attached to any female character ever?

Overall I'm really liking it (Think "Spaced" crossed with "Ultraviolet"(*)) but the gender roles are bugging me, I'm starting to assume it won't be long before The Nice Nurse (who doesn't fit any of them) is knocked off tragically since it seems unlikely that she'd turn evil. I guess there's always the killed-and-then-vamped double whammy :/

The two main female characters are the worst: the ONLY female vampire constantly teeters dramatically between the two "dangerous woman with power" extremes of "Miserable uncontrollable victim of her power" and "Slutty and evil". Meanwhile Annie the ghost is basically a likeable affectionate but somewhat moody 12 year old girl minus the sex drive. I think the clincher was the episode where the two guys are all "I want intimacy, but my dangerous urges may kill any woman I touch!" while she's all "I miss my fiance. I know! I'll make him a casserole! That's JUST like being his wife". Her whole identity seems to revolve around How It All Went Wrong in a very passive, traditional gender roles-ish way.

That and episode 4 took me like 2 weeks to finish once I realised there'd be bad stuff happening involving a kid (vampires=sex goes to weird places when you involve children. It didn't go dirtybadwrong but still squicked me) Blarg.

I'm going to go wash my brain out with Chuck: it may objectify it's female characters, but but least they get some agency to go along with their skimpy outfits. Plus it's cheerful cheese and I'm a sook :)

(*)The english miniseries about vampires, not the terrible movie.

Comments

[lauredhel]

I felt like that at that point. It gets better, I swear.

[sqbr]

Oh, ok, good. Well, when I'm done with Chuck I'll get back to it :)

[ex_pippin880]

I'm starting to assume it won't be long before The Nice Nurse (who doesn't fit any of them) is knocked off tragically since it seems unlikely that she'd turn evil.

She is alive and not evil and not on a bus at the end of this season. :)

There's a new woman in the fifth episode, who, hmm. I thought she was strong, but even though she makes her own decisions and stuff, she is pretty much only in the show to plot point one of the MCs. But TBQH I was pretty much "omg non-terrible vampire TV tee hee George :3" for the entire thing and I don't notice gender issues at the best of times, so.

[ex_pippin880]

But the end of Gilbert's plot skeeved me. MY PURPOSE IN (UN)LIFE WAS TO LOVE YOU BUT INSTEAD OF HELPING YOU, WHO I LOVE, THROUGH ONE OF THE DARKEST TIMES IN YOUR (UN)LIFE I WILL GO THROUGH THIS DOOR LOL LOL LOL what the hell

[sqbr]

I know! Guh! Talk about female characters only being important in how they affect male ones :/

[orbitaldiamonds]

Totally OT, but how do you get your font size bigger? I'd like to make the font on my journal bigger too. :)

[sqbr]

I messed with the code back when I had a paid account and thus could access the style editor:
http://sqbr.dreamwidth.org/226985.html

I don't know how to do it under a free account, which is one reason I'm sticking with this style even though it's kind of broken (plausibly a direct result of me messing with it :))

[orbitaldiamonds]

Okay, thanks!

I have a paid account, but I prefer the Transmorgified layout because it's nice and simple.

I have codes for bullets on the sidebar, changing the font, and making the text area wider if you want 'em. :)

[sqbr]

Yes please!

[orbitaldiamonds]

Obviously, I didn't figure out any of these myself. I got them from comms for layout stuffs.

Fonts:
body {font-family: Georgia, serif;}

Bullets:
li.module-list-item {list-style-type: disc}

Making the journal wider:
#container {width: 96%; margin-left: 2%}

[sqbr]

Done! Awesome! Thanks! Now maybe it'll be less absurd checking my reading list on my laptop with it's 2 words a line or whatever it was :)

[orbitaldiamonds]

Cool! Glad I could help. :D

[ex_peasant441]

I reckon Being Human will take every expectation you have and twist it on its head by the end of the series, including most of the ones you mention.

But then I found ep 4 one of the most brilliant and compassionate considerations of paedophilia I have ever seen, and you just found it blarg, so we may be coming at it from different angles.

Can't really say any more without spoiling you and I don't know your attitude to spoilers.

[sqbr]

Oh I didn't think episode 4 was bad (well, apart from continuing with some of the annoying gender stuff), it just REALLY squicked me. I get really freaked at bad things happening involving children, but I don't think it's an invalid topic for fiction :) Much like zombies and parasites.

And now having thought about all the things that really squick me, I shall go wash my brain again with more Chuck.