labellementeuse | *hyperventilates*

Please let it be noted in the annals of Livejournal that Tui and I have unequivocally agreed on something whole heartedly:

Eliza Dushku is completely fucking hot!

(That scene in BTVS where Faith practially rapes Xander is one that will be with me forever)

*_*

(I kind of hesitate at your word choice, man. :-/ rape is not hot.)

I didn't say it was. But did Xander really have any say in that encounter, once he opened the door? Don't think so. I also used the qualifier "practically" even if I spelled it incorrectly.

Rape is what it is, an action of power by one induvidual on another individual without that individual's consent. Xander's reaction to the event (he felt violated and dirty, as I recall) was completely in line with being a victim of rape. Joss used that scene to plant the first seeds in our minds that Faith was not quite right, as a Slayer.

I *said* the scene will stay with me forever, not that it was hot. Eliza *was* hot and I think the point was being made by the paradox of a pretty person doing bad things. One of the "teachings" of BTVS (if you want to call them that) was "don't judge a book by its cover; look below the surface" or even - "people are what they do, not what they look like". Eliza looked hot but her character was not so much.

Work out whether your girl!crush is on Eliza or Faith - it does make a difference.

My main problem with that is that while I think you're correct in your analysis of the scene, it illustrates an ongoing problem with male rape in fiction - it doesn't happen/is treated as humorous. Compare that to, say, the infamous attempted rape in season six - it's serious because it's a girl, whereas Xander gets a throw-away line about feeling violated and then is fine, because he's a guy, and all guys want is sex, right? Sex is always good for men, especially when it's with hot chicks!

...right?

*sigh* I love Joss Whedon but his portrayal of anything regarding women and sex = extremely problematic, and the description of this new show frankly gives me the creeps in that regard.

I dunno. That throwaway line is just one of Xander's masks, to me. His insecurity (e.g. the Zeppo, failure to marry, inumerable screwups) is a key to his character and is never really destroyed. Which makes him more heroic, in a way, because he never (almost never) stops trying. His reasons do change, though, from "trying to impress" through to "trying to save the world".

I agree about Joss' writing weakness. People tend to cite the existence of Buffy as saying he's not sexist (and he probably isn't consciously so) but the remarkable thing about Buffy in the series was that she was a girl, whereas the remarkable thing in the movie was that she was an airhead. I think he should have stuck with that (which would probably have made it Cordelia the Vampire Slayer, and yes I know that Carpenter was an early choice for the lead role)

I don't know if the problem is so much that Buffy is special for being an ass-kicking girl, but rather that in Joss's world girls can do anything...except have sexualities.* He's definitely not consciously sexist, but he needs to stop and look at the message he's actually sending.

*Unless they're lesbians, of course.

Yeah, but lesbians *are* hot - I read it on the intarweb!

*nods* Truly, teh intarwebz are wise.

Both, actually.

I concur that Faith is morally ambiguous - however, I'm not sure that I agree with your reading of the scene. By which I mean, I do think that this is the point from which we're supposed to start worrying about Faith, however, I also really feel like the show didn't actually do any work on convincing us that what happened to Xander was wrong, as opposed to what Faith did was wrong - that's a weird distinction and I need to rewatch the scene, but it always felt to me like Faith was being cast as the bad girl more because she was interested in sex and agressive about getting it, not because she was actually raping Xander.

-- which is not to say that I disagree with a reading of that scene as rape, because I don't.

hyperventilates

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