on character bashing
Oct. 17th, 2008 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dbskylerSo recently there was a bit of a mess over on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
sarahjane_fic because of a post that was flagged as bashing Rani (Maria's replacement on Sarah Jane Adventures, in case you don't know).
The flagged post was, in my opinion, actually very articulate and thoughtful, containing a number of insights into how women are portrayed on television nowadays. When I first read it I didn't even think about character-bashing at all. But it is true that the tone was fairly negative towards Rani, and some of the later comments did descend into what I would definitely label as "bashing." But, and here's the interesting thing -- I'm really only labeling them as "bashing" now, in retrospect. At the time, those comments didn't feel like they were bashing. Which makes me wonder if I've succumbed to a little bit of mental Rani-bashing myself.
I've been bothered by fans' character-bashing in the past, with the most egregious examples in my experience occurring around the character of Reinette. I was floored by how many fans hated her and wrote horrible fanfics devoted to seeing that character get her "rightful punishment." The moderator ofsarahjane_fic also spoke of the Rose/Martha wars as a parallel to the resentment of Rani, and, well, I wasn't around discussion boards back then (and it didn't show up in fanfic in the same way as Reinette-hatred did), but that probably would've bothered me too. I always liked Martha just as much as I liked Rose, and as someone well familiar with Classic Who I had known from the beginning that Rose wasn't going to be the companion forever (no matter how many times she promised she would be).
But the Maria/Rani thing is kind of interesting. I really liked Maria as a character, but I didn't think I'd gotten overly attached to her -- I don't ship her with Sarah, I've never felt moved to write fanfic about her (and that's a pretty reliable gauge), and it's an ensemble show already so you'd think it wouldn't matter that much when one character goes and a new one comes on. And yet in the latest SJA episode I did miss Maria and didn't particularly warm to Rani. It might just be that I find Rani uninteresting-- truth be told, I've never really warmed to Luke either, and that's certainly not because of any "replacement" issues. But I don't dislike Luke; he's a neutral presence for me. I would have said I felt the same about Rani, except now I wonder if the problem is that I'm just not giving her a fair chance. So, I'm going to try to go into the next episode with an open mind. After all, it's not Rani's fault that I didn't care for the plot of her first episode. And it is very nice to see someone of her ethnicity on my TV screen, because that's far too rare an occurrence here in America. And who knows, maybe I'll start with a slight dislike for her and then end up thinking she's great. After all, that's what happened with Chrissie. : )
sarahjane_fic because of a post that was flagged as bashing Rani (Maria's replacement on Sarah Jane Adventures, in case you don't know). The flagged post was, in my opinion, actually very articulate and thoughtful, containing a number of insights into how women are portrayed on television nowadays. When I first read it I didn't even think about character-bashing at all. But it is true that the tone was fairly negative towards Rani, and some of the later comments did descend into what I would definitely label as "bashing." But, and here's the interesting thing -- I'm really only labeling them as "bashing" now, in retrospect. At the time, those comments didn't feel like they were bashing. Which makes me wonder if I've succumbed to a little bit of mental Rani-bashing myself.
I've been bothered by fans' character-bashing in the past, with the most egregious examples in my experience occurring around the character of Reinette. I was floored by how many fans hated her and wrote horrible fanfics devoted to seeing that character get her "rightful punishment." The moderator of
sarahjane_fic also spoke of the Rose/Martha wars as a parallel to the resentment of Rani, and, well, I wasn't around discussion boards back then (and it didn't show up in fanfic in the same way as Reinette-hatred did), but that probably would've bothered me too. I always liked Martha just as much as I liked Rose, and as someone well familiar with Classic Who I had known from the beginning that Rose wasn't going to be the companion forever (no matter how many times she promised she would be).But the Maria/Rani thing is kind of interesting. I really liked Maria as a character, but I didn't think I'd gotten overly attached to her -- I don't ship her with Sarah, I've never felt moved to write fanfic about her (and that's a pretty reliable gauge), and it's an ensemble show already so you'd think it wouldn't matter that much when one character goes and a new one comes on. And yet in the latest SJA episode I did miss Maria and didn't particularly warm to Rani. It might just be that I find Rani uninteresting-- truth be told, I've never really warmed to Luke either, and that's certainly not because of any "replacement" issues. But I don't dislike Luke; he's a neutral presence for me. I would have said I felt the same about Rani, except now I wonder if the problem is that I'm just not giving her a fair chance. So, I'm going to try to go into the next episode with an open mind. After all, it's not Rani's fault that I didn't care for the plot of her first episode. And it is very nice to see someone of her ethnicity on my TV screen, because that's far too rare an occurrence here in America. And who knows, maybe I'll start with a slight dislike for her and then end up thinking she's great. After all, that's what happened with Chrissie. : )
