The spy genre has never recovered from the end of the Cold War. Certainly the popularity of the genre never diminished, but the defining concepts remain so intrinsically tied to that particular geopolitical moment that it can't help but feel like it is floundering in a foundationally different world. Outside of The Prisoner the genre was never truly willing to engage with the dark, messed up things that happened in order to win the cold war, but the world of CIA torture rings is so wildly removed from what the genre does that it renders the stories archaic, almost quaint, reflective of a nostalgic sentimentality. Except for, oddly enough, the CW's Nikita which explodes with a degree of relevance wildly absent from its fellow stories.
The Cold War set up certain rules for how spies operate. Two global powers of roughly equal ability face each other with cutting edge equipment. Spycraft ultimately becomes a high stakes political game for strategic advantage. Of course the genre expanded beyond that paradigm (Ian Fleming famously created SPECTRE because he believed the Cold War was ending), but even against super villains the same rules applied. And those rules could never be adapted to a world where low-tech terrorism carried out by people who held no nationalistic ideologies became the entire focus of intelligence agencies. And that those intelligence agencies would brutally violate not merely human rights of suspects, but would attempt to spy on essentially all communication is far beyond the scope the genre was willing to engage in.
So the stories being told wound up repeatedly attempting to force the square peg of reality into the round hole of convention. .Homeland started out strong by examining the surveillance state, but quickly descended into magical terrorists and a version of Iran that was an even match for the CIA. James Bond fights against a North Korea with seemingly unlimited wealth and technology far beyond anyone else on the planet in Die Another Day. 24 became a jingoistic celebration of the worst abuses of the Bush administration, all while descending into ludicrous plotting. The Americans simply threw up its hands and set itself in the waning days of the Cold War (as did for comedic effect Archer).
And then there's Nikita. Ostensibly it is the story of a woman's mission of revenge against an organization, Division, that betrayed her. But really it is about the bureaucratic nature of the American intelligence agencies. It is less the story of Nikita, the rogue agent, and more the story of Division, the rogue agency.
From the outset Division is ruthless, cruel, and sort of pointless. Behind all of the rhetoric given by the first head of Division, Percy Rose, is the truth that there is no ultimate goal or purpose to the organization. It makes money for some people, but mostly it simply exists to perpetuate its own existence. This comes into even starker relief as Percy is removed and a lengthy series of factions takes over the organization. With each successive change in leadership it becomes more obvious that no on actually wishes to do anything with Division, they just wish to have it. Even more pointedly, each successive regime intends to reform the excesses of its predecessor, only to backslide into the exact same underhanded tactics. The show's central theme is bureaucratic inertia, and watching it elegantly unfold over several seasons.
And what Division does is primarily work for big business. Despite being a government agency, virtually all of the work Division does is in the service of the private sector. They take down environmentalist groups, trade adverse foreign leaders, scientists creating benevolent new technologies. The show posits that the government has come to serve the interests of major economic powers, not the actual citizens. It is a rather brilliant examination of what drove the CIA to overthrow the democratically elected government of Guatemala on behalf of a fruit company.
Division's primary adversaries are not, in fact, Nikita's team, but rather a Russian organization named Gogal. But unlike any reflexive attempt to retread the Cold War, there is no ideological difference between the two organizations. The difference is entirely economic, with Gogal serving a different set of corporations than Division. Capitalism won, and this is the ultimate aftermath, organizations brutally killing people on behalf of nothing more than profit margins.
One of the more interesting elements of the Senate torture report is the constant question of why the CIA would do what it did. Why would it continue to interrogate people it already determined had no information? Why would it continue to hold people it knew were innocent? Why was all of this necessary when it knew going into the war that conventional interrogation provided more reliable information? Nikita somehow conceived the answers to these questions prior to them even being asked. Once a policy has been implemented advancing the policy supersedes the goal of the policy. The desires of the rich and powerful are more important than all other considerations. Loyalty to an organization is the ultimate good (regardless of how that organization operates) and whistle blowing is intrinsically evil. Amazing how a silly little show on the CW manged to nimbly adapt a stagnant genre to the modern world.
Monday, December 29, 2014
Monday, July 21, 2014
Ranking the Top Ten X-Men
There have been around 90 official members of the X-Men over the years. The X-Men essentially became a smaller company inside Marvel, spreading out to the point where four different X-Men teams could operate simultaneously along side affiliated teams and solo adventures. And the reason for that wild success is that the concept of the X-Men is so simple and yet so brilliant, the themes are so powerful, and the characters so vivid. Like any comic book franchise it has its fallow periods, but few comics can boast not merely being intellectually and emotionally fulfilling, but also being a force for social good.
10. Magik: Illyana Rasputin was introduced as Colossus's younger sister. After a series of horrific events her mutation (to teleport through time and space) activated alongside her nascent mystical abilities. Bad, nightmarish things happen to her, events far beyond the routine suffering piled upon superheroes. But even in a profoundly unjust world she still strives to be a hero, to be a better person.
10. Magik: Illyana Rasputin was introduced as Colossus's younger sister. After a series of horrific events her mutation (to teleport through time and space) activated alongside her nascent mystical abilities. Bad, nightmarish things happen to her, events far beyond the routine suffering piled upon superheroes. But even in a profoundly unjust world she still strives to be a hero, to be a better person.
9. Dazzler: Alison Blaire never desired to be a superhero. She wanted to be a singer, and her mutation (to convert sound into light) was merely something she used to make her shows more theatrical. But what makes her special is that she was the public face of mutants. While the X-Men sequestered themselves in their mansion, Alison was a beloved entertainer. She was a mutant superstar and became the positive example of her species the world needed. In her time, she did more work for the X-Men's goal of human/mutant peace than anyone else.
8. Beast: Hank McCoy was born a mutant, but his own experimentation upon himself pushed his mutation beyond its natural limitations. He is an affable genius. One who has been an Avenger and a Defender, beyond merely being an X-Man. What makes him stand out is his never ending quest for knowledge. The world might be a difficult place, with many setbacks, but the X-Men embrace it, and none more so than Beast.
7. Nightcrawler: Kurt Wagner is a profoundly different individual. His mutation resulted in an almost demonic appearance. But rather than be bitter, he embraced his mutant nature. Mutation thematically represents a huge swath of "others" and as part of that self-loathing is not uncommon. Nightcrawler represents the best of us, how what makes us different is not shameful or bad, but something to be embraced and celebrated.
6. Rogue: Rogue's mutation is deadly. She steals the very essence of anyone she touches. She was battered, abused and manipulated. But she sought help, and through the X-Men became a stronger, more complete person. Alienation is not total, there is help, and growth is possible.
5. Cable: Jean Grey referred to her not quite son, Nathan Summers, as, "a cable linking the present to the future." Time travel has almost always been a major element to the X-Men, because the X-Men are not focused on a perpetual present. The X-Men look to the future with specific goals, and so the future must intercede upon the present in order to clarify the stakes and how the dream the X-Men advocate will fail or succeed. And that intercession is Cable, a man who is the mutant messiah in multiple eras thousands of years apart. He is the watchman, keeping the dream alive across all of time, from the most bleak to the most paradisaical.
4. Magneto: The X-Men are unique in that their adversaries each represent specific ideologies. In Magneto's case that ideology is militancy. While the X-Men are (in a very round about way) pacifists (I should reiterate it is in a very round about and ass backwards way), Magneto represents the idea that safety can only come from weapons and aggression. But what makes him a compelling character is that he is not necessarily wrong. And the fact that his goal is what he perceives is best for the mutant species, which does not preclude working with and occasionally being a member of the X-Men.
3. Charles Xavier: The founder of the X-Men and the man with the dream. He is, ultimately the leader of a social movement, not the leader of a super hero team. And like all such leaders, he has a grand vision. That is why he never ceases to embrace all people, including villains like Magneto or his step-brother Juggernaut. He tries, in his own way, to help everyone, And, like all such leaders, he occasionally fails and his personal demons get in the way. That's what makes him a tragic hero, rather than a mythical icon of goodness.
2. Emma Frost: Emma originated as a member of the Hellfire Club, which represented decadence, licentiousness, and greed. Unlike Magneto or the X-Men (or even Mr. Sinister, Mystique, and Apocalypse) the Hellfire Club cared for nothing more than their own petty aggrandizement, wealth and power. It is the Id run amok. But Emma grew beyond that ultimately sociopathic outlook. She became an ally of the X-Men, eventually training the younger generation of mutants before eventually joining the team outright. Being a hero is a struggle for her. Her natural impulse is not necessarily to do the right thing, but she does (or tries to) anyway. She represents the potential for the ideology of the X-Men to convert those around them.
1. Cyclops: Scott Summers is the man who holds everything together. He has the weight of both an entire species resting upon him. He saves people. He does good. His power is uncontrollable in a perfect metaphor for how the world is uncontrolable. And yet, Cyclops manages to keep everything in check. Everything advancing towards the ultimate dream of peaceful integration. He's strong, he's moody, he puts his responsibilities to the world ahead of any happiness he might ever have. He's willing not merely to sacrifice himself, but to allow himself to be hated and be ostracized. That's what being a hero really means, making hard choices for the good of those around him and accepting the consequences.
Monday, May 5, 2014
Woman Are Ugly
So, I saw this posted online:
Which brings me to my point: women are ugly. That's just a fact, women are an ugly, ugly gender. And I shall go into great detail as to why.
Let's start with breasts. Sticking two lumps of fat onto a human's chest is just not visually appealing. No one thinks goiters or tumors are attractive, and the same holds true for breasts. Two bulbous mounds hanging around, flopping back and forth lack any sense of grace or beauty that could characterize the human form. And let's spend a moment talking about women's giant nipples. Having huge, clownish discolorations hanging at the end of those protrusions just makes the whole thing that much more ridiculous and disgusting. Nipples on men might serve no purpose, but at least they are small, discrete and do not deviate from the clean lines of the male body.
Moving down, I do not think there is anything that could be considered more bizarre and unattractive than a woman's vulva. It looks like a plate of spaghetti thrown into the trash. First off, there is no way to gussy up that it is basically a giant gash just sitting between the legs. And then there is all sorts of decoration thrown together in a haphazard and pointless way. Mounds of fat, weird lines of tissue sticking every why, round objects just plopped down on it. And it is all covered in a thick layer of hair which looks gross, until you take it off and realize what the hair is covering is even more gross. There's a reason that vaginal plastic surgery is a billion dollar industry, but there are not enough doctors in the world to make that hot mess look anywhere close to the clean, simple beauty of male genitalia.
So now, maybe in the future we can abandon this notion that one gender is more beautiful than the other and move past our messed up notions of gender.
*This is actually the product of a couple centuries of sexism. Women were sexual objects, not sexual beings. They were lusted after, not lustful beings. And if they were lustful beings it was considered a psychological disorder. This was all in an effort to control women, as controlling their sexuality was a key element of controlling their being. That is why women were expected to be somehow able to control men's insatiable lusts, often by covering their forms completely, and why they bore the blame for unrequested sexual contact. The end result of this was that it was considered intolerable for men to be viewed as sexual objects, that was feminizing, and as centuries of history have taught us, being feminized is the worst thing that can happen to a man. This has been modulated somewhat as our modern culture progresses, but you can still see it every time you turn on a TV and watch the prevalence of the male gaze, and the (relative) lack of a female gaze.
...but the human male form is not the most attractive thing in creation. Our bodies were not designed with aesthetics in mind. A penis is not a beautiful appendage, it’s a silly floppy toy.Which is just one of many times I have seen a similar sentiment stated. Ironically, this was in a post about a life drawing class where the entire point is to find the aesthetics of the person you are attempting to capture. If you can't do that, then you either have very unconsidered notions of gender and the human form, or some enormous backlog of fucked up shit involving gender.* Either way, it is not good.
Which brings me to my point: women are ugly. That's just a fact, women are an ugly, ugly gender. And I shall go into great detail as to why.
Let's start with breasts. Sticking two lumps of fat onto a human's chest is just not visually appealing. No one thinks goiters or tumors are attractive, and the same holds true for breasts. Two bulbous mounds hanging around, flopping back and forth lack any sense of grace or beauty that could characterize the human form. And let's spend a moment talking about women's giant nipples. Having huge, clownish discolorations hanging at the end of those protrusions just makes the whole thing that much more ridiculous and disgusting. Nipples on men might serve no purpose, but at least they are small, discrete and do not deviate from the clean lines of the male body.
Moving down, I do not think there is anything that could be considered more bizarre and unattractive than a woman's vulva. It looks like a plate of spaghetti thrown into the trash. First off, there is no way to gussy up that it is basically a giant gash just sitting between the legs. And then there is all sorts of decoration thrown together in a haphazard and pointless way. Mounds of fat, weird lines of tissue sticking every why, round objects just plopped down on it. And it is all covered in a thick layer of hair which looks gross, until you take it off and realize what the hair is covering is even more gross. There's a reason that vaginal plastic surgery is a billion dollar industry, but there are not enough doctors in the world to make that hot mess look anywhere close to the clean, simple beauty of male genitalia.
So now, maybe in the future we can abandon this notion that one gender is more beautiful than the other and move past our messed up notions of gender.
*This is actually the product of a couple centuries of sexism. Women were sexual objects, not sexual beings. They were lusted after, not lustful beings. And if they were lustful beings it was considered a psychological disorder. This was all in an effort to control women, as controlling their sexuality was a key element of controlling their being. That is why women were expected to be somehow able to control men's insatiable lusts, often by covering their forms completely, and why they bore the blame for unrequested sexual contact. The end result of this was that it was considered intolerable for men to be viewed as sexual objects, that was feminizing, and as centuries of history have taught us, being feminized is the worst thing that can happen to a man. This has been modulated somewhat as our modern culture progresses, but you can still see it every time you turn on a TV and watch the prevalence of the male gaze, and the (relative) lack of a female gaze.
Monday, April 28, 2014
The Importance of Royalty
Eliza brought the scythe down on the stalks of wheat, severing them from their roots. It was hard sweaty work. She brought her arm up to her forehead, wiping the sweat off her brow, and then pushing the strands of her dark, brown hair back into the plain scarf she had tied around her head. She raised her scythe to fell even more wheat, when she heard a piercing scream coming from the road.
She looked up to see a beautiful, thin woman in a flowing pink gown running down the road. The woman's jewelry sparkled, but her most spectacular feature was her lustrous blonde hair.
"What do you suppose that is about?" asked Eliza to a squat man working next to her. His name was Eric, and his features where caked with the intermingling of sweat and dirt.
He grunted and then said, "It's just another princess, it is of no concern."
Eliza barked a laugh and then turned back to her wheat. It would be only for a moment before she heard the vast beating of wings, and a massive shadow covered the field. She looked up to see a Roc flying in the general direction that the princess was running. Eliza laughed again.
She was tying up the wheat into a bundle when the clattering of metal and horse hoofs sounded on the road. She looked up again to see a Knight in his full armor riding a very exhausted horse. He pulled the reins to stop, and with a flourish said to the field workers, "I am Prince Wallace of Versase, I am on a quest..."
But before he could finish, Eliza interjected, "The princess ran that way," pointing in the direction she had run.
"Thank you, simple townswoman," he said, urging the horse forward, while Eliza rolled her eyes.
She had barely moved on to the next bundle when they were interrupted by yet another horse. It was yet another knight in full armor. He flashed his gorgeous smile, and ruffled his hand through his blonde hair. "I am Prince Hethcliff of Charos," he said with much pomposity, "I am here to kill the Witch of the Western Woods, do you know where her foul lair is?"
"It's in the woods... to the west," Eric said with much annoyance.
"Thank you," Hethcliff said, very sincerely. "And while I am here, I need to inform you that the tax on your wheat is to increase to 93%"
Eliza looked at him aghast, "93%? We were barely feeding our families on 90%!"
"Well, protecting you from all the horrors of the world is worth a piddly 93% of your wheat, you can deposit it at the mill. Furthermore, My father needs thirty more castles built, so thirty of you need to report to the nearest construction site tomorrow, and another thirty to the nearest quarry."
Eliza looked around her and then, with slight confusion said, "There are only fifteen of us, and if we reported to do construction the field will go to rot and we'd all starve."
"That's not my problem. My father, King Wilmark the Fourteenth of Charos needs to expand the number of castles he has to fit his children. It is your duty to do accommodate."
Eric thought for a moment and then said, "Where's the quarry?"
"I don't know. Do I look like a map person?" asked Hethcliff.
"Very well, we will report, as directed," said Eliza with a sigh.
"Good," the prince said, urging his horse forward towards the west.
The field workers went back to work, this time uninterrupted for a full half an hour. At which point they heard a cacophonous laughter. Eliza looked up to see a gnarled, old hag standing in a massive cooking pot that was flying with absurd speed above the ground. Dragging behind her, in a most undignified way, was Hethcliff. He was tied by his ankle to the handle of the cooking pot and was screaming profanities at the witch.
"I always liked her," Eliza said to Eric, "Excellent sense of humor."
"We can't give the royals 93%," Eric said. Eliza had known him long enough to know he'd obviously been stewing over this for the entire time.
"What choice do we have?" she asked.
"We could just keep it all for ourselves."
"What?"
"Let's not give them anything. They don't actually do anything, do they?"
"Well, they protect us from dragons... and giants," she stammered.
"Really?" he asked, "When was the last time you were attacked by a dragon? By anything, in fact?"
"Never," she admitted.
"They just protect the other royals. They're the ones constantly being kidnapped, or cursed, or attacked. Not us. Let's keep everything."
Two months passed and Eliza was stooped over a carrot field, pulling up the roots and placing them in large baskets. The constant interruptions to their work had slowly decreased. Certainly there were no fewer dragons and ogres, but they seemed fairly content to keep to themselves. If anything they seemed far more cheerful than normal.
The familiar sound of a horse clopping up to the field caused Eliza to raise her head. It was Prince Hethcliff, only he looked quite different. He was wearing only half his armor, and even an untrained expert could see what he was wearing was loose and dilapidated, as if a blind child was now in charge of outfitting him. He also looked quite gaunt, and his blonde hair was oily and stuck to his head.
"You haven't been paying your taxes," he said accusatorily.
Eliza shrugged, "Maybe a giant stole them on the way to your father's castle."
"Don't give me that," he shouted, "Do you know how many giants I have killed these last two months? Dragons? Swamp monsters?"
She tried to suppress a laugh at the fact that he thought killing monsters was all that was required for the supply of food to return.
"No one is paying their taxes anymore," he spat with venom.
"Well," Eric said, "You have to think about the logistics of it. Wheat needs to be cut after four months and rolled into bundles three feet..."
Hethcliff's eyes became unfocused, but then a look of rage crossed his face, "I don't care about whatever it is you people do out here. You just need to pay your taxes."
"We certainly will," Eric said, "We will make sure to take all the flour from our wheat harvest and deliver it to your cooks."
"Good," Hethcliff said, urging his horse forward. "And remember to report at the castle construction site."
As he left, Eliza noticed a small group of gnomes at the edges of the field. She held out a carrot and laughed as the small, funny men ran up to grab it. "Go ahead, there's plenty for all, now."
Four months had passed and the field workers had gathered together in their village's tavern for the winter festival. They each held huge mugs of mead and were singing pub tunes. The frivolity had attracted some of their more eccentric neighbors. Eric was dancing with the witch of the western woods. Fairies were flitting about the rafters. A dragon had stuck its head in through the window and was heating up mead for people, and Eliza could swear it was smiling. An ogre was arm wrestling a squat goblin. Everyone was in high spirits. Food was plentiful, her clothes were no longer the plain rags but rather beautifully colored, even their houses shined from the bricks they acquired when they found the location of the quarry. She grabbed a swamp monster and kissed him on his slimy lips. Briefly, she thought about the fact that she hadn't seen a royal in months, but she pushed that thought from her mind. She wondered over to the bar where drunken elves were making people shoes and thought about what a wonderful thing life is.
She looked up to see a beautiful, thin woman in a flowing pink gown running down the road. The woman's jewelry sparkled, but her most spectacular feature was her lustrous blonde hair.
"What do you suppose that is about?" asked Eliza to a squat man working next to her. His name was Eric, and his features where caked with the intermingling of sweat and dirt.
He grunted and then said, "It's just another princess, it is of no concern."
Eliza barked a laugh and then turned back to her wheat. It would be only for a moment before she heard the vast beating of wings, and a massive shadow covered the field. She looked up to see a Roc flying in the general direction that the princess was running. Eliza laughed again.
She was tying up the wheat into a bundle when the clattering of metal and horse hoofs sounded on the road. She looked up again to see a Knight in his full armor riding a very exhausted horse. He pulled the reins to stop, and with a flourish said to the field workers, "I am Prince Wallace of Versase, I am on a quest..."
But before he could finish, Eliza interjected, "The princess ran that way," pointing in the direction she had run.
"Thank you, simple townswoman," he said, urging the horse forward, while Eliza rolled her eyes.
She had barely moved on to the next bundle when they were interrupted by yet another horse. It was yet another knight in full armor. He flashed his gorgeous smile, and ruffled his hand through his blonde hair. "I am Prince Hethcliff of Charos," he said with much pomposity, "I am here to kill the Witch of the Western Woods, do you know where her foul lair is?"
"It's in the woods... to the west," Eric said with much annoyance.
"Thank you," Hethcliff said, very sincerely. "And while I am here, I need to inform you that the tax on your wheat is to increase to 93%"
Eliza looked at him aghast, "93%? We were barely feeding our families on 90%!"
"Well, protecting you from all the horrors of the world is worth a piddly 93% of your wheat, you can deposit it at the mill. Furthermore, My father needs thirty more castles built, so thirty of you need to report to the nearest construction site tomorrow, and another thirty to the nearest quarry."
Eliza looked around her and then, with slight confusion said, "There are only fifteen of us, and if we reported to do construction the field will go to rot and we'd all starve."
"That's not my problem. My father, King Wilmark the Fourteenth of Charos needs to expand the number of castles he has to fit his children. It is your duty to do accommodate."
Eric thought for a moment and then said, "Where's the quarry?"
"I don't know. Do I look like a map person?" asked Hethcliff.
"Very well, we will report, as directed," said Eliza with a sigh.
"Good," the prince said, urging his horse forward towards the west.
The field workers went back to work, this time uninterrupted for a full half an hour. At which point they heard a cacophonous laughter. Eliza looked up to see a gnarled, old hag standing in a massive cooking pot that was flying with absurd speed above the ground. Dragging behind her, in a most undignified way, was Hethcliff. He was tied by his ankle to the handle of the cooking pot and was screaming profanities at the witch.
"I always liked her," Eliza said to Eric, "Excellent sense of humor."
"We can't give the royals 93%," Eric said. Eliza had known him long enough to know he'd obviously been stewing over this for the entire time.
"What choice do we have?" she asked.
"We could just keep it all for ourselves."
"What?"
"Let's not give them anything. They don't actually do anything, do they?"
"Well, they protect us from dragons... and giants," she stammered.
"Really?" he asked, "When was the last time you were attacked by a dragon? By anything, in fact?"
"Never," she admitted.
"They just protect the other royals. They're the ones constantly being kidnapped, or cursed, or attacked. Not us. Let's keep everything."
Two months passed and Eliza was stooped over a carrot field, pulling up the roots and placing them in large baskets. The constant interruptions to their work had slowly decreased. Certainly there were no fewer dragons and ogres, but they seemed fairly content to keep to themselves. If anything they seemed far more cheerful than normal.
The familiar sound of a horse clopping up to the field caused Eliza to raise her head. It was Prince Hethcliff, only he looked quite different. He was wearing only half his armor, and even an untrained expert could see what he was wearing was loose and dilapidated, as if a blind child was now in charge of outfitting him. He also looked quite gaunt, and his blonde hair was oily and stuck to his head.
"You haven't been paying your taxes," he said accusatorily.
Eliza shrugged, "Maybe a giant stole them on the way to your father's castle."
"Don't give me that," he shouted, "Do you know how many giants I have killed these last two months? Dragons? Swamp monsters?"
She tried to suppress a laugh at the fact that he thought killing monsters was all that was required for the supply of food to return.
"No one is paying their taxes anymore," he spat with venom.
"Well," Eric said, "You have to think about the logistics of it. Wheat needs to be cut after four months and rolled into bundles three feet..."
Hethcliff's eyes became unfocused, but then a look of rage crossed his face, "I don't care about whatever it is you people do out here. You just need to pay your taxes."
"We certainly will," Eric said, "We will make sure to take all the flour from our wheat harvest and deliver it to your cooks."
"Good," Hethcliff said, urging his horse forward. "And remember to report at the castle construction site."
As he left, Eliza noticed a small group of gnomes at the edges of the field. She held out a carrot and laughed as the small, funny men ran up to grab it. "Go ahead, there's plenty for all, now."
Four months had passed and the field workers had gathered together in their village's tavern for the winter festival. They each held huge mugs of mead and were singing pub tunes. The frivolity had attracted some of their more eccentric neighbors. Eric was dancing with the witch of the western woods. Fairies were flitting about the rafters. A dragon had stuck its head in through the window and was heating up mead for people, and Eliza could swear it was smiling. An ogre was arm wrestling a squat goblin. Everyone was in high spirits. Food was plentiful, her clothes were no longer the plain rags but rather beautifully colored, even their houses shined from the bricks they acquired when they found the location of the quarry. She grabbed a swamp monster and kissed him on his slimy lips. Briefly, she thought about the fact that she hadn't seen a royal in months, but she pushed that thought from her mind. She wondered over to the bar where drunken elves were making people shoes and thought about what a wonderful thing life is.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
About King Arthur: The History of England
To understand King Arthur, you have to understand the history of England. It is the backdrop to the stories, and what pushes and pulls the evolution of the mythology. King Arthur is unlike virtually all mythic traditions in that many different stages of the mythology's history have been recorded, rather than one final form of the story. As the history of England changes, the stories themselves change with it, recontextualizing to the different times they are told in.
The Roman Empire invaded and conquered England over the course of a decade starting around 40 AD. After a period of ruling the province for three hundred and fifty years, the Roman troops were removed as the empire was in dire need of protection elsewhere and such a faraway and costly province was not considered worth spending effort on. However, the Roman colonists who had made the British isles their home remained, essentially carrying on their business as normal.
With the Romans vacated, England became a prime target for invasion. Specifically the Germanic tribes the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes progressively began to invade and resettle the land. The culture clash between the Christian Romans (collectively known as Britons) and the pagan Anglo-Saxons split the islands into a period of tribal warfare between these groups. The basis of much of the early King Arthur stories lies in the gorilla warfare of the British kings against the pagan invaders. In fact, the most likely candidate for a historical King Arthur is Ambrosius Aurelianus, who did exactly that. The oldest poems and stories of King Arthur are Welsh stories, as the Welsh were the final remains of the Roman culture in the British Isles, and King Arthur represented an ethnic hero to them.
In 1066 William of Brittany invaded and conquered England from his home in France. He brought with him a French court and imposed French customs and language on the Germanic peoples. And with him revived the long dormant stories of King Arthur. This was a political and propaganda tactic. The French considered themselves heirs to the Roman Empire, and King Arthur justified their conquest of England. They were liberating the nation from foreign usurpers. Most of the stories most commonly associated with King Arthur are actually a hodgepodge of French myths and innovations grafted onto the existent Welsh stories.
By the 1500s, the French and Anglo-Saxons had achieved unity into a single nation, England. And with that unity came an increasing nationalism. A nationalism that needed heroic, mythic figures, resulting in King Arthur being embraced by the nation in general as a representation of the character of England. This was the period when the vast collection of stories written by dozens of different authors over hundreds of years was coalesced into a single narrative, Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. which has become the basis of all subsequent interpretations and adaptations.
The Roman Empire invaded and conquered England over the course of a decade starting around 40 AD. After a period of ruling the province for three hundred and fifty years, the Roman troops were removed as the empire was in dire need of protection elsewhere and such a faraway and costly province was not considered worth spending effort on. However, the Roman colonists who had made the British isles their home remained, essentially carrying on their business as normal.
With the Romans vacated, England became a prime target for invasion. Specifically the Germanic tribes the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes progressively began to invade and resettle the land. The culture clash between the Christian Romans (collectively known as Britons) and the pagan Anglo-Saxons split the islands into a period of tribal warfare between these groups. The basis of much of the early King Arthur stories lies in the gorilla warfare of the British kings against the pagan invaders. In fact, the most likely candidate for a historical King Arthur is Ambrosius Aurelianus, who did exactly that. The oldest poems and stories of King Arthur are Welsh stories, as the Welsh were the final remains of the Roman culture in the British Isles, and King Arthur represented an ethnic hero to them.
In 1066 William of Brittany invaded and conquered England from his home in France. He brought with him a French court and imposed French customs and language on the Germanic peoples. And with him revived the long dormant stories of King Arthur. This was a political and propaganda tactic. The French considered themselves heirs to the Roman Empire, and King Arthur justified their conquest of England. They were liberating the nation from foreign usurpers. Most of the stories most commonly associated with King Arthur are actually a hodgepodge of French myths and innovations grafted onto the existent Welsh stories.
By the 1500s, the French and Anglo-Saxons had achieved unity into a single nation, England. And with that unity came an increasing nationalism. A nationalism that needed heroic, mythic figures, resulting in King Arthur being embraced by the nation in general as a representation of the character of England. This was the period when the vast collection of stories written by dozens of different authors over hundreds of years was coalesced into a single narrative, Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. which has become the basis of all subsequent interpretations and adaptations.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
American Horror Story: Coven
It's distinctly rare that I watch something and immediately think, "I wish someone would remake this." But that is my exact reaction to American Horror Story: Coven. There is little about the show that is actually a bad idea, in fact a strange form of brilliance permeates the ideas the show is built upon. It's just that it was executed in the sloppiest and accidental way possible.
The season has a stake, and it is just one stake: who will be the next supreme witch of the coven. That is hardly a bad premise for a season of television. Placing a group of characters in a contest with a prize they all want is to see what they are willing to do to get that prize, is one of the oldest premises in the history of literature. But in order for that premise to work, the audience actually has to care about the outcome of the contest. The supreme is nominally the leader of the coven, which means we actually have to know who the best leader is and what they actually want to do with the coven. Over the course of the series, the minor character Nan says, "If I was the supreme, I'd only do good things," which is the total extent of any of the characters discussing what they would actually do as the supreme. Madison is clearly supposed to be the worst candidate, but she is not measurably worse than the current supreme Fiona and no one seems like they would lead in a particularly better way than she would. Perhaps that is the point, a group of girls is so focused on attaining power that they are completely blind to what they actually want that power for, but if that is the point, it is so buried, malnourished and indecipherable it never comes through.
Similarly, the existential threat to the coven seems to be that the members were willing to put their own selfish interests ahead of the coven as a whole. The ease with which the (unexplained) division between the voodoo practitioners and the witches was healed, and the simplicity with which the witch hunters were killed off, should have served to highlight that the only real threat was the membership's own ambitions and greed. But ultimately it never even came close to touching upon that blatantly obvious theme. Fiona murdered a witch she thought was the future supreme, and only a few episodes later everyone is sitting around, happily eating dinner, seemingly forgetting the incident ever happened. If the whole point of the series was that the various witches ambitions were out of control, then the events of the series needed to be painted as gross violations proper order when they languidly seemed like simply routine when the supremacy was being passed. If the characters do not seem to react as if killing each other is abnormal, then why should the audience assume it is?
Frankly, this story is incredibly compelling, but it was done in the least compelling way possible. A story about an apathetic leader who is going to extreme, extraordinary lengths to retain her position is a good one. A centuries old feud between two rival, marginalized groups being healed by an external threat to both, is a good one. A group of people so caught up in a contest they loose sight of themselves and their ultimate goals, is a good one. Two marginalized people who are credible, potential leaders of a largely traditional society, is a good one. But the show never actually followed any of these potential stories, even mildly. They introduced them, either intentionally or unintentionally, and allowed them fester like putrid corpses, while the season meandered slowly and stupidly and chaotically. Every major element of this season fundamentally works (okay, every element not Delphine LaLaurie, and even that had moments where it could have, potentially, worked), it is only in the hands of Ryan Murphy that it breaks into an incoherent mess. American Horror Story: Coven began as a poorly conceived knock off of the X-Men, and ended as a poorly conceived knock off of the X-Men, and squandered anything interesting or intelligent about itself in between.
The season has a stake, and it is just one stake: who will be the next supreme witch of the coven. That is hardly a bad premise for a season of television. Placing a group of characters in a contest with a prize they all want is to see what they are willing to do to get that prize, is one of the oldest premises in the history of literature. But in order for that premise to work, the audience actually has to care about the outcome of the contest. The supreme is nominally the leader of the coven, which means we actually have to know who the best leader is and what they actually want to do with the coven. Over the course of the series, the minor character Nan says, "If I was the supreme, I'd only do good things," which is the total extent of any of the characters discussing what they would actually do as the supreme. Madison is clearly supposed to be the worst candidate, but she is not measurably worse than the current supreme Fiona and no one seems like they would lead in a particularly better way than she would. Perhaps that is the point, a group of girls is so focused on attaining power that they are completely blind to what they actually want that power for, but if that is the point, it is so buried, malnourished and indecipherable it never comes through.
Similarly, the existential threat to the coven seems to be that the members were willing to put their own selfish interests ahead of the coven as a whole. The ease with which the (unexplained) division between the voodoo practitioners and the witches was healed, and the simplicity with which the witch hunters were killed off, should have served to highlight that the only real threat was the membership's own ambitions and greed. But ultimately it never even came close to touching upon that blatantly obvious theme. Fiona murdered a witch she thought was the future supreme, and only a few episodes later everyone is sitting around, happily eating dinner, seemingly forgetting the incident ever happened. If the whole point of the series was that the various witches ambitions were out of control, then the events of the series needed to be painted as gross violations proper order when they languidly seemed like simply routine when the supremacy was being passed. If the characters do not seem to react as if killing each other is abnormal, then why should the audience assume it is?
Frankly, this story is incredibly compelling, but it was done in the least compelling way possible. A story about an apathetic leader who is going to extreme, extraordinary lengths to retain her position is a good one. A centuries old feud between two rival, marginalized groups being healed by an external threat to both, is a good one. A group of people so caught up in a contest they loose sight of themselves and their ultimate goals, is a good one. Two marginalized people who are credible, potential leaders of a largely traditional society, is a good one. But the show never actually followed any of these potential stories, even mildly. They introduced them, either intentionally or unintentionally, and allowed them fester like putrid corpses, while the season meandered slowly and stupidly and chaotically. Every major element of this season fundamentally works (okay, every element not Delphine LaLaurie, and even that had moments where it could have, potentially, worked), it is only in the hands of Ryan Murphy that it breaks into an incoherent mess. American Horror Story: Coven began as a poorly conceived knock off of the X-Men, and ended as a poorly conceived knock off of the X-Men, and squandered anything interesting or intelligent about itself in between.
Monday, January 27, 2014
LoveFest: The Step-Up Franchise
Dance movies share a fascinatingly large amount of genre DNA with action movies. Each genre features archetypal characters kinetically and propulsively burning through plot, hitting large set pieces along the way. The difference between car chases and explosions, and dance contests and dance battles is of style and not actual plot mechanics. Indeed many scenes, from getting the gang together to planning the big heist, can be lifted almost entirely from one genre to the other. The Step Up series understands these similarities and patterns better than any other dance movie, which is why it is the dance franchise that keeps spawning sequel after sequel all of which have collectively grossed over half a billion dollars.
The original Step Up is unwatchable garbage. It is dry, dull, and unimpressive, particularly in light of its sequels. The most notable thing about it is that it has a young, and not particularly good, Channing Tatum in it. He comes out looking quite good in it, but that is simply because no one is given anything to do that could surpass him, his abilities and limitations are what set the bar of highest achievement for the whole movie. The film moves at an incredibly languid pace and takes itself far, far too seriously for a stupid dance movie. It is noticeable that its singular contributions the rest of the franchise consist of nothing more than the setting of the Maryland School of the Arts and the incredibly minor (in this film) character Camille.
Step Up 2 The Streets is the movie where the franchise really starts to shine. If all the individual pieces were present in the original film, it isn't until the sequel that they actually congeal into the incredibly winning formula that transverses the rest of the series. It also introduces what is the franchise's most indelible character, Moose. Step Up 2 The Streets immediately sets itself apart from the original with an opening scene of dancers in masks engaging in performance art in a subway. It is both more visually interesting and more ambitious than anything in the original, and announces this film will be a brighter, louder, more kenetic experience. The film follows street dancer Andie, as she is admitted into the prestigious world of MSA. After failing out of highschool, thanks apparently due to her spending all her time with her dance crew. If she does not manage to make MSA work, she will be shipped off to Texas. She winds up befriending the local tech geek, Moose, who just happens to be an amazing, undiscovered dancer. She also finds her bland, white leading man (every Step Up movie features a pair of bland, white leads), an advanced dance student who is frustrated with all the pomposity of MSA and wants to street dance. Which is good because there's a huge underground street dance contest. Cut to putting together a crew of freaks and weirdos, which provides much of the comic relief. This movie also distinguishes itself from the original by being funny on both an intentional and unintentional level. The major conflict of the film is that the MSA crew are de facto banned from the dance contest because they are not "from the neighborhood." Yes, this is a movie about how rich, (mostly) white kids attending private school are discriminated and oppressed by poor black kids. But you don't really have to ruminate on that theme, as the movie is propulsivlly pushing you through dance breaks, training montages, and romantic tension. All of which culminates in an explosive final performance in the rain. After which, everything sort of magically is all right, all sins forgiven, and everyone lives happily ever after.
If Step Up 2 the Streets was a leaner, more kinetic movie than the original Step Up, Step Up 3D is even more pared down to exactly what works: massive dance scenes, wacky characters, and bland romance. It is also the movie most willing to directly lift from action movies, in the most hilarious way possible. It opens with Moose and Camille, Channing Tatum's little sister from the original movie, going through freshmen orientation at NYU. Moose almost immediately gets into a dance battle, which he obviously wins, and one wacky police chase latter he is recruited by dancer/club owner Luke to be a part of his secret dance crew, as Moose unintentionally beat the leader of the Samurai, the most dangerous dancers in New York. If this movie has a flaw, it is that it sets itself up as a Moose movie, because, duh, he's only the most developed, most interesting character in the series, when really Moose plays the exact same role to Luke that he did to Andie. Once more, though, he manages to outshine both leads of the film by miles. Well Luke and all his dance friends live in a secret club house on the the second floor of a dance club, but they are six months late on the mortgage and about to loose it and all be homeless. Fortunately there is a dance battle which will award its winners $100,000, so all is not lost. Complicating matters is the fact that Luke's girlfriend is actually a spy for the dreaded Samurai! BETRAYAL! It's all just a bunch of silly plotlines designed to propel the characters into a series of fun, visually arresting dance battles, culminating in Step Up's typically insane and over the top final dance number, this one deliberately emulating a shootout to the point where dancers are miming shooting each other with guns. It throws heroes, villains, plots, and set pieces into one magnificent movie.
Step Up Revolution abandons everything the series has established previously, and relocates to Miami. On top of dispensing with the characters and settings of the franchise, it even eliminates the typical dance contests and dance battles. Instead the dance crew is made up of performance artists, and fittingly the dance numbers here are the most focused on aesthetics, over technical skill out of all the movies. It regurgitates '80s movie plots, an evil real estate developer has bought up a small, coastal Hispanic community and is evicting all of them to build a resort. But not if the dancers have anything to say about it. There's something delightfully naive about the idea that the forces of capitalism can be stopped simply through the power of dance, as if the movie missed out on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There is also a bland white romance between the developer's daughter and the leader of the dance crew, but that's insignificant compared to just how gorgeous the cinematography is. It is the best shot of the Step Up movies, and with the most ambitious choreography.
The Step Up movies are not great movies. But they are fun movies. They are fun on a level that few movies can compete with. A Step Up movie makes you feel good. It makes you want to get a bunch of friends together and go out dancing. There's nothing deep or dark about them, just consistently entertaining movies that never drag, filled with visual spectacle. Step Up 3D is probably the best, but you can watch any of the three sequels and just enjoy the experience, laughing with (and occasionally at) the movie. They're like big, dumb action movies, pushing the viewer through the movie to look at the next cool thing.
The original Step Up is unwatchable garbage. It is dry, dull, and unimpressive, particularly in light of its sequels. The most notable thing about it is that it has a young, and not particularly good, Channing Tatum in it. He comes out looking quite good in it, but that is simply because no one is given anything to do that could surpass him, his abilities and limitations are what set the bar of highest achievement for the whole movie. The film moves at an incredibly languid pace and takes itself far, far too seriously for a stupid dance movie. It is noticeable that its singular contributions the rest of the franchise consist of nothing more than the setting of the Maryland School of the Arts and the incredibly minor (in this film) character Camille.
Step Up 2 The Streets is the movie where the franchise really starts to shine. If all the individual pieces were present in the original film, it isn't until the sequel that they actually congeal into the incredibly winning formula that transverses the rest of the series. It also introduces what is the franchise's most indelible character, Moose. Step Up 2 The Streets immediately sets itself apart from the original with an opening scene of dancers in masks engaging in performance art in a subway. It is both more visually interesting and more ambitious than anything in the original, and announces this film will be a brighter, louder, more kenetic experience. The film follows street dancer Andie, as she is admitted into the prestigious world of MSA. After failing out of highschool, thanks apparently due to her spending all her time with her dance crew. If she does not manage to make MSA work, she will be shipped off to Texas. She winds up befriending the local tech geek, Moose, who just happens to be an amazing, undiscovered dancer. She also finds her bland, white leading man (every Step Up movie features a pair of bland, white leads), an advanced dance student who is frustrated with all the pomposity of MSA and wants to street dance. Which is good because there's a huge underground street dance contest. Cut to putting together a crew of freaks and weirdos, which provides much of the comic relief. This movie also distinguishes itself from the original by being funny on both an intentional and unintentional level. The major conflict of the film is that the MSA crew are de facto banned from the dance contest because they are not "from the neighborhood." Yes, this is a movie about how rich, (mostly) white kids attending private school are discriminated and oppressed by poor black kids. But you don't really have to ruminate on that theme, as the movie is propulsivlly pushing you through dance breaks, training montages, and romantic tension. All of which culminates in an explosive final performance in the rain. After which, everything sort of magically is all right, all sins forgiven, and everyone lives happily ever after.
If Step Up 2 the Streets was a leaner, more kinetic movie than the original Step Up, Step Up 3D is even more pared down to exactly what works: massive dance scenes, wacky characters, and bland romance. It is also the movie most willing to directly lift from action movies, in the most hilarious way possible. It opens with Moose and Camille, Channing Tatum's little sister from the original movie, going through freshmen orientation at NYU. Moose almost immediately gets into a dance battle, which he obviously wins, and one wacky police chase latter he is recruited by dancer/club owner Luke to be a part of his secret dance crew, as Moose unintentionally beat the leader of the Samurai, the most dangerous dancers in New York. If this movie has a flaw, it is that it sets itself up as a Moose movie, because, duh, he's only the most developed, most interesting character in the series, when really Moose plays the exact same role to Luke that he did to Andie. Once more, though, he manages to outshine both leads of the film by miles. Well Luke and all his dance friends live in a secret club house on the the second floor of a dance club, but they are six months late on the mortgage and about to loose it and all be homeless. Fortunately there is a dance battle which will award its winners $100,000, so all is not lost. Complicating matters is the fact that Luke's girlfriend is actually a spy for the dreaded Samurai! BETRAYAL! It's all just a bunch of silly plotlines designed to propel the characters into a series of fun, visually arresting dance battles, culminating in Step Up's typically insane and over the top final dance number, this one deliberately emulating a shootout to the point where dancers are miming shooting each other with guns. It throws heroes, villains, plots, and set pieces into one magnificent movie.
Step Up Revolution abandons everything the series has established previously, and relocates to Miami. On top of dispensing with the characters and settings of the franchise, it even eliminates the typical dance contests and dance battles. Instead the dance crew is made up of performance artists, and fittingly the dance numbers here are the most focused on aesthetics, over technical skill out of all the movies. It regurgitates '80s movie plots, an evil real estate developer has bought up a small, coastal Hispanic community and is evicting all of them to build a resort. But not if the dancers have anything to say about it. There's something delightfully naive about the idea that the forces of capitalism can be stopped simply through the power of dance, as if the movie missed out on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There is also a bland white romance between the developer's daughter and the leader of the dance crew, but that's insignificant compared to just how gorgeous the cinematography is. It is the best shot of the Step Up movies, and with the most ambitious choreography.
The Step Up movies are not great movies. But they are fun movies. They are fun on a level that few movies can compete with. A Step Up movie makes you feel good. It makes you want to get a bunch of friends together and go out dancing. There's nothing deep or dark about them, just consistently entertaining movies that never drag, filled with visual spectacle. Step Up 3D is probably the best, but you can watch any of the three sequels and just enjoy the experience, laughing with (and occasionally at) the movie. They're like big, dumb action movies, pushing the viewer through the movie to look at the next cool thing.
Saturday, January 11, 2014
On Premium Cable Boobs
The Penis-to-Breasts-to-Vagnias ratio for Game of Thrones season 3 is: 1-11-4.
Game of Thrones became famous for its sexposition scenes, scenes where one character has to give long pieces of expository dialogue and the show decided to spice up the narrative by inserting sex so you'd really pay attention. Sex became a particularly delightful window dressing upon which to hang a scene, and little more. Game of Thrones certainly has quite a lot it wishes to say about sex, sexuality, and gender, but those themes have become unmoored from the actual sex the show presents.
Obviously, what sex the show presents is both what the show is interested in and what the show perceives its audience is interested in. And that sex is the objectification of women. This is no more apparent then in a baffling scene where Robb Stark's wife tells him she is pregnant. The scene begins with the pair having just completed the act. Robb immediately gets up and gets dressed, his wife, however, remains on the bed, naked. She reveals this exciting and personal news in the middle of coyly posing as if she were shooting a Playboy cover. It is indicative of the way the show treats the genders, in a way far outside the scope of the fictional world they inhabit. Twice in the third season (first with an unnamed woman and Theon Greyjoy and then again with Melisandre and Gendry) a woman manages to have sex with a man while his genitalia are completely covered by pants. It is rather stunning since both scenes are entirely about the man's penis (as in the actual plot point involves the man's penis), and yet both make incredibly obvious cuts to make sure the penis the entire scene is about never appears (hence the impossible sex). I am bringing all this up just to prove the extreme disparity of the treatment of males to females, and how far out of its way (for seemingly no reason) the show goes to maintain that disparity. For some reason the sexual objectification of men is the singular line in the sand the show dares not cross.
Game of Thrones lacks the subtlety of walking the fine line of serving titillation while also criticizing that titillation. The show can make very cogent points about the social constraints placed upon Cersei or Arya, but the show lacks conviction and immediately washes those points away. Actions superseded beliefs, and the show's actions are that women are objects of sexuality. The show can not both be critical of patriarchal hegemony, while also having a relentlessly patriarchal hegemonic perspective.
All this would be fine if the nudity had thematic purpose, but mostly it does not. It remains simply what the show is interested in and what the show perceives its audience is interested in. This creates a circle around the audience, a delineation between who is a member and who is not. If you fail to find women's breasts titillating, it becomes frustrating. The show becomes alienating, as you have to sit through all those window dressing scenes lacking the prop that the show created to carry the audience through them. It is rather hard to enjoy a show that aggressively (if unconsciously) rejects your personhood and perspective.
Of course this is hardly specific to Game of Thrones. This is a truth of basically all premium cable dramas (outside of a few notable exceptions). Creators were given great creative freedom, and virtually all of them chose to use that creative freedom to show lots and lots of breasts. Hung was a TV show entirely about a penis that somehow never managed to show any penis at all, but lots of breasts. Sometimes this illuminates a basic principle of the show. The strippers populating The Sopranos acted as an externalization of Tony's perspective. But mostly they simply act as audience titillation. Gratuitous audience titillation given how the shows precisely cut around male nudity.
But it does not have to be this way. Spartacus was a show overflowing with nudity, sex, and sexuality, but Spartacus managed to handle those elements in a way that no other premium cable drama managed. Nudity always had a thematic point. Spartacus was a show about power and how those with power abuse that power. Sex was a tool of power and slaves sexuality were controlled, which applied just as much to men as to women. Varro was just as much a victim of the society as the slave girl he is compelled to have sex with. Nudity alternately functions as vulnerability, control, power. Lucretia might be naked in front of her slaves because they are not really people, and thus there's no reason to feel shame. Or Naevia might be naked to show how little control she has over her life.
There is an equality to Spartacus. It embraces all people. Spartacus's army is made up of all races, genders, sexual orientations. Even, shockingly, classes. And from the show's perspective, all those are equal. It does not single out one particular perspective to privilege, nor one group of people to objectify. It is liberating, rather than restrictive. Agron's male homosexual gaze is the equal to Gannicus's male heterosexual one is equal to Illythia's female heterosexual one. And because of that, the show embraces an egalitarianism that most premium cable shows staunchly reject.
The solution is not eliminate nudity or sex, or to hit some imagined quota, but to reassess and reevaluate. To find thematically appropriate moments for them, and to eliminate those unnecessary moments. Law & Order found ways to maintain audience interest through hundreds of interrogations without any nudity at all. It shouldn't be this difficult for the writers of premium cable shows to use the props of nudity and sex when appropriate from a plot or thematic perspective. It also should not be this difficult to have an open minded, egalitarian approach to nudity, one which embraces the many possible perspectives and desires humans have.
Game of Thrones became famous for its sexposition scenes, scenes where one character has to give long pieces of expository dialogue and the show decided to spice up the narrative by inserting sex so you'd really pay attention. Sex became a particularly delightful window dressing upon which to hang a scene, and little more. Game of Thrones certainly has quite a lot it wishes to say about sex, sexuality, and gender, but those themes have become unmoored from the actual sex the show presents.
Obviously, what sex the show presents is both what the show is interested in and what the show perceives its audience is interested in. And that sex is the objectification of women. This is no more apparent then in a baffling scene where Robb Stark's wife tells him she is pregnant. The scene begins with the pair having just completed the act. Robb immediately gets up and gets dressed, his wife, however, remains on the bed, naked. She reveals this exciting and personal news in the middle of coyly posing as if she were shooting a Playboy cover. It is indicative of the way the show treats the genders, in a way far outside the scope of the fictional world they inhabit. Twice in the third season (first with an unnamed woman and Theon Greyjoy and then again with Melisandre and Gendry) a woman manages to have sex with a man while his genitalia are completely covered by pants. It is rather stunning since both scenes are entirely about the man's penis (as in the actual plot point involves the man's penis), and yet both make incredibly obvious cuts to make sure the penis the entire scene is about never appears (hence the impossible sex). I am bringing all this up just to prove the extreme disparity of the treatment of males to females, and how far out of its way (for seemingly no reason) the show goes to maintain that disparity. For some reason the sexual objectification of men is the singular line in the sand the show dares not cross.
Game of Thrones lacks the subtlety of walking the fine line of serving titillation while also criticizing that titillation. The show can make very cogent points about the social constraints placed upon Cersei or Arya, but the show lacks conviction and immediately washes those points away. Actions superseded beliefs, and the show's actions are that women are objects of sexuality. The show can not both be critical of patriarchal hegemony, while also having a relentlessly patriarchal hegemonic perspective.
All this would be fine if the nudity had thematic purpose, but mostly it does not. It remains simply what the show is interested in and what the show perceives its audience is interested in. This creates a circle around the audience, a delineation between who is a member and who is not. If you fail to find women's breasts titillating, it becomes frustrating. The show becomes alienating, as you have to sit through all those window dressing scenes lacking the prop that the show created to carry the audience through them. It is rather hard to enjoy a show that aggressively (if unconsciously) rejects your personhood and perspective.
Of course this is hardly specific to Game of Thrones. This is a truth of basically all premium cable dramas (outside of a few notable exceptions). Creators were given great creative freedom, and virtually all of them chose to use that creative freedom to show lots and lots of breasts. Hung was a TV show entirely about a penis that somehow never managed to show any penis at all, but lots of breasts. Sometimes this illuminates a basic principle of the show. The strippers populating The Sopranos acted as an externalization of Tony's perspective. But mostly they simply act as audience titillation. Gratuitous audience titillation given how the shows precisely cut around male nudity.
But it does not have to be this way. Spartacus was a show overflowing with nudity, sex, and sexuality, but Spartacus managed to handle those elements in a way that no other premium cable drama managed. Nudity always had a thematic point. Spartacus was a show about power and how those with power abuse that power. Sex was a tool of power and slaves sexuality were controlled, which applied just as much to men as to women. Varro was just as much a victim of the society as the slave girl he is compelled to have sex with. Nudity alternately functions as vulnerability, control, power. Lucretia might be naked in front of her slaves because they are not really people, and thus there's no reason to feel shame. Or Naevia might be naked to show how little control she has over her life.
There is an equality to Spartacus. It embraces all people. Spartacus's army is made up of all races, genders, sexual orientations. Even, shockingly, classes. And from the show's perspective, all those are equal. It does not single out one particular perspective to privilege, nor one group of people to objectify. It is liberating, rather than restrictive. Agron's male homosexual gaze is the equal to Gannicus's male heterosexual one is equal to Illythia's female heterosexual one. And because of that, the show embraces an egalitarianism that most premium cable shows staunchly reject.
The solution is not eliminate nudity or sex, or to hit some imagined quota, but to reassess and reevaluate. To find thematically appropriate moments for them, and to eliminate those unnecessary moments. Law & Order found ways to maintain audience interest through hundreds of interrogations without any nudity at all. It shouldn't be this difficult for the writers of premium cable shows to use the props of nudity and sex when appropriate from a plot or thematic perspective. It also should not be this difficult to have an open minded, egalitarian approach to nudity, one which embraces the many possible perspectives and desires humans have.
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