Notes on Sexism, Romance Writing, Nashville, and Scandal...

1. Here's something that has always puzzled me about our culture, and it appears to be world-wide not just Western Culture or in the US.

Why is a woman who has had various lovers or lots of sex called a slut or whore or tramp, but a man is not? Men are either called womanizer or playboy or bachelor. While women are called spinisters, tramps, sluts or whores.

Along with this question rise various others...

* Why does it matter whether or not you are a virgin? (I mean I can see why it might if you carry a STD or have AIDS, but other than that?)

* Why is a woman who has cheated on her husband a tramp but the man she cheats on him with - not one? Yet when a man cheats on his wife - the other woman is the tramp, not the husband?

2. Making my way through McNaught's Whitney, My Love - which is okay, but slow. I like the heroine, but the hero is a bit of an ass. It's revised edition - so some of the controversial bits have been changed or lessened. McNaught is a bit less risque than Rosemary Rodgers and Kathleen Woodliss - although in comparison to Maya Banks and Sylvia Day's contemporary boddice rippers, these ladies are rather tame in comparison.

I've noticed the modern romance writers aren't as careful in their writing and plotting as the writers in the 80s, nor do they appear to have editors or copy-editors. ( Read more... )

3. Finished watching the mid-season finales of Nashville and Scandal. Yes, they are actually calling them "mid-season" or "winter-season" finals. First off it is NOT winter yet - it's still fall. The first day of Winter, I believe is in late December sometime around Christmas. Second...Mid-Season? It's been three and half months, maybe less.
But not to worry - there will be replacement mini-series in the time slot - that you can watch until they pop up again. Yes, just what we all need - more tv shows.

* Nashville was more enjoyable than expected.( Read more... )

Scandal - now that was a well-written finale, they wrapped some things up, yet built up others - without leaving it completely on a cliff-hanger. My only quibble - Shonda Rhimes, honey, please stop putting musical scores over dialogue, it's distracting. Particularly loud ones. It's actually worse on Grey's Anatomy - where we got a musical score, dialogue, and a voice over. Television sound editing isn't good enough to handle that sort of hat-trick.

OMG moments? ( spoilers )

In SCANDAL - Rhimes basically shoots a satiric torpedo at the white male power structure, underlining all the cracks in the foundation.

I love this series for how it cleverly plays with racial and feminist themes, underlying the racial and gender divisions in our country, along with sexual orientation. Cyrus Been, Mellie, James, Abby, Quinn, Olivia, Rowen, and Olivia's mother - are people who have struggled against the power structure, lying outside it, scrambling for a foothold - while people like Fitz, Jake, Huck, Charlie...all have that ready foothold. Scandal reminds me a great deal of Game of Thrones in how it plays with power, and shows people that we assume do not have power - have quite a bit, and can become powerful. And those who have been handed it, don't know what to do with it and often squander it - or take it for granted. And the abuses on both sides.

Also it questions our assumptions about race and gender - showing that people are just people. Gender and race is not the defining characteristic, we often make it out to be.
Rhimes does color and gender blind better than most.

How to Persuade People to Watch a TV Show That You Like? And how not to do it?

After reading this post which appears to be attempting to get friends and other people online to love or at least watch Marvel Agents of Shield, I thought, there are ways to convince people to watch a tv show and this is not amongst them. Actually all this post manages to do and rather effectively at that is royally piss off the people who have given up on Marvel Agents of Shield. So if you want to know how not to persuade people to watch or love something that you do - that's how. (Assuming of course the intent of the article/post was to persuade not...piss off. You can never tell on the internet.)

So how do you persuade someone to try a tv show, which you think they'll love or at least appreciate?

There's a couple of ways.

First is to share clips of that series which you've discovered on Youtube and think represent why you like it and why someone else may like it. The below are clips to television series that I highly recommend.

1. Justified: This is the trailer to the first Season.

"Robert Patterson on The Importance of Learning Acting Fundamentals" (Watch on YouTube)

2. The Good Wife:
( non-spoilery court-room scene from The Good Wife )

It's hard to find non-spoilery clips for this series.

3. Scandal:
( various isolated scenes from SCANDAL )

That's one way to do it.

Another is to try to describe the series and include clips - or the hybrid method.

Example: Buffy the Vampire Slayer starts out as a series about a former high-school cheerleader who moves to a new school and is a vampire slayer. It's quirky, with quippy dialogue and subverts the traditional slasher/gothic tropes. Instead of Buffy being the victim, she's the hero. But over time it changes and becomes something else entirely - with episodes that broke rules in narrative format and writing.

Here's two examples of how it becomes something entirely different and somewhat experimental:
( Read more... )

Or you can direct your friend to a critical review of the series, as one might do for say Breaking Bad -Alan Sepinwall's review of the first episode of the series. Or better yet, and far less spoilery: Stephen King - Why I love Breaking Bad - assuming of course your friend or the people you are attempting to persuade are Stephen King fans.

Or if you have the time or inclination just write your own review of it. Here's an example of one I wrote for The Tomorrow People: Although I clearly didn't love it.

The trick in writing your own review, I think, is not to tell people what they'll like, but describe it well enough to show them whether it would be something that might interest them, without spoiling it. That's what makes reviewing difficult - that fine line between spoiling and teasing. You have to give just enough info to intrigue, but not enough to spoil. Also, you can't give too little - or you will bore. Vagueness gets you nowhere. Nor does it help to flatly state this is a good show - you must watch it. Because seriously, why would they?