(no subject)

[shadowkat]

So I scanned Mark Watches...

* Odd, I actually enjoyed Beer Bad. It was hilarious. I didn't take it seriously. But I also went to college in the 1980s (like the writers of Buffy did) where we had 3.2 beer and people could drink beer at the ripe old age of 19 and serve it - as long as it was 3.2 - which was the case in Colorado and California. Do they still have 3.2 beer? It was misnomer, it did get you drunk, which is why I think they finally did away with it. I think. So my suspension of disbelief wasn't a problem - since I actually knew people who served beer on campus who were 19. Gotta love the 1980s. [It should be noted that I like absurd comedy. I found HIM to be hilarious too (not the Dawn scenes (I cringed during them) the Buffy-Spike-Wood and the Rocket Launcher sequence...that bit had me dying with laughter, as did the 70's split scene, and Willow trying to turn the Guy into a Girl before Xander and Spike stop her), as well as The Girl in Question. Also Doublemeat Palace made me laugh. But episodes like
Storyteller, The Zeppo and Superstar made me cringe. So I clearly hate parody, but love absurdity? IDEK. (Every time I use that phrase I feel like I'm referencing a company that makes audio cassettes. Today's slang sounds like an ad for IKEA, gotta love the information/technology revolution.)

* I clearly don't have a button regarding slut-shamming and casual sex, mostly because I don't understand why anyone in their right mind would want to engage in casual sex. I don't do it. Never have. Not how I am wired. So...

I have had and do have friends who engage in it. But in every situation, engaging in casual sex has devastated them emotionally. They've been hurt. One friend went so far to tell me that you feel dirty afterwards, like you want to take a shower. And another...kept wanting to make the sex more, she said it meant nothing at the time, but she was crushed when it didn't turn out to be more. I remember another friend telling me if you think you feel vulnerable sharing your thoughts with someone, try sex. There's so many ways they can hurt you.

So...It still makes no sense to me. Eww. You are basically using someone for your own sexual gratification - it's not about love, just getting off. It's about bodies, not the person. I can fantasize about it and do - it's great to fantasize about, but even then I turn it into a romance. So I don't understand it. I'm not saying it's wrong, just that I don't get it, people.

I'm struggling with a plot arc on SMASH as well, where two characters are destroying their lives just to have a hot affair - they aren't in love, they are just hot for each other. And they are destroying four lives...to what exactly? Get off?
So..why can't they say no? Admittedly, not an addictive personality, so addictions don't make a lot of sense to me. I have had a lot of addictive friends though.
What boggles my mind is people who engage in casual sex don't seem to get why it can be problematic? Mark's post bewildered me. I thought, oh, interesting perspective, you really don't get why casual sex can be a problem? Hello? STD? Pregnancy? Stalking? Obsessiveness? Consequences? You are being intimate with someone, entering their body, exploring it...and treating it like it's no different than eating a piece of really yummy chocolate or scratching an itch. (Seriously more people need to look into the fine art of masturbation.) Basically you are Fucking instead of making Love. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it. But you should realize that there are some serious consequences to it. That it can be emotionally devastating. That you could really hurt someone, including yourself. It's not safe. It's dangerous. I actually think Whedon did a good job of exploring that danger in Buffy and Angel from a heterosexual perspective, not so much a homosexual one unfortunately. Although Queer Ass Folk, Torchwood, and The L Word sort of did that.

I hope that doesn't sound terribly judgmental. Discussing sex on lj is dicey. Too many buttons.

* Mark's attitude towards Cordy and Xander makes me laugh and bewilders me, because I'm the exact opposite. Cordy reminded me of the people who made my life a living hell in high school. And yep, how she ends up is pretty much how a lot of them did. Not all. Xander reminded me of nerdy guy friends I hung out with. So, I was always more sympathetic towards Xander than Cordy. Xander made sense to me. Cordy felt like a commentary on spoiled entitled bratty cheerleaders aka mean girls that I went to school with. She was better developed in Angel and a rather good foil for Angel, who had similar issues. Also like Angel, Cordy was looking for redemption. Every character in Angel is looking for redemption - they are all broken souls. That's why Faith worked better in Angel than Buffy.

Xander isn't a broken soul. He's just a nerdy guy who has been bullied. I work with a lot of Xander's actually. His parents were from hell. He had little money. And he didn't test well. But he's resourceful. Cordy on the other hand seemed to be an entitled whiny bitca to me. I kept wanting to slap her. Harmony was worse - I really struggled with Harmony. There was a handful of characters that bugged me on that series - luckily they were all recurring so I could ignore them. It's very odd to read Cordy love and Xander hate, since I preferred Xander to Cordy, and struggled with Angel the Series after Doyle, Lindsey and Kate left. That said, Cordy and Harmony both worked better for me on Angel. As did Faith. Not a fan of bad girl trope either...because I don't understand it and have been hurt by a couple of bad girl's in my lifetime. So I struggle with the trope. Plus they tend to be written a bit on the cliche side, as do bad boy's admittedly...but being a heterosexual female, I find the bad boy more appealing (fantasy folks not in reality, I'm not self-destructive, well not in that way, at least.)


* Please do not hurt me if you vehmentally disagree. Mileage Varies. This is just an opinion. I've been known to change my mind on a whim. I'm being careful with comments this round and screening. Because...there's a few things I said in there that could result in some rather violent responses. So protecting myself or trying to. Maybe I should just flock? Will stay unflocked for now.

Comments

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

In Missouri 3.2 was what alcoholics bought on Sunday when no one could buy anything else. They didn't sell a lot, because most people planned far enough ahead to buy beer before Sunday. Students avoided 3.2. Getting regular beer wasn't a problem, A few bars in that town had a history of never checking IDs, though they were cracking down on bars that sold to minors when I started college. Someone who was 21 would always get it at a package store for the younger kids, anyway. When I went to grad school in Ohio, 3.2 was legal for 18-year-olds and I thought the kids there were somehow missing something. Bars for those over 21 in Ohio were much more like the bar in Beer Bad than the places that sold 3.2. You weren't likely to hear a pretentious conversation about anything above the loud music at a bar where there were freshmen.

I thought Beer Bad was a little anachronistic, but dead on about young people getting drunk and acting silly.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

That was more or less my experience of both Beer Bad, and drinking in college.