I read The Celluloid Closet in college, of course (when the movie was still in the planning stages - as usual the book is superior to the movie) but I didn't need to read it to know the Dead/Angry Lesbian Trope: after I watched Seeing Red earlier this year, I remembered an episode of Northern Exposure I'd happened to see (I wasn't watching it regularly by that point) about how the town of Cecily(?) was founded by a lesbian couple (or at least named after one of the women in that couple), and in the end one of the lesbians ends up dead and the other descends into alcoholism in grief (we're told in voiceover) and I believe, wanders away from the town and eventually dies brokenhearted. Even back then I knew it was a cliche; and not meaning "anything by it" in the instance of SR doesn't mean the cliche is not put to use here. On an emotional level I got that immediately, and felt a milder version of what I might have felt if I had been watching back in the day and not spoiled ten years after the fact - disappointment, a sense of "oh no they didn't go there". (and I've read things online dismissive of even that reaction, even on sites that lean "feminist"; but I can't dismiss my own emotional reaction, it's how I felt and still feel and that emotion is valid.)
So, yeah, I know about the trope.
As to the sex/magic thing, I actually thought that was clever, to be honest, because I knew that they were dealing with censorship issues and thought that was an interesting way to work around it. (I once read someone say that before S6 they had a "chaste" relationship - really? Then what is the end of New Moon Rising all about? "Right now?" "Right now".) And they had already shown magic and sexuality being linked for Willow in that season - if the spells Tara and Willow do together are metaphors for their sexuality, then the spell Willow performs by herself in Something Blue can be read as a metaphor for masturbation (she performs it while still grieving Oz's abandonment). So I really had no problem with that, knowing the constraints ME was under at the time.
Switching the metaphor from magic=sexuality to magic=addiction was very clumsily handled, I have no argument with that.
In any case the handling and the cliches in those specific instances isn't really my point; and yes I have seen people who can't stand Willow/Tara as a couple. I was trying to use a specific instance of a ship and I think I may have got off track in my comments, as I am wont to do. I actually could have named as a better example Bangel or Riley/Buffy - abusive behavior has occured in ALL of Buffy's relationships, if you want to get down to it - but that's neither here nor there.
You're right, the fight is silly; so I generally try to stay out of the cross-hairs. I much prefer "agree to disagree". *hands out brownies* (Unless someone tells me "Buffy's a bitch and must be punished" - then I take back my brownies.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2012-08-30 12:14 pm (UTC)So, yeah, I know about the trope.
As to the sex/magic thing, I actually thought that was clever, to be honest, because I knew that they were dealing with censorship issues and thought that was an interesting way to work around it. (I once read someone say that before S6 they had a "chaste" relationship - really? Then what is the end of New Moon Rising all about? "Right now?" "Right now".) And they had already shown magic and sexuality being linked for Willow in that season - if the spells Tara and Willow do together are metaphors for their sexuality, then the spell Willow performs by herself in Something Blue can be read as a metaphor for masturbation (she performs it while still grieving Oz's abandonment). So I really had no problem with that, knowing the constraints ME was under at the time.
Switching the metaphor from magic=sexuality to magic=addiction was very clumsily handled, I have no argument with that.
In any case the handling and the cliches in those specific instances isn't really my point; and yes I have seen people who can't stand Willow/Tara as a couple. I was trying to use a specific instance of a ship and I think I may have got off track in my comments, as I am wont to do. I actually could have named as a better example Bangel or Riley/Buffy - abusive behavior has occured in ALL of Buffy's relationships, if you want to get down to it - but that's neither here nor there.
You're right, the fight is silly; so I generally try to stay out of the cross-hairs. I much prefer "agree to disagree". *hands out brownies* (Unless someone tells me "Buffy's a bitch and must be punished" - then I take back my brownies.)