(no subject)

[shadowkat]

1. I think I have a cold. Either that or my allergies have gotten carried away. Been sniffling and sneezing all day long, yet, oddly less so outside. You'd think with all the flowering trees it would be the opposite.

The day? Beautiful. Too beautiful for a windowless cubicle. Although do have a nice picture of sail-boat on the ocean in Hilton Head at sunset. If you don't have windows? Make your own.
Also took a nice stroll around the park - it was the sort of day in which the colors are so pitch perfect and bright that you aren't quite sure it's real. Like wandering around in a 3 D photograph - where someone has brightened all the colors using photo-shop.

2. A friend pointed this out to me today regarding Once Upon a Time -

"Isn't it interesting that the only sexy characters in this show are the villains? They are the one's wearing the sexy and tight clothing, have the great hairstyles, and makeup. While everyone else is dressed normally."

My response? I thought, wait...this is true of all (okay maybe not all, most or many) sci-fi fantasy tv shows. [ETA: Too many darn fact-checkers on lj, you can't get away with any sort of hyperbole whatsoever. **grins**] Particularly American ones. Excluding Farscape - which wasn't exactly American and is the exception. Vampire Diaries? Villains wear the sexy clothes and are the sex symbols. Buffy? Ditto. (Spike vs. Riley, Faith vs. Buffy, VampWillow vs. Willow..heck, VampXander vs. Xander.) Supernatural? Ditto. [ETA: Admittedly my memory of it is vague and have not been watching lately. But it seemed to be the case. Again wardrobe folks.] Angel? Ditto (compare Illyria to Fred...I rest my case.)

We really do have hang-ups about sex, don't we?

Friend: And this show (meaning Once Upon A Time) really underlines that.

Comments

[sophist.livejournal.com]

Speaking from the Y side, Faith did nothing for me, nor did Cordelia. But Buffy was sexy, and AH definitely so in S4. Xander was sexy in S1, maybe even through Innocence, but became much less so after (partly due to the actor's problems). What about Giles?

[liliaeth]

Yeah, I mean, I despise Willow to the core of my being, but that still didn't stop AH from being the most attractive actress on the show. She was actually less attractive while 'evil' than she was normally, even if they did put her in some of the worst outfits possible during s6

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I think they did portray her as more sexy when she was playing vampire Willow and licking peoples necks and playing with the puppy, but when she went dark in season 6 and got all the veins on her face, yeah not really lol.

And I think Xander was portrayed as sexier in The Pack and in The Wish too, Cordelia even agrees to dance with Jesse also after he becomes a vampire and that's when she wouldn't look at him twice before

[liliaeth]

And then there's soulless Angel with the leather pants of evil ;-)

Not saying that BTVS didn't go for the 'evil is sexy' angle, just that personally I didn't like the look of Willow in that leather outfit and bustier (or however you spell that).

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Hee well fair enough :) Thinking about it I suppose they did give vampire Willow a creepy childlike sexuality rather than outright sexy.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Yet her other clothing was clearly that much sexier? Come on she was dressed either like a dweeb or an absurd peasant woman who spent a lot of time at Renaissance festivals. Fans stated back in the day that the wardrobe department did not like Willow.

[liliaeth]

Not saying she looked 'sexier' in it, just that she looked better in it. And I'm saying that as someone who can't stand the character. The socalled 'sexy' look was too forced, too fake. it made her look terrible.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

So attractive, that the wardrobe department worked over-time to make her look cute but not sexy.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Eh...I wasn't talking about which actors you find sexually appealing or which characters are attractive to you personally - that's subjective.

I was talking about the wardrobe or costumes, makeup, tight-fitting clothing.
Willow was dressed like, forgive the word, a dweeb, for most of the seasons - to the point that you wondered if the wardrobe department disliked the character (it was mainly to make her less attractive and cute). Xander similarily dressed like a dweeb. As was Giles. He's only dressed hot when he gets to play Ripper.

Human William - dweeb.
Vampire Spike - hot

Human Liam...not hotly dressed although more so, because bad boy
Angel - leather, tight

Riley...again not the sexiest dresser.

Buffy...eh, she was all over the place, she actually got to dress sexier than Cordy and the vampire women did. Partly because she was the lead and the network wanted to attract a male audience. So hello push-up/power-bra and short skirts. (Which was odd for a girl who was supposed to be 16...again our society is weird about sex.)

At any rate I was discussing clothing. ;-)

[sophist.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I realized after I commented that this is probably what you meant. Still, Buffy did get to be sexy in S1-2, and Willow did to some extent in S4 and S6. But your basic point that they highlighted the sexuality of the bad girls and downplayed that of the good girls is, I think, essentially right. I guess there are some cliches Joss wasn't willing to take on. :)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

It's not just Joss. Although it does track through his shows. I think it's a cultural thing.

A few shows, more cult and out there series, such as Farscape, have broken that model. Actually science fiction tv series break with it more than gothic fantasy/horror/fantasy shows for some reason. Star Trek broke the model. So it may well be genre specific?

[sophist.livejournal.com]

I'm very sure it's a cultural thing. I don't watch enough TV of any kind to judge beyond that, so I'll accept your TV slut expertise. :)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

It's just a pattern I've been noticing in certain genres. Shows that are non-genre specific don't do sexy at all, people dress like everyone else.

[liliaeth]

uhm, have to disagree with you on spn. Have you seen what Sam wore while evil, compared to what he normally wears. I mean, that white suit was hardly 'sexy' in any way whatsoever.

Also, it's not like Jo was dressed any more demure than Ruby was.

I mean sure, they had real Meg call out the demon for what it did to her body, but really from what we saw of her ghost, all the demon did was give her a haircut.

Other than spn you're probably right.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Supernatural? I didn't use that as example. But the evil characters (not the leads) are dressed hotter than the leads (weird) and the good characters. Even when the leads are evil. Granted some of this is subjective.

Again who is Ruby...we're jumping into a series I don't really watch and can't remember.

[liliaeth]

I have a one track mind*eg*

Ruby was a demon who manipulated Sam into starting the apocalypse. She was played by two separate actresses, but though both were good looking, I never felt that their 'sexiness' was forced on us as the viewers. She was played by Katie Cassidy and Genevieve Cortese Padalecki

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Ok. Thanks. There are apparently two Ruby's - one in SPN and one in OUAT.
I got confused.

Yes, but definitely dressed sexy. ;-)

Katie Cassidy played Ruby?? That's where I've seen her before. I wondered. I rather liked Katie Cassidy in the role, Geneive Cortese Padalecki not quite as much for some reason.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Big Love would be an exception (though not scifi).

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

No, this about genre tv that goes for sex appeal. Big Love is more in the Friday Night Lights, Sopranos, Six Feet Under category - everyone dresses the same on those series.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Ruby dressed more sexily than anyone in the first season in the Earth scenes, although the relative lack of male gaze in the show meant that they didn't draw lots and lots of attention to it.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Ruby? Which show are we discussing?

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Once Upon A Time. Red Riding Hood.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Ah thanks. There were two Ruby's - one from SPN and one from OUAT in the thread. I got confused. ;-)

She is dressed sexy - but keep in mind she's also supposed to a bad-ass werewolf.