It reminds me a great deal of the recent controversy surrounding stand-up comedians and rape jokes. Patton Oswalt wrote an excellent blog regarding this - and states well what I'd like to say to Whedon.
Originally, with The Pack he had the right idea - to poke fun at the rapist, to show them as a rabid hyena, not worth a blink. To blame the rapist not the victim. But in SR, he doesn't do that. Instead, the AR scene in SR can be interpreted in a manner in which the victim is to blame. Buffy is slutslamned in that episode, first by Xander who questions her sleeping with Spike, then by the Trioka, and jokingly by Willow and Tara. Dawn is the only one who arguably doesn't. We also had Entropy immediately proceeding it - which is sympathetic towards Spike, depicting how much in pain he is. Plus Normal Again before that. And the whole "no-means-yes" sexual relationship they had, from both sides. This? THIS...culminates in an AR scene from hell? On top of this, they show Buffy off her game, hurting herself in the graveyard, and not catching the Trioka.
The whole episode feels like the writers are punishing Buffy.
After the episode, Buffy becomes a supporting player in her own story. It becomes the Willow and Xander show. With Xander preventing Willow from destroying the world, while Buffy is stuck in a grave with Dawn, trying to explain why she brought Dawn to Spike - because Xander told Dawn that Spike attempted to rape Buffy. Dark!Willow pummels and slut-slamns Buffy as well.
Meanwhile, Spike goes to get a soul - stating he'll give the bitch what she deserves. It's not made clear he's getting a soul and can be interpreted that he's actually getting his chip removed, but gets a soul instead. (Many viewers interpreted it that way.) Because the writers wanted to shock the viewers and have a shocking plot twist.
As a result, the AR scene in S6 - re-inforces "rape culture" views and blames the victim. In S7, the writer's attempt to bend over backwards to correct this - but it's too late. Damage has been done. Beneath You is Whedon's attempt to fix it, he rewrote that bit in order to fix this. And to an extent he does fix it. The blame is shifted, but so is the sympathy - the audience's sympathy is with Spike again, not Buffy.
The whole thing from start to finish was structured badly. The narrative should have protected Buffy, but it doesn't.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2013-06-20 10:33 pm (UTC)Originally, with The Pack he had the right idea - to poke fun at the rapist, to show them as a rabid hyena, not worth a blink. To blame the rapist not the victim. But in SR, he doesn't do that. Instead, the AR scene in SR can be interpreted in a manner in which the victim is to blame. Buffy is slutslamned in that episode, first by Xander who questions her sleeping with Spike, then by the Trioka, and jokingly by Willow and Tara. Dawn is the only one who arguably doesn't. We also had Entropy immediately proceeding it - which is sympathetic towards Spike, depicting how much in pain he is. Plus Normal Again before that.
And the whole "no-means-yes" sexual relationship they had, from both sides. This? THIS...culminates in an AR scene from hell? On top of this, they show Buffy off her game, hurting herself in the graveyard, and not catching the Trioka.
The whole episode feels like the writers are punishing Buffy.
After the episode, Buffy becomes a supporting player in her own story.
It becomes the Willow and Xander show. With Xander preventing Willow from destroying the world, while Buffy is stuck in a grave with Dawn, trying to explain why she brought Dawn to Spike - because Xander told Dawn that Spike attempted to rape Buffy. Dark!Willow pummels and slut-slamns Buffy as well.
Meanwhile, Spike goes to get a soul - stating he'll give the bitch what she deserves. It's not made clear he's getting a soul and can be interpreted that he's actually getting his chip removed, but gets a soul instead. (Many viewers interpreted it that way.) Because the writers wanted to shock the viewers and have a shocking plot twist.
As a result, the AR scene in S6 - re-inforces "rape culture" views and blames the victim. In S7, the writer's attempt to bend over backwards to correct this - but it's too late. Damage has been done. Beneath You is Whedon's attempt to fix it, he rewrote that bit in order to fix this. And to an extent he does fix it. The blame is shifted, but so is the sympathy - the audience's sympathy is with Spike again, not Buffy.
The whole thing from start to finish was structured badly. The narrative should have protected Buffy, but it doesn't.