Dana said:
Shane said:
Why do you continually equate Blakes' 7 with soaps and boybands?
Because audience reception is important to the study of any media production.
Yes, but the audience of a boyband and of Blakes' 7 are different, and receive each in different ways. The sole aim of a boyband is to appeal to the lusts of teenage girls (boys too, but that seems to be a sideline :)) and get them to part with money for CDs, posters, concerts etc. While some people may watch Blakes' 7 for the tight leather trousers alone, I very much doubt that this was its producers' sole aim, and a lot of people do watch it for the ideas, the dialogue, the characterisation, the shoot-em-up bits. The demographic of Blakes' 7 fandom has also changed over the years, and this is also interesting.
There are a number of strong female roles in Blakes 7. Servalan, Cally, Dayna, Jenna etc...
There are a lot of underwritten roles for women who look good in tight jumpsuits.
I hope you're not referring to Servalan, Cally, Dayna and Jenna by that statement-- they do a lot more than look good in jumpsuits. Especially Servalan (jumpsuits? Her? _Dah_ling, _please_!).
This still doesn't answer the question of why the relationship is a gay
one.
There are relationships between all the lead characters on B7. Why Avon
and
Blake? Why not Blake and Jenna, Cally and Avon... or Avon and Anna (who,
in
case you've forgotten, _were_ lovers)?
Read enough fanfic, and you'll find stories about any mathematically factorable combination of characters (I was going to say any imaginable combination, but there are more than that).
Yes, which still makes me wonder why the gay version is seen to be the dominant one (whether or not it in fact is).
Again, why? Why do women, in your opinion, find it difficult to identify with Jenna or Cally?
Because the scripts give them so little background and so little to do
I don't think that's true. As for the background, can't you always invent some? The less you're constrained by background, the more you can make up...
I wasn't talking about gay sexuality; in fact, more people than just me
have
pointed out that slash has very little to do with actual homosexuality
at
all (including yourself, I might add). I was talking about frustrated
fans
of whatever gender, fixated on an actor of whatever gender, which, even if
it
doesn't harm the actor, can hurt the fixated fan and his/her family emotionally. Obsession isn't pretty, as I'm sure you know.
This isn't very relevant to writing about fictional characters.
This came in when Leah brought the conversation off on a tangent about sexual obsession with actors, so yes, it is a side point (or a red herring). But it can be relevant because if we're talking about fanfic as an outlet for unrequited lust, it can (I repeat, it _can_, not that it inevitably will) fuel that obsession.
Oh, so most fans don't think sex addiction needs to be treated before it turns violent? Excuse me, I think I'm in the wrong hobby here.
Assuming that there really is something called sex addiction (as distinct from general poor judgment leading to dysfunctional behavior) and that it can be predicted who will turn violent and that there are effective
modes
of treatment, sure. Now, what does this have to do with whether my next story is about Avon pushing Travis over a cliff, Avon and Travis making
love
in the jacuzzi of the Fanficcea Hilton, or Servalan opening a charity bazaar?
Nothing at all.
Shane
"One more death should do it" --Avon
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