At 11:29 2-2-01 +0000, Alison Page wrote:
I also think there are two different responses getting mixed up, which are 'Deliverance is not sexist' (with reasons etc...), and 'it is ridiculous to say that something is sexist'. And I don't want to confuse them because I don't think the second point is actually ridiculous, though I might disagree about the details of the first.
Actually, what seems to have gotten several people (including myself) somewhat peeved is that Wendy seemed to be saying: "It is ridiculous to say that Deliverance is not sexist." Which strikes me as being somewhat ridiculous and patronizing to boot. So I'm going to assume she didn't mean it that way, but it certainly came across that way.
I also have some trouble with how she and Neil equal seeing Avon's good points to whitewashing Avon. To me (and to most of his fans, I suspect), he's interesting because of his particular mix of good and bad points. Without the bad points, he'd probably be as tiresomely good as Blake can be at times. Seeing Blake display some "bad" behavior sometimes comes as a definite relief to me.
Jacqueline