Comments on: “The 15 most kickass women on television”

By: leslie

leslie — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 12:23:41 +0000

I was trying to explain the meaning of Kick Ass to my Japanese students ( I teach English in Japan) but those who had watched west Wing knew CJ Gregg. This is kinda how I explained it in Japanese
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/please-explain-the-meaning-of-kick-ass/

By: skepticlawyer » Kickass chicks

skepticlawyer » Kickass chicks — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:42:17 +0000

[...] post was inspired by a post at Hoyden about Town, which listed favourite kickass chicks from TV shows. I love a kickass chick. My present favourite [...]

By: WildlyParenthetical

WildlyParenthetical — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 06:21:55 +0000

Mmm... I'll want to discuss that in my narrative structure post too, Lauredhel and Su. Intriguing stuff, if you ask me... WildlyParenthetical's last blog post..Fictional prostitution I

By: su

su — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:19:36 +0000

it’s hard to come across stories that don’t involve aggression or strong conflict of one sort or another, perhaps because the big themes tend to be all about the eternal battle between Good and Evil.

Yes I think so and just as in the bible, that battle, which in theory is an intrapersonal one, is frequently transmuted into situations where the evil is externalized, and violent conflict is legitimated under the formulation of a struggle against evil. I had a quick read about where BSG has gone and maybe they are also challenging that formulation.

By: Fictional prostitution I « Wildly Parenthetical

Fictional prostitution I « Wildly Parenthetical — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:34:14 +0000

[...] feminism, labour, popcult, queer, sex work In amongst the very fun discussion about kick arse women on TV which has been happening over at Hoyden About Town, the wonderful su suggested that I might be [...]

By: Pavlov's Cat

Pavlov's Cat — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:14:24 +0000

Lauredhel @ 40 — I’m noticing in the Christmas reruns that Temperance was a lot more physically kickass in the early series than she is in the current ones. She has forcefully taken out some bad guy with a cool martial arts move at least once in every episode since they started running the off-season old ones. I’m a bit ashamed to say I miss it.

By: Lauredhel

Lauredhel — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:59:58 +0000

Su, I totally agree – being an F/SF fan myself, it’s hard to come across stories that don’t involve aggression or strong conflict of one sort or another, perhaps because the big themes tend to be all about the eternal battle between Good and Evil.

Buffy is perhaps a bit more interesting than other genre TV shows in the way that the physical fights and demons are used as metaphors for the non-physical conflicts and tensions and difficulties of teenage life. And BSG fascinates me in the way the conflicts have been used to reflect and critique current-day international violence, in such morally ambiguous ways.

There’s an offshoot discussion of this going on at skepticlawyer’s place right now, and someone there leapt into the idea that it was All About The Violence and how awful that is, and someone else has jumped in to whine about how Oz women blogs only ever idolise women politicians and celebrities, and blahdiddyblah snerk yawn. (A quick look back through our Friday Hoydens puts paid to that one.)

I think it’s just wrong-end-of-the-stick day all over, and I apologise if I’ve contributed to that.

By: su

su — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:01:50 +0000

Great! Can I put in a request for some of your thoughts on narrative structure as well?

Sorry for my poor reading skillz there Lauredhel – you’d mentioned Lorelei already. My mind is a box of tangled wool tonight. I didn’t mean to imply by my question that the list made the assumption that strength was all about force or aggression, but the way I phrased it was poor . I was kind of following my own train of thought. Most of my favourite films are war films or otherwise violent films and so I was chasing vaguely related thoughts about perceived existential threat leading to aggression, and about how we are so hooked by stories about existential threat and how problematic that probably is and Hey presto – derail.

By: WildlyParenthetical

WildlyParenthetical — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:19:29 +0000

Thanks, Lauredhel. I tend to overthink things, irritate people with too many nit-picks, or irritate people with my refusal to simply come down pro- or anti- on this stuff, so it's nice to hear it's... enjoyed :-) I'm running off to write a post on Inara and Zoe, now, methinks! WildlyParenthetical's last blog post..Play the Game

By: su

su — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 06:33:57 +0000

Oh yeah I get that- Lorelei Gilmore isn’t a warrior either. I wanted to see if someone could pick apart my problems with some (not all) depictions of warrior women and WP has done a fine job.