Joss Whedon is a television and film writer. He wrote the "Toy Story" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer movies, as well as the TV shows "Buffy", "Angel", and "Firefly". I don't think "Angel" or "Firefly" or "Serenity" mean much to most people - I guarantee my friends and family have never even heard of these things - but for some reason they are a big deal to nerds.
If you haven't heard, now Joss has created an internet mini-movie called "Dr. Horrible's Sing a Long Blog". It stars Doogie Howser as Dr. Horrible, the "villain", Nathan Fillion - the Jason Bateman lookalike - as the "hero", and Felicia Day - who I personally discovered for a student film I did a long time ago - as "the girl". It's a light-hearted comedy/musical that puts a twist on the superhero thing by having the bad guy be the good guy and vice versa. That's it. It's light and fun and entertaining, nothing to make a big deal about.
But it is a big deal.
Anything that Whedon does now becomes some kind of a flash point for every nerd on the internet. But not just nerds. Also, feminists. Why? Well, I didn't realize this until very recently but Joss has become some kind of feminist hero because his stories often revolve around a heroic, well developed (and I don't mean her boobs) female character.
The hero of "Buffy" is an ass kicking vampire slayer. The hero of his upcoming series "Dollhouse" is ass kicking Eliza Dushku. And the list goes on. Feminists love the way this guy develops female characters and makes them three dimensional and interesting.
But now the feminists are pissed.
The girl in Dr. Horrible's Sing a Long blog is, gasp, not the hero! She's just a, gulp, regular girl! Oh no.
These so called feminists are in an uproar that this girl is only the love interest, and that she needs to be rescued by men, and that she wasn't important in her own right. Hmm, okay. But consider this:
Not every woman in every story can be an ass kicker. Some girls are like me, they're pussies. And also, the thing is a PARODY! The whole point of it is to tweak the conventions of the old fashioned superhero story. "The Girl" in this is making fun of "the girl" in a million other superhero stories, just as "the hero" and "the villain" are making fun of every hero and villain we've all seen a thousand times. It's a parody, dumbasses! The shit was on purpose.
Now, I consider myself a feminist, as feminism is defined as "a belief in equality of the sexes". I definitely believe in equality of the sexes. Heck, I believe in the equality of everyone...except for the elderly, they should be put in camps. But these feminists...by the same logic I should be pissed that the two male leads are made to look like buffoons. Oh man, Whedon isn't reppin' the brothas! He's making us all look like retards! The girl is smart and generous and good, and the guys are assholes. He's bringing the gender down.
Who fucking cares! It's a musical...on the internet...that's a parody! So let me just sum up by saying, Dr. Horrible is funny, "Buffy" the TV show and all monster of the week shows suck, and oh yeah, lighten up, bitches!
6 comments:
As a female, I never bought into your whole "women aren't funny" thing (although I feel certain you didn't really mean it)...but in this case, I'm totally with you. These feminazis are making us women look idiotic!
I won't tell your g'ma about the camp comment. And, actually, how do you define elderly?
Irwin is back and he's fired up... ready to question the perception of the entire world.
Not sure about elderly, but i know being OLD starts at 30.
I never, ever said women aren't funny. Some of the funniest people in the world are women. That debate was about why there aren't more women comedy writers, but there are other reasons for that.
The elderly thing was a joke, ma.
See this uproar is weird b/c I thought she kind of was the hero in Dr. Horrible. She brought out the best in both of those douches. She got Captain Hammer to start a homeless shelter and Dr. Horrible into the Evil Bad League thingy. But whatever, a woman's accomplishments are never acknowledged (ha ha just kidding Irwin).
She had some good lines, and her squirmy reactions during Capt. Hammer's song were half the fun. Plus, she was the only genuinely good person in the whole thing.
I thought there was more to Dr. Horrible than you're giving it credit for. It's pretty damn complex, when you start to look at all the parts, but it's put together almost seamlessly. (The opening's a little sloppy, but that's probably not the first time NPH has heard that one. Gay joke!) Plus it's exciting to see something like this getting launched on the Internet and being so successful. I hope it sets a precedent.
Anyway, what? Feminists? Yeah, go figure, they're unhappy about something.
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