snowynight: colourful musical note (Default)
snowynight ([personal profile] snowynight) wrote2011-05-08 02:58 pm

Where 're the femslash little black dress

Some anecdotes

I love Sherlock Holmes, so I can't resist the lure of the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film. It has Mary and Irene in a greater role than in the book, but the movie's never about them, never told in their POV. They pretty much respond to the action. I return from the cinema with a vague thought that I would like a gun-swinging Mary partnered with Irene in a steampunk Victorian London, but I don't really get the characters enough. Because the movie doesn't give me this.

When I watch the earlier season of Stargate: Atlantis, there are only two female favourite characters. They are shown as friends, and the fandom pretty much pair them as the spare. Later in the season there were more female characters introduced and filmed interaction between Teyla and them. While the amount of fic produced is not much as far as I know, Teyla launched several ships, Teyla/Kate, Teyla/Keller, Teyla/Sam.  While the canon is not good enough, it at least gives a starting point to write and passes the Bechdel's test in some episodes.

My hypothesis about the lack of femslash little black dress is thus:
There're just not enough female characters. Even nowadays a show can be without one female major character. Supernatural, for example  is a big offender.

When there are finally some, the writers often screw up on the female characters. The stories are often not about them, the story not told in their POV, they often go without agency or sacrificed for some dramatic effect. These combined don't encourage fans of female characters. When the show finally pass Bechdel's Test, there are usually no multiple female relationships, not to mention multiple female friendships.

And when there are such examples, people don't know about it.

In conclusion, with the current trend, we're less likely to see femslash little black dress.
aron_kristina: Garbo being fab! (Default)

[personal profile] aron_kristina 2011-05-08 01:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I think The Good Wife is one of the few, if not the only, tv series (of the ones I have seen, mind) where female characters actually have goals of their own, where both male and female characters are painted in shades of grey, and where even older women are allowed to be interesting. Which is, I mean, it's a good show, but I shouldn't have to be THIS excited about it...
lilacsigil: Kalinda Sharma face (Kalinda)

[personal profile] lilacsigil 2011-05-08 01:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, The Good Wife is an especially interesting example because it does so well networking all the female characters in really complex ways...then totally fails to do the same with people of colour or disabled people. Louis Canning never speaks to another disabled person; the black lawyers never work together (except to trick) and the one time Kalinda could speak to another South Asian person she literally can't. Not that many other shows are better, but it's so odd to see a show that totally gets the importance of all-female interaction but cannot see any further.
aron_kristina: Garbo being fab! (Default)

[personal profile] aron_kristina 2011-05-08 01:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, they clearly haven't gotten to the intersectional bit in the 'how to make your show not fail' guidebook :p I live in hope that someone will at some point get there though.
halfshellvenus: (Default)

[personal profile] halfshellvenus 2011-05-26 06:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I was going to mention this one too, because Kalinda IS the femmeslash little black dress!

But I suspect that the show's fandom is rather small, at least at the moment, so that's fairly self-limiting. :(