Luke and Laura Blow. Shit. Up
Okay, so I think I've had enough slash to calm me down, take me down from the ceiling a bit. Because coming home from seeing the Watchmen? I was furious.
1. The two lesbian characters were brutally murdered because they were lesbians. I realize that a lot of people met bloody ends but the case was made, pretty emphatically, that they all deserved it because of some horrible misdeed in their past. The Comedian, Rorschacht, both did a helluva job covering the worst behaviours. But what did the two women do?
2. "I couldn't hate him because he gave me you." Christ on a fucking stick. This whole plotpoint encompasses everything that is wrong with how some people view rape. She asked for it by acting flirty with him before it happened, and she can't hate him because he's the father of her child?!!?? Wait, nevermind. Given what happened to the pregnant Vietnamese woman who tried to stand up for herself, I'm starting to think this may have been a self-preservation move.
3. A large part of the movie's premise is that we're all essentially animals who will kill each other with the flimsiest of pretenses. Wow. What a stunning concept. Not only does it create an excuse for the ultraviolence but it gives the writers a way out of developing meaningful, nuanced characters. The bad guys and the morally ambiguous good guys don't have to have reasons for what they do if they're just a bunch of bloodthirsty apes.
4. Who watches the Watchmen? Apparently, that's irrelevant. Dr. Manhatten gets to fuck off the Mars and leave people to their own devices instead of trying to attone for his part in creating the technology that killed millions. Rorschact and the Comedian get to
whoever the hell they want because it makes them deep and edgy and they've had such hard lives.
I realize I say this as someone who isn't a fan of comic books but is, really, the problem here is misogyny and lazy writing, which are concepts indepenent of the genre. Am I wrong?
1. The two lesbian characters were brutally murdered because they were lesbians. I realize that a lot of people met bloody ends but the case was made, pretty emphatically, that they all deserved it because of some horrible misdeed in their past. The Comedian, Rorschacht, both did a helluva job covering the worst behaviours. But what did the two women do?
2. "I couldn't hate him because he gave me you." Christ on a fucking stick. This whole plotpoint encompasses everything that is wrong with how some people view rape. She asked for it by acting flirty with him before it happened, and she can't hate him because he's the father of her child?!!?? Wait, nevermind. Given what happened to the pregnant Vietnamese woman who tried to stand up for herself, I'm starting to think this may have been a self-preservation move.
3. A large part of the movie's premise is that we're all essentially animals who will kill each other with the flimsiest of pretenses. Wow. What a stunning concept. Not only does it create an excuse for the ultraviolence but it gives the writers a way out of developing meaningful, nuanced characters. The bad guys and the morally ambiguous good guys don't have to have reasons for what they do if they're just a bunch of bloodthirsty apes.
4. Who watches the Watchmen? Apparently, that's irrelevant. Dr. Manhatten gets to fuck off the Mars and leave people to their own devices instead of trying to attone for his part in creating the technology that killed millions. Rorschact and the Comedian get to
whoever the hell they want because it makes them deep and edgy and they've had such hard lives.
I realize I say this as someone who isn't a fan of comic books but is, really, the problem here is misogyny and lazy writing, which are concepts indepenent of the genre. Am I wrong?