![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakSo here I was, discontentedly growling after a week of browsing through Being Human reviews that the fannish law of "if a female character critisizes, is hostile towards or, gasp, takes direct action against a hot male character, especially one perceived as a woobie, this female character MUST BE HATED, no matter what good reasons canon gives her for her attitude/actions" still holds. Has there ever been an exception? I wondered, from my Highlander days onwards, in the online fandoms I was part of. And was all prepared to cynically conclude there wasn't, when suddenly I realized that YES THERE WAS.
To wit, a case of canon showing a female character unrelentingly hostile towards, judging and in one instant even coming close to killing an attractive male character whom canon had made very clear from the get go was indeed guilty of a lot of the things she judged him for.... and fandom, by and large, rooted for the female character who remained one of the most beloved of the show. Say what you want about BSG, but Laura Roslin and Gaius Baltar did defy the fannish odds. Of course, it helped that Baltar was never presented as the main hunk, so to speak (he was in a lot of sexual situations, but the male characters pimped to the audience as objects of desire were Lee, Helo and Sam), and that he had arguably some of the best writing of the show in that he never was excused or one dimensionalized for what he had done on screen. But I can think of fandoms where the on screen canon made it similarly clear we weren't dealing with a misunderstood sweetheart here, and fandom went the "but how DARE THAT JUDGMENTAL BITCH ATTACK OUR WOOBIE!" root anyway.
Mind you: at times those of us (read: me) who loved both Laura Roslin and Gaius Baltar and ate that increasingly complex on screen relationship up with a spoon were in the frustrating position of finding fellow Roslin fans only interested in Baltar's demise, but I'd rather have that than wading through Cassandra hate because she dared to want Methos dead for trifling reasons like rape, torture, abuse and mass murder, or currently spoilers for read Nina attack after Nina attack because she thinks Mitchell is rotten and responded to finding out he slaughtered a train full of people by calling the cops. Because clearly, waiting till the next time he deals with being depressed by murder again would have been the thing to do. And let's not even get into canons where the male character is in love with the female character who is hostile towards him and the "how dare she say no to our darling?" element comes into play as well.
...come to think of it, though, the cynic in me, at constant battle with the opimist, can think of one ship related reason why the Roslin-Baltar situation was received differently, and no, not because of Mary McDonnell's awesome acting or Laura Roslin, until the second half of s4 anyway, being one of the best written female characters around. See, Baltar was never part of a popular slash (or het!) 'ship that Roslin could have been perceived at interfering with. Half the ire for Cassandra was due to her being seen as upsetting Methos/Duncan. As for Nina? Why, she comes between George and Mitchell. Potentially even between Annie and Mitchell. Whereas in terms of BSG's favourite canonical and fanonical couples, Laura Roslin's attitude towards Gaius Baltar neither had any impact nor was seen to have any impact. Roslin herself of course was part of one of the most popular 'ships, Adama/Roslin, which had nothing to do with Baltar (err, or only in the sense that Bill proved his devotion and increasing autocratism and questionable morals by offering to let him disappear discreetly in s3), and while Baltar/Gaeta is probably the closest thing BSG has to an m/m dynamic that's somewhere between canon and fanon, it was never a popular 'ship on the same scale Adama/Roslin, Lee/Kara or Kara/Sam were. (And again, that dynamic had nothing to do with Laura Roslin, or she with it.) So the "how dare X interfere with my beloved ship!" factor simply was not there.
...but that thought depresses me, and so I'd rather conclude Laura and Gaius prove that the winds, they are ever so slowly changing.
To wit, a case of canon showing a female character unrelentingly hostile towards, judging and in one instant even coming close to killing an attractive male character whom canon had made very clear from the get go was indeed guilty of a lot of the things she judged him for.... and fandom, by and large, rooted for the female character who remained one of the most beloved of the show. Say what you want about BSG, but Laura Roslin and Gaius Baltar did defy the fannish odds. Of course, it helped that Baltar was never presented as the main hunk, so to speak (he was in a lot of sexual situations, but the male characters pimped to the audience as objects of desire were Lee, Helo and Sam), and that he had arguably some of the best writing of the show in that he never was excused or one dimensionalized for what he had done on screen. But I can think of fandoms where the on screen canon made it similarly clear we weren't dealing with a misunderstood sweetheart here, and fandom went the "but how DARE THAT JUDGMENTAL BITCH ATTACK OUR WOOBIE!" root anyway.
Mind you: at times those of us (read: me) who loved both Laura Roslin and Gaius Baltar and ate that increasingly complex on screen relationship up with a spoon were in the frustrating position of finding fellow Roslin fans only interested in Baltar's demise, but I'd rather have that than wading through Cassandra hate because she dared to want Methos dead for trifling reasons like rape, torture, abuse and mass murder, or currently spoilers for read Nina attack after Nina attack because she thinks Mitchell is rotten and responded to finding out he slaughtered a train full of people by calling the cops. Because clearly, waiting till the next time he deals with being depressed by murder again would have been the thing to do. And let's not even get into canons where the male character is in love with the female character who is hostile towards him and the "how dare she say no to our darling?" element comes into play as well.
...come to think of it, though, the cynic in me, at constant battle with the opimist, can think of one ship related reason why the Roslin-Baltar situation was received differently, and no, not because of Mary McDonnell's awesome acting or Laura Roslin, until the second half of s4 anyway, being one of the best written female characters around. See, Baltar was never part of a popular slash (or het!) 'ship that Roslin could have been perceived at interfering with. Half the ire for Cassandra was due to her being seen as upsetting Methos/Duncan. As for Nina? Why, she comes between George and Mitchell. Potentially even between Annie and Mitchell. Whereas in terms of BSG's favourite canonical and fanonical couples, Laura Roslin's attitude towards Gaius Baltar neither had any impact nor was seen to have any impact. Roslin herself of course was part of one of the most popular 'ships, Adama/Roslin, which had nothing to do with Baltar (err, or only in the sense that Bill proved his devotion and increasing autocratism and questionable morals by offering to let him disappear discreetly in s3), and while Baltar/Gaeta is probably the closest thing BSG has to an m/m dynamic that's somewhere between canon and fanon, it was never a popular 'ship on the same scale Adama/Roslin, Lee/Kara or Kara/Sam were. (And again, that dynamic had nothing to do with Laura Roslin, or she with it.) So the "how dare X interfere with my beloved ship!" factor simply was not there.
...but that thought depresses me, and so I'd rather conclude Laura and Gaius prove that the winds, they are ever so slowly changing.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-26 02:25 am (UTC)And yes, BSG has always been an odd bird in the fannish soup. It's rare enough to see a het fandom of it's size, but most of the fans I've seen are in it for the awesome women and not the pretty boys. There's been some bashing of the minor female characters like Cally, Tory, and Dee, but the fanbases for characters like Laura and Kara border on downright fanatical. It wasn't much of a shock to see fans take Roslin's side, although I continue to love both of these amazing characters.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-26 05:00 am (UTC)On a more positive note, another great thing about s3 is how crucial and instrumental Nina being a nurse has been to her characterisation in every ep and to the episode plots. She's not George's girlfriend who happens to be a nurse, but a nurse (and werewolf now, of course) who is also George's girlfriend.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-26 05:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-26 05:15 am (UTC)Anyway, yes, please watch, but start from the beginning (i.e. s3 opener) because the season has been fabulous and must be watched one episode after another, none to be missed.