wordplay: (SGA: Chevron locked)
wordplay ([personal profile] wordplay) wrote2008-02-18 07:29 pm

SGA writers, how are you so frustrating?

So, you know, obviously there is a problem with the SGA writers. I know there's a wide range of opinion about this on my flist but I do think we can probably all agree that there are enough issues with race and gender among the writers to induce a cringe at least every once in a while and quite likely more.

There are a lot of possible responses to this. Here's a range of four:

(a) Ignore it - because sometimes that's just what you do to live with something you can't fix.
(b) Blog about it - because if we talk about it among ourselves, maybe we can find some way to fix it.
(c) Complain about it - because they made the problem, let's remind them that we want it fixed.
(d) Forget about it and walk away - because sometimes things are just too broken to be fixed and you just can't live with them anymore.

I think most of us have been somewhere in the (a) to (b) range during our time with SGA. (Speaking personally: I spend most of my time in (a), because I'm a Texas Democrat by training and I came of age in a v. sexist, heavily male academic environment, so I'm pretty good at ignoring things so that I don't hate, like, EVERYBODY.)

I'm asking (i) is anyone aware of any coordinated efforts to move to (c)? and (ii) is that something you think is worth doing? I was thinking today of something like an organized postcard campaign, 3-5 versions of comments that are liftable, something not OMG YOU SO COMPLETELY SUCK but that might be a useful mirror for the writers.

"Asking your boss to show her tits to 10-year-olds will usually get you fired. It's also gross. It's NOT funny."
"A bunch of white people standing around watching two dark-skinned men fight? REALLY?!"

That kind of thing.

My perspective on... well, pretty much everything, really... is shot to hell right now. Does that seem like a good, productive kind of idea, or just another way to dive deep into a pool of fanwankiness and complaint?

[identity profile] malnpudl.livejournal.com 2008-02-19 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
I'm convinced that they're hopeless. They still haven't got it through their thick skulls that Lucius "Galactic Date Rapist" Lavin was NOT OKAY. They still think he was funny.

If they can't understand that non-consensual sex is wrong, I don't think there's a prayer that they'll comprehend why "Midway" was racist.

Not to say that people shouldn't try. I just don't think the message will be heard.

[identity profile] wordplay.livejournal.com 2008-02-19 03:09 am (UTC)(link)
I was talking to a friend about this tonight and she felt like the last scenes with him are meant to convey just how chilling the character is, and I can see why she thinks that, so I'm not completely sure that they think it's JUST funny, if that makes any sense. The problem is that they do serious so, so poorly so if they're at all ambiguous or leave anything open to interpretation, it almost always reads as broad comedy. I don't know how to solve that problem for them, but once they blew the ethics on the wraith situation I had to just stop engaging with the show on any kind of critical level at ALL.

I still haven't engaged with my anger regarding what they did to Elizabeth.