Thanksgeeking

I know I'm not the only one who came up with that term, but I did come up with it all by myself, and I'm pretty proud of that. 

It's that time of year when everyone is telling everyone else what they're thankful for. That may have sounded like it annoys me, but it doesn't. Hearing everyone give thanks always makes me think about what I'm thankful for. Truth be told, I'm thankful for a lot and since this blog has taken a geeky feminist turn the last however long, I thought I'd list all the geeky things I'm thankful for. Well, not all. I stopped at 5 because I wrote a lot for each one and because 5 is a great number to stop a list at (OCD much?) 

1. Joss Whedon and His Creations

There is only one thing that Joss has created that I don't love: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (from Marvel), and I'm blaming that more on Jed and Maurissa and the fact that they just take a while to get a show moving along (re: Dollhouse). But that leaves Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, Cabin in the Woods, Much Ado About Nothing, Avengers, Fray, Astonishing X-Men, and a slew of scripts he's fixed and written over the years. 

Buffy will forever be my first pure geek love. I liked geeky things before that of course, but nothing as much as Buffy and I have yet to find something that I love as much as Buffy. From there, my love for Joss only grew. Well, first it was a complicated relationship because characters dying was a new thing for me and I didn't know how to handle it. Since realizing how much more exciting a story can be when that's the risk, my love for Joss has only grown. 

My favorite thing about Joss is he really does write women well. There are those who disagree with me, but they're wrong. I'm not saying he's perfect, but the female characters in his works are characters, not caricatures. It's sadly something we still don't see very often and while I can enjoy TV and film that don't write women well, the vacuum is always there and whatever I'm watching or reading isn't as good as it could be. 

2. Catching Fire

I thoroughly enjoyed the Hunger Games books. The first movie was alright. Catching Fire is a giant step up from that (how do you feel about firing Michael Arndt now, Disney/Abrams, huh?). The production quality was great, the script improved on the source material, and it had the fifth largest opening weekend in history (largest November open ever). 

Oh, and look! Over 40% of those who saw this movie opening weekend were men! Wait, does that mean that men identify with female protagonists? I mean it's common knowledge that women moviegoers identify with both men and women, but so far men have only identified with male protagonists. And, hang on, how much money did the movie make? But the lead is a woman! That's not supposed to happen...  

Dear Movie Executive that I was impersonating in the paragraph above: YOU ARE A COMPLETE WASTE OF SPACE AND YOU SHOULD NOT BE DECIDING WHAT MOVIES GET MADE! 

Let me ask the men reading this a question: have you ever identified with a woman? Movie Executive, take note. Every single man said yes (except the psychopathic sexists, but they don't read this anyway). Chant with me now, Movie Executive - a female lead does not mean men won't go see a movie. A female lead in an action movie does not mean it won't make money. 

I'm thankful for Catching Fire because we FINALLY have a chance to show ass hats like my friend, Movie Executive, that they're wrong. Both men and women will go see a well written film, no matter what the protagonist has in their pants. When you give us garbage like Elektra or Catwoman, of course it won't make money. You didn't try to make it so it would. Give us a film like Catching Fire and you'll make money. I promise. 

3. The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Now remember, I'm not talking about X-Men (as much as I want to) or Spiderman since the movie rights to those characters aren't owned by Marvel. 

Thanks to Kevin Feige (I wrote Paul Feig at first... I'm always doing that for some reason), Marvel is its own movie studio. Granted, they only became so after they had sold off all my favorite characters (namely lots of X-Men) to other studios, but Feige fixed it before they sold off just about every Avenger character. 

God bless Kevin Feige. Cause really, do you realize how big of a thing it is that they're doing? Do you?! Taking four characters and making four movies (well, really three cause I'm pretty sure they didn't have Avengers in mind when they made Incredible Hulk, although I could be wrong) in order to introduce those characters for an ensemble movie. Then they say, "Oh hey, that went well, let's do it again and this time, let's add TV shows to it!" and announce 4 shows for Netflix and one more (hopefully) on the way for ABC, not to mention the other one they already have on ABC. Now, they probably won't all tie together the way Avengers did, but they could be making Avengers movies forever with this model! Kill off Iron Man, throw in Black Panther (although we better get Black Panther before then). Kill off Thor, throw in Captain Marvel (again, we better be seeing her sooner than that). 

Oh! Oh! Not only that, but they're making a movie about essentially space Avengers with a talking tree and a raccoon with machine guns. It's going to be freaking amazing. 

Meanwhile DC makes another movie about Superman and/or Batman. Again. For like, the 40th time because they're scared of taking risks since Green Lantern didn't make money (not that they tried to make it good enough to make money) and Wonder Woman is too "tricky." 

4. Comic-Con (both SDCC and SLCC)

 

I first went to SDCC last year. I won't go into the details of that since I already did, but suffice it to say that it was incredible. I didn't even mind the crowds (and I HATE people) because I saw everyone there as a kindred spirit. Either that or I mentally prepared really well. 

Salt Lake had its very first Comic Con in September and while it wasn't as good as SDCC by a long shot, it was still fun. Although the crowds did bother me more there. But it'll get better. First year meant a lot of mistakes and very poor planning. They initially planned on 2,000 and ended up selling 60,000 tickets. Even with the bigger venue there wasn't enough space. Not many big names, but I did get to meet Nicholas Brendon again and Stan Lee decided to show up last minute. That was pretty fantastic. They're doing two next year, one in April and one in September. Don't ask me why. My guess is anyone who goes to the one in April will also go to the one in September. I doubt they'll reach a wider audience. But whatever. I'm still going to the one in April because James Marsters and Adam Baldwin are going to be there along with about half the cast of TNG so far. *Please get Patrick Stewart... Please get Patrick Stewart...*

San Diego Comic Con is nerd Mecca. I made my pilgrimage for the first time last year and I'll go as long as I have money and people to share a room with. Salt Lake Comic Con was the largest inaugural Comic Con ever and will hopefully keep growing and attracting bigger names. Those are my people and I love it. 

5. Nerdy Family and Friends

Harry Potter birthday party 

My nephew at Halloween a couple years ago

The Justice League

Happy Birthday, Buffy! 

Very tall Ash. 

Two of my nieces (ages five and two) love Avatar and anime in general. My third niece (age three) is going to be a paleontologist when she grows up and knows more about dinosaurs that I do. My oldest nephew (age five) was Yoda two years ago for Halloween, Iron Man last year, and Michelangelo this year (my other two nephews are too new to like anything but food, clean diapers, and sleep). He's also on his way to becoming a Bronie (a cool one. Not the one that asks Lauren Faust for her autograph so the toy she signs has a higher resale value). They are like this because their parents are like this. My family rocks. 

I do not have a shortage of geek friends either. If I want to geek out/geek complain about anything (including feminist geek stuff), I have at least five people outside of my family at any given time I can call or text for that purpose. And if not, my best friend (who is not a geek) will humor me. My friends also rock. 

All in all, my geek life is good. Although it would be better with a Wonder Woman movie. 

The Best and the Worst of the Whedonverse Deaths

Before I get started, I just want you to know that this post will be riddled with spoilers from Firefly, Buffy (show and season 8 comic), Angel, Cabin in the Woods, Dollhouse, and Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. So Katy, stop reading. 

I read this article the other day and I decided I wanted to fix it. Cause, let's face it, the woman who wrote this article was generally wrong. Not just in the order of many of the characters, but she completely left out some major characters and put in some non-major characters. Some people... 

For better or worse, Joss Whedon is known for killing off characters. Joss has been very open about how much he hates this reputation. I'm sure he gets tired of hearing questions like, "who are you going to kill off this time?" but I for one would love to see more characters die off in general. In my mind, writers like Joss and George R.R. Martin are defined by so many more things, but they are also willing to kill off characters. Martin more than Whedon by a long shot. Whedon has never killed off "essential" characters without bringing them back to life. With Martin, no one is essential. Except Arya, Jon, Tyrion, and Danerys. I might stop reading if one of those four dies. 

This raises the stakes because you know (almost) no one is safe and I'm a big fan of that kind of anxiety in my fantasy/sci fi material. Except when it's Supernatural and it kills off every single person. Then it just gets predictable and boring. I don't watch that show anymore, but I'm sure they'll ax Felicia Day sometime soon. She's been in what, 5 episodes maybe? It's about that time... Wow. I haven't watched that show in over a season and apparently I'm still not over how bad it got. 

Anyway, here's my list of least to most devastating Whedonverse deaths. I have one rule for including characters: they have to be main characters. This means I won't be including Bennett from Dollhouse, Jonathan or Warren from Buffy (as fantastic as Warren's death was), Darla from Angel and Buffy (although I really would have only counted her death in Angel since she was only in a handful of episodes in Buffy and we never saw her out of vampire face), or The World in Cabin in the Woods (even though that was pretty fantastic as well). 

I also need to make the caveat that being sent to a hell dimension doesn't count as dying. I'm also including season 8 of Buffy but only season 8 because I haven't started season 9 yet even though I have the first three issues waiting for me on my bookshelf. I'm not including After the Fall or Angel and Faith because I haven't read those yet. 

16. Paul Ballard

I was not sad when Paul died because I was not happy while he was there. The show is a good one, but Paul Ballard was not a part of that. I still can't decide if it was the actor or the character, but I just wasn't a fan. I can't even remember how he dies. 

15. Giles

Giles' death felt very forced and not at all moving. Forced because I still have no idea what the hell was going on with Angel. He was possessed by Twilight or The Twilight, but there was a lot surrounding those events that just didn't make sense to me. There's a lot of that in the comic series, actually. But I'll keep reading as long as Buffy is on the cover. It wasn't moving because I wasn't attached to Giles anymore. I've heard it said that Giles' character didn't work in the comic format, and that's probably true. I'll go back and read them again someday, but Giles kind of became not so essential before the TV series ended. Which makes me sad, but it left something wanting from his death that was supposed to leave you feeling shocked. 

14. Buffy

Don't get me wrong, Buffy's death was touching. I love her final speech and she gives her life not for the world, but for her sister. It's cute. But it's not that sad. It's sad because the Scoobies are sad (Spike's reaction is the saddest), but you know Buffy's coming back so it's not that big of a deal. Although for a minute there in season 6 I really did think the rest of the series was going to be with the Buffybot.  

13. Anya

This is one of the places where I agree with the author. Anya deserved more than the death she got. She's one of my all time favorite characters in anything let alone Buffy, and she should have had a better death than getting cut in half by a random lackey ubervamp. 

12. Sheppard Book

Book's death was sad more because of the lost potential. Like Firefly. But not sad because 1. he wasn't in Serenity enough and 2. come on, who didn't see that coming? 

11. Penny

I probably wouldn't care so much about Penny's death if it wasn't Felicia Day, but I've had a crush on her since she was Vi in Buffy so it stung. 

10. Cordelia

This one wasn't as bad as it could be because the show prepares you for it. First her body is taken over by a higher being (although you don't know that yet) and does all sorts of terrible, icky things and then she's in a coma for about a season and comes back for one episode. By the time she died, you were already used to her not being there. 

9. Spike

I know Spike comes back, but unless you watched Angel you don't know that so I'm still including him. What I love (and hate) about Spike's death is his last exchange with Buffy. "I love you." "Know you don't. But thanks for saying it." For years watching this it made me sad, but it doesn't much anymore. She totally loved him. Ask Joss. Spike just said that because he knew he couldn't be around for her to love him so it was something to make him feel better in his last moments. Or something. Either way, it's sad. 


8. Jenny

So, I wasn't so sad because Jenny died. I wasn't even sad because Angelus killed her. By the way, Angelus is an extraordinarily better character than Angel. Anyway, I was sad because of what it did to the Scoobies. And how it happened. That was a pretty brutal scene for Giles to walk in on.  

7. Wash

"I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I-"

6. Doyle

I've heard that Joss had Doyle die because he always wanted to kill someone who showed up in the opening credits. He hadn't done that with Buffy except in the series finale so it makes sense. Doesn't make it any harder to handle. Doyle was such a fantastic character. 


5. Topher

We're getting into the "I cry every time, doesn't matter how many times I've seen it" territory. Topher's death is heartbreaking for two reasons. First, he is hands down the best character in Dollhouse by a ridiculously long shot. Second, what he becomes in Epitaph II is heartbreaking in and of itself. He goes from being a carefree, hilarious genius to being a broken, tortured genius. He created the tech that brought down society not knowing how powerful it was and he gave his life to fix it. It was a great death though. 


4. Wesley

This one sucks. So much. I wonder if Joss would have killed off just about every character if Angel hadn't ended where it did. Wesley is lying there dying, looking at the demon living in the body of the woman he's loved unrequited for years minus maybe three episodes ago when they finally got together. 

"Would you like me to lie to you now?" "Yes. Thank you, yes." 

He's with Fred when she dies, Fred is with him when he dies. That's the only good thing about it. That and Illyria punching the magician demon guy through the head. 

3. Joyce

As far as characters go, Joyce was expendable. But The Body is one of TV's finest pieces of work. It's the only non-mystical death in the Buffyverse and it's gut wrenching. I didn't know it could be any harder to watch, but turns out your mom getting cancer makes a lot of things (movies about cancer patients or moms dying in TV shows) 100% worse to get through. I've never had anyone that close to me die, but I imagine it's a lot like this episode. Minus the vampire at the end.

2. Tara

Oh, Tara. Probably my favorite under-utilized character. Pretty much every member of the Scoobies had something going on in their own right, but Tara's stories always revolved around Willow. Except for that one episode with Amy Adams. Tara really annoyed me the first couple times I watched Buffy, but she's grown on me more than any other character. I love watching her slowly come out of her shell and her relationship with Willow is one of my favorites in the Whedonverse. Except when Willow started playing with her memories. That sucked. Her death sucked too. And actually, her death wasn't mystical either. Stupid guy with a stupid gun. But her death did cause Willow to go into some super interesting places. Although I hate Kennedy. If Tara hadn't died, Willow wouldn't have started dating Kennedy. I would have been more than okay with that. 


1. Fred

Sigh... This is the only death that still makes me not only sad, but mad. There was a purpose to most other deaths to move the story along. They were sad, but they worked. Not so with Fred. The only reason they killed off Fred was to showcase Amy Acker's acting abilities. And don't get me wrong, she does a phenomenal job as Illyria and Illyria would have been one of the most interesting characters if the series had continued (I really hope they do good things with her in the comics I will eventually read). But I miss Fred. There's nothing about Illyria I don't love, but I love Fred more. Plus, they had to go and make it even worse by having Illyria basically eat Fred's soul. She's just not dead, she's gone forever. For someone raised in a very religious household, that's rough. 

My Walls pt. 1

The only reason this is a multi-part post is because I'm not done yet and the only reason I'm writing about this in the first place is because I want something to write about. I realize I'm stretching it a bit here and I apologize for that. Again, I wanted something to write about and this is what I've been doing in my free time the last couple of days. This may or may not end up having a follow up post.  

So, here's the thing. I have a ridiculous amount of wall space in my living/dining/office area. Probably not a ridiculous amount for an actual house, but for a one bedroom apartment, it's a lot. The room itself is about 22 feet long and minus an opening into the bedroom/bathroom area on one side and a sliding glass door on the other side. Everything else is wall.

The down side is I have one window (aforementioned sliding glass door) for a 30 foot room (the extra 8 feet come from the kitchen). Up side is I have SO many posters and pictures and artwork and I've never had enough space to hang everything up. Now I do. 

So I'm currently working on the wall to the right. Or the one that's right in front of me as I write this. It's on the west side of the apartment. I have three distinct groups of pictures/art that I wanted to hang and I initially thought it might look weird with three separate groups on one wall. I think it'll be okay. If not, oh well. I'll use tunnel vision for the duration of my stay here. 

Here's group number 1: 

I'm calling this my Women Who Kick Ass Wall. Or rather, section of wall. I've got both classic and modern Wonder Woman, Buffy, and a Marvel thing. I don't know what to call it so I'm sticking with 'thing' for now. The Marvel thing features 6 X-Men characters, and only 2 are women, but I'm letting it slide since you have to get up close to really be able to tell what it is. Maybe someday I'll replace it with my X-Men No. 1 variant by Brian Wood featuring an X-Men cast made up entirely of women. It's awesome, by the way. If you like X-Men, you should read this comic. 

Anyway, back to the wall. All four of the pieces are from Comic-Con. The Marvel thing I got cause it was $5, but the other three I was legitimately super excited about. There was one booth with a ton of those tin art works, one of which was classic WW. The guy only sells wholesale bulk so I think the only time you can buy one at a time is when he goes to SDCC. 

The modern take on WW I found in a booth in Artist Alley. A giant version of this picture was hanging up behind the artist and there was no choice - I had to have it. This is probably the single coolest artwork of Wonder Woman I've ever seen. The artist's name is Joshua Middleton and I've fallen in love with a lot of his work since then, but none more so than this. 

That leaves Buffy. Ah, Buffy. Now, the comics aren't my favorite, but I still read and buy them all because they're Buffy. How can I not? However, I really like the artwork. At least when Georges Jeanty does it. They've featured a couple other artists, but I haven't been a fan. But I love Jeanty's artwork, and this cover is my absolute favorite from season 8. I still get chills when I look at it sometimes. I was delighted when I saw Jeanty's name in Artist Alley, and this was the very last copy of this particular cover he had. Totally lucked out here. 

Here's group number 2: 

I have less to say about this group. It's all me, though. I haven't used my SLR in ages, but I used to be big into photography. I'll get back into it soon. But these are all photos I took in high school. No, I lied. Three are from high school. The be one on the top and the two flower shots. The other three are from college. The big one in the middle is from Arlington National Cemetery and it's my favorite. There was a light mist that day and the background fades into a fog. I love it. I took it 5 years ago and I still love it. Some I took... I think 9 years ago. I think I hang these up more out of habit than anything else. And to remind myself to get off my butt and go take nature photos. 

Last, but not least, group number 3:

My legit art. Starting at the top is a Van Gough-esque painting of DC. I bought it at the Eastern Market while I was interning out there over four years ago. If I had money back then I would have bought one that was three times bigger than this. The guy had bigger ones available. Not prints, all oil on canvas. But I didn't, so I got the small one. It's alright though cause the big one wouldn't have worked with any of my other stuff anyway. 

The smoking lady and the street lamps were both done by one of my two oldest friends, Virginia Johnson. Her sister is my other oldest friend. http://virginiainmay.tumblr.com/ There's her Tumblr. Virginia, you should post more of your paintings. Anyway, She sold originals and prints of her work for school a few months ago and I bought two, but I wanted to buy a lot more. Again, it was a money thing. The streetlamps piece is the original and I couldn't be more happy I bought it. The blue lady is a print, but trust me. I would have bought the original had I not been strapped for cash at the time. I feel like that's been a theme in my life...

The one at the bottom is a painting I bought in Paris. This guy had a bunch for sale, I think they were all done by art students. Oil on canvas again. I don't know much about art and mediums, but I'm pretty sure oil on canvas is my favorite. I bought a bunch of these paintings for souvenirs for my family and they left me the Moulin Rouge one. I wanted to keep all of them, but whatever. Next time I go to Europe I'll be more selfish.  

And the final product: 

That light is not doing this picture any favors. I know, I need to move the grouping on the right up a couple inches, but overall I think it kind of works. Right? The middle group doesn't look centered from this angle, but it totally is. I still can't decide if I like it, but in all likelihood I'll just keep everything up there because I'm lazy. 

Now for the other wall. It'll be my movie poster wall, so it'll definitely work better than this one. I have 5 framed so far and 9 more that I want frames for. I'm anal and don't want to poke holes in my posters even though four of them were free at the IMAX premiers. Wait, five. And four were free at SDCC. 

Framed:

Two Avengers (free with BluRay purchase), 

one Vertigo (purchased at local independent movie theater, not pictured),

and two for The World's End (free at SDCC).

Unframed: 

Star Trek (free from IMAX premier, but I didn't go to the IMAX premier, so I bought it), 

Godzilla (free at SDCC), 

Guardians of the Galaxy concept art made into a poster (free at SDCC), 

Pacific Rim (free from IMAX premier), 

John Carter (free from IMAX premier), 

James Bond (free from IMAX premier), 

Iron Man 3 (free from IMAX premier, 

Ghost Protocol (free from IMAX premier), 

and Rubin and Ed (also purchased from local independent theater and also not pictured). 

All told, I bought 3 posters and I still don't want to poke holes. I may have a problem. 

The bigger problem now is finding the right sizes. I've been to Ikea, Ross, TJ Maxx, Target, Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, and Michael's. I found a grand total of 6 frames, not counting the two I already had. I really don't want to spend money getting these custom framed, but I'm still not willing to poke holes in them. But I really want my movie wall... 

A Television Vent

I love television. I used to be embarrassed by this fact, but in recent years I've come to own it. It hasn't rotted my brain, nor has it messed with my perceptions of fantasy and reality. If I die at a relatively early age because TV somehow does that to people, I will consider it a worthy death.

That being said, sometimes it bugs the crap out of me. I don't watch shows that aren't good, that would just be a waste. Instead I watch shows that make you think, take you out of reality for a time, give insight into the human condition, or just make you laugh whatever your equivalent to my old man laugh is. However, even these shows can cause much eye rolling and several exacerbated sighs. The cause: how women are written.

Don't stop reading there. If you think this is a vent you don't want to listen to (or rather, read) because you don't think how women are treated in television or movies is a problem, think about some of your favorite shows and tell me if you can name any two recurring female characters that talk to each other about something other than a male character (look up the Bechdel Test for more on that). If you can't think of one, I'll give some good examples after my bad ones. And if you still want to know why this is problematic, go watch Miss Representation on Netflix. That discussion is way to long to include in this post, but it fits nicely into an 89 minute documentary.

Four things before you delve into the rest of this post: 1) As always, this will be long winded. 2) All of these shows are ones that I love. I don't make these accusations all willy nilly. 3) There will be spoilers. 4) I'm not even going to touch the shows I love that suffer from the Smurfette Principle. If you need to be enlightened on what that is, watch the video below:

So without further ado, here are three shows that treat women horribly, one show with mixed results, and three that treat women well.

Bad Example 1: Supernatural

Regular readers of this blog and knowers of me are aware of how much I love(d) Supernatural. Not so much season six or eight (what I saw of it, at least) and definitely not season seven, but I did enjoy seasons 1-5. Minus the women part. 

Almost every single woman we've seen in more than one episode has been either violently killed or was evil (or at least a bad guy). 

• Their mother Mary was stabbed and burned alive on the ceiling by a demon 
• Sam's girlfriend Jessica was stabbed and burned alive on the ceiling by the same demon
• Bela was a bad guy and I think she died
• Jo died a terrible and violent death
• Ellen died the same terrible and violent death
• Ruby was evil and died
• Anna turned evil and died
• Meg was evil and I'm pretty sure she's died since I stopped watching
• Pamela had her eyes burned out and later died a violent death
• The newest angel I met before leaving Supernatural behind me (Naomi?) seemed pretty sketchy

The only two women I can think of that haven't gone evil or died are Lisa, whose memory of Dean was erased so we can be sure we won't see her again, and Amelia, who Sam decided to ditch because of his co-dependence on his brother so again, we can be sure to never see her again.

Felicia Day has appeared in several episodes (I've only seen two of them) so that's something. Although the writers really need to get over the fact that that they made her gay. While this last episode she was in that I saw was entertaining enough, they gave me a headache by banging a "she's gay" frying pan against my head over and over and over...

Now, fellow viewers of Supernatural may say, "Wait a minute! All of the recurring male characters have been killed off violently too!" That's generally true (Bobby, Balthazar, Lucifer, John, Samuel, Zachariah...), but let's look at the current recurring characters: Castiel, Kevin, Crowley, and maybe Benny (really, if he's gone for good that's a terrible waste of an interesting character). The one thing they have in common: all men.

In conclusion, yes, everyone in this show has at one time or another died a violent death (except Chuck), but it happens much more often to women than to men. You meet a man on this show, it could go either way. You meet a woman, more than likely she'll turn out to be evil or die a horrible death.

Bad Example 2: Merlin

I thought they did a good job towards the beginning of the show. Morgana and Gwen were both strong and independent, willing to fight for those they loved. Obviously Morgana was going to end up evil, so I wasn't put off by that, but things just kept getting worse. Every woman who shows up is evil. Every. Single. One. Even Gwen goes evil for a few episodes under the spell of Morgana. Granted, it was a spell, but it was still kind of the icing on the cake. Plus, Gwen does less and less as it goes on. She's done a lot less of the saving and a lot more of the being saved since she and Arthur got married. I thought she did regain some of that old strength at the very end of the series, but it seemed like too little too late.

Bad Example 3: Doctor Who

Maybe this should be a mixed example, but it's consistent enough for me to put it in the bad pile. Let's look at each main female character on the show since it came back in 2005.

• Rose Tyler: Grows throughout the show, fights well, compassionate, in love with the Doctor.
• Martha Jones: Witty, fights well, intelligent, in love with the Doctor, grows more off screen than on, only realized her relationship with the Doctor was toxic after an entire year. 
• Donna Noble: Grows probably more than any companion, witty, smart, independent, doesn't fall in love with the Doctor. I have no complaints against Donna. She's my favorite. 
• Amy Pond: Grows a lot, witty, loves a lot, decides she wants to sleep with the Doctor the night before her wedding, decides to leave Rory BECAUSE SHE CAN'T HAVE CHILDREN (!!!). 
• River Song: Strong, independent, in love with the Doctor, was born to kill the Doctor.
• Clara Oswin Oswald: Mysterious, quick witted, curious, intelligent, may or may not turn out to be in love with the Doctor, was born to save the Doctor. 

Plus all the one episode women who fall in love with the Doctor too. I'm okay with a little doctor love now and then, but come on. Every woman except Donna has had feelings for the Doctor, and that got old a long time ago. 

And really, Moffat? Really?! A woman leaving the man she loves because her uterus is broken?! Right, because that's the only use women have. Luckily that moment was short and has never been revisited, but seriously. SERIOUSLY! 

Mixed Example: Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars... She's intelligent, witty, tech savvy, independent, brave, and acts like an actual person. The show has it all - angsty teenage romance, the brutality of domestic violence, the hopes of multidimensional characters, real emotions, and scenes that make you laugh, cry, and cringe.

The big problem is the third season. The first two seasons are in part about Veronica trying to find out who drugged and raped her at a party. She deals with it in a very real way and they do a good job of portraying a subject as difficult as this one.

In the third season, Veronica goes off to college where a group of "angry feminists" (terrible portrayal of real feminism, by the way) pretend to be raped in order to... I'm not sure what, actually. It's terrible, especially since (contrary to what some people who haven't researched the subject even a little bit believe) that doesn't happen.

Despite its flaws, I do recommend the first two seasons.

Good Example 1: Parks and Recreation

I was actually really surprised when I found out that the creators and the writers credited with the most episodes are all men because this show is a breath of fresh air. Not that men can't write fully developed women. Just look at Joss Whedon or George R.R. Martin. But sometimes I forget that there are men in Hollywood who view women as people. It makes me sad that I forget this so often, but it's not unwarranted. Anyway, I love ensemble casts and this is one of my favorites. Each and every one of these characters is developed with their own personalities, ambitions, and quirks. Both the men and the women in this show are treated as individuals, not stereotypes. And just when you think you have them figured out, they do something to surprise you and continue to develop, just like real people do.

P.S. Anyone else excited to see how they try to make new, Tom Hardy-esque Chris Pratt look like the old Andy Chris Pratt? I'm also very excited for Guardians of the Galaxy.

Good Example 2: Firefly

Another ensemble case, and another near perfect show. It would have been perfect had it lasted longer than 14 episodes, but oh well. Zoe is a fierce fighter and soldier while obviously maintaining a great sense of humor that we didn't get a chance to see because she married Wash. Kaylee is kind of a girly girl without being overtly feminine and is also a brilliant mechanic and the nicest person you'll ever see on television. Inara is hiding a lot about herself and her feelings for Mal for reasons both known and unknown. She's a great business woman, a loyal friend, and much tougher than she looks. River needs codling and a constant babysitter, but it's because her amygdala was stripped by evil doctors and she has major mental and emotional trauma, not because she can't take care of herself. Cause turns out she totally can. Point being, each of these characters is an actual character. Not a stereotype.

Good Example 3: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

More often than not, the main cast of this show included more women than men. In the seasons that wasn't the case, the show had parity between men and women. It was kind of awesome. Cause really, how often do we see that in a show that isn't about catty relationships? I'm trying to think now... Spaced had a parity among the main cast, Wonderfalls had four women and three men, Pushing Daisies had a parity... or two men and four women if you count Chuck's aunts, and that's all I can think of right now. Okay, Friends too. And Once Upon a Time. I'm sure there are more, but I can't think of any. And I love TV so you know it doesn't happen often. Anyway, I'd venture to say that the more women you see in a cast, the more likely they are to be fully developed characters. As a general rule, at least. That's actually a pretty awesome idea for an academic paper. I'm sure it's been done several times... I'm going to look for those papers. And if I can't find one I'll just go get another useless grad degree and write a thesis on that.

Back to the subject at hand. I can't think of a single Buffy character who wasn't an actual character. One of the reasons I hate Dawn so much in season 5 is because she's a realistic 14 year old and you have to at least respect that.

So gentle readers, pay attention. It's possible to enjoy a film or show while still being critical of one or several aspects of it. I wouldn't love TV and movies if it wasn't. But Hollywood bigwigs think people don't like stories about women. Men don't like them because men only like women as sex kittens and women don't like them because women are in constant competition with every other woman to attract the attention of men. If you don't believe this is 100% false you really don't deserve to interact with the rest of society. So do me a favor and just pay attention. If that leads to a discussion with someone or watching one of Tina Fey's new shows instead of the next episode of Supernatural, that's great. If not, that's great too. At least you're paying a little more attention to what you consume. And that'll eventually lead to something.