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Just grabbed issue one of the Faith arc - written by Brian K. Vaughan (of Lost, Y - The Last Man, Ex-Machina, [edited:DMZ - is actually by Brian Wood - thanks londonkds], and Runaways fame) and art by Georges Jeanty ( who has gotten a tad better in this issue or maybe I've just gotten used to him?).
Killed my feet getting the issue. Own fault - decided to wear new sneaks with low ankle socks, so as a result they rubbed pretty horridly against the back of my ankles - bad enough to have burst the blisters and gotten spots of blood on them. Gnarly to say the least. Not to mention stupid, since it's an oven outside and I should have just worn sandles - but I was trying to protect the soles my heel which have been giving me all sorts of problems lately. One of the prices of getting older is the body starts complaining about things it used to do as a matter of routine - such as walking long distances on hard hot concrete in sandles.
At any rate - when reading these comics it is important to keep in mind that they are written, produced, edited, drawn, and overseen by men. Narley (not) a female in the bunch unless you count Jane Espenson - who is slated to write, not plot mind you, write, possibly one or two comics and knowing Jane they'll probably focus on some supporting or subsidiary character and have little to do with the main arc or for that matter Jo Chen who does the paintings for the alternate covers - paintings I believe are approved and selected primarily by Whedon - so that hardly counts. This is not by the way a fault of the comic - it just happens to be the nature of the biz, and not just the comic book business but a good portion of the entertainment industry, not to mention the world at large. Heck - I work in a games company that makes games targeted at 30 something women, but is run by men. Like it or not, ladies and gents, we live in a patriarchial society, and being such, it is bound to be a bit on the authoritarian and violent side of the fence, it has been that way since well before Jesus Christ started preaching in the Middle East and I seriously doubt it's going to change in my lifetime. We can either scream and shout and throw a hissy fit over it, or we can accept it, and enjoy the parts that don't make us too crazy. I seriously doubt if the roles were flipped, ie. we were a matriarchial society with women running and doing everything - life would be much better. I keep hoping for a society of equals...but I don't see it happening any time soon. We are getting there, but it is taking a very long time - since people tend to be extremists by nature and really hate change.
( First Impressions of the Faith issue by Brian K. Vaughn, Issue Six of Buffy S8 - cut for length and spoilers - because apparently I'm in verbose frame of mind today and prone to tangents. )
* Added: Don't know how many people have read the original Pygmallion play by George Bernard Shaw? Shaw for those who haven't read the playwrite was a biting political and social satirist and wrote interesting plays about the male/female dynamic, politics, and the class system such as Major Barbara. His most famous play may be Pgymallion which was later turned into the sucessful if less biting musical My Fair Lady, (after his death - since he hated musicalizations of his works and prohibited them, once dead they became public domain and he lost control) - which loses some of the satire of the original in translation as do all the fantasy pieces that follow including the Julia Roberts vehical Pretty Woman - which was originally intended to be far darker and more biting in nature before Disney acquired the property. The original title - For $2,000 Dollars or something along those lines.
At any rate in the original play - Eliza is turned from a hard working and happy street seller - with a hard working family, she's part of the lower class. Higgins, on a bet, turns her into a "lady" - but she has no money and no real social standing. So she marries a man, who is weak but pretty with no real ability to get a job and since she isn't from money and he's not the eldest - she ends up supporting him off of a small stipend at a flower shop - that she's gotten a job at. Sure she can speak beautifully and has wonderful manners - but she is never accepted. And her husband is not the hard working man that she may have met if she'd never met Higgins. Is she happier? Did Higgins do her any favors? Or was it just to stroke Higgins own pride? In Shaw's play - Higgins is a bit of a monster. Yet, Eliza chooses to do it. She believes she'd be better off in that flower shop.
What is fascinating to me regarding it - is Shaw satirizes the fantasy - both male and female. The idea of changing your exterior to get the better life. Is it possible?
If I change what I look like, how I behave, how I talk, how I walk, how I dress - will I get ahead? I become what you want - will I have the better life? To me - this is a nightmare, because somewhere along the way you lose yourself much as poor Eliza does under Higgins care. Yet, part of me fantasizes about it - wonders if I can get the makeover. If I looked like this or cut my hair like that or changed my accent...
In an era of plastic surgery and other medical procedures - Shaw's Pygmallion may be worth a second look.
Killed my feet getting the issue. Own fault - decided to wear new sneaks with low ankle socks, so as a result they rubbed pretty horridly against the back of my ankles - bad enough to have burst the blisters and gotten spots of blood on them. Gnarly to say the least. Not to mention stupid, since it's an oven outside and I should have just worn sandles - but I was trying to protect the soles my heel which have been giving me all sorts of problems lately. One of the prices of getting older is the body starts complaining about things it used to do as a matter of routine - such as walking long distances on hard hot concrete in sandles.
At any rate - when reading these comics it is important to keep in mind that they are written, produced, edited, drawn, and overseen by men. Narley (not) a female in the bunch unless you count Jane Espenson - who is slated to write, not plot mind you, write, possibly one or two comics and knowing Jane they'll probably focus on some supporting or subsidiary character and have little to do with the main arc or for that matter Jo Chen who does the paintings for the alternate covers - paintings I believe are approved and selected primarily by Whedon - so that hardly counts. This is not by the way a fault of the comic - it just happens to be the nature of the biz, and not just the comic book business but a good portion of the entertainment industry, not to mention the world at large. Heck - I work in a games company that makes games targeted at 30 something women, but is run by men. Like it or not, ladies and gents, we live in a patriarchial society, and being such, it is bound to be a bit on the authoritarian and violent side of the fence, it has been that way since well before Jesus Christ started preaching in the Middle East and I seriously doubt it's going to change in my lifetime. We can either scream and shout and throw a hissy fit over it, or we can accept it, and enjoy the parts that don't make us too crazy. I seriously doubt if the roles were flipped, ie. we were a matriarchial society with women running and doing everything - life would be much better. I keep hoping for a society of equals...but I don't see it happening any time soon. We are getting there, but it is taking a very long time - since people tend to be extremists by nature and really hate change.
( First Impressions of the Faith issue by Brian K. Vaughn, Issue Six of Buffy S8 - cut for length and spoilers - because apparently I'm in verbose frame of mind today and prone to tangents. )
* Added: Don't know how many people have read the original Pygmallion play by George Bernard Shaw? Shaw for those who haven't read the playwrite was a biting political and social satirist and wrote interesting plays about the male/female dynamic, politics, and the class system such as Major Barbara. His most famous play may be Pgymallion which was later turned into the sucessful if less biting musical My Fair Lady, (after his death - since he hated musicalizations of his works and prohibited them, once dead they became public domain and he lost control) - which loses some of the satire of the original in translation as do all the fantasy pieces that follow including the Julia Roberts vehical Pretty Woman - which was originally intended to be far darker and more biting in nature before Disney acquired the property. The original title - For $2,000 Dollars or something along those lines.
At any rate in the original play - Eliza is turned from a hard working and happy street seller - with a hard working family, she's part of the lower class. Higgins, on a bet, turns her into a "lady" - but she has no money and no real social standing. So she marries a man, who is weak but pretty with no real ability to get a job and since she isn't from money and he's not the eldest - she ends up supporting him off of a small stipend at a flower shop - that she's gotten a job at. Sure she can speak beautifully and has wonderful manners - but she is never accepted. And her husband is not the hard working man that she may have met if she'd never met Higgins. Is she happier? Did Higgins do her any favors? Or was it just to stroke Higgins own pride? In Shaw's play - Higgins is a bit of a monster. Yet, Eliza chooses to do it. She believes she'd be better off in that flower shop.
What is fascinating to me regarding it - is Shaw satirizes the fantasy - both male and female. The idea of changing your exterior to get the better life. Is it possible?
If I change what I look like, how I behave, how I talk, how I walk, how I dress - will I get ahead? I become what you want - will I have the better life? To me - this is a nightmare, because somewhere along the way you lose yourself much as poor Eliza does under Higgins care. Yet, part of me fantasizes about it - wonders if I can get the makeover. If I looked like this or cut my hair like that or changed my accent...
In an era of plastic surgery and other medical procedures - Shaw's Pygmallion may be worth a second look.
