Comments on: Allecto’s Joss Whedon Rant Raped My Miiiiind

By: ZeldaQueen

ZeldaQueen — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 06:31:55 +0000

I read part of her posts. Couldn’t make it through the whole thing. She claimed that Mal’s cross-dressing for a heist in one episode to be comparable to him doing a black face minstrel show. She thought that Saffron was a symbol of misogynistic women-bashing (nevermind the fact that Saffron was – villain or not – also a strong character who wielded quite a lot of power, especially over the MEN). She insisted that Shepherd Book was a “magic negro” in “Objects in Space” and then complained when Early was African American also. She complained when Zoe called Mal (her superior officer) as “Sir”. There’s seriously no pleasing her.

And yes, Whedon is a feminist. He’s just not her extreme nutty type. One person put it best when they described Kaylee – cheerful, kind, and energetic, she got her job through hard work, she was a vital member of the crew, and she wanted a relationship but on her own terms. That right there is Whedon’s feminism. He female characters are intelligent and strong in their own ways. None of them are at all submissive or stand down to any of the men without good reason and none of them just stay in the kitchen or stand by and scream helplessly if they could do something to assist. Them screwing up or not being perfect isn’t him bashing womankind, it’s him making believable characters. Oy…

By: SpaceWesterns.com Sideshow › 22nd Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction – Part I

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:52:28 +0000

[...] You have to admit that it did cause discussion. Responses were varied and fan outrage was high (Allecto’s Joss Whedon Rant Raped My Miiiiind). But what really seemed to be at stake was what Words From The Center, Words From The Edge talks [...]

By: parallelsidewalk

parallelsidewalk — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:59:33 +0000

I don’t agree with Doug’s statement because I feel like it excuses men from responsibility, but the general idea that fear is present in oppressors’ minds isn’t entirely wrong. I think a very, very large percentage of White racists are scared shitless of Blacks, Latinos, and of course Arabs. Homophobes…Well, the word kind of says it all. Rich people I think are often terrified of poor people and the prospect of those people taking what’s theirs. That being said though, women have way more to fear from men than the reverse, and to use any fear men might have of vindictive women to justify sexism, which I feel Doug is doing, is pretty repugnant.

By: Natalia Antonova

Natalia Antonova — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:57:15 +0000

Erm. I don’t like allecto, but saying that men oppress women out of “fear” is not, in my opinion, reflective of reality. Men oppress women, and other men, because society is still generally cool with violence, and violence is still seen as a great way to solve problems.

And I’ve had a dude damage my property once. We hadn’t even dated. He just severely upset when his vulgar advances were ignored.

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:28:36 +0000

There are very few forum like areas where you can talk about allecto with like minded individuals, as she censors the probably 100s of hate comments she gets.

I’m sure she wrote such an overly scathing article to get attention, and now she is bathing selectively in it. Too often feminism is confused with a hatred of men and a sexism towards men. I have nothing against women and support feminism, but when you start to degrade men and say phallic objects are out… You’ve lost it. I have rarely seen feminism be used properly, and allecto is adding to the bad name feminists get.

It’s times like this that women wonder why (scared) men oppress them… For example, “I dug my key into the side of his pretty little….” That Carrie Underwood song… Remember? Well, a man could never do that, it would be sexist. So where’s the double standard now?

By: belledame222

belledame222 — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:38:41 +0000

I don’t know many people who actually use African-American; but WoC is actually in pretty common usage on the blogosphere, at least. maybe it’s less cumbersome on the screen, what with the acronym and all.

By: Natalia Antonova

Natalia Antonova — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:05:49 +0000

Being a sinophile, a geek, and a fan of overused old-westisms, I liked Serenity/Firefly. Guess I suck.

You don’t just suck, you’re a RAPIST! As am I, apparently….

By: parallelsidewalk

parallelsidewalk — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:11:45 +0000

Yeah, I understand calling people what they want to be called, but there are practical limits. I’m never going to spell women as “wymyn”, to cite a somewhat cliche example (except for right now ) because there’s no point and most women I know don’t even use the word. PoC is a term I have never, ever heard verbally outside a classroom; I simply don’t know anyone outside the academic setting who uses the term. For similar reasons, I never use ‘African American’; it’s unwieldy, limited, and assumes facts sometimes not in evidence. And again, I don’t know any ‘African Americans’ who themselves use the term. I’m not saying this as a “backlash against PC” or anything like that, which in my experience is generally just a way of saying “I’m going to improvise a high-minded sounding reason to be an offensive asshole”, just clarifying what I mean.

I understand the argument about delineating white privilege, but it still doesn’t make the term work well, imo. Also, it tends to oversimplify the discussion, because while white people may (generally) be on top of the clusterfuck of the American/world power structure, being East Asian in America is not like being Black in America is not like being Mexican is not like being Dominican, and that’s before you even bring class and religion into the argument.

Either way, calling Joss Whedon a rapist and generally implying men suck…Doesn’t really hurt my feelings personally but it seems like a dick move. But as for her being from Australia, oops, I’m a jerk :-0

Being a sinophile, a geek, and a fan of overused old-westisms, I liked Serenity/Firefly. Guess I suck.

By: belledame222

belledame222 — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:53:40 +0000

she’s Australian.

and, I hear your arguments wrt the semantics; but, me, I figure, you call people what they want to be called, and as long as self-defined PoC use the term, I’ll use it; it’s not my call. if someone particularly doesn’t want it applied to hirself, of course, then I won’t.

By: Natalia Antonova

Natalia Antonova — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:30:48 +0000

Maybe Allecto is Canadian….? Most Americans I know are OK with the term “person of colour” or “woman of colour” (WOC for short), and I’m OK with it as well, when I’m speaking English… But in Russian, for example, “person of colour” can be a huuuuuge insult.

Either you refer to someone directly using their ethnicity, or you don’t mention it at all, the logic goes (perhaps someone out there might like to correct me, maybe it’s only an insult in the circles I run in – God knows, I don’t wish to generalize).

Maybe there’s something to that – I don’t know. I do believe that the term POC is crucial when it comes to delineating white privilege, especially in the blogosphere (for a handy example of that – look at which bloggers get book deals, and which rarely do. This is especially true of the feminist blogosphere).