“JennyO, she's like really boring MadLibs, in a way.”
Y'all might remember jennyo from her rant about how an anonymous lust thread highlighted fandom's "feminism problem, especially seen in a 'certain set of boyslashers,' who put out work with 'clearly anti-woman attitudes.'" Well, she's switched the same old argument to a new forum: Veronica Mars.

annakovsky writes an articulate post explaining why she doesn't like the UPN show.

Basically, my main problem with Veronica is how she's always moping around and being bitter about not being popular anymore. It seems to me that if your best friend's been murdered, your dad's lost his job and been publically disgraced, your mom left, AND you were date raped, maybe you have bigger problems than not being cool anymore, you know? I'd have way more sympathy for her if she was missing her best friend, or if she were sad that her old friends don't like her anymore... but it doesn't seem like she misses her old crowd because they were her friends and she liked them. It seems much more like she misses her old STATUS. Which, way to be shallow, Veronica Mars.

However, jennyo somehow gets wind of this and writes a not-at-all-veiled response to annakovsky's review. Her usual "if you don't like what I like, then you must hate women" schtick is still in full force.

And yet again, I can't help but point out the sexist attitude underlying this set of arguments. Like, ultimately, if Veronica seems fake to you, that's your mileage, and mine varies quite considerably.

But consider: when a female character is emotionally divorced from her issues and sublimating the way Veronica does, it makes her unlikeable and "false." Whereas when men (Wesley immediately comes to mind, and quite a few others) do it, they are loveably broken and need to be saved. Are we really talking about artistic merits, or are we back to our culturally inculcated beliefs about what women must be?

Er, yeah. But then she brings up two (even odder) arguments. The first: for the record, as someone who A) is actually from Southern California (to be kind of a bitch, I notice it's not people who are from the region or from the generation who complain about the realism and that should say something,).

The second: Also, people? Class warfare in teenage SoCal is a real thing...I mean, for fuck's sake, when we were nerding it up in Academic Bowl and Academic Decathlon, our target was never San Dieguito Academy or anyone from the city. No, we were out to put a white-trash cap in Torrey Pines' fat-bitch-captained, property-tax-paid extracurriculars, holier-than-thou overclass ass. Class is a big-time issue in SoCal; the alliance between Weevil and Veronica in particular rings very true (the camaraderie when it comes to sinking 09er stock, but the guarded skepticism on Weevil's side when it comes to dealing with a white girl who's got more cultural capital than he), but then, so does the One True Platonic Love of Wallace and Veronica.

annakovsky, a bit bewildered, responds in jennyo's LJ:

Um, hi, JennyO. We don't know each other at all, but apparently my post made you really angry. Which is funny, since most of the things that seem to bother you about it aren't actually IN the post.

jennyo retorts that "announcing the main character is badly written/unlikeable while the male character with most of her traits is the most interesting part of the show? Is making a particular argument about Veronica's character that, consciously or not, smacks of sexism." annakovsky tries to defend herself, to which jennyo snots, "Instead you'll go run back to your journal and cry about how mean I am."

annakovsky doesn't cry, but she does make a new post in her LJ.

Um.... heeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Um, okay. So I didn't know that the appropriate response to a stranger not liking the same television show as you was to call them sexist, classist and ignorant, but then, I wasn't actually raised by wolves, so I have these little things I like to call "empathy" and "good manners."
Nice to meet you too, jennyo.

This brings forth plenty of interesting snarking as well as this instant classic from thebratqueen:

Ah, but she can't help it. These days JennyO only comments and rants using a standard boilerplate that says "[name/section of fandom] is so typical in how they [put down/marginalize] [women/gays/bis/all of the above] in favor of [teh hawt boysex/Spike/male woobies] because of course they just don't understand [SoCal/strong women/intellectualism yo] and only I and those who are cool like me are down with [queer theory/feminism/cultural interpretation] and the only reason people disagree with me is because they hate [women/intellectuals/women intellectuals] and are [stupid/fake queer/stupid faking queers]. In conclusion, [mention of hegemony, othering, privelging, or the verbing of some other noun on the word of the day calander which sits on her desk] imjustsayin kthxbi."

JennyO, she's like really boring MadLibs, in a way.

Which will undoubtedly inspire a F_W icon or two, yeah?

::sits back to watch fur fly::

::thinks that mention of fur will probably be taken as anti-queer and misogynistic::

::doesn't give a rat's ass::

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	doyle 2005-01-26 01:35 am UTC (link)
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