ATTN JMS: Anti-male joke ruined my enjoyment of Shadow Dancing (*SPOILERS*)

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: ATTN JMS: Anti-male joke ruined my enjoyment of Shadow Dancing (*SPOILERS*)
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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s  1: Oct 26, 1996: tob at world.std.com (Tom Breton)
+  2: Oct 27, 1996: denebeim at deepthot.cary.nc.us (Jay Denebeim)
*  3: Oct 27, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: tob at world.std.com (Tom Breton)
Lines: 85

Spoilers for Shadow Dancing:








































This "funny" line really ruined my enjoyment of Shadow Dancing: "or she
can cut off his..." Big pause where we are expected to imagine male
genital mutilation. Reaction shot: Sheridan looks fearful. Oh, it was a
double-entendre, isn't that FUNNNNNY?

That's about as funny as a crutch.

So, are we going to see "humorous" throwaway lines about the mutilation
of female genitals? If John Sheridan and Delenn get "down to business"
and find that Humans and Minbari don't "fit", are we going to see this
dialogue: "So... we'll just cut this off (Delenn: Ouch!) and this
(Delenn: In Valen's name, stop!) and now we're all set...(both laugh)"

Or how about this: in order to get Dr. Franklin to snap out of his
_Walkabout_ phase, the regulars don white hoods and pretend they are
going to lynch him... a good laugh is had by all!

This is like the infamous line in Severed Dreams: "Don't do it! There
are white people down here! (Not just expendable blacks)" Oops, wrong
birth group considered expendable. I mean "Don't do it! There are woman
and children down here! (Not just expendable men)"

If what I just described horrifies you, well, it horrifies me too,
equally as much as the throwaway Bobbitt line did. I would NOT like B5
to exhibit malice towards women, or blacks, or any other birth group. By
the same token I do NOT like when it exhibits malice towards men.

        Tom


PS: For those just tuning in, it's in an early scene where Ambassador
Delenn is telling Captain Sheridan that after the big battle they will
spend the night together... no, not like that... it's a platonic Minbari
custom.

The Minbari custom seemed to hold the male in much less regard than the
female, but I gritted my teeth and followed the dialogue anyways. I
gritted my teeth tighter when the dialogue launched into some anti-male
paranoia about "What if the male demands the female stay a second
night?", and the various "vengeances" she could take for a custom that
is, after all, steeply in her favor. I could accept all that in an
anthropological sense: "Look what anti-male customs the Minbari have.
Isn't that fascinating, if you put the moral judgements aside?". But
then... Yeesh!

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From: denebeim at deepthot.cary.nc.us (Jay Denebeim)
Lines: 18

In article <Dzwn7x.4D8 at world.std.com>,
Tom Breton <tob at world.std.com.Remove_This_Suffix_When_Replying> wrote:

> If what I just described horrifies you, well, it horrifies me too,
> equally as much as the throwaway Bobbitt line did. I would NOT like
> B5 to exhibit malice towards women, or blacks, or any other birth
> group. By the same token I do NOT like when it exhibits malice
> towards men.

Nope, nothing you said horrifies me.  Personally, I think you should
take a chill pill, and obtain a sense of humor.

Jay
-- 
* Jay Denebeim, Moderator, rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated   *
* newsgroup submission address:   rastb5 at solon.com             *
* moderator contact address:      rastb5-request at solon.com     *
* personal contact address:       denebeim at deepthot.cary.nc.us *

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 22

"I gritted my teeth tighter when the dialogue launched into some anti-male
paranoia about "What if the male demands the female stay a second night?",
and the various "vengeances" she could take for a custom that is, after
all, steeply in her favor. I could accept all that in an anthropological
sense: "Look what anti-male customs the Minbari have. Isn't that
fascinating, if you put the moral judgements aside?". But then... Yeesh!"

The "vengeances" she cites, should the male insist she stay another night,
are "she can leave once he falls asleep, complain to the elders, even cut
off his access to her family."  These hardly sound like anti-male
rhetoric, but rather precautions taken to deal reasonably *should* someone
get out of line.  It doesn't state that all men do this, but sets in place
what to do should *some* men do this.

This is not a problem of context.  It is a problem of perception.  It has
nothing to do with the scene, and everything to do with how you perceive
the role of males in society.



 jms

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