I've been working long hours for the past week and have this morning (Friday) off, so I thought I'd check out Netflix's The Witcher. First episode and already it begins. (Spoiler alert....) A wizard tries to hire the hero, a dude, to kill a supposedly evil sorceress. Hero declines. Later in the forest, the hero is recounting out loud having killed a "bald, stinking giant with rotting teeth" (male, of course) who tried to violate a princess. (Well, of course. Everybody knows that's what males do.) Moments later, the sorceress finds the hero. She, of course, is gorgeous. She tells the hero that the man the wizard claimed she supposedly unjustly killed had it coming because he ... wait for it ... tried to rape her. This is such a tiresome plot element--woman is a victim because some man couldn't control himself and tried to rape her--meaning he has to be killed like the gutter trash he is. Of course, this elicits sympathy from our hero who, we learned earlier, ... doesn't feel anything (emotionally). A hot chick who needs rescuing, though, changes that. Scene ends with them kissing. WTF?? Does that formula never get old???
I didn't finish watching the first episode. Maybe it gets better, but I couldn't swallow the trite guys-are-rapists-and-even-strong-independent-women-need-to-be-saved-from-evil-men-who-must-be-brutally-killed! Meanwhile, these independent, strong women are still relying on pity (he tried to rape me!) and sex appeal (I'm beautiful; you want to help me because you might get to sleep with me) instead of just saving themselves. And the guys who're being hacked into pieces around every corner? No pity for them because they're just meat meant to be brutalized for the entertainment of the audience.
But, hey, equality and all that. And occupy your mind with something OTHER than your lack of companionship--even though every song/book/movie/show... will feature a romance or at least sex because romantic companionship is so damn important. Except for you. For YOU it's just a trivial, easily dismissed life feature.
I didn't finish watching the first episode. Maybe it gets better, but I couldn't swallow the trite guys-are-rapists-and-even-strong-independent-women-need-to-be-saved-from-evil-men-who-must-be-brutally-killed! Meanwhile, these independent, strong women are still relying on pity (he tried to rape me!) and sex appeal (I'm beautiful; you want to help me because you might get to sleep with me) instead of just saving themselves. And the guys who're being hacked into pieces around every corner? No pity for them because they're just meat meant to be brutalized for the entertainment of the audience.
But, hey, equality and all that. And occupy your mind with something OTHER than your lack of companionship--even though every song/book/movie/show... will feature a romance or at least sex because romantic companionship is so damn important. Except for you. For YOU it's just a trivial, easily dismissed life feature.
