Otter's Rock

So, if you're in the Stargate fandom you've probably heard about the massive amounts of fail (multiple different kinds, no less!) inherent in the casting sides for an episode of Stargate: Universe, and the defense from Gateworld, and all that. sheafrotherdon has an excellent rebuttal to Gateworld's defense of the fail, and cereta has an older post on living in a systematically misogynistic society and why don't "nice" men take a stand which then links to khalinche's post on the levels of harassment your average woman experiences on a daily basis, and why men don't really get it. And someone in the comments mentioned the Vagina Monologues, which I've never seen.

And I've been thinking. I love Stargate, but not the fail, and it seems like the fail has been growing over time, and the way they consistently play issues of rape and torture and such for titilation/humor or in other ways abuse white male privilege.

And lo, at 2 o'clock in the morning, an idea has formed for a story I will never write but which would be Made of Awesome if someone else would do it:

Teal'c is sensitive to power issues as they relate to the whole Jaffa/slave thing, but not so much (which is to say, not at all) as they relate to male/female relationships. He's very secure in his male privilege, and uses it, particularly with Jaffa women. He has great respect for Sam, treats her like an equal as a warrior, true, but look at how he treated the Jaffa women he was with. It's not that he's a bad guy, he just responds as his culture has taught him and doesn't really seem to think about the issue that much. And then in the episode Family Ties, Teal'c gets given tickets to The Vagina Monologues.

I want to know what Teal'c's reaction was. I want it to be done seriously, not played for laughs. I want to know how he related that to his experiences of Jaffa life and working with Sam for ten years. I want to explore Jaffa culture and Teal'c's perspective on it beyond the 'Jaffa revenge thing.' I want to see him talk about it with Sam, and with Ishta, and maybe his daughter-in-law Kar'yn. I don't want him to turn into an enlightened feminist Western male, but I do want him to understand.

This entry was originally posted at http://beatrice-otter.dreamwidth.org/145801.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

( a WTF? episode if ever there was one )

It wouldn't have bothered me anywhere near as much if this had been somewhere in the middle of the series, with time for episodes featuring other characters and space battles and running-for-the-gate etc. around it. But as the second-to-last episode? It really sucked. I tend to be a lot more charitable than a lot of fans, and I've never suffered the delusion that my personal vision is the ONLY POSSIBLE WAY THE SHOW SHOULD GO as some fans do. Avoiding that kind of thinking is why I largely avoid Gateworld and communities other than pure fic communities. But this was crossing the line, for me.

grumble, grumble, grumble.

*icon shows what kind of show I would have rather had.

Title: Survivors
Author: beatrice_otter
Fandom: Doctor Who/Stargate: Atlantis
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: some violence
Spoilers: early season 4 SGA, season 3 New Who
Word Count: 7,402
Written For: Tali (aworldinside) for the Multiverse 5000 (multiverse2004)
Betad by: lilbakht
Summary: The Doctor doesn’t know why he’s here, but he knows it’s not an ordinary stop.

( “This is all just a misunderstanding,” the Doctor protested )

Is there anyone who would be able to beta an Atlantis/Doctor Who crossover, and get it back to me tomorrow if I sent it to them today? It mostly needs help with plot and characterization, and a double check to see if I'm being too wordy.

It's for the Multiverse 5000, and it's due the 30th. I can get the first draft done, but it doesn't feel like it's "clicked," to me. I don't know if it just needs some polishing or if there's something that needs to be fixed. Or if I'm being a nervous writer panicking over a deadline.

Go check out all the lovely stories in remixredux08. Here is part one of my list of recs:

Desert Glass (Ordinary Time remix). In his years on Tatooine, Obi-Wan finds he has a lot to learn. Lyric, painful, but full of life.

Lucid Diamond Sky (the Misogynistic Lash cut-up). Two's company, three's a crowd. Doctor Who, the Master/Lucy.

More of the Stars and Sea (The Three Meals Remix). Stargate: Atlantis, Teyla and Radek. They were merely colleagues who dined together from time to time. Strangers on the cusp of becoming friends.

Copper and Moonlight (The Mimi & Rodolfo Remix). B:tVS, a beautiful, heartbreaking look at Giles after Becoming.

She Bangs the Drums (Losing, Losing, Lost Remix). Doctor Who, the year that wasn't. Lucy's tragedy is that she loves him.

Reverb (Three Toasters, One Dead Body, and Ellen Tigh Walk into a Bar Remix). BSG, written for me! Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl. Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl. Spoilers for Crossroads II.

I Have Become (Death) (The J.Robert Oppenheimer Remix). Babylon 5, Lyta Alexander and the Telepath War. You never forget your first. Or your last. Lyta Alexander would know.

Hush-A-Bye Baby (The Blackberry Remix). BtVS, Dawn and Drusilla. At night, the dark-haired girl without a name glowed at her through eddies of green light.

Enemies & Friends (The “Ogron, Ogron, Ogron” Remix). Sarah Jane Adventures/Doctor Who. In which there are Ogrons and Sarah Jane Smith struggles to figure out what the hell is going on. Starring Sarah Jane Smith, Vislor Turlough, Luke Smith, Maria Jackson, Clyde Langer, K9 Mark IV, Mister Smith, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness, Ace, Chrissie Jackson and Lots And Lots Of Ogrons.

The Art of Memory (Bold and Lonely Remix). Doctor Who. The Doctor's a hard man to forget.

Five Pay Phones Buffy Almost Called Giles From. BtVS, the summer she ran away.

Some Mother's Son (The A-Z Remix). Stargate: Atlantis, pre-series. Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.

The Great Bikini Incident (The Key to Time Remix). Doctor Who/BtVS. Dawn’s suspicious of the three electricity inspectors outside her sister’s Rome apartment.

There's going to be an all-girl recon team! Headed by Dax from DS9! OMGYAY isn't that awsome!!11!!eleventy!

Please, please please please, tell me there is some glimmer of a reason for this besides someone wanted to put more women on the show. I mean, I'm all for having lots of strong women characters ... but there's got to be a reason for it in the plot. And an all-female team? I can find no logical, in-universe reason for it. Not considering the higher ratio of men to women on Atlantis, combined with its relatively small population, a relatively small amount of whom are on regular gate teams. There are more men in the military and more men in the sciences and engineering, both very realistic real-world skews; I may not like them (particularly the sciences one, as there's actually some reason besides prejudice for the military skew--there's still a lot of prejudice, but not exclusively so), but they are facts of life in the real world. One of the reasons I like Stargate is that it deals with a "real world" that could be ours. This ... this just feels like a Hollywood publicity stunt.

If they're only there to be an all-girl team, I hope they're there to be strong female characters, not Atlantis' answer to Seven of Nine. And I really hope they don't take away from Teyla and Ronon's screen time. (Sheppard and McKay get enough screen time we don't really have to worry about them.)

Total Words Written: 5k
Percent of minimum wordcount: 1/8
Time left: 3.5 months

Favorite bit so far: Marshall stared at her, feeling gut-punched. “Those are my men out there risking their lives, Elizabeth.” His voice grated out, low and harsh. “Mine. I picked them for this mission, each and every one of them. I trained them. I planned the tactics, I chose which one to use. I ordered them into the field. You’ve been—” he forced himself not to say off playing happy families—“overseeing the whole Expedition and establishing diplomatic ties. You don’t even know all of their names. So don’t you dare think I don’t care what happens to them.” He held her gaze until her eyes dropped.

Progress made on non-sgabigbang writing projects (i.e. Multiverse, fic prompts, and my ongoing SR fic): none this week.

Panic over sgabigbang has been soothed away by the realization that the completed fic isn't due for four months, which means it only requires an average of 340 words per day to achieve the 40k words total. (This assumes the length of the piece will be around 40k words and that it won't balloon out to be something bigger--it's been so long since I've tried something this long that I don't have a good idea how many words my idea will take up.)

Currently at 2k words and counting.

Because I've been trying to get there since last night, and keep getting "Sorry, there are no results for “http://www.gateworld.net”. As of last night the Alpha Site was up, though with no details on what was going on, but now I'm getting Sorry, there are no results for “http://www.gateworldalphasite.com/”