*Looks at spoilers* *Then looks at THIS *
Dude! Wow. Just wow. I had completely forgotten the level of slimebag there.
Honey, none of us do. But that’s the white heterosexual privileged male gaze for you. They honestly think the way they write Hook is acceptable because it’s been “acceptable” in TV for years and years and years.
Two things really annoy me about all this, apart from the obvious. First, the degree to which the writers seem to have forgotten their original point of departure, and appear to think that the audience is a bunch of brainless zombies, drooling mindlessly in front of their televisions. It’s obvious from that gif set that they started with Hook being a very clear, and rather appalling antagonist.
Now, the standard move for the romance trope would have been to then reveal that his philandering ways are just a brittle outer shell, and mostly bluster, hiding a soft gooey center of insecurities and (<del>mommy issues),</del> excuse me, desire to be loved. But they didn’t really do that with Hook. He ISN’T a vulnerable, insecure, self-doubting sort of guy. What you see is actually exactly what you get. He’s just that bad. And he’s also not the other trope — the Casanova carpe diem type who is eventually tamed by the heroine. I’m sorry to say, he’s just not that charming. And yet, we are supposed to extend him the same credit as if he were either profoundly broken (and hence sympathetic) or the ‘seize the day’ type (and hence enjoyable in a wish fulfillment kind of way), just because the particular skirt he’s chasing at the moment is Emma’s. Cue RG’s point about the privileged heterosexual white male gaze.
The other thing that just annoys me to no end, and I’ve said this before, is the way in which the fandom sometimes responds to this show, and how other relationships (both romantic and not) get torn to shreds on the basis of some kind of moral high ground. The most obvious example is how RumBelle always seems to get paraded as the paragon of the abusive relationship. Don’t get me wrong, it’s totally problematic, but at least it follows the classic romance trope (in many ways, it’s almost straight up Jayne Eyre). One might not like its gender roles, but it’s very clearly meant to have these troubling, psychologically complicated elements. And the same, of course, with SF. But with CS we have the writing, which is constantly hinting at how screwed up the relationship is, and PLOT which keeps shoving it down our throats, awful writing and all, like it’s the most natural thing ever.
O.o
Ugh. Bah. Too early for a Saturday morning rant, but I couldn’t help myself. [climbs off the soapbox]