Saturday, March 19, 2011
The Angie Harmon Drama I Seemed To Have Missed... @ 6:10 AM
I'm really late to the party with this one, but I have been out of the R&I fandom since shortly after season one ended. I'm sure I'll be back full swing by season two, but in the meantime I actually do like to occupy myself with fandoms that are currently airing. Unfortunately, I have a hard time focusing on more than one thing at a time; probably due to the way my BPD likes to the process things. That and in the last six months I haven't exactly paid much attention to my Twitter feed, which is where this whole dramafest went down in the first place.
Anyway, recently I decided that since my fan fic muse for virtually every fandom has been shot to fuck and back again, I should probably catch up on my fic reading. At the moment, I'm currently reading the Jane/Maura fics I missed during my little hiatus, or whatever you'd like to call it. So I'm searching though LJ for a fic that's has both a decent plot, is multi-chaptered, and mature rated (which sadly is quite a tall order now a days for some reason) when I stumbled upon a link to this post. Needless to say, the amount of discussions/comments on it in intrigued me, so I read it. In it's entirety, actually; which my ADD usually cannot comprehending doing. Due to how much drama it caused on top of the drama it was about, it has since been locked for additional comments. But I'm opinionated and even though this is late in actuality, it's completely new to me. And since I actually had a reaction when I read what Angie said, I figured I should share.
While I believe a lot of it was blown up to be something much bigger than it really was, I understand the feelings on this. The second I read what Angie posted, I got really disappointed. This going to sound extremely controversial and probably shouldn't be the topic I start with, but I have to be honest as to why I felt that way, because it may be part of the reason other's felt that way as well.
I think, personally, that that was my initial reaction because eight months ago or so, I was worried about R&I's fate once I read that Angie Harmon was a Republican. Basically, if the R&I writers did at some point decide to go the gay way, would Angie object to it? Now, I'm not political in the slightest. I don't align myself with anyone nor do I ever think I will. But I will be the first to admit that I stereotype Republicans to hell and back because the only thing I have ever read about them is how they are so completely anti-gay. So, frankly, I find no reason to tolerate a group of people who seem to hate the fact that I even exist.
Now, I'm sure there's more to them than that. I'm sure not every Republican is like that. But when that's the only perspective you've had on them, it's a little hard to not be bitter towards any and all of them when it comes to gay issues.
But, because I've always liked Angie's work, I gave her the benefit of the doubt and decided to not relate my personal feelings on Republicans to her, since who we are isn't decided by our political alignment, religious preference, etc. So I found it kind of ridiculous when people started to call her homophobic. As a whole, yeah, I believe Republican's are homophobic - it seems to be the majority, at least from what I've seen (and there is a very strong possibility I may just be extremely naive). But any community is made up of individuals and while the majority might be something, that doesn't mean that everyone is.
Is Angie Harmon homophobic? I don't know. No one would really know except for her, I think. Do I think what she wrote was homophobic? No way. Do I think what she wrote wasn't the smartest choice in regards to wording? A million times yes; her response came off as completely dismissive to the lesbian fanbase. Do I think she meant to offend the lesbian community? Not at all. Do I feel like she did? No; I believe she disappointed us all rather than offended us.
In basic phrasing: she popped our bubble. We had this nice, happy, LA LA LAND Jane/Maura bubble going on and she took a needle to it and popped it. Whether it was intentional or not, it happened. I think because Sasha has, as it was pointed out, been so accommodating to the lesbian aspect of the fandom, that we had been a bit spoiled. Some of us assumed Angie would be just as accommodating. I think she is accommodating in some sense, but just isn't up to Sasha's standards of it all. And that just comes down to the fact that they are two different people with two different outlooks and personalities. It's nothing against Angie, but comparisons are bound to be made.
Frankly, I've always figured Sasha to be the more accommodating one just because of how they act in the series. Subtext wise, I believe Sasha plays it up a lot more than Angie does, which is probably why I write fics where Maura is the one that's crushing on an oblivious Jane. It seems more canon to me than the opposite. That's not to say Angie doesn't do the subtext, because she does, but I don't think it's quite as forthcoming. Angie in a way doesn't even have to be, because Jane is so obviously butch. Her sexuality is just assumed based on the way she acts, dresses, and carries herself. Frankly, due to Jane's characterization in the show, I think it's laughable as hell that she would be considered straight in the first place. I believe Jane believes herself to be straight, which in some ways is why I like it. I think it portrays a pretty accurate description of closeted life.
And this is where people start harping in about the books. About how in the books Jane is straight and her and Maura are nothing more then friends. I'm sorry, it makes me wonder if any of them have even read the books. Jane and Maura are polite to each other, sure, and maybe yeah you can consider them friends, but it's so far off from the television show. The show already fucked book canon to hell and back and you know what? That's why it's good. I enjoy the books, but in no way would I think it would be half as successful if they didn't improve on Jane and Maura's relationship. While I enjoy cop shows (L&O, The Closer) I've never been drawn to the fandom of any of them because they rarely put emphasis on personal relationships, which is where true fandom comes from. R&I does and it makes it fucking fantastic.
Furthermore, I think the mere suggestion that Angie didn't know about the lesbian fanbase/subtext is fucking ridiculous. There is no way that she didn't know. Why? Because even before it aired, the show was written catering to the lesbian subtext. It's in the script, in the words they say to each other, in the way they end up in bed together. Fuck, they had a lesbian episode, which screamed the show knew exactly what they were doing. A lot of the subtext is up to the actors, sure, but not all of it. The show was so blatantly written as a subtext show. The subtext is so goddamn apparently that you don't have to be shipper to see it. Hell, its practically maintext by how obvious it is. Even my straight friends, my straight friends who don't do or know about fandom shipping at all were like "Wow, this show is really gay." Christ, even my mother thinks that the gayness is obvious (she's a fan too - though obviously not quite in the same way I am).
So yeah, Angie knew. She'd have to be stupid not to, which I don't think she is. A little ditsy sure, but certainly not stupid.
I think the main problem is what Angie doesn't know, nor realize, is the kind of impact that the show has on the gay community. I compare it to Xena because I think that's probably the most accurate comparison I could ever compare it to. Xena was not a "lesbian" show, just as R&I isn't a "lesbian" show. They both had subtext that the actors and writers catered to, but not once did they find themselves in bed with each other in that way. Did that make it any less good? Fuck no! Intentional subtext is just as good as maintext to me. Now, if Xena would have aired NOW instead of mid 90s, I'm sure they would have turned it into maintext eventually (if they do a movie, it's been said that they plan to). Will R&I? Probably not. Honestly I don't think that's a step TNT is ready to make yet. Love the network to death, but they aren't exactly the LBGT friendliest. But anyway, back to the point.
I think why so many lesbians liked Xena, and why so many like R&I, is because the lesbianness isn't thrown in our face. Most television shows that feature lesbian characters will make it all about sex and their sexuality. You know what? Lesbians are regular people, thanks; not a sideshow act for men to jack off to. So we see Jane/Maura or Xena/Gabrielle and while the gayness is pretty freaking obvious, it's not all we see. We see their lives, their work, etc. We see them as people, not as lesbians. And that, I think, is one of the reasons this fandom is so important to the lesbian community. It's like recognizing we exist without making some sort of spectacle out of us. It's like we're being respected. It's nice.
So I think when Angie was all like "Okay, I meant a MAN," or whatever, it felt slightly disrespectful in a way. Yes, we all know that Jane's canon love interests are going to be men. But girl, your lesbian fan base is something crazy and when most of the tweets you get say Maura/Sasha, you should know better than to say something to address that without fully thinking first. Because it did come off a bit disrespectful to a very LARGE group of people.
I don't know. Like, one one hand I honestly feel bad for her. I can't even imagine everything I say being scrutinized and discussed. But that comes with the job, unfortunately. Its also really shitty that she had to see some things her fans were saying about her "not being the sharpest tool in the shed." She may not be a rocket scientist, but that doesn't mean she's stupid. I guess I relate her in the way I do to Eliza Dushku, who I adore to death, but who doesn't post the most intellectual tweets in the world. Angie, quite frankly, made a mistake in her wording. That much was clear. Feelings were hurt, yeah, but I don't believe it was intentional. Do I think she should have went about it in a smarter way? Of course. But we all make mistakes, her included.
I know I have more to say on this, but I'm getting tired and I think I've expressed the main point, anyway: I understand it, but it didn't have to turn into the huge dramafest it did.
End.
Labels: angie harmon, drama, lesbian, rizzoli and isles, subtext
