The Gadfly ([info]georgiapeachy) wrote in [info]bsg_women,
@ 2005-07-09 17:24:00
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B.S.G and sexism
Hey! I've been a random lurker for ages, but finally I have something to post.

I don't know if anyone has read the odious Dirk Benedict (original Starbuck) article, but if you haven't, prepare yourself for rampant sexism and anti-progressive thought.


Women are from Venus. Men are from Mars. Hamlet does not scan as Hamletta. Nor does Han Solo as Han Sally. Faceman is not the same as Facewoman. Nor does a Stardoe a Starbuck make. Men hand out cigars. Women `hand out' babies. And thus the world, for thousands of years, has gone round.


It's funny when he mentioned Hamlet because Shakespeare himself employed gender bending on numerous occasions. I wonder if he has ever heard of Rosalind in As You Like It, who disguises herself as a male. George Sand, a female writer of the 19th century, smoked cigars and played cards with men. Women have been written as warriors since at least the Amazons of the ancient Greeks. Women haven’t been just having babies “for thousands of years.” Besides that, the new BSG really is a reimagining and it happens to include a character called Starbuck who is loosely based on the old one, but who is far more complex. Besides bending her gender, TNBSG also bends some other gender related concepts with co-ed bathrooms (a la certain Ivy League schools) and calling women "sir" in the military. Starbuck wasn't just randomly gender switched for shocks, the gender issue in TNBSG is part of a complex commentary on politics and society.

Another lovely comment by Benedict:

"Re-imagining", they call it. "un-imagining" is more accurate. To take what once was and twist it into what never was intended. So that a television show based on hope, spiritual faith, and family is unimagined and regurgitated as a show of despair, sexual violence and family dysfunction.


Huh? It has to be based on hope, spiritual faith, and family to be good? Well, Benedict might be happy with Pollyanna!BSG, but good art is not always nice. Emile Zola, Camus, Faulkner, and most of the modern greats were devoted to the not always nice complexities of science, faith, politics, and family. Perhaps if Benedict has his way Faulkner would have written nice clear tales of nuclear families that go to church every Sunday instead of gritty existentialist narratives. The original BSG had ties to Mormonism and the creator wanted to portray Mormonism favorably. The new BSG does religion no favors, it ruthlessly dissects it in a way that makes some people uncomfortable. Even though I adhere to religion, I'd rather have that tension, since it actually makes you think.

Well, if you are as horrified by Mr. Benedicts comments as I am and you'd like to read something a bit more sophisticated on the subject of Starbuck and political allegory, then head over to Salon's article Where no TV show has gone before.


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[info]littlebutfierce
2005-07-09 10:38 pm UTC (link)
Oh, gross! I hadn't seen that article... thanks (I guess!) for bringing it to our attention. I really hate people who pull out the "you're just being politically correct" idiocy, & that line about women handing out babies just makes my blood boil.

I would love to see a Katee Sackhoff rebuttal to that one. Or anyone involved w/the new show, whether actor or behind the scenes person.

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[info]georgiapeachy
2005-07-09 10:46 pm UTC (link)
The BSG Blog had an interview with Katee about it:

"When asked about the original' Starbuck' actor Dirk Benedict, who have criticized the new GALACTICA, she said "I met him about two years ago, right after we finished the mini-series. We created a little teaser thing to show before the mini-series aired. And it was called, 'Starbuck buys Starbuck a coffee at Starbucks'. And we went and sat at a Starbucks and had a cup of coffee together. I thought, you know, I thought he was a great guy, nothing bad to say about the man. But he talks a lot of s--t about the show now. I was really shocked."

Regarding a possible cameo by Benedict on the new show, she said "I would work with him. But I think it's really hard to offer somebody a job that has done nothing but criticize the work.

On the initial backlash about Starbuck becoming a woman in the new incarnation: You know, I let it bother me at first, and I took a lot of it personally. I think what it ended up making me do in the mini-series was prove that my character was tough enough. I was so angry about it. And once they started attacking me as a person, that’s when I stopped caring. Now I’m just like, you know what, you don’t pay my checks. If you don’t like me, you don’t like me, there’s nothing I can do about it. They’re always going to find something negative to say and if they want to use me as a scapegoat to make their lives better, then go ahead, do it."

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[info]kimbari
2005-07-09 11:00 pm UTC (link)
Go Katee! :D

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[info]littlebutfierce
2005-07-10 02:27 pm UTC (link)
Thank you! I'm glad to hear that from her.

Also, in relation to the original article, I hate when people pull out the old "Adama & the rest have been emasculated!" whine just because--gasp--they've been given more depth. *rolls eyes* Because heaven knows that means you're suddenly a WOMAN & we can't have that!!

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[info]bkwyrm
2005-07-09 11:25 pm UTC (link)
He's a whiny prick who's cranky because "his" role was given to someone else. Get a life, Dirk, and grow up!

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[info]jdsmylover
2005-07-10 12:13 am UTC (link)
that's shocking. I understand why he's been asked for his opinion but someone should shut that man up, he is talking absolute bull and clearly is just jealous that he's been upstaged by a woman. He was at Collectormania last year and up close he's aged really badly. I decided not to pay to meet him and now I'm glad, if he'd said that before I'd have been tempted to bop him on the nose.

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[info]lyssie
2005-07-10 12:48 am UTC (link)
While it has been posted on this community before (er, sometime in March or April, iirc), it's always good to refresh the rage from early 2003...

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[info]ehab_it
2005-07-11 10:36 pm UTC (link)
Ah yes, "Refresh the Rage". Words to live by.

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[info]lyssie
2005-07-12 12:20 am UTC (link)
*g* Well, it gives us someone to mock, at least...

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[info]morwen_peredhil
2005-07-10 01:09 am UTC (link)
I saw that a while back, and my conclusion is still the same: Dirk Benedict has a very small penis.

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[info]raffaella
2005-07-10 01:14 am UTC (link)
Teeny, teeny, tiny, I agree. And now Katee Sackoff is Starbuck, she owns that part and when people mention that there was another Starbuck, it's generally to say that the old show was cheesy and ridiculous and the new one is infinitely better. That's gotta burn.

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[info]jason_bond_69
2005-07-10 01:13 am UTC (link)
Dirk's a jerk! Katee's the REAL Starbuck! She seriously kicks ass!

In my opinion, it's the women who really make the show. Katee kicks ass, and Grace Park should get an Emmy for her work for playing two different versions of the same character. Mary McDonnell is excellent as the president, and I am very surprised in Tricia Helfer's work as Six.

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[info]_happyme_
2005-07-10 11:12 am UTC (link)
Katee rocks.

*cough*[info]babylon5contest*cough*

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[info]minerva_fan
2005-07-12 03:43 am UTC (link)
I have found this disheartening attitude among lots of the hardcore original series fans, which sort of discounts that whole "peace, love, and compassion" thing he's trying to sell. I actually had an Old School fan tell me the other night that Edward James Olmos just didn't cut it for her and that he was "not the actor that Lorne Green was."

No offense to any Lorne Green fans, but I laughed in her face. I told her I was laughing in her face.

*rolls eyes*

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[info]azrael556
2005-08-09 01:31 pm UTC (link)
Lorne Greene- Good actor in his depth, but I don't know if a "Bonanza" veteran could hack it in what Olmos' Adama is expected to do.

Dirk Benedict. The original Starbuck was a lot more of a cartoon-character fighter pilot stereotype, just like in "The A-Team" he was a caricature of a Special Forces lieutenant, back when one, SF BOTHERED with LT's as team XO's (they use warrant officers, ex-team sergeants now), and second, no one really understood what SF does as a result of the sloppy pop-history of Vietnam. Still, it was one of the few shows where "Vietnam Veteran" wasn't a dirty word so I can't knock it. George Peppard was a lot more fun.
Benedict is mad that he's not getting a bringback part like Hatch, and that this Starbuck is a much deeper and more driven character. The whole show is just better and there is no way around it.

I'd still stand in line for his autograph though. His roles were way too influential on me in my youth, the SOB.

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