Quote:
Originally posted by dtb
What's so hard to understand why men find the show "threatening" (I did say "men of [a certain] ilk" -- though I know how you like to take offense when anything against men is proffered)? Men are threatened by women who talk about sex (and as many have observed -- women talk about sex a lot -- and they don't lie; which for some men is likely unsettling). Is it your view that no man is threatened by a show depicting true-to-life (well, for a tv show anyway) conversations among women? Why else the visceral reaction against it? It's not like it was offensive so as to deserve the vituperative remarks against it. Was it often trite? Sure. Was it silly? Sure. Was it fantasy (I mean, how did she afford all those clothes?!?)? Of course. But to hate it with passion like the heat of a thousand suns seems a bit exaggerated. So you tell me. If not "threatening" then why the overreaction?
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I wasn't taking offense* -- I was finding it odd that you would assume that your husband's response to a TV show is based on the same personality traits as Sebby's response.
Neither SATC nor any other TV show has antagonized me to the level of passion that you described (well, Buffy -- but that was positive passion, and that's quite different), so perhaps you are describing a phenom I don't understand.
As I suggested, I do believe that some men are threatened simply by women being comfortable with sex, and with talking about sex. So, I'm not sure what you are looking for. More than that, I would suggest that negative reactions to a cultural artifact tend to be similar in force to the positive reactions to that same artifact. So, your husband, or Sebby, or whomever doesn't particularly like the show. Would they rant and rave about it, if the show were getting only a lukewarm response from the general, and especially female, public? Doubtful. But the show gets held up as some icon of insight, brilliance, womanhood (yes, I'm exagerrating here), and the reaction to that grows from "I don't really like the show" to the furor of spitting bile that Mr. Bill apparently descended into on a weekly basis.
If people didn't seem to love reality TV shows, to get totally absorbed in them, almost to form a special "club" of reality TV watchers who appeared near-obsessed with the things, would the discussions of reality TV on this board send Bilmore into a kayak-paddling, let's-eat-only-the-things-we-kill-with-our-hands frenzy? Probably not.
*As to the exchange that I know you're referencing, can I suggest that we not bring that up? I've grown to like you again, so please don't remind me of a comment that will only fuck that up. Especially since you've apparently learned the use of qualifiers in the interim.