![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Female Power in Smallville
I watch the Smallville episode "Drone," for the first time last night. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
liviapenn, vesania_aeterno, rageprufrock and gryph1 got to listen to my fangirl squealing. Yes, I am ashamed to admit that "Drone" brought me down the level of the lowliest, sparkles-and-posters girl-fan.
Something about Lex and his mechanic. Lex and his skin. Lex and his voice. Lex and his less than noble career in student politics.
I'm a little puzzled though, as to why this ep doesn't seem to have been fully exploited - there are few post-eps and fewer stories that explore his obvious love of a great set of legs paired with a classic car, or even - and truthfully, this is the one that really grabbed me - Lex and student government. The potential of any one of the above is incredible. Fic, people, fic!
Sasha, AKA Bee Girl, reminded me of a story in one of the Marion Zimmer Bradley, Darkover anthologies, about a Dry Towns girl, who's laran (psychic powers) allowed her to control insects. My recollection is vague, but I think she used it to kill an attacker, either husband or father. Like many of the stories in the anthology, it had an obviously feminist bent, which worked particularly well because of the built-in power dynamics of insect relationships. Bees, ants are the like are all controlled by females - the perfect foil for the Dry Towns oppressive patriarchy. When the girl embraced her laran, she embraced her power as a female.
There are shades of this in "Drone," but as usual, the Smallville writers give us a muddled message. When Sasha embraces her power over the bees, she seems to embrace her power as a female - Queen bee, the fight with Sasha - but she isn't able to exercise it rightly. Felice and Sasha engage in a typical catfight over an office that each intends to use for personal gain. Felice opts for the more traditional goal of increasing her popularity and reigning despotically over her fellow students, while Sasha has a bigger goal in mind - career advancement.
Paul and Clark both want to Do The Right Thing and we're reassured that even though Clark came let to the race, he had the potential to exercise political power wisely - Lana, Chloe, the Kents and Lex all express confidence in him. The male candidates have the right to power, because they, unlike the female candidates, are essentially above pettiness. The males have higher goals in mind, while the females are only interested in personal gain. It’s interesting that Clark’s fitness is brought out by - though not given - by Lana, arguably the least powerful character on the show. Lana’s role is to recognize Clark’s true potential, just as Chloe’s is to question it.
Felice and Sasha are both rewarded with nasty deaths, for their efforts. Sasha is killed by the rebellious bees she once controlled - she didn’t have the right to claim that power, just as she didn’t have the right to claim political power. Clark, of all the characters on Smallville is the only one capable of properly using super powers - he’s the only one who is fit and therefore the only one with the right. Sasha’s meteor-given powers are an appropriation of Clark’s power - male power.
Female power, a la Chloe and Lana, seems to be watching and supporting the menfolk. Or something. Down with uppity women! *stomps*
liviapenn, vesania_aeterno, rageprufrock and gryph1 got to listen to my fangirl squealing. Yes, I am ashamed to admit that "Drone" brought me down the level of the lowliest, sparkles-and-posters girl-fan. Something about Lex and his mechanic. Lex and his skin. Lex and his voice. Lex and his less than noble career in student politics.
I'm a little puzzled though, as to why this ep doesn't seem to have been fully exploited - there are few post-eps and fewer stories that explore his obvious love of a great set of legs paired with a classic car, or even - and truthfully, this is the one that really grabbed me - Lex and student government. The potential of any one of the above is incredible. Fic, people, fic!
Sasha, AKA Bee Girl, reminded me of a story in one of the Marion Zimmer Bradley, Darkover anthologies, about a Dry Towns girl, who's laran (psychic powers) allowed her to control insects. My recollection is vague, but I think she used it to kill an attacker, either husband or father. Like many of the stories in the anthology, it had an obviously feminist bent, which worked particularly well because of the built-in power dynamics of insect relationships. Bees, ants are the like are all controlled by females - the perfect foil for the Dry Towns oppressive patriarchy. When the girl embraced her laran, she embraced her power as a female.
There are shades of this in "Drone," but as usual, the Smallville writers give us a muddled message. When Sasha embraces her power over the bees, she seems to embrace her power as a female - Queen bee, the fight with Sasha - but she isn't able to exercise it rightly. Felice and Sasha engage in a typical catfight over an office that each intends to use for personal gain. Felice opts for the more traditional goal of increasing her popularity and reigning despotically over her fellow students, while Sasha has a bigger goal in mind - career advancement.
Paul and Clark both want to Do The Right Thing and we're reassured that even though Clark came let to the race, he had the potential to exercise political power wisely - Lana, Chloe, the Kents and Lex all express confidence in him. The male candidates have the right to power, because they, unlike the female candidates, are essentially above pettiness. The males have higher goals in mind, while the females are only interested in personal gain. It’s interesting that Clark’s fitness is brought out by - though not given - by Lana, arguably the least powerful character on the show. Lana’s role is to recognize Clark’s true potential, just as Chloe’s is to question it.
Felice and Sasha are both rewarded with nasty deaths, for their efforts. Sasha is killed by the rebellious bees she once controlled - she didn’t have the right to claim that power, just as she didn’t have the right to claim political power. Clark, of all the characters on Smallville is the only one capable of properly using super powers - he’s the only one who is fit and therefore the only one with the right. Sasha’s meteor-given powers are an appropriation of Clark’s power - male power.
Female power, a la Chloe and Lana, seems to be watching and supporting the menfolk. Or something. Down with uppity women! *stomps*
no subject
Err...yeah. The sexual politics of "Smallville" leave much to be desired, but that's what happens when TPTB are pubescent boys in middle-aged bodies.
no subject
It's painfully obvious that you're right about TPTB being pubescent boys in middle-aged bodies. I don't think Lana would be so repellent, otherwise.
no subject
*snicker* I have very selective amnesia. I remember everything but the Clana.
It's painfully obvious that you're right about TPTB being pubescent boys in middle-aged bodies. I don't think Lana would be so repellent, otherwise.
Amen. She is the ultimate princess in the tower, passive and (theoretically) beautiful and in need of rescuing, constantly bemoaning her own tragic state without ever looking for a way to fix it herself.
Re:
And yet. There are always these little annoying hints of more. It's like they know they should flesh out her character but personally prefer the fairy-tale princess.
no subject
*nods* And it's those little hints that make me hate the rest of the time all the more. It's not as though they don't have an excellent model in the comic book, but all the potential is just...wasted in the show. Sigh.
no subject
As a friend of
To be accept this invitation and be added to the community, please visit
Thank you for your time, and I apologize for the LJ spam.
Molly Moon
no subject
no subject
no subject
To this day I am furious that Clark didn't apologise to Chloe. But thus is the pattern of SV. Clark never apologises--he just says something to the effect of "I'm glad we're friends again, becaise I hate fighting with you" in an apologetic tone, and Chloe and Lex just roll over and take him back.
*sigh*
Someday, I really should finish the missing scene story i started for this ep (mostly revolving around Chloe and Carrie, and the 4th Estate).
no subject
Wow, I'd really love to read that fic. Carrie was an interesting character, especially when compared to Chloe and I was sorely disappointed by the lack of fic including her.