Soul Purpose

[rusty_halo]

Yes, Mr. Fury, I get it. I give in now. Spike is a nasty sexist pig who objectifies women, and I'm just a delusional hormone-driven fool for ever liking him in the first place. I'll go burn my Spike memorabilia in effigy now. Thank you so much for enlightening me.

*sigh*

*misses Jane Espenson*

*is completely over this show and this character*

Well, except the Spike/Lindsey hoyay was nice.

Back before Spike was with Buffy, the writers didn't feel the need to insert some little "Look! Spike objectifies women! Spike's a bad boy! Spike's a creep!" thing into every single episode. Now? His relationship with Buffy is *over*, but it's like Fury's still trying to hammer it into every single Spike fan's head that they were *wrong*, that Spuffy was *wrong*, that Spike is *wrong*.

Whatever. My Spike died in "Grave," and Fury's retcons are not going to ruin my love for that character. This Spike? Isn't the same guy--he's been completely ruined by poor writing, inconsistent characterization, conflicting writers' agendas, poor acting ... the list goes on. I really couldn't care less about him at this point.

This episode had some nice hints that they might explore the complexity of reality, the grey areas of life, the idea that everything doesn't always come down to black and white in the end. Except I saw BtVS season six, so I already know they'll botch it. I'm not going to waste my time and effort investing in a story that I've already seen ME ruin once.

Comments

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

It's the oogling women in the strip club

Why is that objectifying? ::does not get what's wrong with appreciating sexual displays::

The way Spike treats Harmony as an sexual object and completely ignores her feelings. The way he knocks her out and doesn't even bother checking to see if she's okay.

I look on Spike's interaction with Harmony as being indicative of his bias against folks less intelligent than himself. His 'working class' crap aside, Spike's a snob. A different kind of snob than Angel, but a snob, still.

Spike: "You can't keep her from me!" Angel: "She's not mine to keep... or yours."

That was just Angel being pissy.

In the past, we had good arguments about why Spike wasn't a misogynist, that he respected and valued women, treated them as equals

I still see that. Look at how Spike interacted with Fred, or with Eve. But to whom he perceives as stupid? He's an ass. That's pretty consistent.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Eh, I disagree. The Spike of AtS S5 is, IMO, a misogynist. Lucky for me, he's not my Spike anyway.

[zyrya]

His 'working class' crap aside, Spike's a snob.

This makes perfect sense. Of course bourgeois Victorian William would have class issues, despite slumming it as Spike for the last century or so.

[rahirah]

I would point out in Spike's defense that once the clue-by-four penetrated in 5.9, he went out of his way to listen to Harm's troubles, and more than that, sit down with her and cheer her up. Spike may think she's a twit, and be inconsiderate of her feelings. But that really isn't the action of someone who objectifies her.