#bisansastarks

Aegon & His Sisters /// Jon & His Sisters

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Diana Gabaldon “I’ve gotta say that my fans don’t...

wait she’s saying they’re not attracted to Jamie or she’s saying they’re ONLY attracted to Jamie

Ugh lol it’s so fucking dumb

So the Starz head basically restated the strategy that I have ALWAYS stated on this blog is the reason for them keeping the really bad Philippa Gregory adaptations alive...  Starz’s bread and butter is the female audience that pays for premium cable.  Or as he calls them, the “premium female audience”.  Here’s his quote, per TVLine:

“Outlander — you can say that it’s great because women like it because she’s a surgeon who goes back in time, but there’s also another side of that, which is there’s some eye candy for that audience and people like when [Heughan] has his shirt off. You have to be really thoughtful about when you’re looking at a piece of content and whether it’s really going to be female or not. And it’s not easy.”

And I’m not here to defend some rich dude making money off of women or say that there’s nothing ~problematic there, but like.  I kinda think he’s right lol.  He’s not saying that we ONLY watch for a shirtless Jamie, but he’s stating the obvious, that it’s a big part of why women are initially drawn to the show--and I think he’s also talking about what shirtless Jamie represents, which is the romantic female gaze bodice ripper shit.  You may STAY for other shit, but the show has most certainly been promoted as a fucking romantic drama featuring a shirtless hot guy.  That is the lure.  And you and I both know that the fandom is constantly bitching about how there needs to be more shirtless Jamie, more OTT masculine Jamie, every fucking season.

Diana, who as you know HATES the idea of her books being romance novels, even though they absolutely fucking are, clapped back with this bullshit:

“I can’t say I see a lot of people talking about Jamie with his shirt off, unless it’s mentioning the shock and poignancy of his scars.”

Which is fucking bullshit, and I don’t know if her assistant is sorting on the emails that are like “MEEEERGH DIANA THE SHOW SUCKS BECAUSE JAMIE DIDN’T CUM ON CLAIRE’S TITS IN 4X03″ and only giving her the thoughtful deep ones, but.........

The thing I hate about this is that like...  It’s absolutely fine for the female gaze to be the draw for a show.  It’s not ALL the show is.  There is plenty for men and women to like, and there are plenty of men that like men who tune in for the gun show and stay for the poignant emotion too.

But it’s OKAY and it’s GOOD for a network to court the female audience, because the hard fact is that they weren’t for most of the time that TV has been a thing.  At least not in the way that Starz is.

Do I think that Outlander--at its best--offers a beautiful love story, fantastic acting, and great character development?  Yes.  But when the show premiered, I remember that so many people talking about the wedding episode (really, the wedding night episode).  And that’s how I got so many people to watch this show.  Because it kinda blew their minds that a show that was run by the dude that did Battlestar Galactica or whatever (attracting the attention of dude nerds like my uncle) was dedicating basically an entire episode to a woman deflowering her fucking hot virgin Scottish Highlander warrior husband in an arranged marriage trope right out of a Harlequin novel, and yes there was explicit sex, but the scene lingered on HIS ass, her pleasure, his sexual inexperience.  This is the female gaze, it is a shirtless Sam Heughan, and it felt cool because the female audience and everything WE stereotypically wanted was being courted.

Usually, it’s literally the other way around and nobody says that men are stupid for liking it.  Like, it’s a bit of a joke, sure--the guy tuning in because a beautiful actress is in a bikini in one scene.  But if the rest of the series is fucking solid, the men aren’t considered idiots for tuning in.  And tbh, I don’t think men should get all huffy if a showrunner admits that he advertised with tits and ass in order to get eyeballs to watch his otherwise serious show.

Another Starz show, Spartacus--probably its biggest show before Outlander--was advertised as blood and guts and naked chicks and softcore pornographic sex scenes..........  But first off, when you actually watch the show--another favorite of mine lol--there is a LOT for people who like dick to enjoy, and more importantly there is a very emotionally resonant, well-crafted plot and a shit-ton of lovable characters and great development.  I think the showrunner has admitted to capitalizing on the blood and guts and ridiculously OTT shit to get people’s attention, while also giving a lot of love to his story.  He probably enjoyed the OTT shit too, and that’s fine.  (By the way, Spartacus also featured a lot of really heavy shit, and for the most part dealt with its characters’ trauma much better than Outlander has of late................................  And had far more developed and nuanced non-white characters and LGBT characters butwhateveritsfine.)

Again, he could have worded it better and I doubt he really cares if Outlander is a quality show as long as it gets eyeballs trained on Starz, buuuuut Diana Gabaldon going off on leaning in and shit is also hysterical to me because this is a woman who consistently injects needless sexual violence into her novels.  Of her lead characters that I can think of: Claire, Jamie, Brianna and Lord John have all been sexually assaulted.  Sexual violence is what she’s made HER bread and butter, so I don’t want to hear about her defending the honor of her female fans.

And her “straight dudes watch Outlander too!!!” bit was weird as well, I don’t give a fuck if straight dudes watch it, I’m glad that they enjoy but I don’t think it was made for them and they don’t have to.....................

Episode 8x06 is the worst episode of Game of Thrones. Not a single other individual episode of GoT is worse than that episode.

That being said, season 7 is the worst season of Game of Thrones. No other season is overall as bad as season 7 was.