Ah, fandom...

[tielan]

Specifically, Gateworld fandom.

In which a poster says that if Teyla ever hooks up with Sheppard, she'll no longer be a strong, intelligent, and independant woman, but a slut submitting to racism and sexism.

It's over on page 2 of Gateworld News: Story Details Of "The Queen".

Obviously, there are spoilers for Season Five in the above link, although John and Teyla hooking up is not actually one of those spoilers. I'd love it if it were - mostly because fandom would lose it like a big losing thing and I would order a year's worth of popcorn and several flameproof suits - but it's not.

The actual comment, plus commentary:

Finally! It's about time Teyla got a GOOD episode for a change, instead of the half-baked stuff she got last year.

And please, no Sheppard/Teyla. Ever. Teyla's having a baby with another man that she's known and cared for deeply for all her life. If she suddenly swings towards Sheppard when she's never shown any interest in him before (in fact, every time she's been faced with the possibility of her being paired with Sheppard, she's totally freaked out in a bad way), it's going to make her look like a slut in a very bad soap opera. And Teyla is NOT a slut! She's a strong, intelligent and independent woman, and pairing her up with Sheppard now will look sexist and racist. This is the 21st century. We don't need to see SGA degenerate into garbage like that.

Am I taking this comment the wrong way, or is the underlying architecture of this thought problematic?

Because what I'm seeing this person saying is that a woman who sleeps with more than one person in the course of her entire lifetime is a slut. If she gives birth to one man's child, then sleeps with another man, she's a slut. If she falls in love with another man, she's a slut.

I understand someone who doesn't want John/Teyla as a pairing - pairing preferences are one thing. I don't understand someone who's got such a rigid view of life and love and sexuality - that a woman must only ever love or sexually have one man or she's a slut.

Maybe that's not what they meant to say. Maybe what they meant to say is that they don't want John/Teyla as a pairing and tried to use Teyla/Kanaan as a True Love That Should Not Be Denied reason to keep Teyla away from John. But I'm disturbed by what the poster ended up implying about Teyla (and women and mothers): that she can never have any kind of a love interest or a love life from now on because she once loved Kanaan and gave birth to his child and any other man from now until her death would be a betrayal of that.

Comments

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

Um, okay.

That was some prize special thinking right there. Racism and sexism? How did this person even go there? (And you know me, if I thought it was, I'd be on it in a hot minute with some serious analysis).

The only time we've seen Teyla be skeeved out by John was in Conversion and it was contextual. Other than that, they've both done the dance back and forth but nothing inappropriate.

What we know of Kanaan is this: she's known him since they were kids and yes, she cares for him. That's it. Heck, we didn't even know, or were given to believe, that Teyla was seeing her folks on a regular basis. Ronon knew but not John and Rodney (boo, for no slice of life stuff on SGA because really...).

Teyla hooking up with John makes her a slut? Um no. We haven't heard anything on the ship front and after Kindred pt. 2, there may not be anything left of Kanaan to save. He's been changed into a hybrid by Michael. If by chance Teyla and John somehow come together in the aftermath of all this? It won't be the first time that two really good friends came together first in comfort and then in a growing deep regard and love.

[tielan]

Racism and sexism? How did this person even go there?

I'm wondering how much of it has to do with Mallozzi's denial that the Atlantis expedition has any hint of colonialism in its attitudes to other cultures.

You know what this made me think of? The "Zoe/Wash = abusive relationship" rant by the chicky the other week. Where there was no actual proof of abusiveness, just a black woman hooked up with a white man.

I suspect that Kanaan is being billed as The Best Man For Teyla partly because he gets Teyla out of John's orbit in the same way that some people were all over Teyla/Ronon.

It won't be the first time that two really good friends came together first in comfort and then in a growing deep regard and love.

See, this? I'd love this. I doubt TPTB could do this, but if they could, I'd love it.