JM and Friends Q & A

[botias]

Probably most fans have things we'd like to ask JM if we got him alone. I'm no exception, so I submitted my burning question to the folks at JM and Friends and with a bit of luck I'll get a live answer. Here it is:

I've heard that you and the Buffy writers were very concerned about Spike's appeal with female fans because he is not good relationship material. Do you think it's possible these concerns contain some sexism? No one says a word about guys being attracted to Faith, or other 'bad girl' fantasy objects.

Comments

[irfikos.livejournal.com]

That is actually a good point that I had not really thought about.

[botias.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I'll post about it if he addresses my question. :)

Doesn't it kind of smack of paternalism when you think about it? I know I'm not the only really offended by their attitude. It bugs me that they wrote Spike doing worse things than they would have otherwise because they were trying to protect women from their own sexual fantasies. :/

[herself_nyc]

It's totally paternalistic, that's what always bothered me about it. I'd be curious whether he answers the question, and how.

[botias.livejournal.com]

To play devil's advocate, I suspect that the feedback from Spike fans was not just that 'Spike is hot', I think there was a sizeable contingent that felt that Buffy should snaffle him up quick before he gets away. While I can equally defend that as fantasy, I think ME thought it should be obvious to everyone that they were not writing a fantasy show, so to some extent I think it was a failure to communicate. I can't bring on charges of 'double standard' because they didn't shirk on the consequences when Xander succumbed to Faith's bad girl attractions. And now I am starting to feel like my original point is on shaky ground. :( But perhaps I will get to hear as much from that lovely mouth of his. :)