Jade Kitsune, on 03 July 2012 - 09:34 AM, said:
*sigh* Alright I have two things to talk about here today it seems... First off, if I didn't enjoy deconstructing the scenes and all, I'd be very VERY crappy at what I'd like to do in life, which is Filmmaking. [might I add, that there is a hint of scientific method that goes into being a film maker, no mister "Boom" Bay doesn't count in this.] And science has always caught my interest. So perhaps that's part of where I find enjoyment getting "down and dirty" so to speak with my analizations of this show. And others.
As for when you may need to critically debate something like this, alot of times, within the fandom. Often to combat Headcanon that people are making uninformed assumptions of and have stated "I really dislike this episode for X reason" say that's your favorite episode, perhaps you can bring up points that make them re-evaluate the episode. Or perhaps you have a certern view, that's coming under fire within the community, you need to beable to back yourself up to remain credible within a fandom.
Now on to RBD's Sexuality. *breaks out the episode bible*
I'm going to attempt to avoid 'fanon' as much as possible, but if I do delve into it a bit, I'll try to explain my reasons for it.
Now you bring up some very, very good points Sesambrot, About how one could make the assumption that Dash is a lesbian, or you could even argue for her being Transgendered [two different things I assure you, but you could make the leap] so I'm going to split this into two things, gender and sexuality.
Rainbow Dashes Gender: We've seen often enough that Dash does not enjoy being "Girly" she's pretty much stated that she dislikes girly stuff, ontop of this she's while, not the most masculine, she's into "Machismo" proving she's Awesome, proving she's better at sports, or flying, or what have you. She has a very Macho attitude towards loosing, and towards winning. While part of this is her external shell to hide her insecurities, one could delve into how she views herself from a gender perspective, It's possible she's gender fluid, slipping back and forth between feminine and masculine freely, as we HAVE seen her be a bit girly on occasion, without being forced to, she did enjoy her Gala dress once it was finished for instance. So I would argue, that gender wise, she's probably Gender Fluid, leaning towards Masculine tendencys. which COULD lead to more comfort as a Colt, but that would be up to her as an individual to decide.
Rainbow Dashes Sexuality: Now this is where things get interesting. I would personally argue that Rainbow Dash is atleast bisexual, with lesbian tendencys, Our first example of a relationship Dash was in would be Gilda, in "Griffon the Brush Off" The entire episode comes off as hanging out with her girlfriend from highschool. Gilda is Clearly, the older, butch of the two. What struck me as odd about the entire episode was how, protective Gilda was over Dash, she felt pinkie was trying to get in the way and kept trying to get her away so she could be alone with Rainbow Dash, There's the "Chant" the Jr Speedsters flightschool chant, that Gilda relents to reciting with Dash, that's the kind of thing you'd do for someone you love, not just a friend you hang out with [especially considering it's fairly embarassing] Also there's the "fight" at the end of the episode, that completely comes off as a lover's quarell. When Gilda is demanding that Dash follow, while Dash refuses, the entire thing comes off as a couples fight. Not close friends.
Now the next thing that kinda... as I said somewhat steps into fanon terrority, is the "Wing *****" Fans have made the observation that when a pegasus is 'excited' in whatever way, their wings extend. this has been dubbed the "wing *****" In "Over a Barrel" is where the term really came to fruit, when we see Dash standing in the crowd before the preformance, yet when she see's Pinkie Pie all dressed up, her wings extend, stay that way for the duration of the preformance, then return to her sides after. One could argue that seeing Pinkie all dressed up like that did "excite" Dash a bit. There's also some of Dashe's interactions with the Buffolo princess this episode, But that's of a lesser note.
One could also construe the event's of "Fall weather friends" as sexual tension between Applejack and Rainbow Dash. But that's a bit more of a streach for me, but mostly because any romantic tension that could be between AJ and Dash is already there with AJ and Rarity. Also Season 2 pushes Dash a bit further away from the main cast than Season 1... so it's unlikely anything would come up between AJ/Dash these days.
There's also the issue of her color pallet, which the rainbow is of course known as the symbol of the GLBTU community. But that's simply assigning her a role based on how she looks, and not how she acts.
Oh, I didn't mean to question your skills, and it is actually quite obvious from your posts that you like deconstructing things like that...
It just struck me as a typical trait of scientists... after all, I studied physics for three semesters, but the theoretical nature of it wasn't really my piece of cake, so I quit... I'm more into machines and gadgets anyway.
About the analisations themselves, it's just something that heavily reminds me of my schooldays (yeah I know I keep going back to that...), and something I didn't really enjoy in particular actually. I'm not really into deconstructing literature for myself, but I can actually get into it if there is someone to talk to about it. I'm not interessted enough to do it in my free time, but yet again curious enough to try if someone else brings it up...
What actually bothered me about your initial statement concerning those analisations was, that you made it sound like a duty to everyone who enjoys the show, or anything else for the matter. While I already agreed that it can be valuable, I just failed to see many examples where it might actually come in handy, but most importantly I don't see it as a mandatory thing to do. I'm satisfied with being able explain why I like something on a basic level, and then have people try it out for themselves and get their own oppinion on it. Showing an analisation to someone else, always strikes me as an attempt to convince him/her of my own oppinion, even though it may not be meant that way. In fact, I don't like doing that, and I think it's something everyone should keep in mind, because to me it's important that everyone else gets a chance to make up his own mind before being bombarded by someone else's oppinions.
As for RD:
I do realize that there's a huge difference between Lesbians and Transgendered, but it seems just as possible to me as I figured that the stereotype that is usually associated with homosexual women, also matches a dumbed down version of what "qualifies" a Transgender.
About the Gender:
Yes, she dislikes "girly" things (most of the time) and she often displays a macho-like-attitude, and maybe it's just me, but that doesn't strike me as something indicating a "gender-confusion" (sry, I lack a better word atm). It's yet again something that matches the stereotype I brought up, which you are often confronted with. However, I wen't to school with some girls that were somewhat like that, all of which were normal heterosexuals and had a boyfriend (I know, can't really prove personal experiences, but I don't really have anything else to draw from).
Now I said they were "somewhat" like that... To that, I wanna bring up something that struck me when reading Samaritain's post, half of which I didn't really get because I think he mixed some fanfic Ididn't read into it... anyway, for all of those characters, I think you can't really apply human standards when analising them. The reason I think so is, that their prominent character traits and emotions seem to be pretty exagerated, which isn't that uncommon in kids-cartoons, because it makes it easier for the kids to understand what a character or his reactions are about, but when you analise such a character while applying human standards, you get a profile that indicates serious psychological issues. Depression, angermanagement, just to name two which you brought up yourself.
With that in mind, the overly masculine personality/attitude of RD becomes less important in the discussion about her gender.
Not saying negligible, mind you.
About her sexuality:
I actually just rewatched to two episodes you mentioned...
Not because you mentioned them, but coincidentially I just watche "Fall weather friends" yesterday and to be perfectly honest, what you just said, also came to my mind as a possible way to look at it. About the episode with Gilda, it kinda makes sense...
However, I also think that the way you see those things heavily depends on your personal oppinion.
I always found that interpretations like that can be very dependend on the interpreter's own experiences, oppinions and mood. So while I would agree that even I had a certain impression when watching the "fall weather friends" episode yesterday, something like that never came to my mind when watching the episode with Gilda. While I think you could put it that way, to me it seemed more like those two belonged to the same clique "way back when", and gilda seems to think it's still like it used to be, just to find out it doesn't. If at all, I think that could at most be seen as Gilda having certain feelings towards RD, but throughout the whole episode RD herself always treats Gilda more like a good old friend rather than anything else. But it's not Gilda's sexuality we're discussing...
As for RD and AJ, as I said, that image came to my mind when I watched that episode yesterday, and I think it could be interpreted that way, then again, I'm not sure that idea didn't come up due to some freudian subconcious reactions caused by the phonecall from my GF right before I watched that episode, along with being reminded of RDs debated sexuality by looking at this topic.
Right now, it really seems far fetched... (Oh Freud, you're such a troll!
)
I also have an idea how to explain certain behaviour that could make you think someone was lesbian.
The thing is I don't have the psycological skills to analise that properly and I don't know the person in question well enough.
Anyway, when I was studying physics, there was a girl/woman, actually rather beatiful studying as well. At first I could have sworn she was a lesbian, just due to the way she acted towards me and other guys, and generally what she liked and did. She also sometimes brought along a friend, and I can't explain it right, but she acted differently compared to other women towards men, in a way that made me think she was "different". Later I found out that friend of hers, was actually her best friend from elementary school, and she had never had a boyfriend before, and on top of that later had a crush on me.........
In the light of those circumstances and her lack of experience, the way she acted kind of made sense.
The point is there is also more to the way people behave than what might be appearent, and trying to make a judgement based on incomplete information can be dead wrong.
I'm not saying your interpretation of the "Gilda"-episode is invalid, but as I tried to point out, if you look at it from a slightly different perspective, and keep in mind possible "personality-exageration", you can come to a different conclusion.
Do you realize how awesome it is to discuss different interpretations of something without someone trying to tell you what the only valid interpretation is?!? I think you do, it's just so refreshing to see it can work differently when you're not in school anymore
Also, sry if my post got a little random towards the end, trying to do a few other important things and it's also getting late...
on a related not:
EDIT:
Rereading my post just now, I noticed that it gets rather confusing towards the end, due to some strange language, and seemingly switching back and forth between different wordings for some of the sentences.
Please excuse me for not correcting that right now, I'm too tired...
Also, I like having such discussions, but having to write all that on the internet takes me so long I usually waste all my free time... ...well, at least it keeps me from wasting my free time on less productive things...
Edited by Sesambrot, 03 July 2012 - 01:25 PM.