Spike didn't really attempt to rape Buffy. The writers made him do it. He never would have done that on his own

(brain explodes)

Raq, just think of it as the same phenomenon where angry housewives approach soap opera stars in supermarkets and hit them for cheating on their favorite characters. No ability to perceive the distinction between real life and fiction.

Fandom is a nutty place, sometimes.

You know, they should have left the bedroom prep scene in in Smashed. Make it damn good and clear what they thought Spike was capable of right then and there. I mean, they wrote it, and the Roxy Music alone would have been worth it.

I do not know of this scene. What was in it?

Raq, just think of it as the same phenomenon where angry housewives approach soap opera stars in supermarkets and hit them for cheating on their favorite characters. No ability to perceive the distinction between real life and fiction.

See, this is even weird to me, because don't you watch soaps to see people cheat?

But, yeah, I get the point. It just makes my brain all hurty.

See, this is even weird to me, because don't you watch soaps to see people cheat?

I watch 'em for the reaction shots. I figure there's an unexplored connection between daytime soaps and the world of mime.

What was in it?

I think a cattle prod. Or a stun gun. Anyway, toys that indicated that Spike did not play nice.

Also rope, IIRC, or chains. Restrain-y things, in any case.

Also rope, IIRC, or chains. Restrain-y things, in any case.

Handcuffs I think, or manacles.

I didn't see it that way, but I haven't watched Buffy in a while, so I might just be in the wrong headspace for this.

Didn't see what that way? I don't think that of Buffy/Spike. It reads to me that that sentiment at least fed into that lj entry that was linked at the fw thread. I stopped reading and started skimming about here...

It puzzled me a lot at the time, and still does. I can fully understand being completely 100% pissed off at Buffy - I was too - but how did that lead people to the sudden conclusion that Spike was gay? o.O If anything, Buffy was the one showing a lack of interest in a heterosexual relationship on the show.

Then there was a bunch of stuff about how Christianity invented black and white world views, and guilt. Then there was this:

So what BtVS did was force a fundamentalist viewpoint onto a bunch of women who, rather innocently, just thought Spike was sexy as all hell. Which he was. The writers became increasingly frustrated over time because they weren't instilling their own dogmatic beliefs into the viewers - people still liked Spike, contrary to the black-and-white worldview the writers were trying to force us into - so they lashed out with the strongest weapon they had, the weapon used by so many religions over the years: Guilt. Rape is an unforgivable crime...except it was obvious to a vast portion of people that the attempted rape wasn't about rape; it was a wild and desperate attempt to manipulate them into feeling the way the writers were trying to order them to feel. Hence, the backlash.