I think Moffat has already done the heavy lifting required for me to not give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to writing women. They come off better onscreen than they do in his interviews, but when it comes to filling in the cracks and answering questions, I remember shit like this:
"There’s this issue you’re not allowed to discuss: that women are needy. Men can go for longer, more happily, without women. That’s the truth. We don’t, as little boys, play at being married - we try to avoid it for as long as possible. Meanwhile women are out there hunting for husbands."
So it colours my interpretation of the Irenes of the world. It can't not.
Apparently, that particular quote was taken out of actual context.
Me, my Moffat memory is always going to be the whole bimbos in miniskirts thing from his Usenet days.
Do you have the larger context? I'd be interested to see how that's mitigated with other words.
Do you have the larger context? I'd be interested to see how that's mitigated with other words.
Someone amended a rant on it with it at one point recently, but I can't get to it from here. The apparent context was him speaking about character POVs in Coupling, rather than his own personal POV.
Not that he doesn't say utterly stupid things on a regular basis. I just think that he writes complex women better than almost any other male writer, despite himself.
I just think that he writes complex women better than almost any other male writer, despite himself.
I've seen that before: there are writers who are openly anti-feminist, and who might even say things about women that I disagree with fiercely--and yet in their fiction, they give me multiple women with complicated agendas and importance to the plot.
Granted, there aren't a lot of those writers, but it's more common than you would think. Possibly because actually writing sexist fiction results in bad fiction, or at least fiction with poor characterizations, IMO.
I've seen that before: there are writers who are openly anti-feminist, and who might even say things about women that I disagree with fiercely--and yet in their fiction, they give me multiple women with complicated agendas and importance to the plot.
Dave Sim used to write great women characters.
Amy, is that the article you're saying mitigates the quote? Because I don't see it.
After some foreplay on BBC3, and despite an American remake bombing last year, the clever sitcom about six friends in various states of romantic fulfilment is returning to BBC2 with Steve (Jack Davenport) and Susan (Sarah Alexander) - the couple loosely based on Moffat and his wife, also Susan, the producer of the show - awaiting the birth of their first child. Jane, played by Gina Bellman, is the fantasist, often handed the best lines, like this from the new run: "You can’t expect to come in for a few drinks and end up in my bed like some kind of taxi driver!" Sally (Kate Isitt) is the needy one.
"I don’t know how well women come out of Coupling," says Moffat, the son of a headmaster, who taught English in Greenock before following his original writerly instincts and scoring his first success with Press Gang. "There’s this issue you’re not allowed to discuss: that women are needy. Men can go for longer, more happily, without women. That’s the truth. We don’t, as little boys, play at being married - we try to avoid it for as long as possible. Meanwhile women are out there hunting for husbands."
I mean, he goes on to say:
So, post-New Man, post-Lad, where does the male of the species stand now? "Well, the world is vastly counted in favour of men at every level - except if you live in a civilised country and you’re sort of educated and middle-class, because then you’re almost certainly junior in your relationship and in a state of permanent, crippled apology. Your preferences are routinely mocked. There’s a huge, unfortunate lack of respect for anything male."
If Plei's right, there's stuff missing that makes him look like less of a royal ass, and I'm not finding it there.
I don't think it mitigates the quote, I just knew where to find it.
So, post-New Man, post-Lad, where does the male of the species stand now? "Well, the world is vastly counted in favour of men at every level - except if you live in a civilised country and you’re sort of educated and middle-class, because then you’re almost certainly junior in your relationship and in a state of permanent, crippled apology. Your preferences are routinely mocked. There’s a huge, unfortunate lack of respect for anything male."
Yeah, NSM with the mitigation.
It's the article I cut and pasted from above, so I was wondering what Plei's referring to.
