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Reactionary Fantasy: Difference between revisions
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This was common in [[The Sixties]]. For instance, as feminism was breaking out all over, television produced shows that featured [[No Guy Wants an Amazon|powerful women]] cheerfully suppressing their true natures in order to be a loving, compliant, submissive helpmeet to an average guy. For instance, Jeannie of ''[[I Dreamof Jeannie]]'' must hide that she was a genie, and Samantha of ''[[Bewitched (TV)|Bewitched]]'' must deny her supernatural heritage to be a "good wife" to Darrin. The message was clear: even women with superpowers should be content to [[Stay in The Kitchen]].
Best of all is if these shows can [[Viewers
There are counter-arguments that the depictions of strong heroines like Buffy, [[Veronica Mars]] and others show the equally [[Reactionary Fantasy]] that strong female characters live sucky lives. But while it's true that female heroes often fight both [[Rogues Gallery|Rogues Galleries]] on the streets ''and'' personal problems at home, many male heroes do the same. [[Double Standard|And no one accuses Batman of being]] [[Girls Need Role Models|a disgrace to his gender]]. Part of this may be pure backlash: No one tries to hold up Batman as a feminist/masculist role model for his gender (perhaps for ''humanity'', but not for males period). And the cycle continues.
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Contrast [[Feminist Fantasy]]. Only tangentially related to [[Michael Moorcock]]'s famous essay [http://www.revolutionsf.com/article.php?id=953 Epic Pooh], which deals with much more overt reactionary attitudes in the fantasy genre.
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
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== Film ==
* The old "road-show" movies of the '30s-through-'60s would try to evade local censorship by setting up outside of town. They would also cover themselves by presenting the "depravity" of their films as an object lesson. Sometimes this would happen only in a "clean-up" reel that would be shown only when local law enforcement sat in.
* Several examples exist in film before television was common, e.g., ''[[Reefer Madness (Film)|Reefer Madness]]'', ''Invasion USA'', ''Children of Loneliness''. Feature length [[Very Special Episode|Very Special Episodes]] that show that folks [[Can't Get Away With Nuthin']], and that any deviation from the norm will kill you.
* It's not hard to see many [[Slasher Film|Slasher Films]] of the '80s this way either. The victims of the killer are nearly always teenagers who rebelled against society through drinking, doing drugs, having sex, partying, listening to rock, and other things. The [[Final Girl]] of nearly all of these movies was invariably a [[Token Wholesome]] virgin. Starting in the late '90s, however, slasher films tended more towards subverting, parodying and/or [[Genre Deconstruction|deconstructing]] these aspects more than they played them straight.
** Of course, since most 1980s film studio executives were old enough to remember when the [[Hays Code]] was at the height of its power, [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|simply]] ''[[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|showing]]'' [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|some kind of subversive behavior might have seemed shocking to them, irrespective of whether or not it was depicted sympathetically]].
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* Similarly, the ''[[Star Trek the Original Series (TV)|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' episode "The Way to Eden", which teaches that idealistic dreams of a perfectly enlightened and peaceful Elysian society are deadly self-delusion unless framed within socially acceptable norms.
** Chalk it up to [[Gene Roddenberry]] bowing to [[Executive Meddling]]. A few other ''TOS'' episodes, most infamously "The Omega Glory", were reportedly the result of this behind-the-scenes pressure.
*** The novelization of ''[[Star Trek:
* This is also an aspect of ''[[CSI]],'' which, as [http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/articles/category_1233.html Television Without Pity] shows us, proves that any unwed man or woman who consents to and enjoys having sex (especially if the sex is in any way [[Good People Have Good Sex|not "normal"]]: obese people, furries, swingers, etc.) will [[Death By Sex|almost certainly die]], while rapists and rape victims often live to tell the tale.
** This sort of parses in the "fantasy" aspect of "reactionary fantasy". All this stuff we're supposed to hate and be disgusted by is often done in lurid, creepy, obsessive detail. This allows the viewing audience a double-edged thrill: they can be horrified and morally offended that it happened, and also get the kinky zing of all the descriptions of nubile teenagers tied up in leather and violated. You can see these sort of things in a lot of old "pulp lesbian novel" covers.
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* And Dr. [[House (TV)|House]]. If sex doesn't kill you, you'll survive to have death-sentenced children. Gregory House is somehow needed to keep a decent reproductive rate on Earth.
** ''[[House (TV)|House]]'' has gone both ways (though not, [[Ho Yay|regrettably]], [[Incredibly Lame Pun|with Wilson]]). Cameron gets high on crystal meth taken from a patient and jumps Chase, leading to a relationship which escalates to a wedding in the Season 5 finale. House and Stacy {{spoiler|have adulterous sex}} before House decides that restarting their relationship would be a bad idea. Thirteen's various escapades are a consequence of her discovery that she has Huntington's chorea, but she doesn't catch anything from them. Well, nothing worse than {{spoiler|an incidental fungal infection which gives her cracked lips and}} helps House [[Eureka Moment|solve a case]]. "Another life saved by girl-on-girl action!"
** [[Hey
* Even ''[[Bones]]'' couldn't resist some [[Acceptable Lifestyle Targets]] with the episode ''Death in the Saddle'' where a man is killed by his depraved sexual partner after he told her that he was not going to see her any more. (They were into pony play.) There is even an [[Anvilicious]] speech at the end by Booth stating that [[Good People Have Good Sex]].
* The subversion/reversal to end all subversions: ''[[The Addams Family (TV)|The Addams Family]].'' Not only were they eccentric (read: crazy), but Gomez and Morticia kissed ''all the time''. And all the "[[Muggles|normal people]]" on the show were shocked -- but the audience wasn't, and wasn't supposed to be, despite [[No Hugging, No Kissing|the usual behavior of married couples on early 1960s TV]].
* ''[[Bewitched (TV)|Bewitched]]'': Samantha could literally have anything she wanted by simply twitching her nose yet she willingly suppressed this power on the demand of a man with whom she tried to live a normal human life of domestic bliss. This despite the fact that the magical world she comes from is a far more interesting and liberated place.
** Given that the show pointed out that not only were witches equally as powerful as warlocks, many were stronger, so liberation was inevitable.
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== Professional Wrestling ==
* Women's wrestling in general, particularly in [[WWE]]. Even though all the WWE Divas of at least the past decade have been rigorously trained, and at roughly the same level as the male wrestlers (heck, their coach for many years, Dave Finlay, was male!), after all is said and done they still are viewed - at least by the audience if not necessarily by the bookers - as mere sexual objects, with [[Excuse Plot|lazy storylines]] and often inconsistent characterization. Male wrestlers may be sexually objectified, too, but this has happened much less frequently (Lex Luger and early [[Shawn Michaels]] come to mind, as does [[Cody Rhodes]] in our own era) - and it's not at all uncommon for a [[Hollywood Homely]] male wrestler like [[Chris Benoit]] to be portrayed as a straight-up [[All
** The bitter irony of all this? Female wrestlers fared pretty well as far as characterization went back in the pre-feminist early days of wrestling, but were (reportedly) pimped and even raped behind the scenes. Now, it seems, the opposite is true: women in wrestling are respected in [[Real Life]] but degraded in the performances.
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