grraah

[grraah]

Bad post. “women are to blame for divorce because of their inescapable and vain need to wear cute dresses and have frivolous parties.” There are such other better things to say.

i think a lot of people especially young women fixate on the idea of wanting to get married and have a wedding less bc of the actual marriage and more bc of the big party where they wear a pretty dress and everyone pays attention to them. and i don't say that in a judgmental way, i think it's very human to want attention and to have everyone think you're pretty and say nice things to you. i unironically think the divorce rate would go down if there was something like a quincanera for adults where you wear a nice outfit and everyone pays attention to you and then there's food and alcohol and dancing. like if people could just do that without also signing a legal contract binding them to another person.

[grraah]

I so genuinely mean this as a conversation and not a shutdown: I really don’t see that as a fair evaluation.

Women in severance have connections to pregnancy because it is a show about Creating People for your own reasons and those people being individuals with their own lives you can’t control. Parenthood is a theme for almost every major character on some level. (I’m curious how you see Helly/Helena as connected to pregnancy in a way that doesn’t apply to all the other severed workers?)

Every character on the show is characterized largely by who they fuck or work for or are related to, because this show is fundamentally about human relationships.

With Reghabi I see your point, especially because she disappeared so suddenly, but I do think it’s relevant that 1) she didn’t do the reintegration procedure out of concern for Mark, she seemed to have her own unrevealed motivations and didn’t give much regard to his safety and 2) the story isn’t over. We don’t know whether she’s gone forever or whether she will be relevant in season three. There are a lot of characters and plotlines that are left hanging (Petey, Ricken, Irving’s whole deal) and we don’t have any way of knowing how important any threads will be in season 3. I agree that if Reghabi doesn’t end up coming back at all, that would be shitty.

It’s not fair to say Nathalie existed solely to facilitate Milchick’s feelings on racism at Lumon, because she was established as a character well before that thread was planned. In season one she exists as a stand-in for the Board and as a mild institutional force of opposition to Ms. Cobel. She’s a relatively minor character who wasn’t focused on much this season, but her interactions with Milchick did contribute to her characterization as well as his. She was used as a tool to explore the themes of his arc, sure, but so was, say, Mr. Drummond. In good fiction every character is being used as a tool to explore themes that relate to multiple characters in different ways.

Gemma got less screen time than the refiners because she was driving the major mystery component of the show, but the Gemma episode felt to me like it established her as a character with personhood and not just Conceptual Dead Wife. In her pre-Lumon life she was shown to be a funny, intelligent person with her own interests and internal life outside of Mark. At Lumon, she was being forced into domestic roles in the various rooms, but that was being criticized, not affirmed. The way the doctor used his institutional power over her to treat her as a commodity for his predatory housewife fantasies and projected affection onto her inability to deny him was deeply chilling, but it was meant to be that way. It’s thoughtful portrayal of a form of misogynistic dehumanization and abuse that exists in both domestic and institutional contexts. I think it’s important also to consider how that specific form of misogyny overlaps with orientalism, and how it’s clearly shown to be something that is being forced on Gemma and that she’s actively fighting against and trying to escape.

It also seemed clear that Gemma is planned to play a larger part in the third season now that she’s out of the severed floor.

Some other portayals of women that I thought were really successful:

Ms. Cobel! her episode was a fascinating and well-thought-out expansion of the world and Lumon, and developed her character so deeply and thoughtfully beyond the Lumon figurehead we knew her as for most of season one. The reveal that she developed the severance chips not only contextualizes her earlier actions on season one but also establishes her as a major, major influence on Severance’s world at large. She literally invented the technology that is the premise of the show.

I also liked this season’s handling of Devon, who was consistently a proactive character, and didn’t stop being relevant once she was no longer pregnant— they didn’t go “she’s completed her arc, time to stop paying attention to her”, her arc this season had nothing to do with being a mother (actually, now that I think about it, what happened to her baby? I guess Ricken was watching it when she was driving around), and we learned about Devon’s connection to Gemma. The show was very clear that Devon was also impacted by Gemma’s supposed death and in the Gemma episode we see a genuine and strong relationship between the two of them that has very little to do with Mark and even has some subtle romantic undercurrents.

Also! Helena Eagan. Like with Ms. Cobel, they developed on a character that could have been easily painted as a one-note scheming bitch and instead wrote her with nuance, compassion, and realism. Helena had a lot of humanity. This could be a whole essay in and of itself but Helena’s mixture of vulnerability and cruelty, her performance of complete detached control and her unhappiness with her life, her covert insecurity, the exploration of what freedoms Helly and Helena each have that the other does not, the way they ended last season as completely distinct and separate forces and over the course of this season became more entangled and the question of how different they really are got more complicated… there was a tremendous amount of depth to her portrayal that existed outside of just the Mark romance.

Dylan and Milchick’s arcs were continuations of their season one arcs, because the story of season two is a continuation of the story of season one. They’re not just rehashing old plotlines— Dylan’s outie is learning about him, Dylan is interacting with his wife and not just speculating about the idea of her. In season one Dylan learned about the existence of his outside family and realized the greater scope of everything Lumon was robbing him of. In this season he got to interact with the family he’s deprived of, and the story explored the ways innie Dylan is fulfilled where outie Dylan is not. It’s an extension of a main theme of season two: the similarities and differences between innies and outies, and how severance means that everything one half has is something that the other half is deprived of. It’s pretty different from season one, where we were basically just learning what drives the severed workers, and establishing the world.

With Milchick, his character was developed on much more fully than in season one. If season one Milchick was demanding respect and control, season two Milchick was given what should have been the respect and authority he had been seeking, and learned that it was false and that no matter how well he plays Lumon’s game they will deny him dignity and acceptance. They very much did invest time in his development as a character. This question and answer from Rolling Stones’ interview with series creator Dan Erickson seems relevant:

Whether you’re happy with the show’s handling of institutional racism or not, it was something that the showrunner intentionally considered and sought black perspectives on.

Apologies for the walls of text. I’m more than willing to reassess my opinions—please, genuinely, I would love to hear your thoughts, I like discussing media (obviously lol)— and I see where you’re coming from with a lot of your concerns, but this post seems like a bit of a bad-faith interpretation to me.

I'm going to need people to start acknowledging that, despite what may be good intentions, Severance is a misogynistic and racist show. Almost every woman is written in relation to pregnancy, as if it's unfathomable for them not to be. The white women in the show barely have developed characterisation outside either men they fuck or work for or are related to. The women of colour are just plot devices to further men's plots (see: regahbi disappearing once reintegration successfully starts, Gemma having next to no screentime compared to any of the main characters just to make Mark sad, Natalie existing to facilitate Milchick's conflicted feelings on racism at Lumon). Dylan and Milchick just spent a whole season essentially experiencing the same character arch as the previous (Dylan learning of his outies' life and trying to be at peace with it, Milchick demanding respect and control he will never be given), as if their growth as characters isn't worth investing in. It's become abundantly clear after 18+ hours of television that this show is primarily written by white men who don't actually know or care to write women, women of colour, and Black people with the compassion or depth extended to white people. And that's simply not good enough from a show that made it's audience wait 3 years for an update and spends 30 million dollars an episode to make. I'd love to think these glaring issues were an intentional attempt to portray racism and misogyny, but they aren't because the show never offers up anything beyond the white usually male perspective. I wanted severance to be better than this but I'm so disappointed and tired.

[grraah]

Because god forbid she not stop during this life-or-death escape sprint to be so so demure and supplicant and supportive of Mark S. after having spent two years in the torture dungeon being forced to be polite and formal and well-behaved and play house while being dehumanized and sexually harrassed 🙄 she should have been Good and Silent and Deferred to Mark like Helly did, instead of like. Having emotions.

Nevermind that Mark S got Ms. Casey to go through the door in the exact same way literally seconds earlier(“you have to go. Right now.” “Where?” “COME ON, YOU GOTTA GO! RIGHT NOW! GO, GO!”). That didn’t upset you the way this did for some reason 🤔 Your opinion has absolutely nothing to do with any oppressive sexist social norms that are enforced more intensely upon Asian women.

i do understand gemma’s frustration and desperation at the end, but notice how the pleading was more like a demand… let’s go home mark.. no no no no. open this door mark. whereas helly was a proper plea. she waited at the end of the hallway for him to make the choice. she called for him once, and watched. she respected his agency, his choice.

[grraah]

It was a Britt Lower Adam Scott and Dichen Lachman photoshoot :) hope this helps

New Britt Lower and Adam Scott photoshoot

[grraah]

Dichen Lachman was also part of the photoshoot! You cropped her out and phrased it as if it was exclusively the other two, but her outfit is obviously related to the others, and taking the time to remove her from it changes the context pretty significantly!

Adam Scott and Britt Lower for the LA Times ♥️

They really said “we’ll wear two pieces of the same tuxedo.” Lmao.

[grraah]

Where did anyone say anything even implying that? Point it out to me, please. Use your reading skills, and pay attention only to this post, not things you could imagine someone saying or other unrelated posts you’ve read. Did anyone say “women can do whatever the fuck they want by conceiving of themselves as victims” or anything even slightly adjacent to that? Or did they say “it is tone-policing and unfair to paint women as bitches for making jokes related to their societal oppression”? Let’s really sit and think about this for a while.

i see "men bad" jokes as very similar to suicide jokes. like making them every once in a while isn't the worst thing, but if you Keep making them constantly. it DOES shape how you start thinking and you WILL become a more unpleasant and bitter person and also make people around you uncomfortable. and sometimes you just gotta choose to not make or engage with certain jokes, even if they are amusing to you, because its just not who you wanna be

[grraah]

“Women who refer to themselves as victims for having been oppressed abused and dehumanized by men are JUST like fascists actually” is not the level-headed and reasonable take your holier-than-thou attitude seems to suggest you think it is.

i see "men bad" jokes as very similar to suicide jokes. like making them every once in a while isn't the worst thing, but if you Keep making them constantly. it DOES shape how you start thinking and you WILL become a more unpleasant and bitter person and also make people around you uncomfortable. and sometimes you just gotta choose to not make or engage with certain jokes, even if they are amusing to you, because its just not who you wanna be

[grraah]

@re-dracula The trigger warning for the October 3rd episode doesn’t strike me as particularly useful? I at least had no idea what to be prepared for. “assault” is a pretty broad term, and could mean anything from someone getting punched to graphic onscreen sexual assault. Appending “horrific” to it does very little to clarify the actual nature of the assault, and is subjective besides. I get that you probably want the descriptions to be vague enough not to be spoilery, but there has to be some clearer way to phrase that.

[grraah]

How are you missing the point this badly. You’re talking about how important not considering women a victim class and anti racism were in this trial where it was determined that a white woman was an evil manipulator who was only pretending to be a victim. “Obviously this isn’t women’s fault” buddy you super made it sound like you were blaming women in the original post. It is not obvious that you think that.

I never want to hear about the alleged innate sisterhood of women again when thousands of overwhelmingly white, cis women just signed off on a woman’s public revictimization cause they want to fuck a man who played a pirate 20 years ago