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Love Queen, ep. 01-13 (complete) (spoilery)
Spoilers for the entire series
My main problem with the drama is one of the very first plot arcs, which has Jinghan pretending that Shaotang raped her. Normally, I would have just stopped watching at this; I think I only kept going because the drama was on hand. I hate the "girl who cried rape" thing so much, largely because it plays into all the cultural myths: that women will do so just to harm men; that admitting to being raped is more emotionally traumatizing to the man being accused, rather than to the woman stating her case; that women who say they were raped should be scrutinized rather than believed; and that, above all, it is easy and beneficial for a woman to speak up about it.
I'm assuming a model of men-raping-women here because of statistics for real-life rape and the prevalence of the model in pop culture, ignoring, of course, the standard pop culture threat of men raping men and the pop culture model of women raping men and then claiming they were raped.
On an artistic level (and on the false assumption that the artistic is separable from the political), it is just a stupid move because it's a subject that is much, much too serious for the drama.
Other notes:
Still, I did like the drama a lot, especially when the characters just talked to each other instead of having Plot.
My main problem with the drama is one of the very first plot arcs, which has Jinghan pretending that Shaotang raped her. Normally, I would have just stopped watching at this; I think I only kept going because the drama was on hand. I hate the "girl who cried rape" thing so much, largely because it plays into all the cultural myths: that women will do so just to harm men; that admitting to being raped is more emotionally traumatizing to the man being accused, rather than to the woman stating her case; that women who say they were raped should be scrutinized rather than believed; and that, above all, it is easy and beneficial for a woman to speak up about it.
I'm assuming a model of men-raping-women here because of statistics for real-life rape and the prevalence of the model in pop culture, ignoring, of course, the standard pop culture threat of men raping men and the pop culture model of women raping men and then claiming they were raped.
On an artistic level (and on the false assumption that the artistic is separable from the political), it is just a stupid move because it's a subject that is much, much too serious for the drama.
Other notes:
- I thought for a while that the drama would actually have one of the women going for a nice guy (Qiaole and cute other hockey guy), but of course it was not so. I am also still irritated that she gives up figure skating for him. Whyyyyyyy?
- On the other hand, I love that Jinghan and and Jiaxin quite deliberately do not compete over men and that they basically both make statements saying that their new sister is more important to them. I'm still not sure how many conversations pass the Bechdel-Wallace test, but it's a huge move, given how many dramas have the heroine vs. the evil female rival with the men never looking evil.
- I will just pretend that the writers were on crack for the ending. I didn't hate it, largely because I was forewarned (and because I wanted Jinghan and Shaotang to end up together even as I liked the Shaotang-Jiaxin relationship), but some of it was still weird. Especially Qiaole feeding chickens! Argh! And Jiaxin randomly ending up Jinjing Xiang. It'd be nice if someone ended up single and not punished for it...
Still, I did like the drama a lot, especially when the characters just talked to each other instead of having Plot.