Discussion History Series / TheNewsroom

I think the \\\"technicolor rainbow of different reasons people cite for why porn is bad\\\" is probably why Tats isn\\\'t scoring any \\\"feminist\\\" points (at least with me) by being anti-porn. Even if one assumes that the S&M elements of that one scene were a necessity to introduce the \\\"porn-o-cutioner\\\" concept, and Tats isn\\\'t saying anything about fetishes, his opinion is still muddled and it would probably take a rant or a few solid weeks of all-dialogue strips to sort it all out. On the one hand, he\\\'s yet to show anything in porn that doesn\\\'t look like a reflection of deeper social ills or (in Uncle Sam\\\'s case at least) personal flaws. Sam could be used to make the clearest statement on porn- his \\\"imperialist porn\\\" is something he\\\'s almost certainly watching because of his frustrated imperial ambitions and not existing tastes in erotic material- but the way it was presented makes it look like him and Liberty are having communication issues (because of his flaws, but not related to the porn) and the porn thing is just secondary, an outlet for his frustration in both the relationship and his \\\"job\\\". It doesn\\\'t help that the only non-devil characters with any sex drive are male (Nique doesn\\\'t count because even the old her wasn\\\'t looking for sex, just attention), which leads to two problems that parallel real-life issues: the \\\"all porn is straight male\\\" thing looks even more problematic (since it connects to a general if unintended \\\"only men want sex\\\" implication), and Sam in particular looks like he first turned to porn because Lib was never \\\"in the mood\\\"- I get that it\\\'s really because he\\\'s a jerk and it\\\'s killed the \\\"flame\\\", but when I wasn\\\'t thinking about it too closely it looked like she just wasn\\\'t meeting his needs and he was watching porn instead of talking about it. That\\\'s not healthy, but it muddles any statement Tats wants to make about porn (though it does set up a great one about communication in a relationship, especially given how Sam reacts to being confronted; the problem is that, while on its own the situation is realistic and well-written, in the context of the rest of the strip it\\\'s just another easily misread, UnfortunateImplications-laden storyline).

I agree with you about the potential in the current Nique-Fuschia strips. When you think about it, Fuchsia has actually never been the \\\"fallen woman saved by her love for a hero\\\"- she was first \\\"saved\\\" by Jesus himself turning her back into a human, and loving Crim is just helping her hold on to her humanity even after the Devil re-bamfed her. The only thing Crim did on his own was make her less violent and maybe give her her passion for stories (although it could be that she always loved stories and that\\\'s why he affected her more than Blue in the first place); she left the Devil for real because of the Sisterhood and it looks like her other issues are going to be dealt with by fighting the Patriarchy and talking to Nique. It\\\'s nice to see a love story and a redemption story that don\\\'t cross into straight LoveRedeems, ironically despite being the page image for that trope.

EDIT: just saw today\\\'s strip. The Devil finally gets to be funny again!