"The Grand"
Jan. 23rd, 2012 01:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chocolatepotYou know, I was all psyched to watch this because I'd seen people talking about how "inappropriate" (read: involves sex) and trashy it was. And when it started out, I was so happy that there was an important character (Miss Harkness) who was a semi-retired courtesan/madam, and the show wasn't judgmental about her profession. I like period media that addresses issues like that, that goes "hey, the Victorian/Edwardian 'fallen women are either heartless or constantly bemoaning their fate' thing wasn't really universal, more of the kind of thing society wanted to be true."
But then she gets all sad because she may have money and nice clothes, but really she has ~nothing~. And Marcus's lover, Ruth, is rude and cold and doesn't like the Grand (= she's Not Good). And Monica, the maid Miss Harkness took under her wing and taught to be a lady (just to be a lady, although I thought at first she was going to make her a successful mistress) oh no slept with a man and was his mistress despite Miss Harkness saying it was a bad life! And then when he leaves her to go back to London, she decides to take up prostitution, so of course she gets beaten up and raped by three men. And then she kills one and goes to prison, because Such is the Downfall of the Soiled Dove.
God damn it, Russell T Davies. You suck and ruin everything. I'm really not a hardcore sex-positive feminist in the "sex workers are all empowered" vein, but a well-off and successful prostitute in 1920 could have a lot more independence than most other women. And instead he chose to go with a completely unoriginal, cliché, and frankly regressive storyline. And that's without going into how Marcus starts off a total ass but seems to be redeemed by the love of a good woman, which is not even a storyline I have a problem with, in general.
But then she gets all sad because she may have money and nice clothes, but really she has ~nothing~. And Marcus's lover, Ruth, is rude and cold and doesn't like the Grand (= she's Not Good). And Monica, the maid Miss Harkness took under her wing and taught to be a lady (just to be a lady, although I thought at first she was going to make her a successful mistress) oh no slept with a man and was his mistress despite Miss Harkness saying it was a bad life! And then when he leaves her to go back to London, she decides to take up prostitution, so of course she gets beaten up and raped by three men. And then she kills one and goes to prison, because Such is the Downfall of the Soiled Dove.
God damn it, Russell T Davies. You suck and ruin everything. I'm really not a hardcore sex-positive feminist in the "sex workers are all empowered" vein, but a well-off and successful prostitute in 1920 could have a lot more independence than most other women. And instead he chose to go with a completely unoriginal, cliché, and frankly regressive storyline. And that's without going into how Marcus starts off a total ass but seems to be redeemed by the love of a good woman, which is not even a storyline I have a problem with, in general.
