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SPN
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jackandahat asked, if Supernatural is such a horribly misogynist show, if that hurts us so much, why are we still watching? This is a longer version of my comment/reply to that question.And as an SPN fan, I've been asking myself the same question. The best answer I have is that in the first two seasons I became hugely invested in this show. That's in the space of a year, really, as I didn't see S1 until after it was over. The whole universe it established in the first two years was fascinating, filled with real people and flawed characters with whom I could strongly identify. It was my perfect show.
If Dean was always a sexist pig, well that was just a facet of his character. It was logical, too: raised in an all-male environment by a Dad who was, ahem, less than an ideal parent. Dean put out a certain image: the leather coat, the cock-rock, the black muscle car...a certain lack of respect for women just goes with that. And it was somewhat tempered, in the early episodes, by Sam. Sam, who we saw in a loving, respectful relationship in the pilot episode. Sam didn't have to be overtly feminist: he just had to be not-Dean. It was enough.
And if the violence toward women in the show tended to be extreme and sexualised, well, it's a horror show, after all. It was expected that the show would pick up on certain cliches of the genre. And we had strong women characters as well: Mary, powerful even in death; Haley - pretty much Dean in female form; the shotgun-wielding Kat in Asylum; the awesome Missouri Mosely. And Ellen and Jo.
It wasn't just the show itself I fell in love with. I got more inspired to write by SPN than I'd been by any show in a long time. I love the friends I've made through the fandom. I love the fandom itself - the rec communities, the meta (SPN fandom is smart), the big bangs and summer fic-fests, the weekly reaction posts and so on. (Okay, I don't love the RPS obsession, but I can pretend that doesn't exist most of the time.) I even love how often SPN fandom appears on fandom_wank. It's like nothing else I've ever been part of.
But the show has changed. My favourite character was killed off. The core relationship between the heroes was killed off. Characters I once loved and respected have changed out of all recognition. The occasional WTF episode turned into it being a good week if I don't end the hour by wanting to throw my remote at the TV.
It fucking hurts.
And yet, it's hard to let that go. It's really, really hard. After 5.17, I'm beginning to feel a like someone in an abusive relationship must feel (that's an analogy; I'm not suggesting it's an equivalent), wondering why in hell I don't just up and leave, but I still know that come Friday morning I'll be back, hoping against hope to rediscover the joy instead of taking another beating.
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I guess it depends on what you get out of the show, and how sensitive you are to some things, like the rampant misogyny. But S5 has been of a very poor standard all around IMO.