Quote:
Jo is a narrow-minded, manipulative,
self-centered, egotistical, emotionally blackmailing, hypocritical,
interfering, exploitative, COW, and what fun to see her get her
come-uppance and be universally reviled or shunned by her emotionally
abused children
and
Quote:
Even if she weren't a friend, dangit. And she
is.
I think, Kathy, that you have highlighted for me one of
the cruxes with the Joey-bashing phenomena (and I was also interested to
hear from Nightwing about misogynistic attitudes/attacks on female
characters in other fora).
I would hazard a guess that the majority
of CS readers on this board came to books as children, and immersed
themselves uncritically in the world of CS. As a child I was a definite
Joey and ML worshipper, and totally bought the myth and revisionist
histories that EBD created for Joey, in particular. I wanted to be invited
to Freudisheim, and be ne of the blessed few who got invited to call her
Aunty because of my winning personality. 
However, coming back to
them as comfort reads as an adult, critique of the books and characters
cannot fail to creep in, although it never really supplants the childhood
emotional link to - as you succintly put it - my old friends. So I find
myself in a quandary - the adult response to the adult Jo, and my
childhood love for *all* aspects of Jo (and Mary-Lou). It leaves on with a
slight feeling of being duped. And it also build on the slight suspicion
that I had as a child that Joey might have been like one of those 'cool'
teachers, who surrounded themselves with a bit of a special gang. Finding
a group of people lie the CBB, to bitch and moan about Joey is a little
cathartic. It feels ok, because we are all 'in the family'.
The
second point that I'd like to make is the difficult path the CBB has to
negotiate - it mixes critique with emotional response. If we are to
critique the books, and treat EBD as an author of merit, we maybe ought to
assume that the development of Joey's character, as shown by behaviour,
actions and plot, is deliberate on her part. And to contrast that with the
'internalized' concept of Joey, as presented to us via other characters is
a valid thing to do.
(of course, we could all also argue that EBD
wasn't a great author, particularly in later years, and her work wont
stand up to that sort of close critique. She thought she was writing a
character than conformed to the 'myth'. Still, by looking at how she fails
to produce the character she intends allows us to speculate wildly at her
own inner demons/emotions etc etc)
But when critiquing say, the
adult Jo charcter, discussions on the CBB always stray into emotional
territory. It's great! I like it that way. They yo-yo between more typical
(almost) objective discussion of the
books and characters, and talking
about the story and characters as if they were real. Thus pointing out
inconsistencies between the way Joey behaves, and the way EBD wants us to
see her behaviour, naturally then seeps into our emotional response as
well.
Phew... almost there....
And so, because there are an
awful lot of books, with an awful lot of incidents like these to discuss,
AND because Jo (and ML) are presented as paragons, and somehow
invulnerable, the emotional response to Joey can take on a certain kind of
momentum, ending with the caricature Kathy quotes above. I think this is
unavoidable given the nature of the board, but I wouldn't sacrifice the
chance to critique to prevent Jo-bashing, and I also wouldn't want to lose
the emotional responses/personal aspect of the board discussions
either.
Sorry, this was going to be a single line response!
Hah!
ETA: of course, I actually think a lot of this stems from EBD
didactic attitude, telling us how we (and new girls) ought to think/feel
about Joey/Mary-Lou etc. No one likes to be told what to think, especially
intelligent women (the majority of this boards membership *waves to
intelligent men too*), hence we rebel! |
It's not
even as though I'm an enormous fan of the series. The only one who I am a
fan of is Hilda - she keeps me reading the books. 
) 
which came as a horrible
shock! As Maeve says, it's lovely to be able to discuss the characters
with people who have, at least, a qualified affection for them.