Impossibly Pretty People. Guh.

[alixtii]

cofax7 has a post on impossibly pretty casts and how we as audiences react to and fanwank the impossible attractiveness of the characters.

I think I think of Sunnydale as being inhabited by impossibly attractive people, but it never bothered me. For one thing, Sunnydale always struck me as a (white) upper-middle class community--even if many of the people were lower class people who could afford to act upper-class because of low property values. I went to a private high school and a private university and a lot of people were impossibly attractive there, too. I suppose if I thought about it it should have been a lot more of a problem on Veronica Mars, where the 02ers wouldn't have been able to afford to keep themselves looking like the 09ers.

Plus the Hellmouth lets you fanwank anything.

I only really think about this when I create OCs, because my first impulse is to always create OCs who are pretty (not so-impossibly-Mary-Sue-pretty, but pretty) girls, because I am shallow, and then I feel guilty and like a bad liberal. Then I think about the rest of the population of Sunnydale, realize an unattractive female would be really out of place, and stop feeling guilty. (I'm not someone who feels fic should be more realistic than canon. Unexpected realism--for example, witches in the Jossverse talking like real-world Wiccans--throws me out of the world of the fic.)

And I rarely mention in the fic whether the character is pretty, so it's really just my imagination I have to worry about. Although my Character Index has pictures of some of the OCs, which are usually taken from IMDb or otherwise of (impossibly attractive) actors.

Comments

[hjcallipygian.livejournal.com]

Well -- it's not reality, is it? It's entertainment. And if I'm going to spend an hour of my time staring at people doing (mostly) ridiculous things, well, I'd much rather stare at people I find aesthetically pleasing. That just makes sense.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

No, agreed, certainly. But apparently some people, while certainly enjoying what's up on the screen, are pretending that it is a representation of a truer reality where the people aren't so impossibly pretty. And I really don't do that.

I mean, it's not like I never treat canon as if were real; I'm a huge canon whore. But even when I do that, it's more hyperreal than anything else; I don't get caught up in the ways it's different than this reality.

[faith-chaos.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Much like you I grew up around pretty people [mother was a model, aunt was an actress]. I went to Catholic school and all the girls were teh pretty [made for some nice self-image issues, I might add] and most of my friends were gorgeous, so when I look at the TV, I don't generally think about how characters are so pretty, it's just the way it is. In TV, much like in real life, I think that once you get to know a person or a character, the physical aspect of them, the way they look, stops registering, or at least it stops being a major issue.

As for OC's, well, I usually think up nice people. Not drop-dead gorgeous but nice to look at. Maybe cause if they were, say, ugly, they wouldn't mix in, you know? they wouldn't blend in with the other characters and then I would have to make an issue of their appearances. Plus, have you ever seen an ugly slayer?

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

In TV, much like in real life, I think that once you get to know a person or a character, the physical aspect of them, the way they look, stops registering, or at least it stops being a major issue.

*nods*

Maybe cause if they were, say, ugly, they wouldn't mix in, you know?

Well, I guess I feel like I should be thinking up, I don't know, not ugly people per se, but plain or homely? Which, again, is silly, because how would the fact be conveyed in fic, which when I'm writing is almost firmly entrenched in some POV or other.

Plus, have you ever seen an ugly slayer?

Some Slayers have met my preferences better than others. Further this respondant sayeth not.

[spikendru.livejournal.com]

Love your character index! That is such a cool idea. Although, my favorite OC is a 99-year-old man with cataracts in both eyes who resembles a gnome more than a supermodel. Hee! But your Althenea definitely resembles mine. (See icon)

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

That's . . . certainly a head of hair. Who's the base for your icon? My Althanea is "played" by my favorite actress, Miranda Richardson. (I have a list of all the actors "playing" the favorite OCs, except that I lost the name of the actor who "plays" Beth.) You certainly need someone who can pull of the "Wise woman" look for Althanea.

I am surprisingly organized when it comes to fanfic, considering the rest of my life.

[spikendru.livejournal.com]

My base is Sharon Maughan, the British actress who played opposite ASH in the Nescafe Gold Blend Coffee commercials. The Indian-looking dress and clunky jewelry in this particular pic sort of added to the Wise woman look, I thought, rather than going for the glamor: