Questionable Media Month Part 6
Dec. 25th, 2018 03:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amatyultareChapter 6 - Two Stupid Things
1. Sadie. 2. This book.
…what, that’s not it?
Adrienne has let Sadie spend the night and Sadie wakes up predictably miserably hungover. At breakfast, Adrienne breaks two big pieces of news.
First, there’s a persistent rumor going around that the drama club won’t do a show at all this year because of the infighting between Established Club Advisor and New Hot Music Teacher.
Second – oh man. Adrienne overheard Nigel asking some senior guys who would be the most likely to “give it up” easily and then settling on Sadie – even though she’s NOT ‘easy’, which is very important for us to know because Sadie is a Good Girl – reasoning that ‘she’s a wallflower and wallflowers are grateful for the attention’. (This is after Lucey is mentioned, because of course Evil Lucey is also sexually promiscuous.)
This part genuinely surprised me, though not in a good way: Sadie doesn’t care. She muses that she “wasn’t prepared to give up on Nigel because of one offhanded comment. We really clicked last night. I knew I wasn’t imagining the chemistry.” The chemistry you had when you were so drunk that you threw up. Yeah, that’s very believable.
And she’s also not upset because her older brother has already given her the low-down that all guys are jerks. I feel the need to quote this entire paragraph because it infuriates me.
“Boys are all jerks, and we’ll do anything you let us do. So you can’t do two stupid things at once, like get drunk at parties and then hook up with guys. Or drink and drive. Or have sex without a condom. You have to be the smart one, and the sober one. So be careful, because guys won’t be, okay?”
And Adrienne’s all, ha ha, your brother is pretty smart! I just – I can’t.
(Note from the future: I KNOW this kind of advice is very common, but it doesn’t make it any better. For one thing, it’s incredibly unfair to the vast majority of guys who are actually good people that you can trust. For another, when you frame men as essentially uncontrollable and move all the onus for being responsible onto women, you’re moving in a bad, victim-blaming direction.
“Oh, don’t exaggerate,” you’re probably saying now. “Sadie’s not actually going to start, say, blaming rape victims for being raped.” Remember this moment, is all I’m saying.)
Then we move onto the topic of Alex. They’ve been best friends since second grade, and Alex is “not your typical boy” (I am guessing this means he is less of a wild uncontrollable beast, ugh). Sadie says she misses him but they don’t have as much in common now, and Adrienne brings the common sense: “ ‘So you can’t be friends? Because you don’t do the same activities?’ It sounded so stupid when she said it.”
Sadie heads home and whines to her parents until they take her driving (she still has a learner’s permit and needs to log hours). They argue about who should take her, which is apparently weird. Then she starts to feel guilty over being such a jerk to Alex, and tries to talk to him. At first it goes well, but he’s distracted by a phone call by one of Evil Lucey’s Henchgirls and Sadie decides to get revenge by telling him that she’s going to Homecoming with Nigel. Also, within half a page we have both a Muse and an Adam Lambert reference. Good times.
1. Sadie. 2. This book.
…what, that’s not it?
Adrienne has let Sadie spend the night and Sadie wakes up predictably miserably hungover. At breakfast, Adrienne breaks two big pieces of news.
First, there’s a persistent rumor going around that the drama club won’t do a show at all this year because of the infighting between Established Club Advisor and New Hot Music Teacher.
Second – oh man. Adrienne overheard Nigel asking some senior guys who would be the most likely to “give it up” easily and then settling on Sadie – even though she’s NOT ‘easy’, which is very important for us to know because Sadie is a Good Girl – reasoning that ‘she’s a wallflower and wallflowers are grateful for the attention’. (This is after Lucey is mentioned, because of course Evil Lucey is also sexually promiscuous.)
This part genuinely surprised me, though not in a good way: Sadie doesn’t care. She muses that she “wasn’t prepared to give up on Nigel because of one offhanded comment. We really clicked last night. I knew I wasn’t imagining the chemistry.” The chemistry you had when you were so drunk that you threw up. Yeah, that’s very believable.
And she’s also not upset because her older brother has already given her the low-down that all guys are jerks. I feel the need to quote this entire paragraph because it infuriates me.
“Boys are all jerks, and we’ll do anything you let us do. So you can’t do two stupid things at once, like get drunk at parties and then hook up with guys. Or drink and drive. Or have sex without a condom. You have to be the smart one, and the sober one. So be careful, because guys won’t be, okay?”
And Adrienne’s all, ha ha, your brother is pretty smart! I just – I can’t.
(Note from the future: I KNOW this kind of advice is very common, but it doesn’t make it any better. For one thing, it’s incredibly unfair to the vast majority of guys who are actually good people that you can trust. For another, when you frame men as essentially uncontrollable and move all the onus for being responsible onto women, you’re moving in a bad, victim-blaming direction.
“Oh, don’t exaggerate,” you’re probably saying now. “Sadie’s not actually going to start, say, blaming rape victims for being raped.” Remember this moment, is all I’m saying.)
Then we move onto the topic of Alex. They’ve been best friends since second grade, and Alex is “not your typical boy” (I am guessing this means he is less of a wild uncontrollable beast, ugh). Sadie says she misses him but they don’t have as much in common now, and Adrienne brings the common sense: “ ‘So you can’t be friends? Because you don’t do the same activities?’ It sounded so stupid when she said it.”
Sadie heads home and whines to her parents until they take her driving (she still has a learner’s permit and needs to log hours). They argue about who should take her, which is apparently weird. Then she starts to feel guilty over being such a jerk to Alex, and tries to talk to him. At first it goes well, but he’s distracted by a phone call by one of Evil Lucey’s Henchgirls and Sadie decides to get revenge by telling him that she’s going to Homecoming with Nigel. Also, within half a page we have both a Muse and an Adam Lambert reference. Good times.
