Buffy : Season 8

1. trunktheslayer: Hey Scott, sorry but I’m gonna be "that guy" (and I don’t just mean with the long-winded question): Either last issue or the issue before, there was a letter published by someone named Raki. To say the least, the letter was blatantly homophobic. Now, I’m all for showing diversity of opinion but this letter was something far more bigoted. I meant to ask before, and I kind of need to, but why publish it? Especially when we’ve already seen so many "I don’t like Buffy going gay" letters? Then in today’s issue, a counter-letter is finally published and then not only was it essentially dismissed, but immediately followed by yet another "I don’t like Buffy going gay" letter. I don’t think this is a mark on you personally. I’m just trying to understand the reason for 1)posting the Raki letter in the first place, given how blatantly offensive it was to a certain group within the fandom and 2)Why immediately follow one of the few openly pro-gay letters with an almost direct counter to it(that didn’t say anything we haven’t heard a thousand times)? Like I said, I hate to be ’that guy’ but yea, I’m offended to put it simply. The Raki letter was bad. Really bad. Seeing a counter to it was a really nice surprise...until it essentially got written off with a "Sorry you feel that way, we didn’t mean it" and followed up by the exact same type of letter it was referring to.

Scott Allie: Why publish it—So that everyone is heard, and you guys can respond. As I’ve said a million times, I run almost every letter we get, and the only ones I edit are the ones that I think are just unfounded attacks on my creators. Readers complain because they think I censor letters (I don’t) and other complain because I don’t (I won’t). The Whedon fandom has a surprisingly diverse range of beliefs, including beliefs counter to what Joss’s work is all about. I find that interesting. I didn’t find Raki’s letter that offensive—she hates what we’re doing on a number of levels, hates the gay content in the series, thinks we’re doing it for bad reasons, and would probably argue that that’s not homophobia talking. I’ve read and heard much more hateful speech than Raki’s—just because I disagree with something doesn’t make it offensive to me. It has to rise to a higher level than that. Even if she said lesbians are awful people, which I don’t think she does—that’s an opinion, one I find more outlandish and silly than offensive. If she said lesbians should be rounded up and beheaded, I’d draw the line, but still—asinine more than anything else. And are you saying I dismissed Danny Hirschhorn’s letter? Absolutely not. I said I was sorry because I was sorry he felt that way. I’d done something wrong if I made him feel that way. I emailed him privately, basically the same reply I posted in the lettercol, and judging by his response I don’t think he felt blown off. You feel I should not run distasteful letters. That’s certainly a fair call. I don’t want to be the guy deciding what’s offensive and what’s not, so I’m not gonna do it, unless it’s REALLY over the top. Here in Portland, Oregon, we live in a bit of a bubble—we’re so liberal, we sometimes forget that the rest of the world doesn’t think like us. We’re shocked when we see Fox News. While I will never move away from my liberal Mecca, I think it’s dangerous to forget the other side’s out there; and I think it’s good for us to look out from our safety zone at the harsh world out there. Some would say that we should keep our safety zone safe, but I want to be the lookout. In the Buffy comic, I think we can look out from a place where we know that we’re ultimately safe, ultimately good to each other, and keep an eye on what the phobes are all about.

2. bamph: Something I’ve been wondering about. Twilight wants to end all magic.Amy is a witch and is basically addicted to magic if you go by season 6 and magic is basically the thing keeping Warren around. So my next question is,why would they be on board with working with Twilight and helping him end magic when they themselves are almost defined by magic especially Amy? It doesn’t make sense when you think about it unless Twilight promised them something in return for there aid or they’re just too dense to really get what Twilight wants to do. Will the reason why Amy and Warren are with Twilight given there magic reliance be brought up at some point?

Scott Allie: Like everyone who conspires with oppressors, they figure they’ll be spared, that there’ll be exceptions.

(...)

Click on the link for more :

http://slayaliveforums.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=retreat&action=display&thread=9278&page=1