i actually liked bean hitting ruby, because i saw it as a smackdown between near-equals that gender didn't even really enter into, but there has been a definite downturn in the portrayal of women this season. bella annoyed me, but i felt her ending was very unjust, and the total absence of ellen and jo or any strong or even not-evil female chars this season left the show unbalanced, as you said, and reeking of testosterone.
i'm not sure that it's intentional, though, so much as it is trying to make the show darker and show how far the chars have come (like your point about the treatment of the meg-host vs the ruby-host) by showing how they care less about people, but the underlying point is that they're demonstrating that by using the they-don't-even-care-about-girls-and-girls-are-weak line, so... yeah, annoying.
as you said, i was not remotely surprised by this ending and have been expecting it since about halfway through the season, so yes, big let-down for me.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-05-16 05:18 pm (UTC)i'm not sure that it's intentional, though, so much as it is trying to make the show darker and show how far the chars have come (like your point about the treatment of the meg-host vs the ruby-host) by showing how they care less about people, but the underlying point is that they're demonstrating that by using the they-don't-even-care-about-girls-and-girls-are-weak line, so... yeah, annoying.
as you said, i was not remotely surprised by this ending and have been expecting it since about halfway through the season, so yes, big let-down for me.