Most destructive Anita Blake trait

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

I was wondering what people think is the most destructive concept in the Anita Blake series. In my opinion it is the fact that Laurell K Hamilton created a date rape drug in the ardeur and the fact that characters line up to be addicted. It would work for me if characters treated the ardeur like a curse and tried to find a cure, but instead it's presented as the best thing ever. I read on these boards that a lot of people a disturbed by LKH's racism. Still others think that Anita is a pedophile. 

So what do you think is the worst message going out to the readers of these books?

Comments

[drho.livejournal.com]

The most destructive concept is that anyone who doesn't agree to have sex deserves either rape or death. The ardeur forces sex upon Anita and everyone around her. It's really sick that Laurell is now trying to twist it to be "love," as if people are haters if they don't want to be raped.

But the most destructive person is clearly Laurell. She's a self-proclaimed wiccan goth, but is actually just a sheltered, racist, and sexist rape apologist.

[cicipsychobunny.livejournal.com]

And yet, doesn't the whole "NO NO NO THE ARDEUR IS ABOUT LOVE, AND MAKING PEOPLE HAPPY, HONEST!" argument just reek of "Holy shit, maybe Teh Haterz have a point, I must now backtrack and bullshit to make this less obviously abusive"?

[last-servant.livejournal.com]

That churning out shitty first drafts is a writing carrier. It's edges out ardeur-rape by being more personally offensive, as I don't know any rape victims.

[kathrynthegr8.livejournal.com]

Unprotected sex with any man within spitting distance is A-OK. As long as DIETY is cool with it.

(Seriously, what kind of message is that?)

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

That is one of the things I hate about the series too. I mean really, how hard is it to have the guy throw on a condom?

[dameruth.livejournal.com]

What bugs me most is Anita's blind, immature self-centeredness in the later books. She doesn't seem to care how the ardeur affects people, she doesn't *really* give a damn about the repercussions of her actions (she moans around about it a little, but it just gives me this impression of, "mah morals are pastede on, yay!"). Other individuals exist solely to enhance her personal power base (and ego).

She can have sex with any penis-bearing individual in her vicinity, but they must then become immediately, totally faithful *to her.* It all reads like some appalling junior high school sex fantasy scenario.

What really gets me is that the later books are often described as "exploring polyamory." Nuh-UH!!! "Everyone has sex with Anita" is NOT poly. >:( *grumble!*

[drho.livejournal.com]

Right. I also hate how all of the other women are abusers, because they don't want their partners sleeping with Anita.

[duchym.livejournal.com]

I hate how none of the major male characters, with the exception of Richard (and the other characters rip him down every chance they get), have careers or education or goals. They are protrayed as having these wonderful, great lives while being workers in the sex industry and being used as food by an evil succubus.

If Anita really did love Nathaniel, wouldn't she be encouraging him to take classes so he can get a real job that is not sexually exploitive - especially given his background? Wouldn't she want him to improve himself in every way - so that he can stand on his own two feet?

It's like Hamilton glories in people who have been sexually abused and damaged - glories in furthering their exploitation in feeding them to this horrible excuse of a human being in Anita - and wants them to be victims forever.

There is no healing, no help. Only further abuse, called "love" by Anita and LKH.

[longtail.livejournal.com]

If Anita really did love Nathaniel, wouldn't she be encouraging him to take classes so he can get a real job that is not sexually exploitive - especially given his background? Wouldn't she want him to improve himself in every way - so that he can stand on his own two feet?

It's been mentioned in a sentance I think in either CS or ID that she made him go out and get his driver's license and some stuff like that...I guess it's indicates she's been doing stuff to make him more independant. I think that was the last mention of it, but I haven't read past Micah.

From the way I see it, she's twisting this to make it look like he's somehow not the mentally crippled guy he was anymore. According to Jason in ID, Nathaniel IS happy and content now with his own job, a home, a family, and being one half of Anita's "wife" along with Micah. Somehow, Nathaniel's not "broken" anymore. It's like the rape/not rape scene with Micah in NiC and the "it's about Twu Wuv!" shit with the Ardeur. She SAYS that what it is, but it's not what was written.

[terrie01.livejournal.com]

Her "It's true because I said so" attitude. It's not rape, because she says so. It's cool and edgy, because she says so. Anita is really a strong woman, because she says so.

[cicipsychobunny.livejournal.com]

Thinking about it, it's the way her world just does not make sense sometimes.

Now, I've been in drawn-out arguments before about the merits of Richard's attempts to democratize the werewolves, but add to that the whole "Joseph is far too weak to be Rex of a lionpack" - so why is he still? Why aren't the Council putting all their effort into actually destroying Anita instead of sending her wet dreams? How does Anita pay her mortgage when she's never at her day job? Why does no one acknowledge what a bad fucking thing it is when Anita lets off the ardeur near London?

And that's ignoring the inconsistencies that are just LKH being a crap writer - Sylvie "doesn't do girls", Richard keeps having the same damn scene in every book (or you'd have to make some argument for short term amnesia/pathetically unable to keep promises/develop as a person), Requiem is too annoying to live, Anita is inherently unloveable.

but.. guys always want it!

[nimnix.livejournal.com]

I think one of the things that bugs me, aside from everything you mentioned, is the concept that guys will tolerate anything just to get laid. That gay or straight, they'll do whatever necessary for a quick roll in the hay. That a gay man will have sex with Anita because she's just soooo amazing, or "well it's sex!".

It's a complete objectification of men as purely sex-driven animals, as if they just can't control themselves. Reverse-sexism is just as bad as sexism.

Or maybe I just hang around too many actual men, and not paper-cutouts or stereotypes. So glad she's not my source for what men are supposed to be (or women for that matter).

Re: but.. guys always want it!

[jerel.livejournal.com]

So glad she's not my source for what men are supposed to be (or women for that matter).

Since everyone else has already hit the misanthropy and the looks-like-rape, quacks-like-rape, but-isn't-rape (i.e., the real "worst stuff"), I'll go into the "slightly annoying" that relates to your statement.

I'm glad I didn't read her descriptions of sex before I actually had it. Because if it was like it is in the books? I don't think I would have wanted to have sex. Ever. At least not without a snorkel, because it sounds like there's enough fluids to float a small craft.

[plum-arden.livejournal.com]

I hate the whole "sex is love" message. No, sometimes it's just getting laid, no more, no less. Tab A into Slot B. Whatever else you want to say here.

And I have to totally agree with the objectifying of men. Gay men will not just have sex with a woman because it's sex. I remember having a conversation with a gay man once when I said "I've never found a woman I've found attractive in that way." His response: Honey, neither have I. Now, I can see a gay man having sex with a woman if he's still in the unsure stage, but I don't think they'd have sex with a woman "just because it's sex!" LKH, put down the calendar and do some real research.

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

But none of LKH's characters are gay. They're all bisexual (eyeroll) with a preference for Anita.

[longtail.livejournal.com]

It's just the total lack of responsibility on anyone's part that gets to me. Anita is a given, but the others as well.

JC he should have been overthrown by now, because Anita's blown his authority out of the water more than once. He doesn't seem to do MotC duties at all. He just follows Anita from one crises to the next as a walking encyclopedia of metaphysical obscurities.

Micah has raped and somehow there is no reprocussion, not to mention he just freeloads off Anita

Nathaniel has somehow acheived domestic bliss and nobody knows how, because he's done nothing to cure his issues

Dolph has gone crazy and become horribly biased and raceist and hasn't lost his job yet

The Council has done nothing to stop a very destructive and powerfully growing force that should have taken over by now.

None of the men seem to do anything in general. They don't have jobs, friends, or backgrounds for the most part and if they do, why aren't they losing said jobs, friends, identities to this undying need to fuck Anita?

There's no cause and effect. Everyone just does what Anita says and nothing logical follows through from these actions.

[polymexina.livejournal.com]

yeah, it's like the series has become a really really really shitty series of character studies... except there's no actual movement for the characters.

[easol.livejournal.com]

I think at its core the most destructive message is one that all the rape, pedophilia and kill-anyone-who-can't/won't-shag-you fantasies come from -- obsession with power. She wants power over everyone and everything, and to punish anyone she doesn't like.

[fadeinthewash.livejournal.com]

Doesn't she actually say as much in that wretched preview chapter of Blood Noir? Everyone's jealous not because she has SO MUCH LUV but because she has power?

[wyvernfriend.livejournal.com]

My younger brother has long hair and at one stage, to thin it out a bit he used to have a short undercut, he had ways of tying it back that often would look a lot like short hair, not that he cared. He says that Bob (the ponytail) is a good conversation starter particularly with girls.

[phorcys.livejournal.com]

She keeps breathing

[phorcys.livejournal.com]

Sorry, that seems much more bitter than I meant. Anita's most destructive trait her need to be always right and since the LKH makes sure she is always right it makes the character seem even more concending.

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

The damn whining, and the way the world has started catering to that whining.

It was there right from book one, of course. Boohoo, people are so selfish and inconsiderate! Boohoo, there's violence and death in the world! Boohoo, everyone but Anita are sluts and players and have no morals!

It makes you wonder how Anita ever got out of bed in the morning, seeing as she so clearly thought that every single aspect of life and society was painful and unbearable.

But credit where it's due - Anita did use to get out of bed in the morning and go face the big, bad world. Sure, she whined about it every step of the way, but she did it. And sure, her morals were a guilt-soaked Catholic mess, but at least she stuck to them as best as she was able. You could respect that, even if she got very tiresome.

But now, it's like she's decided that going out and facing the world is just too scary without someone holding her hand every step of the way. She simply must have everything and everyone she wants, because the world is cold and cruel and the only thing that makes it go away for a moment is people clinging to her and protecting her and fucking her until she doesn't have to think about it anymore. And morals? Anyone who denies her the copious amounts of comfort and safety she thinks she needs is evil and deserves to be destroyed.

Anita was always afraid to live, but now she's committing some kind of spiritual suicide - she's killing her own mind by banishing everything she might need to think seriously about. And the funny thing is, even without being challenged in any serious way - she still whines about every single inconvenience!

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

What I hate is that "boo hoo" Anita is still considered strong.

[ionaonie.livejournal.com]

I think what annoys me most about the books (excluding Micah, because he's a whole rant on his own) is Anita's immaturity.

It's her inability to think about anyone else, or jusr as bad, inability to accept any advice.

Ignoring the fact that the ardeur is a terrible idea in the first place, JC tells her, numerous times, what she must do to control it. She ignores him. Just goes 'la, la, la' If I ignore it and endanger lots of people when I go out of control, then it will all go away.

There are so many things that I hate about this series now, but I think this rates the highest...well, today, anyway *g*

[cicipsychobunny.livejournal.com]

SO TRUE. And add to that all the times when the vampires tell her, "Now, Anita, we KNOW this clashes with your "American attitudes" and we KNOW you find this offensive, but this is how vampire politics work, so please don't start any international supernatural civil wars, FOR ONCE", and yet she can't just sit down and shut up for five minutes to get the pleasantries out of the way before they kill the bad guys. Just for once. Just because it's politic and one of these days the Big Bad will not say, "Holy shit, my whole paradigm is collapsing! Thank you, Enlighted Western Girl!"

[kerame.livejournal.com]

How about the idea that all relationships should be based on dominance and submission? I don't mean sexually, but in every way.

One person should give the orders, and the other(s) take them.

No such thing as equal treatment or cooperation.

[fadeinthewash.livejournal.com]

Also how the submissives are always weak in every way (outside of sex)(hell, in sex, too), with the strong implication they're only submissive because something's wrong with them (ie, some sort of past trauma screwed them up from the Heroic Dominant go-getter role).

[missamii.livejournal.com]

Let's see... just about every thing's been covered by now so I choose, Anita's exceptionalism. Anita's character is basically a pre-teen girl's greedy id. If the first eight books of the series is the question of good and evil with Obsidian Butterfly as the intermission where Anita realizes she's pretty dang evil, NiC onwards about how Anita is completely beyond good or evil.

The world now runs on a Machiavellian double standard where every thing Anita does is good and justified, but if someone else did the same thing, they are evil and must die. Anita's exceptionalism permeates every aspect of her interactions with others. Anyone who challenges her is always just secretly jealous that they can't be an uber-mench-ette too. Ronnie, Dolf, ect. all know the truth that Anita is really right and specular because their arguments are presented as weak, easily defeated straw men, no matter how factually accurate they might be.

I don't think the Anita Blake series can function as anything other than a wish-fulfillment vehicle. Not only is Anita LKH's fantasy vassal, but the troos' too. That these people actually take Anita as some ideal too aspire too makes this one of the most destructive themes of the books. The series valorizes arrogance, brutishness, and selfishness.

[zgirl714.livejournal.com]

Well said!

[fadeinthewash.livejournal.com]

Well, outside of the obvious ardeur and pseudo-pedophilia, I'd say the convoluted gender roles that permeate every aspect of Anita's life.

She's the "exceptional woman," the only one of her sex who isn't a wuss (but also not super-butch), the only one who can't possibly bring herself to be concerned with clothes and make-up (conniving superficial hos!), possibly the first woman in the history of ever to handle weapons. Everyone else is a slut or a prude (and jealous either way), or they're practically asexual.

Her men are generally oafish freeloaders with unresolved abuse issues. It's not edgy to have a feminine male character who is still just the embodiment of female stereotypes. Anita knows a disproportionate number of men her height, which, paired with her "I'm so short" obsession, is probably just an attempt to have one more way to be dominant over some of them. Most of the men Anita meets either want to fuck her (because she's so perfect!) or they're misogynistic pigs (who probably want to fuck her as well, but in oh-so-stifling missionary to put the li'l lady in her place).

[daphne-gateau.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything already brought up. I'll just add add a frustrating real-life example. I was at Comic-Con last year at Laurel's presentation/Q&A session.

There was a very young man/teenager who waited in line to speak with her. When he finally got to the mike he thanked Laurel for portraying a romance between two characters that he could finally relate too. The emotion was clear in his voice that he was serious. He went on to say that he'd never read a romance before that showed a relationship between two men in a "positive" light.

When I realized this young man was talking about Jean-Claude and Asher and that he was a young inexperienced-sounding person I just wanted to cry. THAT was his example of a loving relationship? Two grown men who have to keep their relationship in the closet and aren't allowed to be together in public less they offend the Almighty Anita?? Gah!! JC & Asher (if you don't assume they are getting it on off the pages) are my definition of a tragic romance and men that are repressed from their desires. I guess it's romantic that they are in love but can't be together, but that's very sad and is probably not going to change for them. I certainly don't call that "positive".

I wanted to just go and hug this poor guy at the Con and promise to find him well-written gay romance.

[easol.livejournal.com]

That... is incredibly sad. Sad in a shed-a-tear way, not lame way.

[jeza-red.livejournal.com]

After all those examples up there, i have on thing left: clothes.
My God, why does she keeps dressing those poor men in those... rags? Leather-everything? Fishnet? Frills? Jogging shorts?! No, hell NO!!! Makes my brain bleed trough my ears every time I read about it>__<

The way Anita dresses? At first, it was kinda funny to see a gall who just doesn't care enough to visit NY&Co every time the sale is out... but now? Mercy!

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

JC's leather tux. Oh My God was that offensive. The brain cringes.

[roguetailkinker.livejournal.com]

The worst message IMO is that you can treat people who love you like dirt and it's okay as long as you luuuuv them. Like she loooves Jean-Claude and Asher so much but deliberately stands in the way of their being together because she's uncomfortable with teh ghey, not to mention her acting like Nathaniel is sick and inconveniencing her because he actually wants sex the way he likes it for a change. God forbid!

*growl*

[easol.livejournal.com]

... and that if they don't have sex with you the way YOU like it, or refuse to be treated like a doormat, then they don't really love you.

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

I hate the fact that she doesn't believe that the wolves and vampires can be self governing. What the hell is so bad with mom, the flag and apple pie anyway?

[daphne-gateau.livejournal.com]

I agree. And I hate that she has butted her way into the ruling class of the were community without being a were-anything. Why do they listen to her when she can't truly understand their needs.

Richard has been the only character that makes sense to me for a while now. I know he's cranky but I would be too if I was the sole voice of sanity in my universe. ;)

[watersheerie.livejournal.com]

Pretty much all that has been said. The series is shit. However, the date rape concept of the arduer/ardeur is what really pisses me off. The whole thing just demeans women and the idea of rape in general.
Those old harlequin romances "bodice-rippers" had the same sort of mentality. The female lead refuses sex from the hot hero, on numerous occasions. But eventually, he wears her down, or some sort of bizarre circumstance throws them into bed. The sex is so good, that it's okay that she was essentially forced. It cheapens rape, and shows women in this highly negative light.
The arduer/ardeur does the same thing.
Anita is forced to have sex by the arduer/ardeur. She refuses it, she has awknowledged that she hates it, it is force. Force = rape. Being coerced by magic doesn't change the 'force' part, it is still rape. The fact that Anita enjoys it, still doesn't change it. It is actually not uncommon for women to experience orgasms during rape, but an orgasm doesn't make it any less of a rape (and anyone who thinks otherwise is just plain ignorant.)
The arduer/ardeur shows readers that rape/force is okay, as long as the woman 'enjoys' it. It shows readers that a women never really means it, when she says 'no'. Just keep pressing the issue, and eventually she'll come around. Then there will be bone-cracking orgasms for all! Forcing a woman to have sex is great! Just make sure she 'screams her orgasm around you', and yells 'f__k me while I'm tight'!
The whole freakin' thing demeans women. Seriously, I don't get how LKH views these books as being empowering for women sexuality. Glorifying rape with this whole 'forced sex is great' is not empowering. Neither is presented readers with an idea that when a woman refuses sex, she doesn't mean it. I have to add, when I say 'no' I mean it. And I want someone to take me seriously the first time, none of this bullshit that I'm just uncertain about my sexuality and body as a woman.
Sorry for the long rant, but this really burns me up. Rape is terrible, and trying to gloss it over with this bullshit arduer/ardeur doesn't change it.

[easol.livejournal.com]

Afreakingmen!

[edda.livejournal.com]

Can someone provide examples of her racism? That particular accusation is news to me, but I haven't read her in forever, either.

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

Anita being discriminated against because she has Mexican blood but "can pass for white."

Black people not being able to be turned into vampires because of "something in their blood."

It's subtle but it's there.

lack of responsibility

[graesea.livejournal.com]

I've found it interesting that the ardeur is thought of as a date rape drug; I don't disagree with that, though it is isn't how it strikes me.

I think the ardeur is a way for Anita to have sex without taking an ounce of responsibility for her either her actions or her sexuality. The entire concept that if Anita doesn't have sex, someone will DIE! *dramatic flip of the hand to the forehead* is laughable. If you want to shag one and all, do so and own up that it is just sex. Not food, not love, not passion; just an itch you feel a need to scratch. Or make the character a self admitted nympho.

Like a very young teenager, she only resorts to or even considers condoms as part of her sexual encounters after a pregnancy panic. A more mature character who doesn't want children would have a tubal ligation (a simple, out patient procedure) and go forth and bump uglies. However, that would deprive Anita of the ability to create drama and would indicate that she is capable of accepting responsibility for her own body.

The character suffers from an adolescent mentality that is at odds with the paper thin world she inhabits. Everything revolves around her. She is a boring character in the hands of an inept typist. She is not strong, wise, or even passably intelligent.

One other flaw in the Anitaverse. No one has a sense of humor. What a tedious place to spend time.

Menopause has not been kind to LKH.

Re: lack of responsibility

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

I couldn't agree with you more.