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Quick thoughts on voyeurism in Sneeze
I wrote this on the bus to work today--I have a gazillion work projects to finish and I can't stop thinking about SV! So if I don't reply to comments on this until this weekend, sorry--I probably won't be able to check lj again today.
Spoilers, obviously, for SV: Sneeze
I was thinking of the role of voyeurism and power in SV. From the very beginning of the show, Clark is described as a watcher, a voyeur into human life, symbolized by his telescope, in which he watches Lana in a way that the show initially suggests is mostly innocent, not stalkery: Clark is an outsider trying to understand human life by watching. And in a way it foreshadows the role of Superman: watching over human beings in order to save them.
Later, of course, voyeurism takes on a more sinister cast, as a series of watchers (Phelan, Nixon, Lex) put Clark's secret in danger. Cameras are a particular source of danger, since they can potentially reveal Clark (like the blur Lex sees in Rogue, or the tapes that Nixon makes of Clark's superpower. I think it's significant when Lex creates the famous Chamber of Clark Kent that there is a giant photo of Clark at the center of it; this is not simply to encourage speculation about Lex's homoerotic desire for Clark, but also to depict the dangerous power of Lex's gaze.
So I think it's very interesting that the show is now depicting Lex's gaze literally turned on Lana (even though he denies it--come on, we all know he watched that clip repeatedly! Why else was it the first one to appear?) He's trying to control his life by becoming all-seeing, which is a lovely nod to his future iconic self, in which there's nothing that goes on in Metropolis that Lex doesn't know about. I think, in a sense, he's also trying to control Lana this way: to *collect* her, like he collected Clark. What's really interesting about this is Lana's reaction: unlike Clark, when exposed to Lex's voyeurism, she doesn't flee; instead she attempts to set boundaries. (Of course, the Chamber of Clark Kent is a bit creepier than one shot of her undressing, and she doesn't have the same secrets to hide Clark does, so exposure is not as inherently dangerous to her, but still, I think most women would have left after discovering something like that.) Does Lana secretly enjoy being watched/collected? Will she stay with Lex and his (probably necessary) paranoid need to control his environment with omnipresent cameras?
And it's interesting that the connection between cameras, watching, and power was reinforced by the Oliver Queen storyline. Oliver knows about Lex's powers because his corporation had the only functioning satellite during Dark Thursday. This reinforces my conviction that Queen is being set up to deliberately parallel Lex, as I discussed in my earlier review : a billionaire interested in investigating humans with special abilities, not necessarily using ethical means to do so.
Since Queen is also a superhero in DC canon, I am excited by the potential triangulation of Clark-Lex-Oliver: Is Queen's characterization going to be closer to Lex's or Clark's? And what will each learn from him (or interactions with him) about heroism or villainy?
Spoilers, obviously, for SV: Sneeze
I was thinking of the role of voyeurism and power in SV. From the very beginning of the show, Clark is described as a watcher, a voyeur into human life, symbolized by his telescope, in which he watches Lana in a way that the show initially suggests is mostly innocent, not stalkery: Clark is an outsider trying to understand human life by watching. And in a way it foreshadows the role of Superman: watching over human beings in order to save them.
Later, of course, voyeurism takes on a more sinister cast, as a series of watchers (Phelan, Nixon, Lex) put Clark's secret in danger. Cameras are a particular source of danger, since they can potentially reveal Clark (like the blur Lex sees in Rogue, or the tapes that Nixon makes of Clark's superpower. I think it's significant when Lex creates the famous Chamber of Clark Kent that there is a giant photo of Clark at the center of it; this is not simply to encourage speculation about Lex's homoerotic desire for Clark, but also to depict the dangerous power of Lex's gaze.
So I think it's very interesting that the show is now depicting Lex's gaze literally turned on Lana (even though he denies it--come on, we all know he watched that clip repeatedly! Why else was it the first one to appear?) He's trying to control his life by becoming all-seeing, which is a lovely nod to his future iconic self, in which there's nothing that goes on in Metropolis that Lex doesn't know about. I think, in a sense, he's also trying to control Lana this way: to *collect* her, like he collected Clark. What's really interesting about this is Lana's reaction: unlike Clark, when exposed to Lex's voyeurism, she doesn't flee; instead she attempts to set boundaries. (Of course, the Chamber of Clark Kent is a bit creepier than one shot of her undressing, and she doesn't have the same secrets to hide Clark does, so exposure is not as inherently dangerous to her, but still, I think most women would have left after discovering something like that.) Does Lana secretly enjoy being watched/collected? Will she stay with Lex and his (probably necessary) paranoid need to control his environment with omnipresent cameras?
And it's interesting that the connection between cameras, watching, and power was reinforced by the Oliver Queen storyline. Oliver knows about Lex's powers because his corporation had the only functioning satellite during Dark Thursday. This reinforces my conviction that Queen is being set up to deliberately parallel Lex, as I discussed in my earlier review : a billionaire interested in investigating humans with special abilities, not necessarily using ethical means to do so.
Since Queen is also a superhero in DC canon, I am excited by the potential triangulation of Clark-Lex-Oliver: Is Queen's characterization going to be closer to Lex's or Clark's? And what will each learn from him (or interactions with him) about heroism or villainy?
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