Rants against things I don't get: The Phantom of the Opera

[sevenswells]

So recently there's been a few (a lot) of crossover fanarts Sherlock/The Phantom of the Opera. I have to say, I am horrified.


Why do people like the Phantom's character? Why do people think it's a "beautiful love story"? I don't get it. The same people might shun Twilight because the main female character gets repeatedly abused by the main male character who's a total dick, which is true, but they don't see that the Phantom of the Opera is the exact same shit -- no, actually it's even worse.


The Phantom is a murderer, a psychopath, a blackmailer, a stalker, a kidnapper, a thief, a terrorist -- there is absolutely no redeeming quality about him, he's as ugly on the inside as he is on the outside. If Christine feels any love for him, then she must have developed some serious Stockholm syndrome. Granted he taught her how to sing, but that just gave him a Pygmalion complex and he thinks he owns her, because of course he would also be jealous and possessive on top of it all. What a cock.


Then there's the Quasimodo complex. Why do beautiful women must absolutely fall in love with ugly men who love them? Why do they have to make the special effort to "see their inner beauty"? Because if Esmeralda doesn't love Quasimodo back, well then she's a superficial bitch. Throughout countless stories, ugly guys force their love upon beautiful women and those women are supposed to do all the work and appreciate their personality in return and overcome the ugliness that they see. While those guys certainly didn't fall for said women because they liked their conversation and wits in the first place.
Although Quasimodo did have, supposedly, a pure, beautiful soul inside a monstrous body. Which, again, is completely NOT the case with the Phantom.
And what if the Phantom was an ugly woman instead of a man? An ugly, murdering, thieving, stalking (etc etc) woman who kidnaps and mind-fucks a handsome male singer? I'm pretty sure nobody would have found excuses for her and thought that their "love story" was "beautiful".



What is it about the Phantom of the Opera, seriously?

Comments

[kamexkame.livejournal.com]

Precision: I know nothing about the Phantom of The Opera.

So I'm raptly reading your post and get to '
The Phantom is a murderer, a psychopath, a blackmailer, a stalker, a kidnapper, a thief, a terrorist' and masochistic me goes oooooooooooooooooooooooooooh (with some faint puzzlement in the background as to why you object to such an outstanding character) and then you go on: 'he's as ugly on the inside as he is on the outside'.

And I'm like 'oh'.

Ahem.

So then I was going to feel lousy for being all superficial (thank you for not noting how I could apparently care less that I am masochistic ;p).

But then I read the rest of your post and I figure it's fair for me to be my own Quasimodette.

:)

[kamexkame.livejournal.com]

Slightly more seriously, I think women have been subjected to so much patriarchal bullshit over the ages that they got tired of feeling all helpless about it so then they went like, you know what, I loooooove it, give it to me, I'll lap it up. Jennifer Lopez would add Papi at the end. And Britney Spears would go hit me baby one more time.

Something like that.

Since women are gonna get the bullshit anyway, maybe it's a matter of feeling less powerless?

But most women still want to identify with beautiful figures for themselves, ones which have grandeur d'âme and pureness of heart and the potential to appear on Vogue's September issue. Like, "he's a 100% asshole and yet magnificent me still loves him! Aren't I amazing, body and soul? I'm such a superior being". And a lot of us (I think) like the idea of being the object of obsession. It's a situation that also gives the feminine figure a large measure of power over the man.

I totally agree that a lot of it is men trying to brainwash us into thinking their beer belly is the best while we should go on striving to give them bones and boobs, but I was trying to think of what could be in it for the women.

Dude, I dunno ;p. I'm totally just using serious issues as excuses to use my icon here.

[sevenswells.livejournal.com]

And a lot of us (I think) like the idea of being the object of obsession. It's a situation that also gives the feminine figure a large measure of power over the man.

Very true, and I agree with the rest of your reply, that was what I was trying to say too: what could be in it for the women? That IS the question.

[sevenswells.livejournal.com]

(with some faint puzzlement in the background as to why you object to such an outstanding character)

Dude, no. I'm as susceptible as any other girl to a "bad boy" character, but there's a difference between "bad boy" and "giant prick with a frankly disturbing behaviour and no redeeming quality". Plus I can't abide the stalking thing (yeah, maybe all the rest, whatever, but I don't like stalkers)(!).

But, yeah, okay, it's a universal truth that women are prone to forgive assholes when they're good-looking, especially when they're good-looking (which is exactly the case in Twilight: replace Edward with a fat ugly creepy guy and see if Bella doesn't immediately call the police or stake the motherfucker instead of fawning all over him). Well their good looks make at least ONE thing going on for those guys, doesn't it? Which makes this Phantom situation all the more incomprehensible to me. WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE HIM???

And because of you I tried to imagine, what if Toreth was a fat ugly creepy guy would I still love him like I do... I could argue that being handsome is entirely constituent of his personality, which can be argued to be true, but in truth of truths maybe, MAYBE I wouldn't love him as much. But I also know I can fall in love with guys that aren't good-looking just because they're awesome. Like this guy:



Or this guy:



(granted they're not particularly repulsive but I can't say they would normally be my type)
Or Tyrion, when he was still a cool character in the books. And I know you loved Tyrion too, don't lie.

And the sad thing is, I do think that women can do that more easily than men.

[berylia.livejournal.com]

If the phantom had been a woman then her uglyness of both soul and body would have been punished by dazzling Raoul because : hey there evil lesbians are evil, and everyone would have found it normal Same thing if Christine had been a guy then the Phanthom would have been the evil homosexual and dazzling Mag would have killed him and everyone would say : Good news the wicked phanthom is dead.

Now they happen to be a heterosexual couple, so the message is : women you are to know that your destiny is to love men even if you are beautiful and they are not ; because we the creators are men and ugly and you are to give yourselves to us. For beautiful as he may be, Raoul will not make you happy because you do not deserve a beautiful man, oh woman, you deserve the thing from the basement of the Opera which owns you because without him you as an artist would not exist (so girls, love your fathers). Woman if a men loves you you are lucky and should marry him and carry his babies and stop looking outside of your world : rich, beautiful baron de Chaigny is not for you girl, go with the guy who eat rats, Cinderella is dead, bitch.

I think this is more or less what Phanthom is about. But hell the stage decoration was awesome, such a pity really...

[sevenswells.livejournal.com]

Yeah but what I meant was, what if the Phantom were a woman and Christine had been a Christian, not what if they were lesbians XD Sorry about the confusion, I should edit and make the precision. That would have been much more fun, though, and certainly interesting to watch.

[berylia.livejournal.com]

Then Woman!Phanthom would be dead in a flash because men do not love ugly women. Hey, men are the top of the cream of creation, why should they go for fuglies ?

[karadin.livejournal.com]

Totally with you on this one, and the one pic of John in a dress? Why? Why? when it's obviously not GirlWatson. *shudder*

[jainas.livejournal.com]

The only reedeming thing I find in their romance is the musical aspect: yes, he loves her 'cause she is beautiful, but he also loves her voice (and it goes beyond the Pygmalion thing). Would he still love her if she was ugly ? Probably not with the same obsessive quality, but I tend to think he would still be fascinated with her... And in return, she loves his music.
It's not so obvoius in the Phantom, but is very much the core of Love Never Dies : he wants to hear her sing again, singing the song he wrote her is in the plot the tiping point meaning she loves him, etc, etc. It makes the romance more bearable, because it's an intelectual component, they bring beauty and passion through music in each other lives...
I had this discussion once with a friend, who is a very intelligent woman, a music lover. She tend to be attracted to the "artistic kind" and she said to me that she totally understood why one could be attracted to the phantom... That yes, it would probablly be a trainwreck, but that the mystery, the passion and art would be worth it, even for a little while.

But this said, your analysis is still 100% valid, and the deconstruction of the social meening is frightenly accurate. There is this "romantic" tag falsly attached to obsessive love, that is probably very harmfull.

[lotusduck.livejournal.com]

with you ALL THE WAY I loved the Phantom when I was about 7 and I still know all the songs, (although I guess you might not mean the Weber version?) somewhere around, I don't know, age 9, I watched it again and just went 'wait...what?'
I blame a false notion of selflessness.
A lot of people get confused about selflessness.
Giving to someone who can't give anything back is selfless.
Giving to someone who won't give anything back is idiotic.
I had a friend in an abusive relationship who kept going back to him, to help him, she said it was selfish to abandon him just because she was hurt, but really, it's selfish to abandon EVERYONE ELSE. When you devastate your well being and every other semi-decent relationship you're in, in order to love someone who shits all over your love on a regular basis, YOU are being not just irrational, but selfish. I don't know how it is that people ask me for advice on this stuff but people really do think you can love someone's ENTIRE PERSONALITY away, and that's the same as sticking with a decent person when they're going through a hardship that strains their ability to be kind all the time? What the hell.

But some other commenters here are probably right, the intellectual part of it could make it interesting: a romance that is completely and totally fucked up, but they're in it because they make art together, and that's what's important.
Wait, that might be more fucked up. I hate the notion that you basically have to be a bad person to be a great artist, but at the same time, for those of us who are sorta bad people, it gives us something to aspire toward, although it's interesting that Phantom and Christine are not doing it for future audiences, but just for the sake of the music as a whole. Kind of one of those 'shit's fucked up, small amount of beauty, then everything is finished and ruined forever' format stories.

[therese-chan.livejournal.com]

Good thing I haven't managed to read any crossovers like that. Just. Ugh.

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

I love this post. The mere idea of a crossover like that makes me go, "Wait…WHAT?" Why? Huh?

I've never been a fan of Phantom. The recent movie bored me. Andrew Lloyd Webber is an overhyped hack. I'm glad you added even more perspective to that show.

[pollums.livejournal.com]

My friends that used to like Twilight consistently get into abusive/unhealthy relationships because of a confused sense of relationship morals, and my friends that used to like Phantom are in long term healthy relationships, so I dunno!! There's definitely a difference!

[as-i-am.livejournal.com]

I just want to say THANK YOU. I think the Sherlock/Phantom stuff is silly and I'm tired of seeing it. I'm with you 100%

Also, I replied to the wrong comment down there when I meant to reply to you. D'OH.

[kimadourden.livejournal.com]

The all "he's ugly but his soul is beautiful so I love him" is PISSING ME OFF ! It's so hypocritical. I am sorry, but NOBODY fall in love with someone's ugly because s/he have to find him pretty somehow because hormones, love and stuff, and beauty is subjective.
Anyway, that was for the rants too because I laugh reading your post ! I totally agree with you about the all psycho stuff (and I think the same about Twilight but you already know that !)

The worst crossovers should be listed somewhere to laugh at them. I guess.