Dragon*Con Part I

"My people are the misfits, the one's that don't fit in" - Third Eye Blind lyrics from Misfits


     If anyone would have told me a few years ago that I would be spending my Labor Day weekend at something called Dragon*Con, I would NOT have believed them. Described as the largest multi media, popular culture convention, focusing on Science- fiction, and fantasy, horror, gaming, comics, literature, art, music and film, with fan tracks such as Alternative History, Anime, and Tolkien's Middle Earth, I felt a bit out of the loop. What do I know about any of these things? Sure, I saw the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but I can admit to never reading the books and I sure as hell can't speak Elvish! What am I doing here?!!? Enter: True Blood.

     The convention first hit our radar when we read that actors from True Blood namely Sam Trammell, Nelsan Ellis, Kristin Bauer van Straten, and Michelle Forbes had signed on to make appearances. Further research informed us of three True Blood panels the actors would attend. Having no knowledge of the inner workings of Dragon*Con (or D*Con) and based solely on the fact that True Blood would be represented, we hastily signed on for what would become one of the most interesting, eye opening weekends Rae and I have ever experienced.

     Love at first sight? Hardly! Like I said, we were newbies. We had no idea what to expect. Three and a half plus hours of wait in the pre-registration line? You've got to be kidding me, why did we bother to pre-register in the first place?

     Tired, cranky and a bit disillusioned we made our way back to our hotel room and collapsed. After a mere three hours the phone on our night stand began to ring, rousing us from our sleep, and signaling the official start  to day one of D*Con.

Friday Sept. 3rd, 2010-
     Running late (as usual) Rae and I got dressed and made our way to the Hyatt, one of the Con hotels and home to our first ever True Blood panel. We decided to embrace the weekend as journalists on assignment. We went prepared with notebooks, pens, markers and highlighters at the ready. We were eager to learn from and share with everyone we met. We were on a mission to "find our people".

     As the panel began, the room was a buzz with excitement. The moderator came out and started introducing the actors, Nelsan was first, followed by Kristin, and Sam came last (Michelle would join the actors the next day). We were treated to some very personal, funny anecdotes from the actors on everything from character inspiration, to wardrobe choices, to what it's really like to act with fangs. It was personal revelations such as these that made us feel special, like we were being "let in on the secret". As the first panel drew to a close I couldn't help but feel lucky having been there to experience it. But just as a hungry "baby vampire" always wants more, I couldn't wait to see what else the Con had in store for us!

     So we made it through our first panel. We took some fantastic notes, made several thematic observations, gave out some business cards and talked up our blog.....mission accomplished, right? Wrong! We had so much more to do. Along with our self imposed mission to "find our people" we attached a secondary mission: Meet the actors of True Blood, inform them of our blog and (GASP) give them our business card. This sounds easy in theory, in practice, not so much. Rachel and I decided  to execute our mission during the autograph signing on the "Walk of Fame".

     Being the crafty masterminds that we are, Rachel and I headed over to the Hilton (another Con hotel and site of the Walk of Fame). Upon entering the room we immediately began looking for the True Blood area, we were after all on a mission! Thankfully neither Rachel or I are part of some elite force of operatives who conduct important missions to save the world from impending doom- an elite force, we are not! Looking to our right, we were sidetracked by our own childhood memories of one, Lavar Burton (now seated in front of us an the Walk of Fame). We remembered how much we enjoyed his show "Reading Rainbow" as kids, and even paused to sing the opening theme in unison. "Butterfly in the sky, I can fly twice as high. Take a look, it's in a book, Reading Rainbow". OH MY GOD, we were "geeking out".

     But wait....there's more! As we criss crossed the room we saw the likes of Kevin Sorbo a.k.a. Hercules in all his splendor, signing autographs for legions of devoted fans.Then I remembered...."Hey isn't Luke Perry supposed to be here?" I was off, trying to catch a glimpse of a man who fan boys and fan girls would refer to as Pike from the movie Buffy The Vampire Slayer but could only be THE Dylan McKay in my heart. No dice, the elusive Luke Perry had managed to slip away undetected. We passed several tables of actors, authors, and cartoonists none of whom we recognized. I turned around and noticed a sign with the name Sean Astin in bold face type, sitting beneath it was the man himself. I grabbed Rachel by the arm and called her attention to the actor, briefly contemplating starting a slow chant of "Rudy, Rudy". Come on, like you wouldn't of wanted to do the same thing!

     Fearing we lost sight of our "mission" we made our way to the far end of the Walk of Fame. Looking around one last time, Rachel finally saw something. The names Nelsan Ellis and Sam Trammell were hanging on the wall,however, a crowd of people blocked our line of vision. Were the actors there or would we have to come back and face the gauntlet again? All of a sudden the crowd parted and we caught sight of one of the actors. Eureka! We have lift off. As we got into the queue we quickly discussed some talking points  to start telling them about our blog! Nelsan was first, Rachel spoke to him about our blog and asked if it would be ok to pass him our business card. She handed Nelsan the card and he began to study it, front and back. "A uniquely feminist perspective" he read off with a smile! "I'm gonna put this in my pocket" he said. Next up was Sam, and it was my turn to do the talking. I slowly moved down the line and presented Sam with the picture I had ready for him to autograph. He looked up at me, smiled and said "Hi, how are you?". "Great" I responded and paused for a second. A little voice inside my head nagged me...."Ask him how HE'S doing, jerk" so I did...."How are YOU?" I asked, to the answer of "Solid". Now I don't know about you, but when I meet someone whose work I admire I tend to get a bit nervous, causing me to joke around with them and be playful. My intention for this is to put myself and hopefully the person I'm talking to at ease. This time was no different. "Would you like me to personalize this autograph for you?" Sam asked. "Sure" I said, "My name is Rebecca" and without stopping to breathe I spelled it out for him "R-e-b-e-c-c-a". As Rachel and I began to fall into the conversation with Sam he looked up, turned to Rae and asks "So am I making this out to Rachel R-a-c-h-e-l?" Taken aback at how he would know her name, Rachel and I just looked at each other for a minute before realizing he read her name off the badge we were all required to wear, and used that as an opportunity to poke fun at me for the way I introduced myself! Good one Sam. Before we left, I passed him our business card, and let him know we would be honored if he could take a look at our blog; and welcomed any feedback he would be willing to give. I also expressed a desire to do an interview with the cast sometime in the future. So how about it guys? We're still interested in feedback and welcome any opportunity for an interview.

     Ok, so maybe we had a little more in common with our fellow Con-goers then we originally thought. This was.....FUN. A Twenty-four hour Halloween/Mardi Gras atmosphere, with the occasional run in with  a celebrity....not too shabby! ~ Rebecca

"Those are the one's for me, Yeah those are the one's for me, the misfits, the freaks, the enemy, you and me" - Third Eye Blind, lyrics from Misfits

AIRPLANE AIRPLANE SORRY I'M LATE...I'M ON MY WAY SO DON'T CLOSE THAT GATE!

No drinks for me today...OK, maybe some pepto in a shot glass!

So...your intrepid salonnières survived our first DCON experience and have arrived safely home, and no, this HOT BAG tag wasn't placed on my luggage because I was boarding a flight out of the city of Hotlanta...it was unceremoniously slapped on my sorry bags because my sister and I nearly missed our flight home despite the nearly 5 hour gap between the end of our last True Blood panel on Sunday afternoon and check-in time at the airport.

After Sin and Salvation in Bon Temps ended around 3PM we had lunch at one of the convention hotels and slowly wandered back to our home-away-from-home to gather our belongings in advance of our 9PM flight back to The Big Apple. We got so wrapped up in discussing the events of the weekend over happy hour cocktails as we sat in the lobby of the Renaissance Atlanta Downtown Hotel that we barely noticed as late afternoon slipped into evening - still abuzz with the excitement of all we had heard, seen, and experienced, this was our first chance to take stock of it all - and we embraced it! We compared notes! Took notes on our notes! Annotated our notes! Just kidding. Kind of. Well, at least on that last one... 

There was so much to process, from our reactions to the panels, our observations about the crowd, our take on the moderator's style, and more that we got lost, riffing off each other's meanderings and picking up a train of thought on new patterns and themes in True Blood and the lives of the characters populating Bon Temps we hadn't noticed before...

...Until the dimming lights and flickering flames of the candles being set out on the bistro tables around us in ornately modern silver holders served as our wake up call that we ought to grab our stuff and book it to the real train up the corner from our hotel if we still wanted to catch our flight! 7:20PM. Oh Boy.

The bellhop told us we could get on the train for $2.50 a piece as opposed the the $16 each it would cost to hire a van and that it would be impossible to mess up our stop since the Atlanta airport was the end of the line...this sounded exceedingly good to us since we were just about tapped out financially by this point. So with luggage in tow, we trudged the half-block to the station, descended from platform to concourse, and were tidily ensconced in a car towards the front of the train by 7:45PM. Uh Oh. Pushin' it.

The ride from station to airport took about 15 minutes, and during that time we completely cracked each other up recalling one of our last sights at Dragon Con - a crazed bouncer outside the ballroom for the panel on Futurama declaring in a booming voice punctuated by sweeping side-to-side arm gestures, "THE PANEL'S MAXED OUT!!! IT'S MAXED OUT!!!"

worst nightmare for con goers...your panel's MAXED OUT!!!

...he seemed to be directing his ire at us as, shooting us the eye as we scooted past him into the bathroom. As if we wanted into the Futurama panel! Exiting the bathroom Rebecca had leaned towards me and whispered, "you dare me to go up to him and ask, 'is this panel maxed out?'" If she wanted to have her head ripped off! Hilarious!!! You had to be there. But I digress...I also had time to change out of my strappy sandals and into my breeze-through-airport-security-flip-flops. I knew, as Rebecca did, that we would need every second we could get. 8PM. Whoa.

By the time we got to check-in it was 8:25PM and the ticket agent was dubious that we would be able to board our flight - whether or not our luggage would get on was hit or miss altogether. Rebecca and I had resolved to jet with our without our stuff and go back to Laguardia the next day to pick up our bags if we had to...but we were going home no matter what. We were pooped, out of money, and after all - most importantly - the True Blood events had already taken place.

After a call down to the gate, our bags were tagged with said Hot Bag markers and we were off. If you've ever been to the Atlanta airport you know it's ridiculously huge - to the point that you must take an internal shuttle to reach the gates from baggage claim and vice-versa. It's a good thing the adrenaline of the weekend's events was still thrumming through our veins because I have no doubt it's what propelled us down the endless corridors to gate 24 where, like the Hot Bag tags proclaim, we arrived in the nick of time! Sort of, since 20 more people got on the plane 10 minutes after we were told they were closing the gate...that's a story (gripe) for another time.  

That was five days ago...and while blogging in the moment has it's advocates, I'm the type of gal who needs some down time to collect her thoughts and flesh out her reflections before jumping right in. I've had a chance to do that since touching down in NYC and in the next posts you will be treated to words and images selected to best convey our experiences of the city of Atlanta, Dragon Con, the True Blood panels (we were both able to attend all three, ask questions, and take copious notes), and meeting the stars! 

~ Rachel 

LEAVIN' ON A JET PLANE...WE'RE GOING TO DRAGON CON!

Just popping in to grab a quick order of something hot with lots of caffeine...maybe a nice mug of hot cocoa...'cause I'm burning the waaayyyy past midnight oil getting ready for our first-ever trip to Dragon Con!

Your salonnières are braving what's been dubbed "the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe" which takes place each Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia in hopes of getting into the three True Blood panels that are taking place over the course of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

True Blood actors Sam Trammell (Sam Merlotte), Kristin Bauer van Straten (Pam) Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette Reynolds) & Michelle Forbes (Maryann Forrester) will be on hand to discuss their work on the show, participate in a "True & A" session, and address the intriguing theme of "Sin and Salvation in Bon Temps".

Should make for an interesting weekend, to say the very least.

We'll be blogging about our experiences at Dragon Con and with the True Blood panels. Hope to see you there!

~ Rachel

TWO FEMINIST TRUEBIES RESPOND TO THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN'S ASSERTION "TRUE BLOOD DEPICTION OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE GOES TOO FAR"...THE LETTER THAT SET THIS BLOG IN MOTION

Here's the content of our letter in response to the National Organization for Women (NOW) Media Hall of Shame entry "True Blood Depiction of Sexual Violence Goes Too Far."

The text from the letter (sent both to NOW and to key members of the True Blood creative team) is italicized below; it will flesh out some of our thoughts on this scene & give you deepened insight into our motivation for starting this blog and some of our goals for this forum. ~ Rachel

LETTER TO THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN (NOW):


We watched—eyes wide and jaws agape—as during what some call an act of “hate sex,” vampire Bill Compton hurled his maker Lorena to the bed, tore off her clothes, and twisted her neck, turning her face to the floor as he forcefully thrust into her. Despite his contempt and brutality—and with blood dripping from her mouth—Lorena told Bill that she still loves him. This explicit rendering of eroticized rage played out during the final minutes of True Blood Season 3; Episode 3 entitled “It Hurts Me Too” and it shocked us at a gut level akin to the way feminist scholar Vicki Noble describes women’s response to the obscene prevalence of rape: “We experience our collective annihilation repeatedly, psychically and physically as a woman is raped every thirteen seconds in North America…”.1


And yet, we can’t condemn or denounce this scene bravely and powerfully acted by Mariana Klaveno and Stephen Moyer which according to the National Organization for Women (NOW) Media Hall of Shame blog entry “True Blood Depiction of Sexual Violence Goes Too Far” would appear to be the right and proper feminist response. Rather, we see this deliberately shocking scene—shocking not because it shows that Bill might not be right for Sookie but because of the vivid picture it paints of the brutal fantasies and realities of penetration, destruction, and domination that have pervaded our culture since its birth and continue to prevail—as an opportunity to interrogate violent misogyny. As women, feminists, and truebies we call upon NOW to reconsider this scene in a light more conducive to opening wider dialogue about sexual violence and gender politics.


We agree with NOW that although True Blood and its characters are fictional, this scene parallels real life in ways too horrifying to ignore; as Lisa Bennett, NOW Communications Director writes in the blog entry, it “taps into a hatred of women that still exists in our society—a revulsion toward women with power and a desire to punish them for making men feel weak”. Debates about the rough nature of vampire sex or Lorena’s acquiescence to Bill and her consuming desire for him aside, we think this scene viscerally raises issues around the proliferation of rape culture within the larger context of a culture of violence that are better addressed through thoughtful dialogue than censure.


NOW is unequivocal in its analysis of the scene in question as a “messed up depiction of women, men, violence, and sex” as well as in its call for feminists to deliver a “thanks but no thanks” message to HBO. Before we discard or avert our eyes from the difficult-to-digest imagery “It Hurts Me Too” hits us with, we should consider its value as a potent means through which to critically engage the cultural currents that animate these provocative issues and confront the places in our society where patriarchal power-over is nurtured and rationalized.


The power of pop culture in today’s media saturated world is undeniable; it’s a sociological phenomenon of unprecedented scope and effect which can immediately reach millions and True Blood is a part of it. Instead of vilifying True Blood and HBO—an easy out—why not leverage the widely viewed show’s potential to bring questions about the crucial social problems it addresses directly into the living rooms of more people than countless sermons, political tracts, or speeches could ever reach and to get viewers, male and female alike, to start looking for answers?
Several questions ripe for discourse spring immediately to mind: If Lorena is as NOW suggests the classic “bitch” archetype; the vamp viewers are encouraged to hate—a characterization that reduces her to a monolith—how might this comment on our culture which has long fragmented the Feminine; that so readily casts women as either virgin or whore? What kind of cultural context would need to exist for us to think differently? Given that Bill would have been compelled by vampire law to obey Lorena’s every command and therefore would have been unable to resist having sex with her had she not—through an act of compassion ages ago—released him from her control, she seems to us (for this and other reasons) a character with the light and shade of human nuance driven by a full range of emotion. Does she contradict herself? Or is she, as sage poet Walt Whitman describes himself in Leaves of Grass, large, containing multitudes? What does this say about women? Why does this scene disturb us so? Is it too hard to reconcile the genteel and romantic Bill Compton (currently tenuous grip on his humanity and all) with his willful despoiling of Lorena; his determination to utterly ruin her—and harder still for us to place such a rapacious mindset not at the margins of what this nation is all about, but at the center? And then of course, there’s the tired, old “but she asked for it” argument. Lorena is physically stronger than Bill; she could have stopped him if she really wanted to, right? Our sisterly bond has been strengthened through our feminist activism and one of us is a social worker who for a decade has worked with women who have been beaten, abused, stalked, raped, and threatened with death by men. In this instance is it too far a stretch to see in Lorena the faces of women who are “too strong” or “too smart” to stay in a destructive relationship but can’t bring themselves to leave due to emotional paralysis or cold, hard economics?


True Blood and HBO are not promoting, condoning, or glamorizing sexual violence; they are simply holding up a mirror to society and asking viewers—what do you see? True Blood—like all creative works—is inherently subjective; it has no absolute meaning, its value depends on what the audience makes of it. We challenge NOW to expand its involvement with the show beyond critique to active engagement. Check the pulse of how viewers interact with the show, the significance they attach to it and the meanings they construct for it, and then bring them into dialogue to learn how their ideas about True Blood and the problems it raises make ripples in their ways of thinking and being.


The final scene of “It Hurts Me Too” has impelled us to do just that; we are developing an interactive blog of our own in the tradition of the epic literary salons of eras past—theatres of conversation and exchange which were, incidentally, started and led by women—updated for the digital age and designed to facilitate sociocultural and political discourse through the medium of True Blood from a uniquely feminist perspective. We know there are lots of people who—like us—can be found Sundays at 9 o’clock doused in the glow of the latest episode as it flickers across their TV screens and an hour later lit up in discussion about its impact and we hope they, along with more casual viewers of True Blood, will join us as we explore the show’s complexities in a way that can spark transformation.


We respect and appreciate NOW and its members for their leadership and action in the movement for women’s rights. We hope they will find something of value here to sink their teeth into and we look forward to receiving a response to the ideas we have expressed.

References

1. Vicki Noble, Shakti Woman: Feeling Our Fire, Healing Our World (New York: HarperOne, 1991), p. 3.

AN EMBODIED RESPONSE TO TRUE BLOOD NOT YET RIPE FOR WORDS FOR SO LONG...UNTIL HERE AND NOW!

I should have been more prepared. After all, Rebecca had texted me, letting me know that I might not be happy with Bill - that Season 3; Episode 3 of True Blood entitled "It Hurts Me Too" would fill in his backstory in a way that would leave him acting very out of character at the end and that it had been almost too difficult to watch.

I too was acting out of character. For reasons I can't recall now I had been unable to watch June 29th's installation of True Blood when it aired that Sunday night at 9; that had me feeling out-of-sorts. Her text ramped up my anxiety. I flashed back to the Bill-centric scenes of seasons past that had left me feeling sucker-punched and deflated; when he fulfilled his penance the magister meted out by turning Jessica, his Jazz age romp on bloody sheets with Lorena as a nameless flapper lay dying - gurgling on her own blood - on the bed next to them. I worried I'd be in for a scene in this vein and confess that I trolled some websites for more information before making the angst-filled 30 minute drive from my house to Rebecca's to watch the episode with her after work on Monday. 

What I found online confirmed my suspicions that I would be in for something that would shake the very foundations of my Team Bill status. Still, I should have been more prepared.

But honestly, I don't think anything could have prepared me for the final scene of "It Hurts Me Too" and the insidious, creeping effect it had on me - mind, body, and soul. Granted, I was deeply disturbed by what I saw and immediately panicked that I would have to jettison the wallpaper I have on my cell phone as an ode to Bill:

Joking aside, I certainly didn't laugh off the scene but I did find myself making excuses for Bill as Rebecca and I discussed it; rationalizing his behavior to an extent and trying desperately to convince myself that he would be redeemed.

But later that night, the dark tendrils of his naked violence perversely caressed me during my fitful sleep and I awoke feeling stripped bare - more vulnerable in my womanhood than ever I had felt before - this haunted me all day.

I can still feel the nagging dread that slowed my feet on the bank's stairs when I noticed how many men were inside; my sickening sense that their eyes were on me like predators stalking prey as I waited on line. Then and now merge as the visceral emotions flood back, crashing over me anew. Again, I can feel my lungs constrict, vise-like as I abruptly exhale, hot tears welling in my eyes as I sit on my porch during my lunch break pouring over readings from women's studies courses I took years ago, trying to contextualize and find words for what I was experiencing. As a social worker I am well aquainted with the statistics on violence against women, and despite the close work I have done with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault I had never, ever felt such fear - in my own skin and down to my bones - as a woman.

Even now, recalling that pivotal span of 48 hours or so which set both Rebecca and I on the path that led to us opening up shop here at The Pierced Pomegranate Tavern makes me shudder, cool air on warm skin in needle-pointed contrast as I type. I still have a visceral embodied reaction to the final moments of "It Hurts Me Too" and my experience of it months after first viewing the episode that makes it easy to remember why my thoughts about this scene were unripe for words for so long - until here and now!

In the next post I am pasting the content of a letter penned by my sister and I in response to the call issued on the National Organization for Women (NOW) website to “write to HBO and tell them what you think about this violent, misogynistic scene [last scene “It Hurts Me Too”] in True Blood”. It represents our first attempt at distilling our immediate and deeply felt response to the scene into written form and the first baby step towards initiating this forum.

We strongly believed that in the face of NOW’s critique the cast, writers, and crew of True Blood needed to know how powerfully this scene and the show can move feminist women like us, and the action it has compelled us to take in terms of starting this blog—myself as a social worker and scholar in the field of transformative studies keenly interested in the relationship between popular culture and social change and Rebecca as an intellectually engaged and faithful viewer of True Blood—this is outlined our letter to NOW. We forwarded copies of this letter to key members of True Blood's creative team and we still welcome any feedback on our response to NOW they may have. We would also appreciate the opportunity to interview those associated with this scene both for this blog and for an academic paper I am preparing for the conference “Vampires: Myths of the Past and the Future” to be held at the University of London next year. 

I think the letter we wrote to NOW, which as I said I am posting above, will further flesh out some of our thoughts on this scene - which we intend to continue discussing in this space - as well as give you deepened insight into our reasons and motivations for starting this interactive blog and some of our goals for this forum.

~ Rachel

INSPIRATION

"Tiredness fuels empty thoughts
 I find myself disposed
Brightness fills empty space
In search of INSPIRATION" - Damien Rice, lyrics from Eskimo

......That's the funny thing about INSPIRATION you never know when it's going to hit, or in this case, grab you by the neck and twist your head around until you cough up blood! INSPIRATION!!!!!

     To say that I am a fan of True Blood would be an understatement. I have watched and re-watched every episode from the last three seasons and my reaction is always the same. Every week without fail, at the first sight of the end credits, my head hits my hands in suspended disbelief that the show is over. I will have to wait a WHOLE WEEK to get another fix!

TRUE BLOOD- equal parts drama, comedy, suspense, love story and social/political commentary. The perfect mix to keep me wanting more.

     So there I was, three episodes into the third season, another Sunday night. Tired form the work week, ready to relax and watch what was sure to be another great episode of my favorite show. The house was quiet. I was sitting alone on the couch, crawled up like a child, as close to the screen as I could get without hurting my eyes. The show began, but I couldn't relax. I was nervous, anxious, staring wide-eyed at the screen as the room around me seemed to fade into the background. Then IT happened, INSPIRATION!
     I watched as our hero, the Vampire Bill Compton, clad in black and white, as he had been all episode (perhaps a nod to the duality of Man?) entered his room promptly removing his milky white jacket, as if shedding his skin. Following not far behind was Lorena mocking the "bravura performance" he gave while lying to the King of Mississippi. I saw a character normally in control begin to unravel before my eyes. In a boiling fit of rage he cried "You have won! You have deprived me of my home, my freedom, my humanity". I saw him pin Lorena to the wall exclaiming " I will never, ever love you". I watched Lorena, as if baited by rejection grab Bill by the face and kiss him, a last ditch effort to win the affections of the man she still loved. I heard him repeat to her "never" as he hurled her onto the bed. "Never" as he bit her neck. "Never, I will never" as an answer to her plea for him to make love to her. "Never", as he ripped off her clothes and began forcibly thrusting himself inside of her, raping her, degrading her; proving his power over her. For, just  as a wife who is beaten time and time again will "stand by her man", she [Lorena]  is paralyzed by her own unrequited love. I watched as he continued this violent sex act by taking Lorena's head and twisting it 180 degrees until her face was to the floor. I watched as she, out of her own desire for companionship, allowed him to violate her to the very core. Twisted, broken and bleeding she confessed after all she had endured "William, I still love you".
     What I saw disturbed every fiber of my being, so much so that I felt the need to call my sister Rachel, and warn her (without giving anything away) about what she was about to see.....she thanked me later! You see, Rachel and I don't watch True Blood like most people- we experience it! I must admit I'm not above taking notes so that Rae (as I call her) and I can thoroughly discuss our thoughts on an episode the next time we talk.....and boy did we talk! We talked about the show, the now (in)famous head-twisting scene and how it made us feel. We noted other peoples' reaction to the scene, some laughed, some turned away in horror, others said "Lorena got what she deserved, Bill should have killed her". As we recounted our experience with this scene we realized our reaction differed greatly from what could have well been most of the viewing public.
     For the good of the blog I decided to revisit this episode, perhaps with a clearer head. Watching again, after weeks of letting this disturbing scene settle in the recesses of my mind, I was once again squirming with anxiety, horrified at what I was witnessing. I was angry, confused, saddened to the point of tears, that anyone could look at a scene like this and say "she got what she deserved" Too often in our society we judge women, victims of rape and violence as "getting what they deserved". Since when do we as a culture condone this treatment of women? It was in asking that question I realized, this history goes back further then I or anyone would care to remember.
     Had HBO exploited that fact? Had True Blood taken it too far? If you ask me my answer is NO. I applaud HBO and the writers, directors, producers and actors of True Blood for their bravery in taking on issues such as these in order to allow for open dialogue... to call attention to issues such as rape, torture, and violence against women; and most importantly to serve as INSPIRATION for two sisters from New York to create a blog to discuss just that! ~ Rebecca