Friday, July 13, 2012

A Slut Is a Slut Is a Slut

Digital Spy Soaps forum is in a bit of a meltdown lately, owing to a little "freedom of speech" matter. It seems that the people who moderate that forum - and, by extension, Eastenders, itself - is slightly less than pleased at some of the flack the character Kat Moon has been taking lately.

It seems that they - whoever "they" may be - are perturbed because she's been referred to as a "slag," a "whore," and a "slut."

They object strenuously.

I've often been of the suspicion that the the relationship between the people who moderate the Soaps' forum on Digital Spy and some backroomers at Eastenders has been painfully incestuous - to the point that, as one former Forum Member pointed out, it seems that several Eastenders backroom boys and girls, as well as the eponymous Kris Green's successor, Daniel Kilkelly, maintain multiple forum accounts, by which they variously cheerlead for the home side and clamp down on those who criticize the soap too vociferously.

Big Bruvver is watching you, and his surname ain't Mitchell.

This is what's happened: Eastenders realised, later than its viewing public had, that Kat Mach 2010 wasn't working, that a formerly iconic female character was now being pejoratively viewed and had effectively gone from hero to zero in fans' opinions. In fact, the nicest thing Kat was being called was "bitch." People objected, not only to the fact that she'd cheated on Alfie as a result of her getting into a strop, but also because her reason for doing so was slightly less than honest. We'd been there, done that, read the book, seen the movie and bought the teeshirt on the old "dirty girl" meme, and the fact that the reason that "this is the way I am" was the best she could offer Alfie was a blatant shirk of responsibility.

So, TPTB decided to put the actress on a long break and do some damage limitation, but when she returned earlier this summer, she was worse than when she left. Someone on DS reckoned that Kat and Alfie were like Den and Ange, with Kat taking the role of Den. Interesting, but not even close. Den was liked, feared and respected by the community. The newfound like or lust for Kat is only recent. No one fears her, and no one will respect her after her latest escapade. When Kat returned, she assumed a moral high ground that wasn't hers to assume, and continued her ritual emasculation of her husband.

The next step was to offer up to the public a whodunnit like no other. Kat would have an affair - meaning she would be unfaithful again - only this time, the public would be involved in an exciting guessing game of figuring out who exactly was boning the bitch. By filming all her presumed encounters with a shadowy double, we wouldn't know who the shagger was until it was revealed - in fact, not even the writers or the actors know who the perv is ... just like who killed Archie ... OMIGOD. Not.

The only problem with a storyline like this is that it reduces any other presumption of sympathy for the cheater to the level of pure and raw sex. Earlier this week, Kat got the hump because she had to sit with Alfie and the kids and watch a children's film ... like a normal parent, you know. Sometimes parents have to do that, but not Kat. Instead, she rings Mr Shaggerman for a quickie, and last night, she was just scheming to find a way of getting out of the place for an evening just for a fuck. She cheats because she thinks she can, because it's a thrill and far more exciting than playing happy families.

A spouse who cheats once with a one night stand might be forgiven. But one who's on her fifth infidelity in 9 years is one thing and one thing only ... a slut.

And by the way, the Katapologists on several fora seem a bit confused, thinking Roxy's the one who's the slut.

Not so.

Roxy has lived in Walford for five years. She's had 2 one night stands with Jack, when (on both occasions) he was not with Ronnie. She got pregnant by one of them. She had a relationship with and married Sean Slater. After they split, she had a one night stand with Jase Dyer and then a brief relationship with Al Jenkins. Last year, she had a relationship with Michael Moon.

That's hardly promiscuity, and for people criticizing Roxy for sleeping with "her sister's bloke," as I said, Jack and Ronnie were not together on either occasion, and Kat and her daughter Zoe have actually shared sexual relations with two men, themselves - Anthony Trueman and Dennis Rickman.

At the moment, I'm only seeing one real female slut on Eastenders, and that slut is Kat.

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