5 Comments

• 
  Jess - 6 years ago

  Do the polls update instantly? I swear you guys have been tied at 50% for ages!

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  Ingrid - 6 years ago

  Gotta say I'm with Susan here. That scene has never come across as acceptable behavior to me, and it's my second-least-favorite thing that ever happens in the sagas. I'm very uncomfortable reading it and it turns me off the entire saga. I don't think classism excuses rape, and to me it comes off very much as a rape scene - and one we're supposed to laugh at and condone, which is the primary reason I cannot condone it.

  I don't require any action on John and Andy's part, and I don't mean to attack Heather either; I just need to acknowledge, for myself, that this scene makes me very uncomfortable.

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  Heather - 6 years ago

  Very sleepy this morning, obviously I meant Grettir!

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  Heather - 6 years ago

  Hi, Susan. If you are speaking of the burlesque escapade between Gisli and serving woman, I think the primary criticism there is its classism. She is portrayed as low-class: bawdy, taunting him, and very obviously on the prowl. They have what is recorded as an very satisfactory sexual encounter--I practically saw the mutual cigarettes afterward. His humorous verse is summation of the experience from his perspective since it's his story. I understand that you don't see it that way, but I can say as another woman that isn't the universal view.

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  Susan - 6 years ago

  One of these thing men raped a woman because she laughed at him. Neither of you questioned this when it came to picking thing men. I know that the sagas have different standards but both of you have commented on modern perspectives and one of you picked a woman as thingman early on. I cheered then. I call on you both to banish that thingman and for the other to give up an equivalent thingman.

  I still love your podcast and appreciate learning about a literature form and its history that I hadn't previously encountered.