[discussion] kara in a dress

[bantha_fodder]

Look, to those of you who are still spoiler free, the subject line of this post is not a spoiler. I'm sure, by now, you've seen her wearing a dress in someone's icon. However, the rest of this spec may get spoilery, so please proceed to under the cut.


Let's talk about The Dress.

1. Where did Kara get it from? She doesn't strike me as the sort of soldier to keep a dress in her locker. If she's going to an official celebration, she's more likely to wear her dress uniform. So, random officer? Cashing in a favour with a civilian? If the latter, then when would she have had a chance to make contact (real contact) with a civilian, and bring the conversation around to a dress in her size that flatters her?

2. WHY is she wearing a dress? I feel like Kara would have worn her dress uniform to her own wedding. If we ever see her imagining herself in a flowing white wedding gown, there will be some mighty fist shaking. My personal pet theory, is that she is wearing the dress (however she came across it) in order to make Lee notice. Which of course, does not gel with the notion that she is a bit fucked up, and therefore sees big DO NOT TOUCH signs pointing to Lee.

3. Could she be the sort of loud, boisterous tomboy kind of girl who occasionally likes to dress up and remember that she's pretty? I only mention this because it is possible. That was me, at one point.

4. On a ship that I believe is really, really gender equal, that doesn't just pay lip service but actually is, why is it that the men are still in uniform but the women are in dresses? I refuse to believe they had that many dresses that fit that well and were that pretty left on the Battlestar Galactica. Yes, they could have scrounged them out of the fleet, but I find that highly unlikely.

5. Unless all survivors had to hand their clothes over to some central depot, in order to redistribute/ration. Because surely some people had entire wardrobes whilst others had the clothes on their backs; there will be rationing, and I bet some people are losing weight (especially those on the Galactica).


PS party in meyerlemon's journal.

Comments

[meyerlemon.livejournal.com]

Intriguing! My thoughts:

1) I don't know. This is one of the things that made me not like this episode quite so much, as it seemed very fanficcy. I could buy Kara having a going-out-outfit, but a formal gown? That stretches the bounds of credibility. I suppose she could have borrowed it off a crewmate, but, again- I doubt it. The Galactica is essentially a Navy aircraft carrier, and I really doubt that girls on American Navy aircraft carriers haul evening gowns around with them. A clubbing outfit, maybe. But not this thing.

2) I think she wore it because Lee told her she needed to wash her jacket, (which, btw, I thought was AWESOME.) thereby implying that he sees her as significantly less than feminine. So she set out to prove to him that she could out-hot the Joneses. Of course, I don't think that changed Lee's mind. He already thinks she's hot, no matter what she's wearing. Only, of course, because Kara's fucked up, she doesn't realize that.

3) Hmm! Could be! She has hitherto not seemed conflicted about such things, but it's certainly possible.

4) I believe that in the US military, this is sort of how it is, though. At official functions, men wear their dress uniforms, and women can usually choose between an ugly "gala uniform" or a formal gown. But overall, again, FANFIC CENTRAL.

5) I'm intrigued by the clothing depot redistribution service. Hmmm.

[themonkeycabal.livejournal.com]

This was the episode that made me want to write Starbuck in the style of Bridget Jones fic. As a joke, of course, don't shoot.

Beyond that, I have no answer to the mystery of the origin of the dress.

I think she wore it to get Lee to notice and then, oops, he noticed, and he noticed a lot, in a rather slack-jawed manner, and she spooked. And since she is all manner of fucked-up, and self-destructive, she went for something that was easy and attachment free. It also feeds into her self-loathing, when Lee gets so insanely furious about it later. Reinforces her "I'm a fuck-up, see how much? stay away from me, I'm not worth it" thinking.

jmo, of course.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

2) I think she wore it because Lee told her she needed to wash her jacket, (which, btw, I thought was AWESOME.) thereby implying that he sees her as significantly less than feminine. So she set out to prove to him that she could out-hot the Joneses.

Yup! I love that "you have hygiene?" comment - I think that's probably when Kara decided she needed that dress (and she does look beautiful in it). I also agree that once Lee reacts to her the way she wants him too, she gets all weirded out by the whole thing and pushes him away again (even if she doesn't consciously know she's doing it). And really, if she'd never said his name with Baltar, I doubt Baltar would have been so open about his jealousy, and then Lee wouldn't have known ...

That scene in the hangar bay breaks my heart for her; and I'm cheering her on when she punches Lee, by the way. Aaargh!

[ancarett]

As I posted elsewhere, I think the dress was chosen deliberately to pique Lee because of the hygiene remark. Be careful what you say, Captain, because you were so burned by the results! And I did love her comment that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

As for the source, I keep thinking that Ellen Tigh has a secret horde of slinky dresses which Kara raided. Either that or Galactica's commissar is damned well supplied in fancy wear! (Hey, maybe that's how Lee knew to walk up to the strange blonde in the bar -- he'd seen the dress before on other pilots!)

Yes, it's a bit waffy, but I like the way that Kara's right back in her ordinary clothes afterwards. That redeems this outfit from being Makeover!Kara fanfic.

[endlessdeep.livejournal.com]

I went ahead and friended you because of all the bsg. Hope that's OK.

[hercircumstance.livejournal.com]

She won it off of Baltar playing cards. He seems to have a lot of civies. *cough* Yeah, that's what happened.

All the women were dressed up so maybe someone donated their things for the event on a return basis. With 50,000 people someone had to have a slinky dress. Especially considering we don't know what all the ships were doing out there before the attack. Maybe there was a cruise type ship out there and people who packed lots of slinky dresses. :)

[grass-stained.livejournal.com]

I found this through themonkeycabal, and I'm inclined to go with #3. My reasoning harkens back to "Flesh and Bone," where Leoben guesses that Kara prays to Artemis and Aphrodite. Assuming (which is never good, I know) that the Lords of Kobol bear some resemblence to the Greek gods, Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, a warrior, which Kara undoubtedly is, and Aphrodite was the goddess of love, which I believe Kara has great potential for (eg, I believe she loved Zak, and I believe she could/does love Lee). So to me it makes sense that she would have both the tough tomboy side and the "flirty" feminine side.