Episode Report Card Sars: F | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Scarlet N
By Sars | Season 4 | Episode 15 | Aired on 02.13.2001
Any. WAY. Joey says that, if someone had told her two years ago that they'd have this conversation, she'd have referred them "to the nearest asylum," but things haven't turned out the way they thought. Then she says that, a couple of years ago, she'd have said she'd sleep with Dawson as her first, she would have answered "unequivocally -- 'Dawson Leery, that's who.'" Dawson looks either hopeful or nervous, it's hard to say which. "It wouldn't have occurred to me..." Joey trails off. Dawson keeps giving her that prompting look. "Especially not Pacey," she sighs. Dawson says mildly, "So what are you saying, Jo?" Stricken, Joey looks back and forth between Dawson and the ground about a hundred times. Dawson's face settles in expectation. Joey looks down, makes the decision to sell Pacey out, smiles to herself, and says quietly, "No." Dude, Joey is THE WORST LIAR EVER. Dawson's head jerks back in surprise; clearly, he'd expected from her lead-up to hear that she had had sex with Pacey. Joey says with a big out-of-place grin, "I -- have not slept with Pacey." Oh, for god's sake. She couldn't just decline to answer? Or tell the truth? It's none of Dawson's business anyway -- why would Joey answer in the way most likely to tear Pacey's heart to shreds when it gets back to him, as we all know it will? Dawson has moved on, and it's time for Joey to start treating him that way, and I really, really hope Pacey dumps her when he hears about this, because it's one thing to have a couple of problems entering the sexual atmosphere -- it's a bumpy head trip in a lot of ways, especially for a girl, and that's fine. But no, Joey's still hung up on Dawson after she's SLEPT WITH someone ELSE, and if that's the situation, she's a fucking head case, and there's Pacey can do but try to save himself. I got a bad feeling last week that she slept with Pacey not because she felt ready to have sex, but because she felt she owed him for all of the shit that he's put up with, and while she certainly does owe him for that, she shouldn't have used sex to pay back the debt, especially if she knew -- which she probably did -- that she'd feel all weird around Dawson afterwards. I don't hate Joey, exactly, but she's an emotional sinkhole, and Pacey needs to get out, and do it now.
And FURTHERMORE -- and oh yes, there's more, and a further besides -- could network-television writers just ONCE make a girl feel GOOD about deciding to have sex? Could the writers on this show not constantly give a girl the green-light for intercourse and then punish her for it? They punished Andie with that whole whodunit letter storyline, they punished Gretchen, and now they've decided to punish Joey too. Oh, not sleeping with Dawson? Well, no orgasm for you, and here's a heaping helping of fight-with-your-boyfriend-the-next-day! Comes with two side orders, guilt and insecurity! Pacey loves her. She's fucked in the head, but she loves him back. They love each other, and that's the best possible world in which a girl can have sex for the first time, and the whole orgasm thing is not only too much information, but it's completely absurd that Pacey wouldn't know whether she'd had one, and wouldn't have given her one. Please. The man slept with a woman twice his age -- he's got the goods. But that's not even the point. The point is that they feel like they have to demonize sex, and it makes me sick. This isn't 1958. I truly hope that the girls who watch this show don't come away from it thinking that sex is this heartbreaking, guilt-ridden, ugly, torturous affair that Changes You Forever, because losing your virginity is a big deal, but I lost my virginity to a pig-dog that I didn't even love, and do you know how I felt the next day? Relieved. Excited. I felt like things would start happening, and I could get ready for them, finally, because I could finally understand what they meant, and then I got rid of the pig-dog and fell in love for the first time, and when you've had sex, love can mean something so much bigger and deeper (ew, not like that). But do they show us that? No. No, they don't. Do they show us a girl having a very real reaction to growing up a bit? No. No, of course not. No, in Televisionland, good girls don't, and if they do, they get to pay for it. I apologize if y'all feel I got too personal in this paragraph. I know it's just a television show. But I can't just sit here and not say anything, because it's infuriating, and the writers get it wrong every goddamn time, and I feel like opening my window like in Network and screaming, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" God, I loathe this show.