I had to go and look up Hegel and Marcuse, so it definitely wasn't them I was thinking about (*g*) For me it's more those moments in Mickey Hamilton where Doyle's the one who points out that the killer must be sick rather than just evil, his awareness that "there aren't enough doctors", and particularly at the end where he doesn't believe that no one could have helped Hamilton. He feels that someone should have caught Hamilton's situation and thus been able to prevent the deaths - which implies to me a belief that society should be helping people like that.
Of course Cowley accuses Doyle of being an "idealist" - which I know doesn't necessarily equate with socialism, but quite often does...
Then little things - like the fact that he does seem to be affected by some of the deaths that he's involved with (DiaG) rather than taking it as read, that Bodie accuses him of being a "one-man Geneva Convention" in Mixed Doubles, that Doyle has apparently gone out of his way in the past to help kids on the street (not socialism in itself that, but another tendency, perhaps...) Oh, his belief that "hookers are women too"...
As for calling women "slags" being a sign of misogyny (cf calling men "bastards"?) I'm not sure that I necessarily equate socialism with a lack of sexism to be honest - different things, they are! I've known some very sexist socialists! But is calling women names a sign of misogyny when it's in some sort of context? Any more than calling men names is? (Not that I'd encourage either, but then I wouldn't encourage guns on the street either!) I actually think it's far more sexist of him to have told Susan that she shouldn't be out on the streets during Purging - why isn't she, as a trained agent, just as safe as Bodie and Doyle?!
Actually, along these lines, what I always wonder is why Bodie's the one who's always accused of racism (including by Doyle) when Doyle says some extremely racist things about Chinese people in the ep with the stun gas... I know there were different understandings of what was acceptable back when the series was made, but people now who note Bodie's racism in Klansmen don't seem to think anything of Doyle's racism at all! (Maybe they're putting it down to goading the guy that they've picked up..?)
And no, being a socialist doesn't preclude having private treatment (though more these days, I think?) but he accepts the option in a much more year 2000s way than in a 1980s-Doyle way, I thought... And of course this is all through my vision of Doyle, as I said above - and everyone's got their own!
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Major Spoiler alert
Date: 2007-07-21 07:43 am (UTC)I had to go and look up Hegel and Marcuse, so it definitely wasn't them I was thinking about (*g*) For me it's more those moments in Mickey Hamilton where Doyle's the one who points out that the killer must be sick rather than just evil, his awareness that "there aren't enough doctors", and particularly at the end where he doesn't believe that no one could have helped Hamilton. He feels that someone should have caught Hamilton's situation and thus been able to prevent the deaths - which implies to me a belief that society should be helping people like that.
Of course Cowley accuses Doyle of being an "idealist" - which I know doesn't necessarily equate with socialism, but quite often does...
Then little things - like the fact that he does seem to be affected by some of the deaths that he's involved with (DiaG) rather than taking it as read, that Bodie accuses him of being a "one-man Geneva Convention" in Mixed Doubles, that Doyle has apparently gone out of his way in the past to help kids on the street (not socialism in itself that, but another tendency, perhaps...) Oh, his belief that "hookers are women too"...
As for calling women "slags" being a sign of misogyny (cf calling men "bastards"?) I'm not sure that I necessarily equate socialism with a lack of sexism to be honest - different things, they are! I've known some very sexist socialists! But is calling women names a sign of misogyny when it's in some sort of context? Any more than calling men names is? (Not that I'd encourage either, but then I wouldn't encourage guns on the street either!) I actually think it's far more sexist of him to have told Susan that she shouldn't be out on the streets during Purging - why isn't she, as a trained agent, just as safe as Bodie and Doyle?!
Actually, along these lines, what I always wonder is why Bodie's the one who's always accused of racism (including by Doyle) when Doyle says some extremely racist things about Chinese people in the ep with the stun gas... I know there were different understandings of what was acceptable back when the series was made, but people now who note Bodie's racism in Klansmen don't seem to think anything of Doyle's racism at all! (Maybe they're putting it down to goading the guy that they've picked up..?)
And no, being a socialist doesn't preclude having private treatment (though more these days, I think?) but he accepts the option in a much more year 2000s way than in a 1980s-Doyle way, I thought... And of course this is all through my vision of Doyle, as I said above - and everyone's got their own!