I remembered

[serafina20]

This has been bugging me since I got home. I finally remembered what I wanted to say.

Jack (Harkness, and the whole "Jack" thing is another post): He's a product of the 51st century. To me, that means he's open to be attracted to anything sentient and appealing to him. However, he's lived most of his life on contemporary earth so I think some of his perceptions (or whatever that word I'm looking for is) are shaped by that.

And, other thinky thoughts I can't really articulate right now. I'm feeling kind of mind-dumb.

Comments

[johanirae.livejournal.com]

I think maybe with some things it is so, but with the mind, when it becomes open to some things maybe it tends to stay that way? To make a rather crude example, say if a contemporary person like us was transported back into the 60s, and we become attracted to a man of a different race, it may seem normal and nothing odd to use, but may seem positively scandalous to others.

Just my thought, although now that I think of it, couple of thousands of years is long to shape a mind hmmm.

[serafina20.livejournal.com]

Well, someone was saying that Jack was not a good example of an ideal 51st century person because he was prone to jealousy and secrecy and stuff. My rebuttle (without actually engaging in a discussion, since I don't really want to get involved with the fandom) is that he's not really a 51st century man anymore, he was just born then.

I think maybe with some things it is so, but with the mind, when it becomes open to some things maybe it tends to stay that way

I'm not saying his mind still isn't open. I think it still is. However, the "ideal" around him for over a hundred years has been find someone and stay with that one person, which is different from what he was born with. I think that, while he still may fall in love with more than one person at a time (ie Ianto and Gwen), having lived with our cultural mores, he isn't as averse to a monogamous relationship that people (esp. over at places like fanficrants) like to protest he is.

This is not denying, however, that should the opportunity/desire arise to be polyamorous without negative consequences, he would take it.

Although, really, I'm not sure I agree that the mind isn't malleable. With time and social pressure, people definitely will change their beliefs to fit more with the culture they're in. Actually, not even necessarily with time; look at the Stanford prison experiment. People's actions and behaviors changed almost overnight. Maybe Jack wouldn't change that drastically, what with training, a strong personality, and steady sense of self, but it's not unbelievable.