I just can't see it that way, I'm afraid. Ruby was half-way through an "I'm not like that" speech when Zii showed her the phone. But that picture doesn't prove anything about Ruby being "like that"; it merely illustrates what Zii has already said about herself. Ruby could have ignored it and carried on with the denial if she'd wanted to. Likewise, "How much do you want for this?" is an offer to buy the thing in front of you; if she was trying to buy Zii's silence, she'd have said "How much do you want to keep quiet about all this?" or something.brasca wrote:Is that what she's purchasing? I thought "how much do you want for this" was the realization her guilty pleasure is known and there is no way of denying it so she is asking how much it will cost to keep Zii quiet.
And buying a copy of the picture off Zii is, in itself, a straightforward commercial transaction; paying Zii off from talking would make the whole thing into a case of blackmail (such an Ugly Word), which I'd not expect Ruby to go for so easily, if only because Zii could reasonably take offence at being called a blackmailer.
That ship has sailed, I'm afraid. Ruby may not see it as spying, because it was more of a public scene, but she did sneak a peak at Dillon kissing Ray, then tried very hard to persuade them to repeat the scene despite Ray's evident discomfort, then kept saying that Ray should be kissing Dillon rather than Amber, again despite Ray's own preferences. And she put far too much effort into trying to work out how she could excuse damaging Dillon's book, contrary to her usual truthful nature.brasca wrote:Taking pictures like this is one of Zii's and for that matter Dillon's less than endearing qualities so I really don't want her to use moral relativism to convince Ruby that there is nothing wrong with this.
I'm afraid that Ruby's hormones are being rather bad for her moral sense. Buying a digital photo that she ought to know is an invasion of someone's privacy is just another instance of this. She's nothing like as bad as Zii, and given the evident scale of the hormonal surge, and the fact that she's been repressing this stuff for years, I'm inclined to forgive her and reckon that she'll get back on more of a moral even keel when she unwinds a bit and finds a few outlets for her libido. But just now, well, she has swung to somewhere near Zii's position.
Honestly, I think that Zii is overestimating Ruby's subconscious there; she just wasn't that aware of the situation when that scene started, and she really didn't enjoy it very much at the time. But that's just Zii sowing doubt in Ruby's opinion of herself; it doesn't have to be true, it just has to relate to the truth.brasca wrote:Maybe there was some subconscious desire or instinct to hide in the closet when Dillon and Jerzy were about to enter her room, but whereas Ruby feels guilty about getting a free yaoi show Zii would not if she were in her place.
Up to a point... Ruby clearly has some amazingly old-fashioned ideas (well, this is comedy), certainly including the idea that all men are obsessed with sex while almost all women have better things to do with their time - so I'm sure that she also thinks that "respectability" for a woman requires chastity and repression in a way that it might not for a man. But that's just general old-fashioned conventionality, not some kind of complex hang-up about being a girl.brasca wrote:This is all supposed to be lighthearted, but I do wonder if there is more to this than respectability. There is an unfair double standard for women who enjoy the same kinds of pleasures men do and knowing that might be another justification for Ruby's repression.
She doesn't exactly seem to admire Dillon for his sexual activity, but then, to be fair to Ruby, she does seem to regard sexual morality as a personal matter. After her first few seconds of panic in the wardrobe, and aside from some weird attempts at doublethink in the restaurant, she's never set out to stop anyone else having sex; she just refuses to think that it makes them cool, or that she ought to join them.
I think that's a bit subtle for Zii, frankly. Her objection to Yvan wasn't that he wanted sex, it was that he was so damn creepy, and her shoulder devil told her that with her sexual record, she couldn't exactly act the blushing virgin - but it never said "after all, you're just like him".brasca wrote:This conversation takes place a few days before Zii's ill-fated clubbing with Gary and Yvan so it's possible Ruby made an impression on her. Ultimately she helped Gary out because of friendship, but there might have been some resemblance of guilt that aside from good looks, youth, and charm she has tendencies that make her too similar to someone like Yvan.
Zii might be capable of reviewing her life and trying to reorder her priorities, but she doesn't seem to be anywhere near that, here or in Ma3. At most, Ruby might argue the case for other things being more important than sex, well enough that Zii has to admit that things aren't always as simple as she wants them to be.