| Sorry, I keep forgetting to finish that meme |
[Sep. 10th, 2009|01:52 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | fandom, metameta, rage | ] |
| [ | If I wasn't apathetic, I'd be |
| |  cynical | ] |
| [ | Play it for me |
| | Maurissa Tancharoen - Nobody's Asian in the Movies | ] |
I glanced at Luminosity (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sockkpuppett)'s post from the other day (screencap here).
Now, ms_treesap has a great post about it, and the_wanlorn similarly is awesome about pointing out the ridiculous assumptions contained within the post.
I'd like to make one more, rather less ragey note about the ridiculousness of Luminosity's failure to understand fandom:
I'm going to say that I don't really understand it.
I mean, that's not to say I haven't done my fair share of bitching about fandom and how I hate the direction it's going, but I usually also turn around and find something else to do in fandom. I got to the point where I hated Wincest? amchara founded ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) spn_summerlove, and I had a source for fic about the women on SPN. When I get tired of the racism and sexism meta I go looking for porn. And honestly, regardless of how much racism and sexism meta there is, it's not hard to find. When I do my relatively rare meta-ing, I write about what interests me. Maybe I'm not as pressured because my many fandom friends are scattered over multiple fandoms, so I don't worry about the crushing weight of fandom dislike (and also, I enjoy meta-ing about race and gender), but if I feel like meta-ing about Hardison's awful accent in The Ice Man Job, I don't think anyone's going to yell at me for disrespecting him for being Black. And if I meta about the fact it does seem like Leverage sidelines the character and that might be because he's Black-- that also is okay. People might disagree, people might agree, people might very well fucking ignore it, but I do it because the topic is there and it's something I want to talk about, not because this is work for me. And you know what? If people ignore it, they're free to.
And therein lies the reason the post rubbed me wrong-- Wanlorn and Tree are totally correct in pointing out how utterly privileged Luminosity was being, but even those of who do try and keep up with the *fails get tired after a while. Shocking, I know, but it burns a person out. But this is fucking fandom. When you get tired, there are other places for you to go and recharge-- I can think of several communities created by FoC for FoC so they could be fannish and recharge and just have fun. I can think of plenty of non-political fic and meta communities that anyone can join and recharge.
Not only was she being privileged in that she refused to understand why so many people have gotten politicized (and, yes, Luminosity, fandom used to be political just by being-- we've grown out of that and now we have to work at keeping our subversive cred, sorry), but she was being privileged by dismissing out of hand the idea that this stuff tires EVERYONE out. And that's why only part of fandom is extremely vocal about it. No one's going to begrudge you ignoring some of it and recharging your batteries. We will begrudge you acting like we're trying to make life hard for you.
Go find a fucking fic community and don't act like a goddamn martyr. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 3rd, 2008|01:40 pm] |
A little less than a month ago hannahrorlove posted an essay about slash goggles and why people should "just watch the show".
Now, I disagree. She knows I disagree, which is why I never bothered to write up a response essay, despite the fact that the concept of reading a text from the "wrong" point of view, and the existence that "what a show objectively is" goes against all my deconstructionist philosophies.
But, thankfully, I don't have to! Dr Merlin has posted a lovely essay that addresses most of my concerns about the idea of watching televison through filters-- albeit, in a more entertaining and less pretentious manner than I've been thinking about it. Please read her essay, Your Friends Are Not Watching the Same Show As You Are, And That's Okay.
Personally? Right now, I'm watching "The Donna Noble and Martha Jones Make Fun of Ten Show", "No, Seriously, Did You Learn Your Gender Studies in the Boys' Lockeroom? Show", "The Takezo Kensei/Adam Munroe/Richard Sanders/Jesus This Man Has Too Many Names Stalks Hiro Show", and "The Meat and Sarcasm Guy Hour". |
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| Supernatural Meta: Rationalisation and the Human Mind (Or: Why I Like Henriksen) |
[Feb. 15th, 2008|11:44 am] |
Short review of last night's ep: I liked the first half best. Possibly because I just don't revel in the manpain.
Now for other things. This has nothing to do with this week's episode, but it has to do with a conversation I started with jamoche (that tiferet shut down because she was trying to watch SGA.)
So. There's a reason I like Henriksen-- it was mentioned during one of the panels at Wincon that the show would work just as well if he was the main character. What it would be about is the smart, snarky Special Agent tracking down killers, especially his major antagonists: a pair of serial killing brothers who somehow keep just barely slipping through his fingers. It would work just as well without any supernatural elements. That's not to say I don't like the supernatural elements of the show or SamnDean as protagonists. No, what I like is the idea of a character who is not only a potential protagonist, but someone with a totally ordinary outlook. See, here's the thing: I keep telling people that the one thing I hope for Henriksen (besides that he not get killed off) is that whatever supernatural shit happens to him, he continues to refuse to believe in the supernatural.
The way the show tends to deal with ordinary people being confronted with the supernatural is said ordinary people automatically believe whatever it is the Winchesters tell them. And I can see it occurring occasionally. But the fact that everyone accepts it bothers me-- There's a blog post by Slacktivist where he talks about Left Behind and how every main character and person the main characters come in contact with automatically assume that people disappeared because of the Rapture and "somehow even the characters who don't know it's the Rapture don't seem interested in exploring other theories. Those who do have theories ... are regarded as oddballs and exceptions." I feel the same way about Supernatural almost any time they're dealing with civilians. It's one of the reasons I never understood the Cassie-hate-- she kicked Dean to the curb when he told her he hunted ghosts. Any sane person, after hearing that from a guy they'd been dating for two months, would either assume he was crazy or that he was trying to get out of the relationship. Personally, I always thought that her assuming he was trying to get out of the relationship was the more optimistic outlook. And she wasn't allowed to keep that perspective, either. I'm still not quite sure where she got the idea that a ghost had part in the deaths when she called Dean in. It looked like a general hit and run to me. But the writers needed a hand-wave to get her scared enough to call Dean.
The fact is that any time the boys show up, unless the person they're dealing with is supposed to be a crackpot (see Nightshifter), as soon as the boys explain the phenomena people tend to believe them. When they see something weird, they never go "wait. That can't happen. That's impossible" or try to come up with their own theories. And even when they do, the character is never allowed to keep that opinion-- as in Cassie's example. Something must happen to make them believe Sam and Dean, even if a more logical explanation would be to assume they were having a nervous breakdown or something. Madison in "Heart" could have thought maybe she was going crazy instead of taking Sam's word that she was turning into a werewolf, and checked herself into a clinic with nice padded walls, for instance.
Think about the way we are taught to think about things. If something impossible happens, it simply can't have happened. Therefore it didn't happen the way we thought it did. The human mind has an amazing ability to rationalize the world around us to fit into our point of view. If we come from a culture where curses are the reason cows' milk dries up, we're going to think something totally different when the cow stop giving milk than someone who's taught curses don't exist and that everything has to do with chemical balances in the cows' feed. But almost nobody in Supernatural ever tries to rationalize-- no one besides Henrikson, anyway. He's also the only one who has been in more than one episode and been allowed to continue thinking the boys are crazy and that there is nothing supernatural going on. I want him to stay that way. I want his face to be rubbed in the supernatural and for him to rationalize it the fuck away. Hell, I'd like it if they had more characters who were willing to call bullshit.
I know it makes it easier on the writers to not have to deal with other characters simply refusing to believe in the supernatural, but after a while it just stopped working for me.
( Spoiler here ) |
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| Thoughts on Project Runway commentary |
[Jan. 10th, 2008|01:41 pm] |
I only saw the last half of Project Runway, so I may have missed Christian's "model" being a complete flaming hobag, but you know what? I don't care.
I don't understand people who defend it when one of the designers blames the person for whom they're designing by saying they're "difficult". The reason the judges get on your case for it (the reason they got on Jeffrey's case last season, and the reason they got on Christian's case) is because if you're working in the real world and someone says "this is what I want" and you can't make something nice even when they're being a bitch about it you're not going to get work. Taking Christian's case from last night, imagine if it was the girl's parents, who had spent hundreds or thousands of dollars on a designer dress, and you tried to defend yourself by saying that their daughter was pushy. Can you imagine the shitstorm?
I remember in the first season, Nora got booted off for being unable to make a wedding dress to her model's specifications-- and the judges told her that you have to take what the client gives you and work with it to turn it into something beautiful. That advice is accurate whether or not your client is being helpful.
I think it also says something that in both Jeffrey and Christian's cases that had women who were significantly larger than your average model. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Christian's client/model this time around looked like she was the largest girl. (And I have to admit to being surprised that the judges didn't point out how much larger all the ruffles made her look.) I know I am perfectly aware of what I want out of my clothes-- it's such a hassle finding clothes that fit me that I would get pushy over someone making clothes specially designed for me, as my mother can attest. The designers get touchy about it, and the clients get touchy about it. Also, I think viewers sympathize a little bit less because they are more difficult to design for, or possibly because they're a fat, pushy bitch but that might be me projecting a little.
That all said, my real issue is with the idea that somehow the judges weren't giving Christian (and/or Jeffrey) a fair shake when they dressed him down for blaming their client. The thing is, a designer is a service provider. You have to make your client happy. Whether this means sucking up their bitchy attitude and trying to design something interesting and pretty while incorporating the design aspects they wanted or ignoring passive-agggressiveness or just sorting through their over-the-top desires to find something that will look good and work for them, a designer needs to provide a good design and a good garment. A pushy client is not an excuse. (Also? People, they're teenagers, and these are their prom dresses. No shit some of them are gonna be loud or pushy. It doesn't excuse Christian blaming her for being obnoxious, and Jillian's minor freakout over how loud they were made me roll my eyes.)
On a side note, why did none of the designers take into account the fact that some girls need to wear bras? Kevin's dress might have looked nicer if she hadn't been bouncing all over the place.
In case anyone cares, Victorya's dress won, although I think it's an awful fit, Kevin's dress got him booted, and Christian was in the bottom two for being a douche and making a really ugly dress, which totally sucks, cause Maddie's adorable. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 8th, 2007|11:03 am] |
This is just raw data. I'm surveying the seasons just so that I have a reference to come back to as to who was on what season. If you know I've missed something, or have a theory to expound, go right ahead.
Note: I'm skipping Lost Galaxy, Lightspeed, Time Force, and Wild Force (Seasons 7-10) because I've never seen any of it.
Where the character's ethnicity is never mentioned, and they're clearly not White, I'm hitting up IMDB for the actor's ethnicity. This will be marked. Similarly, if the actor is White but somehow Other (like in the case of aliens) it will be marked.
There's way more to what I'm trying to put into words than just a list of what ethnicities people are, this is just a cheat sheet so I don't accidentally say someone's white when they're not (and... you know, in case my flisters are curious because they haven't seen the show in years.)
| Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (Seasons 1-3) |
| Jason | Red Ranger, White |
| Zack | Black Ranger, Black |
| Trini | Yellow Ranger, Chinese |
| Kimberly | Pink Ranger, White |
| Billy | Blue Ranger, White |
| Tommy | Green Ranger/White Ranger, Native American (O.o) |
| Midseason Turnover |
| Rocky | Red Ranger, Latino |
| Adam | Black Ranger, Korean |
| Aisha | Yellow Ranger, Black |
| Kat | Pink Ranger, White |
| Alien Rangers | I'm ignoring them because I don't even remember what they did on the show. |
( Power Rangers Zeo )
( Power Rangers Turbo )
( Power Rangers in Space )
[...Four Seasons I Missed...]
( Power Rangers Ninja Storm )
( Power Rangers Dino Thunder )
( Power Rangers Space Patrol Delta )
( Power Rangers Mystic Force )
( Power Rangers Operation Overdrive )
( Power Rangers Jungle Fury )
( Power Rangers RPM )
First thing I noticed, writing this out? There hasn't yet been an Asian Red Ranger, or a Black Sixth Ranger ("Sixth Ranger" being the term for the Rangers outside of the standard five-person sentai team). Odd.
ETA 3/12/09: Added Jungle Fury and RPM. |
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bored
geeky
moody
contemplative
