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normal-thoughts-official · 4 years

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anyway so a friend asked me why i don’t consider that just because a sh character has an actor of color, it means that they’re a character of color, and i think that explaining that to them i managed to get my point across quite nicely so i’m putting this here too in case anyone cares about my views on this

usually whatever race the actor is the character is, that mostly works

but it doesnt for sh because they hired a lot of actors of color for characters who are explicitly supposed to be white, and written as such. not just from the books but just like, for the story to work

Lorenzo is the most obvious example of that, Javier is latino but Lorenzo is explicitly white in show canon ("needless to say, being born in spain during the siglo de oro was quite the experience"; he's not only a spaniard, but explicitly a spaniard who was born at the height of the colonization and exploitation of the Americas and directly benefitted from it. his riches and influence are all the direct result of colonization. not only is he white, he is a literal colonizer and he's directly involved in the historic exploitation of latino and african ppl. so obviously Lorenzo is not latino, even if Javier is). but that logic applies to a lot of the charactes

take izzy for example. izzy wasn’t written as a latina woman, she was written as a white woman. i think that becomes particularly clear in the r*zzy plotline, and how the show writing treats it

recapitulating: izzy goes after the vampires, looking for a bite. they almost kill her. raphael sweeps in and saves her, and tells her to go away and sweat it out. in an attempt to show his empathy, he mentions that he’s handled addiction before, that he’s been addicted to human blood. izzy then slits her wrist and shoves it in raphael’s face, clearly seeing how this affects him. he still tries to tell her no, but she pushes him anyway. finally, he caves in and ends up drinking her blood. later, that same theme continues, with raphael not wanting to take izzy’s blood, and izzy triggering his addiction on purpose to make him. at one point, she threatened him with a sword to get him to drink her blood

so far so good, yes? but then we see the way that the writing treats this plotline, and it doesn’t add up

alec sees them and punches the shit out of raphael, up until magnus stops him. later, when he leaves, magnus talks to raphael and all but scolds him for what he’s doing (“let’s see if you still think that when you’re not getting high”) without even learning the full story. in fact, the fact that izzy was the one who triggered raphael’s addiction (repeatedly) is never brought up again. when izzy talks about it with simon, later, he’s all worried and tells her to stay away from raphael. and none of this is never questioned by any of the writing. we never see raphael getting any support, except for magnus taking him into his home again. we don’t see him struggling with his own addiction and his issues. we only see izzy, and in that process, raphael is unquestioningly framed as the villain, as the one who “lured” and got her addicted, despite the fact that this is objectively not true

this doesn’t make any sense at all, unless you take into account that izzy was supposed to be a white woman

and then we see what’s going on. obviously, sexy vampire who lures the unsuspecting mundane woman stereotypes also play into this, sure. all the scenes with blood drinking are weirdly sexualized; the first time that raphael bites izzy’s wrist, she moans and kind of leans back against the car and he’s over her body and it looks every bit like some sort of “sexual predator taking advantage of poor woman” painting, or trope, or whatever. but that’s also- well, a stereotype that’s used with white women

because women of color aren’t typically painted as the victims of luring and using and abusing. on the contrary, they are usually painted as the ones who lure the men in, the ones who are “intoxicating”, exotic, dangerous, irresistible, the femme fatale stereotype, etc

white women are the ones who are helpless and need to be protected by everyone, who are used and abused and taken by men (particularly moc, let’s not forget the historical use of “protecting white women from predators” as an excuse to increase policing and repression in neighborhoods of color, as well as the lynching and murdering of moc). white women are the ones who are unsuspectingly lured into a drug addiction and then used, needing to be later saved be everyone. white women are victims, and moc are predators. latino men in particular are also drug dealers and criminals and gang leaders. sounds familiar? yeah

so when izzy was being written - when this entire plotline was being written - she was written as a white woman. it doesn’t make sense otherwise. it doesn’t work otherwise. the entire plotline relies on racial tropes and stereotypes, and the writing lays that in so thick and naturalizes the narrative that izzy is being used so much that almost the entire fandom buys that idea, and never talks about how izzy used and triggered and abused raphael, and frequently writes him, if not as the culpable one, at the very least as co-responsible for her suffering. never as the victim, despite that being, through any objective lenses, what he is

so i think it’s indisputable that izzy was written as a white woman, that even as the writers knew that emeraude was playing izzy, they were still imagining a white woman as they wrote her. they weren’t thinking about that when they hired emeraude to play her (in fact, emeraude was chosen to play izzy because izzy is supposed to have “exotic beauty”), otherwise alec (and robert and max) wouldn’t be white. it doesn’t WORK

which gets us to: why are there so many actors of color playing characters who were originally white, and who were explicitly written as such, in sh?

i think the main reason sh had so many actors of color playing white characters is because it's cheaper

actors of color, particularly immigrants, can get lower salaries because they dont have the same opportunities as other actors. for the same price you could get a bad white actor, you can get a reasonable actor of color, but most studios choose the white actor anyway. sh hired many actors of color because then they could get better actors for a lesser price, and it fit the whole "woke, there is rep in it" vibe the show was going for

that's my two cents, of course. i dont have proof of that but i think its highly likely that's what happened.

so that puts the racial relations in this particular fandom in a unique perspective. because the characters are white and that shows in writing, but due to the fact that the actors ARENT, the fandom still sees them with racial bias, so it's a loose and complicated intersection. i’ve seen plenty of racist depictions of izzy in fandom, so much so that i got triggered by the way she’s written as a sexual object for white people, the way she’s written as servicing in ships with white women and men and her pain and abuse is fetishized, among other things

so it’s a very complicated and particular situation, but as a whole, for these characters, the racism comes from the fandom, not from the writing. because they are written as white, i consider them white, but that doesn’t mean that the fandom treatment of them can’t be influenced by racist views and stereotypes.

in short: in the sh universe, they are white, but to the viewers, they might not be, so they’re still subjected to racist treatment in fandom. there’s a disparity between their race in-universe and outside of it, and that creates unique intersections and views and writing of these characters

(this doesn’t apply to every character who was originally white and played by an actor of color; luke, for example, isn’t explicitly written as white at any point, so i consider him black. but izzy, lorenzo, maryse, camille, and others, were written as white, so i consider them white)

(besides, white actors play poc all the time, so why the fuck not have it be the other way around for once)

and look i mean obviously it's perfectly valid to hc those characters as poc and write them as such, especially in aus, but to me that’s that, a hc (well except for Lorenzo because hc-ning him as a poc when he explicitly was their oppressor historically is frankly disrespectful, and I'm not saying that because i dont like him, im saying that because thats how i see it), and not a fact in the writing & story

and that’s my take basically

#this is long and useless but oh well #sh #discourse #anti izzy lightwood #kinda #not really but a little bit

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truthbeetoldmedia · 5 years

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Good Trouble 1x11 “Less Than” Review

There’s choppy waters on Episode 11 of Good Trouble and it seems like ships might be sinking — even Stef and Lena. With only a couple episodes left, this show is really amping up the drama. If you aren’t caught up, you’ll definitely want to get on that.

Stef and Lena, the moms of the Fosters clan played by Teri Polo and Sherri Saum, make their second cameo of the season accompanying Callie, Mariana and Jamie to Judge Wilson’s home. Though it appears at first that the Judge was simply being polite by inviting his clerk’s family over, it soon becomes apparent that he’s trying to teach his delinquent son a lesson.

If you don’t recall, Wilson’s son was charged for assaulting a police officer and placed on house arrest. He and Callie have had a few awkward encounters, one which ended in him apologizing for her having to work for his father.

Though Callie tries to be polite and keep her chatty sister away from him, he soon reveals that his charges have been dropped. Callie is appalled by this, especially since she knows Jamal Thompson, the center of the case she’s currently clerking, did not have receive the same fate due to his skin color.

Meanwhile, Malika and Callie become annoyed when black jurors are continually questioned and dismissed off the case. And as if things couldn’t get any worse, a video of Jamal speaking poorly of black women leaks, causing many to question their continuation of protesting against the court on his behalf.

Malika struggles with her stance, knowing that she must continue to defend the lives of those who succumb to race-based police violence, but also questioning whether or not a black man would do the same for her. She recalls her own boyfriend Isaac, and how the first night they met, he was swiping left on black women on a dating app while instead going for white, blonde-haired women.

Alice, meanwhile, is also struggling to keep her blooming relationship going. Joey accepts that she isn’t out to her family yet, but what she has trouble accepting is the fact that Alice’s ex, Sumi, is still hung up on her. When Sumi shows up unannounced at the loft offering to make dinner for the three of them plus Sumi’s fiance Meera, things get awkward quick. Sumi’s relentless sucking up to Alice catches the attention of not only Meera, but Joey as well, who is uncomfortable to say the least. Unfortunately, when she expresses her concerns to Alice, it becomes clear that Alice may have been lying about being over her ex after all.

Back at Judge Wilson’s house, tensions between Stef and Lena rise as they talk to the judge and his wife. Callie and Mariana, concerned about their mothers’ relationship, jump at the first opportunity to leave and force their parents to sit down and talk things out as soon as they get back to the Coterie.

It turns out that during Lena’s campaign for State Assembly, Stef said something in an interview that didn’t align with her wife’s views, and Lena didn’t stand up for her. This has caused a communicative disconnect between the two. Thankfully for them (and for us), they are able to talk it out, avoiding what could’ve been possibly the worst breakup in television history.

Speaking of breakups, though, there’s Malika and Isaac. Due to differing views about Jamal Thompson’s comments and Malika’s unwillingness to let her guard down, the pair have broken it off. This doesn’t mean of course that they won’t get back together (and I’m so hoping they do), but the stress of this case seems to be too much for Malika to juggle with a romantic relationship right now. Luckily, they’ve been straight out of a romantic comedy from the beginning, and romantic comedies always end with huge romantic gestures and professions of love. So should we really be worried? Probably not.

At Speckulate, Mariana is attempting to put together an anonymous list of women and men to show the wage gap at the company on paper. However, she runs into a lack of support when she brings up adding race indicators to the list. Mariana is only one of two women of color at the company, so it’s unfortunately unsurprising when the other members of the Byte Club want to tackle general women’s equality first. Mariana knows she can’t back down in the fight for intersectional feminism though, so with the aid of some statistics, she’s able to convince the other women to side with her on the issue. Unfortunately, it then comes to her attention that by marking herself as Latina, she’ll be getting rid of her anonymity completely. Thankfully, Raj agrees to mark himself as Indian, outing himself amongst his white coworkers as well.

And in a giant win for Mariana, the CEO of the company personally asks her to meet with him about developing her app. Her hard work is finally paying off! However, something tells me that when this not-so-anonymous list goes public, that might hinder her success a bit.

And across town at the firm, Callie has an outburst. When the judge won’t take away defender’s abilities to question and dismiss black jurors, Callie calls him out and throws his son’s privilege back in his face. Although Callie is later pleased to see that Judge Wilson has hired a new liberal clerk, the woman who she suspected was being harassed by a Judge who had assaulted Rebecca, that joy quickly fades though when the Judge delivers her some devastating news: she’s being replaced. YIKES.

Last episode was hyper-focused on relationships and didn’t cover the work lives of our beloved characters at all. So, I was ecstatic to see the focus shift back to Callie and Mariana’s professional endeavors, and for some waves to be made in the workplace. Similar to the pilot though, one sister’s risk-taking worked in her favor, while it definitely did not for the other.

Callie’s been getting braver and braver in the firm, choosing to speak up against Judge Wilson instead of keeping her mouth shut even though she knows he’s conservative-leaning. This is partly, of course, due to the fact that the Judge himself encouraged her to do so. However, she definitely took it a bit too far by bringing up his son — a subject she knows is touchy for him. Although I’m sad to see that Callie got dismissed from the Jamal case, I’m glad that she spoke her mind and I’m hoping that his new liberal clerk won’t back down from doing the same.

Meanwhile, Mariana was able to score a meeting with the CEO of the company. This development has been a long time coming, and it’s super satisfying to see her get a win over her misogynistic, white male coworker. Raj all the while is being a stellar ally to Mariana’s Byte Club and even seems willing to face repercussions if it means some positive change is made. Even though he messed up by trying to kiss Mariana a few episodes back, I can’t help but to love these two together, even if it’s just as friends.

This episode also did an amazing job at bringing up the issue of internal struggles within the black community. Malika wants to feel supported by the group she’s trying to support, and even though she knows that black men are so often victims of police violence, she finds that black men often don’t show up to support black women and even prefer white women over them romantically in some cases. This show is always shedding light on social issues we don’t often talk about, and I’m so thankful for the scene in which Malika shut Davia and their other roommate down for telling her to stop protesting. Malika is tired of having to explain black issues to white people at the drop of a hat, as she should be, and I’m so here for her reclaiming her identity as a black woman and refusing to let non-black people tell her who she should be or how she should feel.

The representation on Good Trouble is always amazing, but the writing really stuck out to me this episode. The dialogue within these important conversations blew me away. Important issues are being discussed without seeming super staged, and that’s so critical. These are normal conversations and normal problems that we face in our everyday lives. So, they should sound normal when being discussed — not like PSAs.

I’m just so thankful for this show and all that it is. It’s truly better than I could’ve ever imagined, and with a season two in the works, I can’t wait to see how this season ends and what comes next. Cierra Ramirez who plays Mariana recently teased that this season will end on a cliffhanger, and with the drama that’s been building up throughout these first 11 episodes, I don’t think any of us are ready.

Good Trouble airs Tuesdays on Freeform at 8/7c.

Jessica’s episode rating: 🐝🐝🐝🐝

#Good Trouble #Less Than

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