in which i talk about two fandoms
1. I love That 70s Show but Fez makes me deeply uncomfortable. No, I don't think it's funny that he can't be given a real name nor a real country to be from. :/
2. Watched the last half of the Racism Is Bad episode of Static Shock, as it was showing on Cartoon Network or something and I was bored. It was as terrible as you might think. I don't buy that Virgil's dad who works with inter city at risk kids, who are largely people of color, has such a simple view of racism. I also didn't buy that Virgil's emotional reaction and I didn't like that it wasn't actually explored because it was all about Richie. I can fanwank a lot, but Very Special Episodes About Racism have never worked because it's too complex of a subject to be shoved into a 30 minute episode of TV.
Especially if the emotional core is about a white person, which, surprise, surprise, it was. All the episode did was make me want the show to give a complex reaction from their lead character, who is a black teenage guy and basically the only black teenage guy who has stared in a U.S. cartoon superhero show in - ever? Feel free to point out any that I missed.
But mainly this episode made me want to have written this thing as an ongoing problem, where both Richie and Virgil had to deal with the fact Richie has an overtly racist asshole for a dad. Because not only was the entire emotional crux of the episode shallow and written from the wrong point of view, the ending was way too pat. Racism isn't something that's fixed in an hour. I can buy Richie's dad working on his racism, but I can't buy such a quick turn around.
All this makes me want to do is rewrite this stupid episode into a long fic that explores racism more.
2. Watched the last half of the Racism Is Bad episode of Static Shock, as it was showing on Cartoon Network or something and I was bored. It was as terrible as you might think. I don't buy that Virgil's dad who works with inter city at risk kids, who are largely people of color, has such a simple view of racism. I also didn't buy that Virgil's emotional reaction and I didn't like that it wasn't actually explored because it was all about Richie. I can fanwank a lot, but Very Special Episodes About Racism have never worked because it's too complex of a subject to be shoved into a 30 minute episode of TV.
Especially if the emotional core is about a white person, which, surprise, surprise, it was. All the episode did was make me want the show to give a complex reaction from their lead character, who is a black teenage guy and basically the only black teenage guy who has stared in a U.S. cartoon superhero show in - ever? Feel free to point out any that I missed.
But mainly this episode made me want to have written this thing as an ongoing problem, where both Richie and Virgil had to deal with the fact Richie has an overtly racist asshole for a dad. Because not only was the entire emotional crux of the episode shallow and written from the wrong point of view, the ending was way too pat. Racism isn't something that's fixed in an hour. I can buy Richie's dad working on his racism, but I can't buy such a quick turn around.
All this makes me want to do is rewrite this stupid episode into a long fic that explores racism more.