(no subject)
So!bookelfemade a post of "some TV ladies who are both a.) completely awesome and b.) not white." I like this idea!
As I commented, though, I'm having some trouble thinking of awesome ladies of color in the shows I watch. Which really, when you think about it, makes this post more important. Sure, partly that reflects the fact that I just don't watch that much TV -- but it also reflects the fact that a lot of shows have either one awesome lady of color, or none at all.
So here's my list of awesome ladies, and then I think I'll tack on some awesome gentlemen.
1. Sierra, from Dollhouse.
Sierra is played by Dichen Lachman, who is probably one of the most freaking gorgeous women I've ever seen (and is also pretty awesome in her own right, having grown up in Nepal before moving to Australia. That explains how good Sierra's Australian accent was in that one ep! It was something of a surprise, given some of Joss's history with accents. I'm looking at you, Angel. --TANGENT. Sorry).
One of Sierra's first entrances on the show involved her kicking down a door and calmly taking out a kidnapping ring. She only gets more badass from there, with identities including a master thief, a socially-awkward but nevertheless brave music fan, a spy, and a bounty hunter.
Sierra gets a really terrible deal sometimes in the show, because nothing's perfect; her character has twice attracted unwanted sexual attention from men with power over her. Problematic! But -- I can never resist a little Dollhouse meta -- she's reclaiming power in a way unique to this show. She, like Echo and Victor, is slowly becoming self-aware -- self-aware enough to make friends, fall in love, and make the Dollhouse nervous.
2. Jabe, from Doctor Who, "The End of the World."
Jabe is played by Yasmin Bannerman. She appears in only one episode, at the beginning of the Ninth Doctor's term (season 1 of New Who), but she nevertheless leaves an impression -- in no small part because she and Christopher Eccleston clearly have a little something-something, if you know what I mean, wink wink nudge nudge.
'Course, she sacrifices herself for the Doctor in a furnace, more or less (tribute to Eccleston's acting ability: "But Jabe, you're made of wood!" is dramatic, not hilarious), but she's hadly alone in dying for the Doctor. And while Rose is still in her scream-flail-and-call-for-the-Doctor phase, Jabe's there to be the heroine of the episode.
3. Missouri Moseley, from Supernatural, "Home."
Missouri Moseley, played by Loretta Devine, is not going to take any of your sass, boy, and she WILL smack you with a spoon if you talk back to her. Even if you talk back to her in your head, because she's psychic.
Missouri rolls into Supernatural when the Winchester boys roll back into Lawrence, Kansas. She delivers verbal smackdowns to the boys (who sorely need them), a psychic smackdown to the monster of thhe week, and a talking-to to John -- and then she disappears from the show.
I can never resist a little Supernatural meta, either, so: Missouri's disappearance is not unusual for the show. The fact that she's a woman of color and she's neither evil nor dead by the end of the episode kind of is. I can think of two other admittedly awesome ladies from Supernatural who fit that demographic . . .
Cassie Robinson, "Route 666," and Tamara, "The Magnificent Seven."
And it's worth noting that Cassie is from an episode explicitly dealing with racism (... a racist ghost monster truck, yes, okay, I know), and Tamara is from an episode where a black man is surrounded by white people who force him to drink liquid drain cleaner in one of the most horrific sequences of the show, ever.
Supernatural has issues.
4. Toshiko Sato, Torchwood.
Okay, I told myself I was going to avoid the characters that always show up on these lists -- Martha Jones topping that list -- not because I don't like them, but just because they get loads of love already and I like to spread the love around.
But Toshiko Sato, played by Naoko Mori, is too awesome to pass over. Tosh is like the smartest person alive. She's as smart as a damn Gallifreyan; she made a sonic device. She's also bisexual, buuuut this is Torchwood, whehre that is not quite as ground-breaking as it would be on, say, Supernatural. And s he kicks ass, armed or unarmed.
The first episode I saw her in was "Captain Jack Harkness," because I watched Torchwood all out of order. That's the ep where she gets stuck in the 1940s with Jack. She, as a Japanese-British woman, holds her own against a bunch of Allied soldiers, and then ingeniously figurs out how to get a message to the Torchwood team of the future. That's how stone-cold hardcore she is.
[WHITETEXT SPOILERS, although everyone on the planet except me has seen all the way through "Children of Earth"] I was upset when Owen died, but it was nothing compared to how much I hated Tosh's death. But she dies bravely, and she gets to speak briefly from beyond the grave. All things considered . . . it's a good death.
As long as I'm talking about women of color on Torchwood, I will brieflly mention . . .
Suzie Costello, "Everything Changes" and "They Keep Killing Suzie." Yeah, she was kind of evil -- but she was a member of Torchwood, and she was not intimidated by Jack Harkness. (And Indira Varma is beautiful.
... Some of this post is very shallow.)
There may be more to be added to this post, and there will be one later of awesome gentlemen on these shows who are not white. Who would you add to this list?
ETA1: A few more!
5. America's Next Top Model.
ANTM is, starters, hosted by Tyra Banks.
~Fiieeeerce!~
Tyra is CRAZY, especially in the later cycles of the show, but I really have a lot of admiration for her. (I mock mercilessly because I love.) She's been modeling for a long time, and she has made a remarkably graceful transition from modeling to hosting two TV shows. That ain't easy. I give her props.
ANTM always has a pretty good combination of multiple races, and of course it always has a lot of very tough, self-confident young women who are going to go out, kick ass, take names, and look ~fabulous~ the whole time. Here's some of my favorites from the cycles I've seen; going into detail about each one would make this post way too long.
Naima Mora. (Cycle 4)
Jade Cole. (Cycle 6)
(I know she was a CRAZY BITCH but I kind of missed her a little anyway.)
Fatima (Cycle 10)
(ROBBED, I tell you.)
Isis (Cycle 11)
Sheena (Cycle 11)
ETA2: And one more!
6. Kendra, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I think that at the time, I found her kind of odd and annoying -- and I still think the accent was a mistake -- but in retrospect, I like Kendra Young, played by Bianca Lawson, quite a bit. She wasn't in the show for very long (more's the pity) but she left an impression. She gave us a view of what a Slayer "should" be, and certainly what a Slayer could be: efficient, obedient, trained to within an inch of her life. In some ways she was a much better Slayer than Buffy -- but Buffy was a much better teenage girl. I really wanted to see them learning from each other. Shockingly, Joss went and screwed that up by killing off Kendra. And it is worth noting, as one blog I stumbled across in my image search pointed out, that after Kendra's scant few appearances and subsequent death, Faith comes along and has a much more significant role in the show.
Things aren't perfect. That's why I'm making this post.
As I commented, though, I'm having some trouble thinking of awesome ladies of color in the shows I watch. Which really, when you think about it, makes this post more important. Sure, partly that reflects the fact that I just don't watch that much TV -- but it also reflects the fact that a lot of shows have either one awesome lady of color, or none at all.
So here's my list of awesome ladies, and then I think I'll tack on some awesome gentlemen.
1. Sierra, from Dollhouse.
Sierra is played by Dichen Lachman, who is probably one of the most freaking gorgeous women I've ever seen (and is also pretty awesome in her own right, having grown up in Nepal before moving to Australia. That explains how good Sierra's Australian accent was in that one ep! It was something of a surprise, given some of Joss's history with accents. I'm looking at you, Angel. --TANGENT. Sorry).
One of Sierra's first entrances on the show involved her kicking down a door and calmly taking out a kidnapping ring. She only gets more badass from there, with identities including a master thief, a socially-awkward but nevertheless brave music fan, a spy, and a bounty hunter.
Sierra gets a really terrible deal sometimes in the show, because nothing's perfect; her character has twice attracted unwanted sexual attention from men with power over her. Problematic! But -- I can never resist a little Dollhouse meta -- she's reclaiming power in a way unique to this show. She, like Echo and Victor, is slowly becoming self-aware -- self-aware enough to make friends, fall in love, and make the Dollhouse nervous.
2. Jabe, from Doctor Who, "The End of the World."
Jabe is played by Yasmin Bannerman. She appears in only one episode, at the beginning of the Ninth Doctor's term (season 1 of New Who), but she nevertheless leaves an impression -- in no small part because she and Christopher Eccleston clearly have a little something-something, if you know what I mean, wink wink nudge nudge.
'Course, she sacrifices herself for the Doctor in a furnace, more or less (tribute to Eccleston's acting ability: "But Jabe, you're made of wood!" is dramatic, not hilarious), but she's hadly alone in dying for the Doctor. And while Rose is still in her scream-flail-and-call-for-the-Doctor phase, Jabe's there to be the heroine of the episode.
3. Missouri Moseley, from Supernatural, "Home."
Missouri Moseley, played by Loretta Devine, is not going to take any of your sass, boy, and she WILL smack you with a spoon if you talk back to her. Even if you talk back to her in your head, because she's psychic.
Missouri rolls into Supernatural when the Winchester boys roll back into Lawrence, Kansas. She delivers verbal smackdowns to the boys (who sorely need them), a psychic smackdown to the monster of thhe week, and a talking-to to John -- and then she disappears from the show.
I can never resist a little Supernatural meta, either, so: Missouri's disappearance is not unusual for the show. The fact that she's a woman of color and she's neither evil nor dead by the end of the episode kind of is. I can think of two other admittedly awesome ladies from Supernatural who fit that demographic . . .
Cassie Robinson, "Route 666," and Tamara, "The Magnificent Seven."
And it's worth noting that Cassie is from an episode explicitly dealing with racism (... a racist ghost monster truck, yes, okay, I know), and Tamara is from an episode where a black man is surrounded by white people who force him to drink liquid drain cleaner in one of the most horrific sequences of the show, ever.
Supernatural has issues.
4. Toshiko Sato, Torchwood.
Okay, I told myself I was going to avoid the characters that always show up on these lists -- Martha Jones topping that list -- not because I don't like them, but just because they get loads of love already and I like to spread the love around.
But Toshiko Sato, played by Naoko Mori, is too awesome to pass over. Tosh is like the smartest person alive. She's as smart as a damn Gallifreyan; she made a sonic device. She's also bisexual, buuuut this is Torchwood, whehre that is not quite as ground-breaking as it would be on, say, Supernatural. And s he kicks ass, armed or unarmed.
The first episode I saw her in was "Captain Jack Harkness," because I watched Torchwood all out of order. That's the ep where she gets stuck in the 1940s with Jack. She, as a Japanese-British woman, holds her own against a bunch of Allied soldiers, and then ingeniously figurs out how to get a message to the Torchwood team of the future. That's how stone-cold hardcore she is.
[WHITETEXT SPOILERS, although everyone on the planet except me has seen all the way through "Children of Earth"] I was upset when Owen died, but it was nothing compared to how much I hated Tosh's death. But she dies bravely, and she gets to speak briefly from beyond the grave. All things considered . . . it's a good death.
As long as I'm talking about women of color on Torchwood, I will brieflly mention . . .
Suzie Costello, "Everything Changes" and "They Keep Killing Suzie." Yeah, she was kind of evil -- but she was a member of Torchwood, and she was not intimidated by Jack Harkness. (And Indira Varma is beautiful.
... Some of this post is very shallow.)
There may be more to be added to this post, and there will be one later of awesome gentlemen on these shows who are not white. Who would you add to this list?
ETA1: A few more!
5. America's Next Top Model.
ANTM is, starters, hosted by Tyra Banks.
~Fiieeeerce!~
Tyra is CRAZY, especially in the later cycles of the show, but I really have a lot of admiration for her. (I mock mercilessly because I love.) She's been modeling for a long time, and she has made a remarkably graceful transition from modeling to hosting two TV shows. That ain't easy. I give her props.
ANTM always has a pretty good combination of multiple races, and of course it always has a lot of very tough, self-confident young women who are going to go out, kick ass, take names, and look ~fabulous~ the whole time. Here's some of my favorites from the cycles I've seen; going into detail about each one would make this post way too long.
Naima Mora. (Cycle 4)
Jade Cole. (Cycle 6)
(I know she was a CRAZY BITCH but I kind of missed her a little anyway.)
Fatima (Cycle 10)
(ROBBED, I tell you.)
Isis (Cycle 11)
Sheena (Cycle 11)
ETA2: And one more!
6. Kendra, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I think that at the time, I found her kind of odd and annoying -- and I still think the accent was a mistake -- but in retrospect, I like Kendra Young, played by Bianca Lawson, quite a bit. She wasn't in the show for very long (more's the pity) but she left an impression. She gave us a view of what a Slayer "should" be, and certainly what a Slayer could be: efficient, obedient, trained to within an inch of her life. In some ways she was a much better Slayer than Buffy -- but Buffy was a much better teenage girl. I really wanted to see them learning from each other. Shockingly, Joss went and screwed that up by killing off Kendra. And it is worth noting, as one blog I stumbled across in my image search pointed out, that after Kendra's scant few appearances and subsequent death, Faith comes along and has a much more significant role in the show.
Things aren't perfect. That's why I'm making this post.