(no subject)
It's IBARW! When it comes to deep and thoughtful posts - of which I have seen a ton of awesome ones this year already - I think it is probably better for me to shut up and listen and read, and which I am very much doing.
Fangirling, however, is something I am always happy to do - so without further ado, I present to you some TV ladies who are both a.) completely awesome and b.) not white. I am not even saying 'top five' because there are no rankings, just the first ones I could think of and easily find images of.
1. Djaq from the BBC's Robin Hood
I cannot argue that the BBC Robin Hood was a good show. Actually I would be the first person to admit that it was overall a terrible show if surprisingly addicting in its first season or two. I will, however, stand up for all time and argue for the amazingness of Djaq. She appeared on the scene in a puff of genderbending awesomeness, and proceeded to demonstrate more consistent intelligence and common sense than any other member of Robin Hood's gang, with mad medical skills and a love of knowledge and chemistry as well as your ordinary heroic badassery. Also, she managed to avoid any annoying love triangle behavior despite two dudes being in love with her; I suspect this is because both they and everyone else had to acknowledge that being in love with Djaq was not something to fight over, it was just the natural state of being! When Djaq left the show, so did I. (Sorry, season 3, but it sounds like I wasn't missing much anyways!)
2. Zoe Washburne from Firefly
Speaking of characters who demonstrate more consistent ingelligence and common sense than the rest of their casts! I don't think there is a single moment in the course of the show when Zoe is not demonstrating complete competence, capability and smarts. Whether she's shooting Mal down verbally or shooting a bad guy down physically, she is pretty much composed entirely of awesome, and one of my main regrets about the shortness of the show is that we never got a chance to see an episode that focused on her alone.
3. Gwen from Merlin
Another BBC lady who is essentially the main reason I watch her show! Look at that beaming grin! MADE OF ADORABLE. Gwen is a complete sweetheart from head to foot - but that's not all; she's also a blacksmith's daughter with a lot of practical knowledge, including a good idea of how to craft and use a sword. Right now she's a servant, which is not un-problematic in a lot of ways, but someday, I am confident, she will not only be queen but the best queen ever.
4. Boomer/Athena/Sharon Valerii from Battlestar Galactica
Whatever you want to say about the flaws of Battlestar Galactica - and, fond though I am of the show, it has many - one of the things it generally did really well was build complex characters, and the Eights were among the most fascinating of them. Boomer and Athena both did their best to navigate complex dual identities and loyalties as Cylons and Colonial pilots, and both of them were a whole lot more than just 'Cylon agent' or 'mother of the Messiah' - and it still makes me sad that in the end, there could be only one.
5. Wendy Watson from The Middleman
Wendy is one of my favorite characters ever. She's a total geek with a zombie obsession, an addiction to violent shoot-'em-up video games, and a massive library of pop-culture references stored away in her brain - she knows comic book evil. She's read the comics! She's also totally kicked comic book evil's ass on several occasions in her day job as Middleman-in-training. She's the best student Sensei Ping has ever had, she's the best friend her roommate's ever had, her paintings are good enough to be worth plagiarizing, and art crawl is her favorite time of year. By the end of her show's sadly-too-short run, Wendy had conquered everything from evil vampire puppets to the sorority house, and she did it with better quips than Buffy, too. (Sorry, Buffy fans! I am not dissing Buffy, I love her too, but it is trufax.)
That is a whole lot of awesome up in there, right? SO MUCH awesome, one post cannot contain it! (No, really, it can't - I had to cut off at five because I'm at work and can't do this all day, much as I would like to, but there are so many more not even contained here. Martha Jones, Jessie from SCC, all of the Ugly Betty ladies - the list goes on and on. And that's only the shows I know, without delving into Sun from Lost or Cam and Angela from Bones or anyone from any of the five million police procedurals I am not watching. My point is, they're out there. And they're amazing.)
One more thing, however, to point out: almost all of these ladies are the only woman of color on their main casts. Some of them are in fact the only person of color in their entire cast.
Now take a moment to imagine the sheer awesome that would be two of these ladies in the same show together.
Better yet: imagine a whole show with this cast.
Whitewashing fiction doesn't make it stronger - it does the opposite. Obviously many, many people have said this before, and said it better than me. But it bears repeating anyways.
Fangirling, however, is something I am always happy to do - so without further ado, I present to you some TV ladies who are both a.) completely awesome and b.) not white. I am not even saying 'top five' because there are no rankings, just the first ones I could think of and easily find images of.
1. Djaq from the BBC's Robin Hood
I cannot argue that the BBC Robin Hood was a good show. Actually I would be the first person to admit that it was overall a terrible show if surprisingly addicting in its first season or two. I will, however, stand up for all time and argue for the amazingness of Djaq. She appeared on the scene in a puff of genderbending awesomeness, and proceeded to demonstrate more consistent intelligence and common sense than any other member of Robin Hood's gang, with mad medical skills and a love of knowledge and chemistry as well as your ordinary heroic badassery. Also, she managed to avoid any annoying love triangle behavior despite two dudes being in love with her; I suspect this is because both they and everyone else had to acknowledge that being in love with Djaq was not something to fight over, it was just the natural state of being! When Djaq left the show, so did I. (Sorry, season 3, but it sounds like I wasn't missing much anyways!)
2. Zoe Washburne from Firefly
Speaking of characters who demonstrate more consistent ingelligence and common sense than the rest of their casts! I don't think there is a single moment in the course of the show when Zoe is not demonstrating complete competence, capability and smarts. Whether she's shooting Mal down verbally or shooting a bad guy down physically, she is pretty much composed entirely of awesome, and one of my main regrets about the shortness of the show is that we never got a chance to see an episode that focused on her alone.
3. Gwen from Merlin
Another BBC lady who is essentially the main reason I watch her show! Look at that beaming grin! MADE OF ADORABLE. Gwen is a complete sweetheart from head to foot - but that's not all; she's also a blacksmith's daughter with a lot of practical knowledge, including a good idea of how to craft and use a sword. Right now she's a servant, which is not un-problematic in a lot of ways, but someday, I am confident, she will not only be queen but the best queen ever.
4. Boomer/Athena/Sharon Valerii from Battlestar Galactica
Whatever you want to say about the flaws of Battlestar Galactica - and, fond though I am of the show, it has many - one of the things it generally did really well was build complex characters, and the Eights were among the most fascinating of them. Boomer and Athena both did their best to navigate complex dual identities and loyalties as Cylons and Colonial pilots, and both of them were a whole lot more than just 'Cylon agent' or 'mother of the Messiah' - and it still makes me sad that in the end, there could be only one.
5. Wendy Watson from The Middleman
Wendy is one of my favorite characters ever. She's a total geek with a zombie obsession, an addiction to violent shoot-'em-up video games, and a massive library of pop-culture references stored away in her brain - she knows comic book evil. She's read the comics! She's also totally kicked comic book evil's ass on several occasions in her day job as Middleman-in-training. She's the best student Sensei Ping has ever had, she's the best friend her roommate's ever had, her paintings are good enough to be worth plagiarizing, and art crawl is her favorite time of year. By the end of her show's sadly-too-short run, Wendy had conquered everything from evil vampire puppets to the sorority house, and she did it with better quips than Buffy, too. (Sorry, Buffy fans! I am not dissing Buffy, I love her too, but it is trufax.)
That is a whole lot of awesome up in there, right? SO MUCH awesome, one post cannot contain it! (No, really, it can't - I had to cut off at five because I'm at work and can't do this all day, much as I would like to, but there are so many more not even contained here. Martha Jones, Jessie from SCC, all of the Ugly Betty ladies - the list goes on and on. And that's only the shows I know, without delving into Sun from Lost or Cam and Angela from Bones or anyone from any of the five million police procedurals I am not watching. My point is, they're out there. And they're amazing.)
One more thing, however, to point out: almost all of these ladies are the only woman of color on their main casts. Some of them are in fact the only person of color in their entire cast.
Now take a moment to imagine the sheer awesome that would be two of these ladies in the same show together.
Better yet: imagine a whole show with this cast.
Whitewashing fiction doesn't make it stronger - it does the opposite. Obviously many, many people have said this before, and said it better than me. But it bears repeating anyways.