& drugs do odd things to me at the moment: hipokras

hipokras

& drugs do odd things to me at the moment

Oct 20, 2012 23:54

I haven't participated in a 20in20 comm forever, which sucks, because I used to be crazy about those andnarniacmrand I used to compare notes and squee shock over the characters/number of characters we were doing a month.

Also, I'm usually OCD enough to super-categorise everything by comm, and by purpose, but I'm making an exception this time for this because this whole post (made over the month) shows a dramatic shift in my icon-making style, with the dramatic colours and the textures and (holy shit, I still can't believe it) some text. Which, I guess, is the whole point oftheiconquest: get out of your comfort zone and improve.

[21] Glee
[19] Skins (UK)

MENTORS
Four icon-makers who inspire me, specifically for their use of text, and the different ways they use it. ofthesea for large, bold pale text, and 'spiky' handwriting fonts; afeastforme for blending on icons and variations in and gradients over the text itself; mancalahour for these few particular "Courier-inspired" fonts and emotional/inspirational scenes; tinebrella for the use of textures, creative, different fonts, and emotionally-charged scenes again.

This post is most gigantically telling of how much I love the Tony & Effy dynamic, espeically in season two (where she turns all his clothes pink) and the fact that while I damn-near literally ship Tony with everything that moves, (or says 'wow' or dances like a god), Michelle will always have OTP space in my heart, she's unbudgeable.

ofthesea | afeastforme | mancalahour | tinebrella

01-05

06-10

11-15

16-20
B | B | B | B | B

TINA COHEN-CHANG
for Round 30 at glee20in20

[some political discussion on the racism of Glee]
I'm tired of seeing Tina get flak in both fandom and on the show. Firstly, it's incredibly racist to pair off the only two Asian characters and give them stereotype-driven dialogue. I'm not a fan of Artina, because I was happy when Artie was able to rise above the handicapable stereotype and date the super-popular cheerleader, but I liked Artina for the sole reason that he wasn't a Pollyanna, and despite his chauvinistic edge, they had a nice relationship that realistically worked. Tike was ♥, but as an Asian, I found it offensive that the writers couldn't acknowledge that the character is an Asian-American, not Asian, period. As a woman, I find it offensive that Tina is known only by the fact that she cries or she's "sweet" because throughout the first two seasons, she was built up as a snarky Goth, who didn't take crap from anyone, not even Rachel. I felt that Props undid that tremendously.

On a related note, I find it insulting that the writers' progressiveness goes only so far as to give Mercedes some much-deserved spotlight - and then drop her just as the going got really good - but apparently since African-Americans have a stronger political lobby than Asian-Americans, Tina doesn't get the same attention? Fuck that, Glee writers, these people are all Americans, and they're all maligned minorities, so I don't see how you justify any of this to yourself. Also, please do yourself a favour and don't try to tell me that race has nothing to do with Mercedes getting better characterisation. Amber Riley is a fantastic singer, and a really talented actress, but it took her three seasons to break the mould of "sassy black girl" and get a boyfriend. Conversely, Jenna Ushkowtiz, being equally talented, still has no really noticeable friends or a relationship that isn't cookie cutter.

Most importantly, season four really took the cake. We all know that of the 'junior class' cast, Tina is the only one capable of being the New Rachel, because she has the most diverse vocal range and some seriously powerful singing skills that the show has remembered to under-utilise. More importantly, she was basically competing with Artie for "new leader of the Glee club" position, but the writers brought in Melissa Benoist as the lead. She also becomes the New Rachel. This tells me two things: the writers did not think Jenna Ushkowitz was capable of retaining their audience if she took centre-stage at McKinley (even though the show gives 50% screen-time to "graduated" Lea Michele, their biggest money-maker.) Secondly, it tells me that they wouldn't let a member of one of the original founding members of that club become the captain of it because she's not white. Again, please spare yourself the embarrassment of telling me that even among racial minorities, there isn't a hierarchy. What offends me the most is that none of us created this hierarchy because even spending one day as a 'coloured' person in a white country you realise that racism never really dided, but it's you who created this pecking order. It's you who reinforces this pecking order by making the choices you make in the shows you like watching.

Glee is both misogynistic (you realise this) and racist (you might not see this), but that doesn't mean it's all bad and not worth watching. It's a good show, twenty-five percent of the time, because it's message is selective (the long history of prioritising gay relationships over lesbian ones, still wtf-ing over here). But just because I like this show does not mean that you or I are justified in condoning its bullshit.

To that end, why Tina Cohen-Chang is awesome. Also, if you read the above, and if you agree with the above even though you are probably white and/or American, I knew we are friends for a reason.

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