Frankie is thinking - and so am I
My roommate and I are up to episode 3.3 of Farscape. Can I just state for the record that Die Me Dichotomy and Season of Death is some of the most AWESOME hour and a half of television ever? I just ... *FLAIL* We were both gasping and cheering and nearly crying and there were so many fannish buttons being pushed that I don't know that I'll ever want to read fic at this rate! (Although I think I need to look up vids. Vids have a totally different narrative kink that they hit for me, and I think that the ratio of vids that I watch to fic that I read in a given fandom is directly related to what kind of narrative the source is giving me.)
ANYWAY. While I am loving Farscape an intensely large amount (not in the least because it is a WONDERFUL distraction while we are both waiting to hear from those motherf*cking grad schools) I noticed something in our 4 hours of Farscape yesterday that kind of disturbed me. (Shut up! We didn't realize that Leather, Guns and Money was a three-parter! And then we just HAD to watch the last episode of the season when we were so close to the end! And it was a two parter! What were we to do?! *g*) So am I being over-sensitive to feel that some of D'argo's characterization (when they bother to give him consistent characterization at all, at any rate) is borderline racist? I just ... it feels like a lot of what he does can be summed up as "over-emotional, over-aggressive" over ... EVERYTHING that makes John Our Everyman Hero. And I get that he is supposed to be a foil, he really is. D'argo wants to fight where John wants to negotiate, John wants to have a plan where D'argo just wants to act. Two ways of looking at the world, nothing that really needs to be inherently racist.
And yet ... it just makes me uncomfortable when the guy who is closest to looking like a black man is the one who gets picked to play that role. The overly aggressive, hyper-emotional, irrational black man stereotype is one that is just too prevalent for me really feel happy with this as D'argo's sole characterization, ESPECIALLY since it is usually played up to make John the one that we are supposed to identify with. There are definite exceptions to this rule, but they seem to come when John is going CRAZY. And I just don't think that is a very good sign when your single "black" character (because there is really no way to convince me that D'argo doesn't ping as black for most viewers) is only making better decisions than the white guy because said white guy is going bat-shit out of his mind. I don't know - am I just being uber paranoid about this? I mean, this is my first time through watching, so I am hoping that I am just forgetting counter examples in my daze of "Yay Aeryn! Yay Chiana! Woo for strong females kicking ass!"
The weather outside is fluctuating even faster than my mood, and that is saying something. It just keeps going from sunshine to snow with a brief interlude for hail and I am about to go off the deep end and spork Mother Nature. I think that this might be my cue to curl up with my chili for dinner and watch some more Farscape with the roomie. *g*
ETA: I nearly forgot! Quiet in Drowning by nos4a2no9 (Wibly Wonderful, Duck gen, NC-17, warning for rape and abuse) is kind of made of sheer BRILLIANCE. It is quite possibly one of the most painful things I've ever read in my life, but in a perfectly in-character way. This is being queer in high school in a small homophobic town. This is exactly the back story for Duck that I never knew I needed to fill in crucial bits of his character. I don't know that I'll ever be able to actually read it again without skimming or skipping the harder to process parts, but it ends with hope and I LOVE Nos, SO much for doing that! ♥
ETA 2: *facepalm* And I also forgot the entire reason I was going to post in the first place! Thank you SO much to everyone who wrote me such nice things on Valentine's Day and my anonymous rose donor too! *hearts you all liek woah* Seriously, you guys are just one of the brightest spots in my day always!
ANYWAY. While I am loving Farscape an intensely large amount (not in the least because it is a WONDERFUL distraction while we are both waiting to hear from those motherf*cking grad schools) I noticed something in our 4 hours of Farscape yesterday that kind of disturbed me. (Shut up! We didn't realize that Leather, Guns and Money was a three-parter! And then we just HAD to watch the last episode of the season when we were so close to the end! And it was a two parter! What were we to do?! *g*) So am I being over-sensitive to feel that some of D'argo's characterization (when they bother to give him consistent characterization at all, at any rate) is borderline racist? I just ... it feels like a lot of what he does can be summed up as "over-emotional, over-aggressive" over ... EVERYTHING that makes John Our Everyman Hero. And I get that he is supposed to be a foil, he really is. D'argo wants to fight where John wants to negotiate, John wants to have a plan where D'argo just wants to act. Two ways of looking at the world, nothing that really needs to be inherently racist.
And yet ... it just makes me uncomfortable when the guy who is closest to looking like a black man is the one who gets picked to play that role. The overly aggressive, hyper-emotional, irrational black man stereotype is one that is just too prevalent for me really feel happy with this as D'argo's sole characterization, ESPECIALLY since it is usually played up to make John the one that we are supposed to identify with. There are definite exceptions to this rule, but they seem to come when John is going CRAZY. And I just don't think that is a very good sign when your single "black" character (because there is really no way to convince me that D'argo doesn't ping as black for most viewers) is only making better decisions than the white guy because said white guy is going bat-shit out of his mind. I don't know - am I just being uber paranoid about this? I mean, this is my first time through watching, so I am hoping that I am just forgetting counter examples in my daze of "Yay Aeryn! Yay Chiana! Woo for strong females kicking ass!"
The weather outside is fluctuating even faster than my mood, and that is saying something. It just keeps going from sunshine to snow with a brief interlude for hail and I am about to go off the deep end and spork Mother Nature. I think that this might be my cue to curl up with my chili for dinner and watch some more Farscape with the roomie. *g*
ETA: I nearly forgot! Quiet in Drowning by nos4a2no9 (Wibly Wonderful, Duck gen, NC-17, warning for rape and abuse) is kind of made of sheer BRILLIANCE. It is quite possibly one of the most painful things I've ever read in my life, but in a perfectly in-character way. This is being queer in high school in a small homophobic town. This is exactly the back story for Duck that I never knew I needed to fill in crucial bits of his character. I don't know that I'll ever be able to actually read it again without skimming or skipping the harder to process parts, but it ends with hope and I LOVE Nos, SO much for doing that! ♥
ETA 2: *facepalm* And I also forgot the entire reason I was going to post in the first place! Thank you SO much to everyone who wrote me such nice things on Valentine's Day and my anonymous rose donor too! *hearts you all liek woah* Seriously, you guys are just one of the brightest spots in my day always!