Heroes' white guy quota and more

[kattahj]

fox1013 has an interesting post that ranges from yuletide to Heroes to other things, and I made a comment stating things I had meant to state about Heroes in my LJ, so I figured I might as well re-post the comment here.

Comments

[kattahj]

Hiro and Ando, and now Maya & Alejandro too. Plus Mohinder speaking French a couple of eps ago. Yeah. I love it, but I'm used to playing Destruct-o-match and other games while watching TV shows and that's just not possible then, is it? *grin*

Heroes has some issues, but it's still pretty cool to have a show with such a comparatively low white male ratio where people still have different ethnicities. (Jake 2.0 had only one white male, but then, they only had five regulars and he was the lead, so...)

[kattahj]

Now that I think about it, I remember one friend assuming after the pilot that Peter was the lead and then realizing that she'd pegged him as such because he was a white male. Which is interesting. (Of course, he's certainly one of the leads.)

And I don't think they're stupid enough to kill off either Hiro or Mohinder. Especially not now that Mohinder has stopped being boring. (Though his assurance to Molly about never leaving again was a big red target of something, wasn't it?)

[misachan]

There was about two seconds when I found West rather endearing (when Claire is spilling her guts about how different she is and he looks a bit shamefaced), but it quickly went away, and by the time they kissed I felt nauseous and wished for a big rock to fall on him. I am so totally fair and unbiased. :-)

I liked West much better once he calmed down and stopped trying so hard to out Claire. I still think he's either a Company plant or blatant Sylar bait, but Kindred was the first time I didn't want him to fly into a tree.

And the only time I want to hear Lost and Heroes in the same sentence at this point is speculation that the Island and Sylar's current location are one and the same.:)

[kattahj]

Kindred was the first time I didn't want him to fly into a tree

Hee! That would be really amusing, though.

And the only time I want to hear Lost and Heroes in the same sentence at this point is speculation that the Island and Sylar's current location are one and the same.:)

Ooh! Braaaaaains!

[wee_warrior]

*facepalm*

Okay, the general discussion on gender and race issues in Heroes has definitely affected me in the wrong way when the first reaction to seeing your headline is developing a strong eye twitch (fortunately, I read on afterwards).

I mean, I have no idea if it's just me and I'm being insensitive to underlying currents, because I do realize and acknowledge that Heroes does have problematic aspects, but recently I saw a post in someone's journal claiming that Heroes was incredibly sexist for a 2007 show and no one contradicted her. I mean, seriously, with every single procedural routinely portraying single women who have a sex life as sluts and gay people as abnormal perverts, Heroes is really the worst show they can think of?

(I didn't mean to rant in your journal, sorry. I really like the idea of Kevin Smith being sexualized and liking it, despite not finding him hot myself.)

[wee_warrior]

...and I hope this doesn't come across as if I were criticizing your post, which I wasn't. I was just shocked that I immediately jumped to conclusions just by seeing the headline, and pretty happy that I read on nonetheless.

Oh, for the ability to express oneself more clearly! :)

[kattahj]

Hee! I can get that eye twitch sometimes too, but I've definitely been affected - both my Nathan fic and the half abandoned Batman fic are FULL of race issues. (They're just not the kind of race issues usually discussed in fandom, unless there are huge discussions about Arabs and Roma respectively behind my back.)

I definitely don't think that Heroes is the most sexist show out there, not even the most sexist of the shows I watch. I have a feeling the writers haven't consciously thought about it very much and thus sometimes tend to backslide into damsel in distress mode. Which becomes more obvious when it happens to four women at once, and I think it's easy to forget that, hey, FOUR WOMEN AT ONCE, which is quite awesome.

Like fox1013 says, it's quite easy not to kill off any women or PoCs if you don't have any on the show.

[wee_warrior]

Hee! I can get that eye twitch sometimes too, but I've definitely been affected - both my Nathan fic and the half abandoned Batman fic are FULL of race issues. (They're just not the kind of race issues usually discussed in fandom, unless there are huge discussions about Arabs and Roma respectively behind my back.)You know, there is a very interesting observation in this, namely that the way race is discussed in fandom definitely is influenced by it being largely anglo-centric. Which is part of what usually makes me step aside and just read and try to keep up when race issues come up, because as much as I might know about American society as an American/British Studies major, race relations in the States are a field that still majorly confuses me, and whose intricacies I often fail to fully grasp