yeah, I have a whole nother post about the sekrit gay character in pop culture, but that'll wait for another day. but it's particularly infuriating that Cain and Gaeta are both sekrit-gay (so that TPTB can give themselves cookies while not having to actually put gayness on the show) and not-gay-on-the-show (so that TPTB can claim not to have offed gay characters). Infuriating in both directions!
Yes! It's kind of chilling, the way they've created these "supplements" or packets of optional canon to play off each other in order to evade criticism. Weasels.
let's count all the POC on the show who aren't dead or cylons or dead cylons. One, . . . yeah. One.
There's still Helo, Hotdog, and Bill Adama). And I only mention that because at this rate, I fully expect all but one of them (guess which) not to make it to the end.
I've gotten used to being angry about things on this show, but 4.14 actually *hurt*--like I was trying not to cry b/c it embodied everything that's so infuriating about this show in particular and so much of tv and pop culture in general.
You may have to educate me on BSG a little - Bill Adama is the POC I had in mind, but Helo? And "Hot Dog" Costanza . . . I guess I thought Costanza was an Italian name? Which can definitely be a category outside of whiteness, but I'm not sure how those two characters or actors are POC within the context of the show. Please explain?
It really was perfectly emblematic, wasn't it? The gay disabled POC villain allies himself with a terrorist and tries to overthrow the natural order of things! Good thing we killed the fucker. Anyway, I'm glad it's not just me.
Helo is played by Tahmoh Penikett whose mother is First Nations. From what I understand, he identifies as a person of color. Hot Dog is played by Bodie Olmos, Edward James Olmos' son.
I *knew* they'd do something other than mostly ignore Gaeta as soon as he lost his leg. I was just hoping it wasn't going to be something like this.
Thank you for so clearly articulating this. I watched the episode with goosebumps and it had nothing to do with suspense or excitement. It was trepidation and disgust at watching the pattern play out again: establish a character as queer, then immediately establish them as crazy and evil to justify putting them out of their and everybody else's obvious misery (speaking of Hoshii, what happened to him? Did I miss something or did he just vanish?). Possibly the same arguments could even be made for the disposal of Zarek--his queerness was never confirmed on screen but neither was it conclusively "denied", to my (at this moment scattered and probably faulty) recollection. Also, I personally object to the mental illness=evil and dangerous part of the equation even without the further conflation with queerness, though this is already kind of entangled with your arguments about disability
( ... )
speaking of Hoshii, what happened to him? Did I miss something or did he just vanish?
They made a point last episode that Gaeta hadn't brought him in on the insurrection, and I think he was put in the brig with the rest of the non-insurrectionist people in CIC. I guess he's the good queer! You know, the quiet white one who doesn't start shit or have a plotline on the show.
You're right about Zarek, too, in that the show didn't establish his heterosexual credentials in the way that it anxiously established them for almost all the other major characters. I'm also (sidebar) offended that Tom Zarek, defender of democracy, kills off the Quorum - the Quorum HE AGITATED FOR, my god. The lengths they went to to make their insurrectionists EVIL OMG are just ridiculous.
Claiming that race is completely irrelevant in this ficton was at best an ambivalent starting position, but then to stand by that argument while consistently picking off POC by turning them into victims or antagonistsyes, definitely, agree. Dualla was my last straw on
( ... )
Missed that bit about Hoshii--I'll have to watch the eps again when I'm less annoyed (and not supposed to be concentrating on homework). Poor quiet white good queer (with a Japanese-sounding name?) who will probably never be seen or heard from again now that his confined-to-webisodes quasi-central-character love interest has been euthanized.
I almost literally headdesked when Zarek slaughtered the Quorum, because seriously, WTF was that about? There really was no reason except to erode sympathy by making him look (again) crazy and evil.
Race and language/dialect on BSG have been a mess from the beginning. They keep trying to use the idea that Colonials aren't culturally homogeneous (which would seem a fair assumption, if they've been spread out across 12+ planets for a couple of thousand years, though space travel musses things up a bit), but always as a matter of plot convenience rather than historical/anthropological logic.
Yeah, I really agree re: race/dialect/ethnicity on BSG. At first they were doing interesting things with Sagittaron, and Dualla being from there (and being the ONLY senior officer from there), and it being exploited by other colonies, but then things got so mixed up and turned around that there was really no consistent or continuous portrayal of race/ethnicity on the show. It's like SGA, where shitty sloppy careless worldbuilding leads to utter fail.
I will bet ten dollars to anyone who cares to take me up on it that Hoshi never has a line again, except for perhaps "yes sir" or "receiving communication" or suchlike.
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Great observation about both of them being in the public TV part of the series closet...
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yeah, I have a whole nother post about the sekrit gay character in pop culture, but that'll wait for another day. but it's particularly infuriating that Cain and Gaeta are both sekrit-gay (so that TPTB can give themselves cookies while not having to actually put gayness on the show) and not-gay-on-the-show (so that TPTB can claim not to have offed gay characters). Infuriating in both directions!
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There's still Helo, Hotdog, and Bill Adama). And I only mention that because at this rate, I fully expect all but one of them (guess which) not to make it to the end.
I've gotten used to being angry about things on this show, but 4.14 actually *hurt*--like I was trying not to cry b/c it embodied everything that's so infuriating about this show in particular and so much of tv and pop culture in general.
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It really was perfectly emblematic, wasn't it? The gay disabled POC villain allies himself with a terrorist and tries to overthrow the natural order of things! Good thing we killed the fucker. Anyway, I'm glad it's not just me.
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I *knew* they'd do something other than mostly ignore Gaeta as soon as he lost his leg. I was just hoping it wasn't going to be something like this.
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They made a point last episode that Gaeta hadn't brought him in on the insurrection, and I think he was put in the brig with the rest of the non-insurrectionist people in CIC. I guess he's the good queer! You know, the quiet white one who doesn't start shit or have a plotline on the show.
You're right about Zarek, too, in that the show didn't establish his heterosexual credentials in the way that it anxiously established them for almost all the other major characters. I'm also (sidebar) offended that Tom Zarek, defender of democracy, kills off the Quorum - the Quorum HE AGITATED FOR, my god. The lengths they went to to make their insurrectionists EVIL OMG are just ridiculous.
Claiming that race is completely irrelevant in this ficton was at best an ambivalent starting position, but then to stand by that argument while consistently picking off POC by turning them into victims or antagonistsyes, definitely, agree. Dualla was my last straw on ( ... )
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I almost literally headdesked when Zarek slaughtered the Quorum, because seriously, WTF was that about? There really was no reason except to erode sympathy by making him look (again) crazy and evil.
Race and language/dialect on BSG have been a mess from the beginning. They keep trying to use the idea that Colonials aren't culturally homogeneous (which would seem a fair assumption, if they've been spread out across 12+ planets for a couple of thousand years, though space travel musses things up a bit), but always as a matter of plot convenience rather than historical/anthropological logic.
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I will bet ten dollars to anyone who cares to take me up on it that Hoshi never has a line again, except for perhaps "yes sir" or "receiving communication" or suchlike.
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