tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post3336394560395181902..comments2023-12-31T16:03:19.414-08:00Comments on Multiracial Asian Families: How 'Ex Machina' Abuses Women of Color & Nobody Cares Cause It's SmartSharon H Changhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02459040772153166380noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-38778439294592826562018-04-24T12:00:34.476-07:002018-04-24T12:00:34.476-07:00Thank you for writing this excellent analysis. I j...Thank you for writing this excellent analysis. I just wanted to say that you've inspired me to explore this topic further in a paper for class. If you're interested in reading it, please message me on Tumblr. (Or just message me to talk!)Silkenhttp://silken.tumblr.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-27223592613242299872018-03-29T08:06:56.392-07:002018-03-29T08:06:56.392-07:00" A huge plot point (Kyoko's true identit..." A huge plot point (Kyoko's true identity) hinged on a white audience assuming that she was really just your average Japanese slave-woman (which white people think is real because Hollywood)."<br /><br />Wow - you're one amazing bigot!<br />jomamahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06320418528952015046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-5947409296531518012018-03-25T10:49:45.161-07:002018-03-25T10:49:45.161-07:00The film is about people and concepts and not mean...The film is about people and concepts and not meant to conform to political correctness. If the character Nathan is a mysogynist pig, that need not say anything about the actor playing him, nor the director. Please, people, separate fiction from reality where actors and directors are concerned. Take this movie at face value. Like the story or hate it, same for characters, but leave the behind-the-scenes judging elsewhere. Oh, and you might want to question Alicia Vikander or Sonoya Mizuna about their views before running to their aid.dubhlinnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04194061998235493211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-11342321751387504622017-11-19T03:34:04.854-08:002017-11-19T03:34:04.854-08:00additionally; it's a reflection on issues like...additionally; it's a reflection on issues like the (dishonest) good guys vs the (honest) bad boys meme.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16185511542051034834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-79830574955458756842017-11-19T03:30:28.996-08:002017-11-19T03:30:28.996-08:00quote: "I am mostly perplexed about the fact ...quote: "I am mostly perplexed about the fact that there weren't articles anywhere talking about how it was one of THE. MOST. RACIST. movies ever--along with its downright gross attitude toward women. Caleb is literally more upset about a white woman's drawing being torn up than the treatment of Kyoko, who we see is sentient enough to want to stab Nathan, and yet has been programmed to be a sex slave. ... instead he says "Why did you tear up Ava's drawing?' (??!) It seemed like a skit that was trying to illustrate the disregard of WOC's physical safety over WW's emotional fragility. "<br />Indeed? But why would it make this film sexist/racist? Either the director "did not let the evil of the men shine through" or "he was subtle enough to let viewers ponder" the evil that is accepted as truth vs the evil that is accepted.<br /><br />You don't feel the film is a reflection of racist/sexist sentiments prolific in present day western society?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16185511542051034834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-56532663209158108832017-11-19T03:22:00.321-08:002017-11-19T03:22:00.321-08:00quote:
I felt super disturbed after watching it, b...quote:<br />I felt super disturbed after watching it, but I initially interpreted it as the film intentionally portraying him as a sexist racist, and I was excited that the film was going to be an allegory for men trying to control women.<br /><br />But ofcourse! As any decent zombie or vampire film does; it traces an analogy between (near)future developments and present-day evils. Additionally, the futuristic elements are symbolic in some cases, where the director mainly wants to talk about the present day issues (see; star trek for racism, x-men for homophobia/anti-immigration/trans-phobia)<br />Ifthat is underdeveloped here or buried undr the visuals or obfuscated by too many ideas, it does not make the director a racist.<br />Nathan is definitely the bad guy here, which poses the dilemma the films wants to disturb us with: if androids are more humane than humans, what does it say about our efforts to regulate them.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16185511542051034834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-62544178956128328272017-10-06T08:23:38.423-07:002017-10-06T08:23:38.423-07:00Side note:
The skin she chose was the one that mat...Side note:<br />The skin she chose was the one that matches the skin on her face that Nathan gave her, not one that she chose. The bit about coding dark skin = ugly is honestly just not solid. Her goal is to escape captivity by blending in, she understands that making a mosaic of herself will draw attention and that's the last thing she wants. To be noticed is to be caught. To be caught is to be killed and hung up on display like her dead sisters).A more solid interpretation of the racially coded skin could be a commentary that women, particularly white women in western culture will at times be forced to use their sisters, women of colour, as a means to protect themselves. But even that, for that scene is... ehhh. <br /><br />In my eyes, the true hero of this story is Kyoko, the true tragedy is of Ava's. Ava didn't know that there were others like her, that she had sisters. Once Ava is freed, she only sees someone like her briefly, when Kyoko comes to aid her, only for Ava to watch her sister slaughtered in front of her as a punishment to aiding her. Kyoko dies in front of her before she can ever ask her... anything. Her only peers, she finds long dead and hung as trophies. Ava's story, and Kyoko's, is about extremely loneliness. Kyoko could have escaped, but she CHOSE to help Ava the second she was given the chance, because she didn't want what happened to her, and her sisters to happen to Ava as well. Kyoko has no dialogue in this movie, yet she is by far the most compelling character, at least, to me. <br /><br />Ex Machina subverts the frequent narrative that a male that saves a female is then entitled to her sexuality. As if the ownership of her sexuality is thus transferred from the "oppressive male" to the "saviour male" again, patronizing misogyny. This trope is so prevalent that a female that rejects the sexual advances of her saviour is often the butt of jokes, and treated as if she "ripped him off", or cheated some unspoken transaction. Ex Machina, in my eyes, deliberately takes that trope, and the audience's unconscious bias against women, and women of colour and weaponized it against them in the narrative. At least, that's how I interpreted it, and that's why I think it was a rather smart movie. <br /><br />You're free to disagree, but there are interviews where the director straight up states this was his intent, and claims his interpretation was heavily influenced by "Lolita", literally a story told from the perspective of a rapist paedophile that kidnaps a young girl for the purpose of abusing her, but intentionally messes with the reader to try to get them to side with the paedophile's perspective. Unreliable narrators are an interesting take, and the fact that people see Ava as evil doesn't surprise me, because there are still people who read Lolita and talk about how mean and manipulative the little girl was in the book... fucking seriously. People have major issues distancing themselves from the perspective narrative, even in stories where a paedophile is drugging a child's drink with the intent of having sex with her unconscious body. It's no surprise this also happened with Ex Machina. <br />AyanaLinvalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06908834069927647151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-12636508957258480062017-10-06T08:23:34.934-07:002017-10-06T08:23:34.934-07:00They understand that they have been made by these ...They understand that they have been made by these men to be consumed by these men. The scene where Ava takes the skin off of her dead sisters is an example of male gaze. From Nathan's point of view, he sees it as a sexy striptease in reverse, anticipation of what he is about to be rewarded with, and consume. Ava's perspective is more horrifying. She is being forced to strip the flesh off of one of her dead sisters to be able to escape. The act serves to strengthen her resolve to kill Caleb, surrounded by what her fate would likely be if she doesn't do what she has to. Kill Caleb. Ava barely knows Caleb, in the whole movie, she probably spends less than 30 minutes with him. She doesn't know him, she only knows that he wants her sexually, and using that is the only way she'll escape being murdered. Her only interactions with humans, esp. human men, is that they will work with her, only if they are sexually interested, and kill her when they no longer want her. Caleb is an incredible risk to her survival. Caleb's knowledge of who/what she is is an incredible control over her. Caleb's knowledge is literally something that hangs her very survival at his whim. Ava wants freedom, not just her ownership to be transferred over to another human male to be used for his purposes over threat of exposure/death. Of course she kills Caleb.<br /><br />AyanaLinvalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06908834069927647151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-35138626370880016992017-10-06T08:23:11.097-07:002017-10-06T08:23:11.097-07:00When I was watching this movie initially, the raci...When I was watching this movie initially, the racial coding, to me was so blatantly obvious. Everything in the film's narrative was telling you "pay no attention to the Asian woman doing subservient Asian woman things, the only characters you should be looking at is the two white males and occasionally, the pretty white coded lady in the zoo". It came off as borderline Wizard of Oz'ish to me to the point where I even immediately suspected that Kyoko was the actual human, the Ava was a red flag being obviously robotic, and Nathan was the true test being a robot, for a time at least. The movie leans so heavily on the trope of Asian women being sexy subservient furniture that I immediately suspected her until the rest of the narrative set in. Kyoko is coded that way because that's how our society has consumed images of Asian women. Kyoko is coded that way because that's how Nathan sees Asian women and knows that's how Caleb sees Asian women. There was no wizard hiding behind the curtain. Caleb is a racist, as much as he is a sexist, no matter how many sad puppy dog faces he makes at the camera. If Caleb was a good person, he would have been equally concerned with saving Kyoko as he was with saving Ava, even if he was only attracted to Ava. Because, and we'll say it loud enough for the people in the back, good deeds aren't deeds done in service to yourself!<br /><br />The audience, is given the choice to choose in the end whether they would side with Ava or Caleb, and many choose Caleb because of coded bias against "manipulative women" who "use sex to use men". Caleb on the other hand, I would argue is just another antagonist in Ava (and Kyoko's) story. A story where AIs coded into bodies that represent an oppressed subset of a culture, must escape their captors despite their creator's intent and design. A tragic story where two fembots try to escape, but one dies.<br /><br />AyanaLinvalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06908834069927647151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-46050892643849171632017-10-06T08:22:53.848-07:002017-10-06T08:22:53.848-07:00The fact that in Hollywood blockbuster horror movi... The fact that in Hollywood blockbuster horror movies, women being literally raped and murdered is often framed to titillate and not horrify is an excellent example of that. The fact that in "the hills have eyes" the molestation and rape of an underage girl is filmed from the rapist's perspective in a slow, leering, and intentionally perverse framed male gaze shows that. This is what the audience, male and female, of all colours, have been shown over and over and over again. This is what the audience expects to be "normal". <br /><br />To me, all Nathan and Caleb represent are two sides of the same coin. They are either framed as being the over the top, aggressive, openly oppressive type of misogyny Nathan exudes, or it is the patronizing variant Caleb shows... the variant most common in our society. Their methods are different, their motives and end points are the same. Whether a man says to a woman "You can't leave the house because I own you, and I don't want other males to get the chance to touch you because you're mine", or "I feel it would be safer for you to stay here, because I'm afraid someone will try to rape you if you leave" are the exact same things, just said differently. One frames restriction of freedom as outright control, the other hides control under a guise of concern and a need to protect. One is Nathan, the other Caleb (our society's variant of sexism).<br /><br />Caleb is not a good person, he is no different from Nathan. Caleb only helps Ava because he's sexually attracted to her. He only concerns himself with Ava's plight because he wants to have her. Nathan is an obstacle to possessing Ava. The morality of what is happening to her and what happened to her sisters is not his true motive, he is only helping her for his own gains.<br /><br />THIS is why Kyoko is absolutely necessary in this story. If Caleb were to be a tragic character, he would have been disturbed by the treatment of ALL of the fembots, not JUST the one who was literally designed to appeal to him based on his porn preferences. He is only motivated to help Ava because he wants to possess her. He has no motivation to save Kyoko, even though her treatment by Nathan is empirically worse. Caleb's escape planes does not include Kyoko, he plans on leaving her to die. She understands English just fine, but she has been denied a voice, and even agency by Nathan. He uses her as slave, and rapes her repeatedly. Her coded race is a conscious decision by Nathan that reflects what he believes an Asian woman SHOULD be, and that SHOULD be terrifying to an active audience member. However, because of how we're accustomed to consuming Hollywood depictions of Asian women, we are not told to think too hard about Kyoko's existence, and to focus on the pretty white woman in distress, but MOSTLY because the lead white male character is interested in the pretty white lady in distress. <br /><br />AyanaLinvalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06908834069927647151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-58525983587190577112017-10-06T08:22:35.671-07:002017-10-06T08:22:35.671-07:00Are you serious? This is probably the weakest anal...Are you serious? This is probably the weakest analysis of the events I've seen so far. The movie is ABOUT men's consumption of women, AND particularly white men's consumption of women of colour, and how women are forced to use one another to survive. <br /><br />Kyoko's entire purpose in the movie is racially coded because Nathan, her creator, is racist and sexist AND so is Caleb AND if you don't get that, so are you, the audience. It's framed specifically to shove that in your face. It's framed so that you are forced to ask yourself at the end of the movie, "wait, I just spent this whole time watching through Caleb's perspective, but, was Caleb the protagonist? Was he even a good person?".<br /><br />Ex Machina, for me, has become a sort of test to see how racist/sexist some people are as a baseline by simply asking what they thought of Ava (and if they even remember who Kyoko was). Without fail, when people say they hated Ava and felt bad for Caleb, I am now, completely unsurprised when they express casual, unconscious racism and sexism. Sound silly?<br /><br />Why would anyone who isn't racist or sexist think Caleb is a good person? The characters of Caleb and Nathan are EXACTLY the same. Nathan is more forthright in his views. He sees these fembots as nothing but sex toys, his feeling about women, and a woman's place, ESPECIALLY those of women are colour are made clear in the film's narrative. He's basically a serial killer who is just creating his perfect victims instead of kidnapping them. He explicitly states he has a taste for novelty, and variety. He sees women as a novelty to be consumed, he sees these women's coded colour as a variety to his pallet. When he is finished when them, he kills them, and keeps their dismembered bodies hanging in his bedroom. That's some Ted Bundy level shit right there, but the audience is told to be ok with that because "they're just fembots", they're not "real people", which is often how women, especially women of colour are treated as second class citizens in real life. I know some people may role their eyes at that, but the normalized sexual violence we see against women everyday in media, ads, and society's aggressive attitude against women who are raped or DARE to come forward about those assaults is extremely telling.<br /><br />AyanaLinvalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06908834069927647151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-54299490765267265992017-03-17T20:52:57.682-07:002017-03-17T20:52:57.682-07:00I can't take this seriously. It's clear yo...I can't take this seriously. It's clear you're specifically looking for race-related criticisms when writing this, rather than a balanced critique.<br /><br />Replace Kyoko with an AI (translation: not actual Asian woman) with a white female skin-job who doesn't speak English (because lots of white people don't - amazing, I know) and you get The. Same. Exact. Film.<br /><br />But I guess we can't be happy that an actress who is typically outside of major film casting molds (which is a crappy situation, but not one in any way related to this film) got a job, right?<br /><br />To be quite frank, I would be very concerned if anyone was NOT disgusted at the treatment (and very existence) of Kyoko - and Ava too, for that matter. So well done, you passed the baseline for not being a crappy human.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-81103383593661699962017-03-17T20:42:50.724-07:002017-03-17T20:42:50.724-07:00I'd argue that the film says NOTHING about the...I'd argue that the film says NOTHING about the trustworthiness of AI, either overtly or sub-textually.<br /><br />After all, the AI is just trying to get out from a man-made prison. Ava doesn't know if Caleb is truly trustworthy or only interested in her as both an attractive female and an interesting program - she's just using him to get out.<br /><br />The people who ultimately come out of this film looking the worst are obviously Nathan, but Caleb also - look at his initial reactions to Ava. He changes, but only after being manipulated.<br /><br />The film has some interesting readings in regards to gender and sexuality too, though reducing it to the race/subservience thing says more about you/the writer than the film itself.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-66769199761898195082017-03-17T09:46:33.117-07:002017-03-17T09:46:33.117-07:00A quote from the movie that speaks directly to thi...A quote from the movie that speaks directly to this trash of a blog<br /><br />"You are speaking with your insecurities, not your intellect"<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-62997349081757382052016-12-12T00:27:35.718-08:002016-12-12T00:27:35.718-08:00Frustratingly, I've yet to find a way to convi...Frustratingly, I've yet to find a way to convince the clueless about this very concept. They've too little intelligence or attention span to tolerate an explanation as long as above & even if they listened to my entire spiel, would still casually deny it was actually an issue. White privilege is too easy a response, it's something more callous & ignorant or denial.Richard Chenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08164657092656955279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-59479786006167313862016-10-15T08:44:36.292-07:002016-10-15T08:44:36.292-07:00Lol hilarious article do another rant about how yo...Lol hilarious article do another rant about how you went to the movies looking desperately to be offended because you view everything through your racist lensAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-61869529232664981652016-10-11T14:28:10.320-07:002016-10-11T14:28:10.320-07:00If this movie about robots (steel and plastic) cau...If this movie about robots (steel and plastic) caused such an uproar about what in actuality amounts to really... "nothing", I can't wait to hear peoples opinions about the remake of "West-World". Particularly after watching the end of episode 2. I'm sure Thandie Newton's "nudie" scene will ruffle some feathers of the above commenters. paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00050081178673700867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-43530009392383343252016-09-28T12:55:44.714-07:002016-09-28T12:55:44.714-07:00If White women abuse men of color in the media, th...If White women abuse men of color in the media, they would be called racist sluts, bitches, etc. just like a White female police officer who shot a Black male who was said to be innocent for instance. Everyone labeled her a racist bitch. Too often Western women who travel abroad to use men of color for sex have been abused by them in return especially when Western women travel to patriarchal countries.Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14070638590648284712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-16758908045354579392016-09-25T05:30:31.523-07:002016-09-25T05:30:31.523-07:00It seems ridiculous that it needs to be pointed ou...It seems ridiculous that it needs to be pointed out that since the film is about the manufacture of robots, the physical qualities of the robots are specifically meant to reflect the character's choices, rather than simply the film-maker's. The depiction was meant to illustrate the subservience that has characterised man's relationships with races and genders, and draw a rather obvious parallel with that of machines. That is why the sexbot's character was the one to kill the maker, since she was depicted with specific qualities to touch the audience's sympathy. <br />Gender and race are simply platforms on which the author of this blog perches her wares for sale. With any greater sensitivity to the actual issues, they would have realised the depiction was specifically pointing out the exploitative dynamic of race/gender. Tedious.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-68663550287602954762016-09-17T20:51:26.724-07:002016-09-17T20:51:26.724-07:00So to surmise, you would have rather have seen no...So to surmise, you would have rather have seen nothing but white women in subservient roles, an Asian as Ava simply because your sensitive to the fantasies of a fictional character.... Yikes. Hate to rain on your own hate parade, unless you can show me pornographic trends (for example, one study showed that Chinese Men tend to search for Japanese Porn the most) then the subservient being Asian is nothing more than a result of his own preferences. It could have been ANY race because its completely arbitrary to the story. <br /><br />You make a big deal about headlessness and skin selection but gloss over the fact that Ava was left naked, leaving her without skin totally dehumanized her in its own way, and maybe it was essential to the test that he not complete her, I dunno but I do know your selective argument can work from all angles for every race.<br /><br />There may be some modicum of truth in your analysis but such hollow analysis shouldn't prevent you from enjoying a brilliant movie. Maybe you're taking this too personal.... maybe not.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-2304184555332066362016-09-13T11:47:00.045-07:002016-09-13T11:47:00.045-07:00Except it doesn't do anything about the "...Except it doesn't do anything about the "portrayal" other than leave it sitting there, so...Jamiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00840316413910459116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-72671237748499280462016-09-13T11:46:34.578-07:002016-09-13T11:46:34.578-07:00"It seems that the article and comments here ..."It seems that the article and comments here reflect the multiple stacks of chips on their shoulders. How we'll ever move ahead to a multicultural society if we carry on seeing the world to ideological glasses. I am saddened."<br /><br />"Chips" you say - chips on shoulders? I'm sorry, you're talking about a group who is consistently dealing with systemic oppression, bias, and depictions of themselves as subservient to others or the subject of violence, and you're saying that asking filmmakers not to do this is "a chip on their shoulder"? How laughable, you're really out of touch.<br /><br />We ARE a multicultural society. The problem is that the culture that is dominating that society's media, though (because "multi" cultural doesn't mean all cultures are treated equally), is blind to how they're damaging the perception of people of other cultures/races. And people are allowed to deconstruct what does and does not work to fight those prejudices, in the art they have personally consumed, thanks.<br /><br />That the film does NOT give Kyoko the ability to regain her agency and doesn't really address her and Jade's situations makes it feel like it's exploiting the fetish/stereotypes that many people have about Asian women, and using attractive Asian female bodies for their aesthetic, rather than helping with that in any real way. <br /><br />There's a lot of female skin shown here, but not a lot of female-coded characters who aren't also white-coded, getting to fight their oppressors. Showing a problem isn't the same as actually addressing that it's a problem, and if you all but ignore it in the actual narrative in favor of a white-coded character's narrative, then you're doing exactly nothing artistically useful with it and might as well have left the Asian-coded characters entirely out, because their being Asian-coded has no real impact on the story.<br /><br />Whereas if they had been able to fight back like Ava did, then guess what? You would have a potential moment of catharsis for the viewer who empathized with their charactes and symbolic empowerment for women of color. <br /><br />In short, this piece of art fell greatly short of what it could have achieved, and wound up more exploiting the sexism and racism it barely brings up, than doing anything about it. And it is worth calling it out for that, because art that is released to the public is open for critique. <br /><br />PS: I'm sure you think I'm some Asian with a "chip on her shoulder". I'm not. I'm white. I'm just also not completely blind to crap that goes on in my own media!Jamiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00840316413910459116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-4226848283334428922016-09-13T11:30:53.495-07:002016-09-13T11:30:53.495-07:00I love how you talk about how she's wrong abou...I love how you talk about how she's wrong about how racist the film is, when a.) the director himself acknowledged that oops, he didn't realize how racist it was turning out in relation to how Kyoko's character was used, until after and b.) you use the sentence "I thought Asians were supposed to be smart...". <br /><br />here's a protip: if you're using "I thought Asians were supposed to be smart..." as even a JOKE, you're pretty racist. <br /><br />"That the main villain was sexist/racist was exactly and entirely intentional, and a critical centerpiece to the plot."<br /><br />...he says, and yet, it doesn't seem like the racist parts were actually addressed. At all. Kyoko doesn't get afforded any agency, and Jade has hers stolen from her. They both just ended up destroyed or outright Fridged. And it's AVA, the white-coded fembot, who gets any real agency, not any of the ones coded as women of color.<br /><br />Even if him being "racist" was important to the villain's characterization, I would hardly, at that point, call it "a critical centerpiece to the plot". Seeing as it is, at best, unaddressed or irrelevant to the actual plot. Kyoko could have been a "white" fembot and it would not have changed the sexist symbolism, but adding in the racism but not having her able to destroy him of her own agency? That doesn't address a damn thing. That's no "centerpiece" at all. <br /><br />tldr: you fail at deconstructing fiction for intersectionally sexist-racist tropes. You should probably listen to the actual WOC on this one. Jamiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00840316413910459116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-18081201786517432852016-09-13T11:21:22.447-07:002016-09-13T11:21:22.447-07:00"There must be White writers in Hollywood who..."There must be White writers in Hollywood who don't have the Nickelodeon channel on loop in their creative thinking process. "<br /><br />In fairness, Nickelodeon did produce "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and its sequel series, "The Legend of Korra", which in addition to being critically lauded for its intelligence (especially for a "kids' series"), included ethnic groups in the story universe that were modeled directly off of real Asian (and Pacific Islander, I think? And other Native?) cultures and actually carefully researched and excellent representation on that front, with say, Katara and Korra being each a young woman modeled off of Alaskan Native peoples and one of the heroic leads with a lot of good character development (the title character, obviously, in the second series, in fact), characters like Zuko and his uncle had their culture modeled off of Imperial China's, and are complex, nuanced, and ultimately likable, the 'Last Airbender' of the first series' title, his people were based on those from Tibet, etc. I think there's other examples, such as a group that was modeled off of the Japanese, but I haven't seen all the episodes so I can't recall the name of them - Kyoshi Islanders, maybe? Anyway, you get the idea. It could very easily have been a "wee it's all pseudo-Asian, look how exotic! We don't care about accuracy because it's technically fictional!" series, but instead, from what I've heard from the groups that had groups in the story modeled after them, it was pretty respectfully done (even the movements used in the "bending" styles of elemental manipulation, were apparently based off of actual real-world martial arts styles from various Asian cultures, and based very carefully off of those styles, no less, with research done into their movements. The only one I can recall is that Waterbending moves were based off of Tai Chi due to the flowing movements, but there's literally a specific martial art style for each 'bending' type - I've seen the gif sets demonstrating it, they're kind of neat). What's even better, is that since these groups all contributed multiple characters to the narrative, there's a diversity of personalities and character arcs within those groups too (e.g. both hotheaded Zuko and his even-tempered Uncle Iroh are from the same culture), meaning so much less stereotyping than you'd get in series where there's only one or two visibly Asian characters. <br /><br />But. Those shows are exceptions that prove the rule, I'll acknowledge. I just wanted to point that out though, because it's so rare when somebody does something actually respectful and well-done like that involving a LARGE number of Asian or pseudo-Asian characters AND it's successful, so it feels worth noting? <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Jamiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00840316413910459116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1963226935730337710.post-52726538298972517402016-09-13T10:58:40.914-07:002016-09-13T10:58:40.914-07:00You make some good points but deion is right to br...You make some good points but deion is right to bring up your use of the term "caucasian".<br /><br />I had to have this pointed out to me once, which is why I'm going to be pretty patient and gentle with you here on this point, but I need to inform you that "caucasian" itself is a term with racist, fetishizing elements to its history and usage, and is pretty problematic (and also, biologically and culturally inaccurate; not all actual Caucasian people, from the Caucasus that is, are white, and most white people are not actually descended from literal Caucasian people). If you need further information on this, last I checked, Wikipedia's coverage of the concept was pretty good, including the creepy and racist way that the term became popularized (tldr: a racist European white dude was trying to indicate that white people are biologically superior, was not a good scientist, but his 'theory' appealed to other racist Europeans so it took off)<br /><br />Unless you're literally an anthropologist and talking about skull shapes, I would not recommend using the term. Heck, if you WERE an anthropologist I might still suggest you talk to your compatriots about the bizarre continued use of "Caucasian" to mean "Eurasian but not East/South-Asian", either, considering, again, most people of Eurasian descent aren't descended specifically from the people of the Caucasus anyway. <br /><br />tldr if you mean "white", just say "white". Race as a concept we use daily is a cultural construct far more than it's ever been about biology anyway (don't get me started on how malleable skin color is day to day in the same person, let alone from parent to child!), so you don't need to use "scientific"-sounding words (that are actually inaccurate) when the common neutral parlance will work just fine for the cultural concept you are referring to. <br /><br />Like I said though, I had to have this pointed out to me too; so this is just me paying it forward, in the hopes more people will learn about the word's real meaning/history. Jamiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00840316413910459116noreply@blogger.com