Watcging the new #LovecraftCountry episode, and I definitely appreciate a getting to see a black woman whose body looks like mine getting to fuck and be sexy.
Though I also find the contrast of Ruby and Leti to be interesting. While Leti can at times be performing activism she still wants to try. While Ruby is pragmatic, but not interested in helping us as a people. As seen by her "winner take all" philosophy.
Just finished. Saw the bit that had folks upset. I'd be more shocked I think if I went in blind, but at the same time it was still an "oof" kinda moment for me.
Though my feeling, at least right now, is that Lovecraft Country is not a "safe space" kinda show. It was never one. It's conscious of what has happened, does happen, and a lot of its story moves in awareness of it. Though that doesn't mean anything was ever "off the table" (c)
At least not really. This is where I think a lot of extreme criticism comes from for works made by marginalized creators. It's not often that we don't know, but that we're still telling the story we're telling and in many cases its not going to be "safe".
That isn't to say the scene can't hurt. It totally can hurt. Most of Lovecraft Country has hurt for me because I've stared down police guns way to fucking much in my short life. That doesn't make the show uncaring. It's just not trying to be safe.
Now, I'd fucking love more safe shows. We don't have enough just comfy shows or light hearted action or what have you that's making sure certain traumatic or "ripped from the headlines" style content isn't in them.
At the same time, we can try and respect that sometimes folks want to write a dark, bloody story that has marginalized people at its heart. Also, let's see where things go from here and what happens next. Cause the story isn't done.
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Just thinking about our fascination in American fantasy about people being from special lineages, secret princes, etc. And how as we push against that it's worth looking at the different ways this trope can exist in subversive and conservative wats
The main way I'd point this out is: there are stories where the importance is in the blood and stories where the importance is on your ancestors and whike similar those are quite different.
In the former case we have what's essentially eugenics. Due to ypur genes you matter. There was no world in which you wouldn't matter, and in a world born out of manifest destiny and white supremacy this concept is really dangerous.
So I finally finished High & Low:The Movie. It was a great time, and there's a lot to digest about it. I think the major thing on my mind rn is how it looks when asians (Japanese in this film) create a world of gangs as compared to Americans.
This largely a reactive thought as I think about a tweet made yesterday on the orientalist nature of Asian gangs in American works. The emphasis on "honor", dragon iconography, traditional motifs, swords over guns, etc.
And what High & Low demonstrates is just how glaringly orientalist this image is. Since out of the many gangs in its setting you have some that look like pretty boy hosts, high school delinquents, visual key parkour enthusiasts, and SOOOOOO much black influence.
I am due to learn more about theories of harm reduction, but I really want to do so reading texts by black and indigenous women.
In part cause one thing I want to learn how to resolve in myself and grow is to understand where violence is placed in these models. Cause I understand that a major principle is that the state can't and shouldn't have tools of violence in anyway.
Though what happens when a community decides that violence is necessary. Say, in the case of deciding to just off some cops that slew a black woman in her sleep.
So I just started up How to Make It in America (taking a break from Girls), and immediately this show screams New York in a way Girls doesn't.
Part of it stems from how our characters are living in realistic apartments, they're hustling, and the City has an energy to it that screams fashion, hip-hop, and a Neverending hustle.
Which immediately draws difference between Girls where all the characters have aspirations but they have no drive or hustle.
To do a short thread on Miss Sherlock for a second. It is some amazingly fun television, and makes the greatest case for what's fun about the episodic format.
The ability to put in thirty minutes and get a really rewarding mystery that has an actual resolution and payoff(something lacking from so many serialized dramas) is great.
Plus, each case is a good time because you can get very different tones easily. One episode is a straight up murder mystery, another starts as simple vandalism to become an art world conspiracy, and I just finished one with a missing bride.
Though I’d definitely say rn Girls is in line with my theory. Since the way the show embodies whiteness in New York is largely inauthentic to NYC. Unlike Sex and the City where the characters are of certain class and status in Manhattan that is overwhelmingly white
The characters in girls are just not at that point. Where they are in their lives should have them engaging with so many PoC it’s not funny.but in Girls PoC only emerge to act as props for the characters to just be white too.
Then insofar as both shows represent New York City, Girls is not in New York. It feels so disconnected to the city beyond the character’s fascination with it in their Rent-addled imagination. In this way the show, much like the cast, engages in blatant gentrification.