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luckyladylily · 4 years ago

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I was wondering if you could elaborate on the age of "here I fixed it" art edits you mentioned in a recent post? I don't interact with a lot of internet communities so I don't know any of the histories of these types of things. I'm not even 100% sure as to what is defined as an art edit or picture edit.

So edits themselves are not a bad thing, given that you only post the edited work with the permission of the artist and credit etc. An edit can be something small, like changing the color of a character’s hair or eyes, or something big, like coloring a line art or drawing an entirely different outfit on a character.

These things are not inherently bad. What I am specifically referring to is a trend that reached it’s peak popularity around 8 years ago and basically had died off by around 2015. What would happen is people would find some art, edit said art in some way, and then post it as a before and after comparison, declaring their edit to be objectively superior in some way, usually along a moral axis of some sort. Usually this would be done with some snide comment about “fixing” the so called objectionable original, such as “here I fixed it”. This was primarily done on tumblr and left leaning social media originally, then later right leaning sites like reddit and 4chan started doing it as a method of trolling the left. Usually this was done with the specific intent to personally insult the creator of said art and often declare them racist, sexist, a femnazi, etc.

These started out as small things. This character wears too short of a skirt, so I made it longer. That sort of thing. At this point people mostly ignored it because who gives a fuck. But emboldened by the support they got from their insular communities and wanting to make a bigger splash (ie, make larger and more sweeping claims about their target being morally deficient and getting more people to see said call out) the edits got more elaborate, the call out more scathing, etc.

So, for example, lets take the characters of Tifa and Aerith.

What might happen is someone might say “look at tifa, that character is obviously designed purely to appeal to the male gaze!” and then do edits like make her hair short, because obviously a close combat fighter wouldn’t wear her hair long, and make her boobs smaller, and make her wear pants instead of a skirt, and make it so her stomach is covered, etc. Stuff like that, and post the before with the declaration that tifa is obviously designed by a misogynist and post their after edit with some snide comment about how they had fixed it.

On the other side someone might look at Aerith and say “ugh, that character has been completely tumblrized” (meaning designed overly politically correct) and do basically the same thing, except in the other direction. Give her heels, draw the slit in her dress way up higher so she is showing a lot more leg, give her bigger boobs, take off the jacket so she is showing off her shoulders, etc. again with the before shot, declaration that the character is morally shitty for some reason, and the after shot plus “I fixed it” of some variety.

This would sometimes happen *both ways* to the same art as a sort of political correctness war, and would inevitably result in harassment and death threats at the artist. Being targeted by either the left or the right or god forbid both at the same time sucked and killed a lot of creative drive in communities, especially in communities where people tried to create diverse art. If drawing art of a black person came with the risk of being dog piled because the nose isn’t shaped well then it was easier to just not draw black people. Everyone loses in a scenario like that.

So why this Aang and Sokka edit reminded me of it. The original post is saying something like “their noses don’t look right as adults so I changed them to be bigger and not have tiny white people noses.” Which, whatever. I have no stake in this at all. I took a very quick look, then moved on. However as the post has gotten more popular things started turning down a familiar road. People started saying things like “this is why white people shouldn’t design POC” and similar, and then there were some new edits that changed the facial structure as well that were done with much more aggressive “fuck yeah my edit is so much better than the shitty racist original!” and then there was one where they edited off Aang’s beard calling it something along the lines of a “fail beard” and directly insulting the appearance of one of the creators of Legend of Korra.

And like. Can we just not with the personal insults and racism accusations? Please? I really don’t want today’s even more toxic fandom latching onto this. I would really like to avoid that.

#Anonymous

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dumdeeedum · 6 years ago

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“The Magicians” Alice/Quentin/Eliot Love Triangle? Que? No, let’s stop the fuck right there...

I’m so frustrated with how bad Wednesday night’s episode of “The Magicians” was and with how bad this entire season has been, especially with how poorly they’ve handled anything to do with Alice, Quentin, and Eliot. I mean, generally I’m frustrated with how bad this show can be way too often but I’m going to try to keep my thoughts as organized as I can.

I want to preface all of this by saying that no, I don’t believe they’re still pursuing Eliot and Quentin because they’ve still given me no reason to. I just wanted to express my thoughts on these rumors of a love triangle and who knows, they might go that way, I don’t work there. I just know that for now they’ve set things up in a really poor way and I don’t see a true Eliot and Quentin outcome happening for a while if at all.

First I gotta reiterate this in case it isn’t clear: this is not a well-written show for me, it’s a fun show, to be sure, but not a well-written one. They have too few episodes to get away with the amount of dicking around they do and it’s clear they have no direction even when they have source material to draw from, and that’s a bad combination and a big problem. And those are just some of its issues.

A show like “Black Sails,” for example, had about 8 episodes per season and made good use of every minute of them because that’s how you tell the story you want to tell when you have limited time and can’t fuck around with filler. Very similar situation with the show “Spartacus” with a similar number of episodes per season to “The Magicians” and they wrapped it up in 4 seasons. But I tend to think 4-5 seasons is the limit before a show loses focus and goes downhill anyway.

It has also become clear to me that Sera Gamble has no interest in doing anything progressive. She wants to be one of the boys, play the game and get ahead which is her prerogative but at this point people have to come to terms with the fact that she’s always been a White Feminist(tm) and quit fucking around like she gives a shit about equity for marginalized communities or even visibility. All of the bullshit to do with Sera Gamble has been known for years now, too, so I’m not even sure why anyone would be surprised that she sucks at this point. I’m sure she’s sitting somewhere right now unable to understand where she fucked up and why because she doesn’t have it in her to accept criticism and it shows. Last I heard she’s still going after people on twitter for not liking the outcomes of her dumbass decisions as a show-runner; bitch, grow up!

You know what would be truly radical in this series? Stop having these women live for these men. Julia is off losing her autonomy to a man, again, Kady is about ready to allow herself to die because she misses her boyfriend, Margo is ditching the plan to save her best friend over some super mediocre, joke of a man she can do better than without even trying, and Alice is once again in Quentin’s orbit and having nothing to do for herself. Yay, feminism? You’re fucking kidding me, right?

And now I’m hearing people saying that they’re trying to set up a love triangle in season 5 between Eliot, Quentin, and Alice and I think the idea of this disgusts me more than if they’d just drop Eliot and Quentin as a pairing altogether after the massive fuckup that was the latter part of this season. How obtuse do you have to be to think a bisexual love triangle would be appropriate queer representation given our social climate? But here’s the thing, they’re playing on your intelligence if they do this, again, and I’m about to explain why.

Yes, it’s going to get lengthy because I’m going to be discussing the show from a social but also from a narrative standpoint, but you know me by now.

Don’t get it twisted, what they would ultimately be doing if they went this route is giving us even more straight representation while under the guise of bisexual representation given that Alice and Quentin are now back together, as a straight couple whether you think Quentin is bisexual or not. And that’s what matters when it comes to queer visibility. We’ve gotten straight Quentin pairings now from seasons 1-4 and they’ve yet to have Quentin explore any same-sex romantic partnerships or even fantasies other than the nonsense with Eliot because those were blink and you miss them moments.

And here’s the insidiousness of all of this and I really want people to think about this: They would use this as an excuse to still appear as though they were doing right by their queer audience while once again only really exploring one facet of Quentin’s supposed bisexuality, the more palatable one, while ignoring the other, more taboo one and calling it bisexual representation. That is not good bisexual representation, at all, how can it be?

And god forbid you raise a stink over these poor attempts at representation because then you get accused of hating and bi-phobia and of erasing Quentin’s bisexuality and blah blah blah. And, really, bisexual, where? Where are we going to get this exploration of Quentin’s sexuality while he’s dating Alice again and Eliot is somewhere in the sidelines dealing with the aftermath of being possessed by a being who murdered people using his body?

Can we stop with the intellectual dishonesty? Can we stop accepting these insults to the intelligence of the lgbtqa community?

And no, don’t even pretend the idea of a poly-amorous relationship wouldn’t be a fucking absurdity given their history. Quentin and Alice broke up because Quentin fucked Eliot and Margo. One of the people involved in that betrayal would be one of the last people Alice would want to share her boyfriend with. And that’s if she would even be OK with a poly-amorous relationship to begin with because the idea seemed to disturb her when her parents were doing it and frankly, not everyone is poly-amorous, in fact, most people aren’t.

Unfortunately, that’s just part of living in a heteronormative society where people, as a whole, just aren’t evolved enough yet to have explored other types of relationship dynamics because of the restrictions society has placed on them and it is what it is. The polyamory argument doesn’t even belong in the same space as the bisexuality argument because it makes bisexuality seem like a life choice as opposed to something people are born as. I’d say it’s less realistic, right now, to have everyone OK with sharing their significant others with everyone than to have a person identify as bisexual! Most people don’t have the self-confidence or the conditions to improve their self-esteem enough to even explore poly yet, and some people just aren’t into it and that’s their right, but I digress.

It just seems like everything that should have been happening in this season would instead be happening next season if they went this route and the only difference would be that they’d have made it palatable for their straight, homophobic audience by having Alice on Quentin’s dick the majority of the time they should be using to explore Quentin’s sexuality. When would they have time to give Quentin the important moments of introspection he needs to figure out whom and what he wants? Even his getting back together with Alice was very abrupt and didn’t seem like a well thought out decision on either Quentin’s or Alice’s part. Why couldn’t they just be single for a while if they were going to waste season 4 and work on this in season 5??

But this is just what they do by now because they can’t write a good romance. Straight shit gets put on the fast track in an absurdly unrealistic way, everyone’s in love in 5 minutes, smart, beautiful, boss bitch women date mediocre men when we’d never see it the other way around, and anything queer gets a couple of seconds of screen-time at best before someone is killed off, or they add a woman to the mix for no good reason, or we have to do a 50 year montage with no actual romantic intimacy to establish tha they’re even romantically interested in one another, blah blah, woof, woof.

Here’s a good question for those of you bi-Quentin-stans: None of you think it odd that while these creators kept alluding to exploring a canon male/male pairing with a bisexual character Alice and Julia, two women whom have exclusively dated men, have still had, to date, a longer, more sexually charged make out scene than gay Eliot and a supposedly bisexual Quentin ever have? Not to mention that the only time we explore Quentin’s sexuality in fantasy it’s some super fucking trite women making out for his pleasure fantasy.

No one thinks about why that is? No one thinks that perhaps it’s because depicting lesbian situations for the male gaze is a super common thing to do in media and is another one of those things that allows creators to pretend they have queer representation when really they’re trying to draw male views by exploiting the women of their series? It seemed pretty obvious to me as soon as I saw it but I haven’t fucked around with critiques of this shit in a long time and I don’t let this shit slide.

So now if they went the love triangle route in season 5 how would that work?

We’ve gotten a story line where not only was Eliot right that Quentin wouldn’t choose him when Quentin has the choice, but Eliot is going to have to come back and see this shit and deal with it on top of whatever massive trauma being possessed like this would inevitably cause. Do we really see Eliot saying anything to Quentin after that knowing what we know about Eliot’s way of handling shit? 4.5 leaves us thinking that maybe Eliot now sees that perhaps he shouldn’t have been so quick to reject Quentin and that perhaps Quentin would have chosen him and that Eliot wasn’t right to suggest he wouldn’t and yet here we are. And knowing what we know about Eliot would he try to get between that?

I actually think they’d done a good job closing the chapter on Alice and Quentin when Quentin told Alice he didn’t love her anymore and closed the book and I think they could have explored a really good friendship between them after that! That should have been when Alice and Kady did their own library thing and became more fully-fleshed out characters in their own right and when Quentin started exploring his own options and realizing he would choose Eliot even if at the time he thought Eliot wouldn’t choose him. Because this is something he should have been thinking about anyway!

There seems to be a pretty big issue that no one is considering about 4.5 and it’s a result of this ret-con having been handled so poorly so they couldn’t do what really needed to be done with the aftermath of it. The rejection conversation was really fucking poorly done because it was such a short, almost throwaway scene! We have Quentin get his memories back and immediately jump to wanting to be with Eliot and Eliot rejects him, for very good reason, in my opinion. Quentin seems a little bummed about it and then the scene ends. But from what we know about episodes 3.5 and on, Quentin hasn’t given it another thought. It didn’t even come up when he talked up Fillory to the plant so I really reject the premise that it was so traumatic for him to be rejected by Eliot that he didn’t even want to talk about anything to do with Fillory. Unless he’s even more immature than I thought it seems really unlikely that being rejected would eliminate all the other good shit in Quentin’s mind that relates to that lifetime, like, I don’t know, his fucking wife, his son, his grandchildren!? Miss me with that and stop excusing the shit decisions they make for Quentin in this show.

Was the idea here that they continue to go this route where everyone is expected to consider Quentin's feelings but he isn’t expected to consider theirs? Quentin has a habit of being inconsiderate dating back to season 1 (For Julia, his best friend, not getting into Brakebills was her punishment because she wouldn’t fuck him, Alice shouldn’t be upset that he cheated on her and Quentin doesn’t have to respect it when she tells him to back off, etc.) and the reasoning is always that Quentin’s got a low self-esteem and depressive issues but that’s not good enough now with 50 years of life experience under his belt. It’s especially not good enough when it comes to a man whom he’s known an entire lifetime through good and bad. So why didn’t they have him even consider what Eliot said to him and the validity of it?

Eliot explicitly says to Quentin that he knows Quentin so he knows how this would turn out, and Eliot was right! But somehow when Eliot rejects Quentin it isn’t incumbent upon Quentin to consider why Eliot would do that even though Quentin knows his own dating history and that he’d had a wife in Fillory? We’re just supposed to accept that Quentin just took the rejection at face value without even really listening to the wording or thinking about where Eliot might be coming from? Neither his nor Eliot’s problems or desires in the real world have suddenly disappeared just because they got their memories of Fillory back and Quentin knows that. Eliot made that point when he rejected Quentin, in a way, so isn’t there more to consider here? It’s especially egregious for this to be Quentin’s take away when we remember that Eliot didn’t have a husband in Fillory so Eliot was always there for Quentin and Quentin’s son and even Quentin’s wife in ways Quentin couldn’t be there for Eliot. How could it be as simple as “in the real world, you don’t do it for me” by Quentin? That’s just dumb.

A better scene would have had Eliot qualify his rejection to a man he spent 50 fucking years in love with so that Quentin could consider Eliot’s feelings on the subject before jumping to conclusions or even making a decision about them. And Quentin could have taken a moment to discuss Eliot’s insecurities if he really wanted to be with him or even just understand them. But instead the takeaway is more “poor victim Quentin isn’t special.” That’s just bad writing!

And what about Eliot? What does he get in all of this if they went the triangle route? Would they then allow him to explore a non-toxic relationship of his own or would he be sitting by like a dog and watching this shitshow of a romance between Quentin and Alice for however long it takes before they give us a sprinkling of Queliot? And who will be there to support him when his best friend is off fucking around with that loser Josh and Quentin is back with the girl that Eliot was afraid Quentin would choose over him? This effectively leaves Eliot alone to handle shit the way he’s always handled it and that’s just bad for his character after all the development he’s had.

What kind of queer representation is this going to be moving forward? We barely got Eliot this season, will he just sort of be there next season and have just as little to do as he had this season? He has nothing more to do in Fillory so where will they stick him now?

Narratively, everything that’s happened post 4.5 has really fucked the ability for an Eliot and Quentin pairing to work unless they double time it in season 5 and I don’t see how they can when Quentin is with Alice again. The show-runners have really gone out of their way to erase anything having to do with Eliot and Quentin as a couple to the point where it makes 3.5 and 4.5 seem like alternate universe versions of the show that don’t fit into the rest of the series. It’s clear to me at this point that they’re trying to move past the idea of Eliot and Quentin as a couple so even a triangle would seem really bizarre in light of that.

I’m not seeing it, I’m really not and as much as I know people want to hold out hope that Eliot and Quentin will happen I just feel like at this point the show would be trying to run out the clock without giving them anything substantial the same way they did this season. Everyone’s obviously free to do what they want with that but realistically I would hold out and not give them ratings until we see if they give us something that isn’t insulting bullshit.

#the magicians #queliot #eliot waugh #quentin coldwater #alice quinn #representation #lgbtqa representation #representation matters #media #television

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kob131 · 6 years ago

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https://queenypie.tumblr.com/post/180408886658/rwby-and-how-it-treats-its-women#notes

Oh goody, trying to point out ‘problematic’ material.

I’ll get this out right now: older women are treated the absolute worst by this show; they’re treated worse than black people, worse than LGB characters, and worse than the younger women.

The ways in which women are treated can be divided into three categories: dead, evil/terrible person, or brushed aside. Dead obviously describes Summer, the one potentially kind mother in this show. The second group is what Willow and Raven fall into. The last category is for Glynda, and Kali.

A. Willow is not shown to be a terrible person. Fuck, she’s played more as a victim than anyone else. meanwhile her male counterpart Jacques is treated as WORSE than the Hitler-esque character.

B. Raven is a terrible person but her gender has nothing to do with who she is as a person.

C. Kali is most certainly NOT brushed off since she’s constantly acting as a second Sun.

D. Glynda’s is the result OF problematic shit with her VA.

And E:

Dead: Ozpin

Evil/Terrible person: Jacques, Adam, Tyrian, Watts, Fennec, Corsac

Brushed off: Taiyang, Klein

Looks like the women are doing better than the men here.

In Glynda’s case, she is given one major action scene in the very first episode of the show before being relegated to Ozpin’s maid. Either she fixes the streets, she fixes the school, or she fixes Qrow’s or someone else’s mess.

Because Kathleen said some super sexist shit but nope, not gonna mention that.

Then there’s Kali Belladona, who gets to lucky shot someone with one of her guard’s guns before dropping furniture on another guy; meanwhile, her husband gets to knock people around.

Kali Win Record: 3-0

Ghira Win record: 0-0

So when’s the post about Ghira getting shafted.

Then we have Willow Schnee, who isn’t so much a character as she is still just an abstract concept. We know more about her from lore and exposition than actually seeing her in action. We also have the other horrible mother Raven, who is the only woman -besides Glynda- who gets to do anything action oriented.

A. We also only know that about her father, Nicolas. So...

And B. Again, Raven’s gender has nothing to do with who she is as a person. She’s also treated with more sympathy and more attention than Jacques so it STILL doesn’t work. Fuck at least Raven has an impact on the plot, UNLIKE Taiyang.

Being a bad parent or being passive isn’t objectively a bad thing, however I just listed every major older woman in this series to date. I could talk about Salem, but she would just fit into the evil category.

Except, you know, not by anything but circumstances she couldn’t have seen coming.

By contrast, older men can be good (Ozpin?, Port, Oobleck, Qrow, Tai, etc.), fatherly (Tai, Klein), complicated (Ozpin, Qrow), Evil (Watts, Hazel), Assholes (Jacques); While women can be categorized in 3 groups, men run the gambit, and that’s not okay.

Dead, brushed off, brushed off, relevant, brushed off, brused off, evil evil and evil.

Also, you rejected Kali but accept Taiyang and Klein, both of whom have contributed LESS to the show than Kali. So nice try,

Looks like the guys actually have the shaft.

Also, wanna know what this also sounds like? Sailor Moon, better go call THAT Author problematic!

Then we turn our attention to the main generation, rwby, nora, Pyrrha, and many others. Pyrrha has the obvious problem of her entire character revolving around Jaune, while Nora only -but still glaringly- has the problem of her backstory being 90% focused on Ren. Weiss has the whole dance arc in volume 2, which relegates her to a trophy for Jaune to fight Neptune over.

Okay, let’s go through this shall we?

A. Ruby has shown more mourning and development over Pyrrha than Jaune.

B. Nora is an active character while Ren does nothing 90% of the time and is often times needed to be bailed out by Nora *cough* Nucklevee Hazel *cough*’

C. She also had most of Volume 4 to herself. So....

D. Weiss also got to demand Neptune be beaten up for flirting with another team but god forbid Jaune ask her out 3 times.

And then volume 4 hits: Ruby gets her character develop stolen by Jaune,

Right up until Episode 10 where Ruby takes Jaune’s character and keeps it under lock until an ENTIRE VOLUME LATER and even then the guy’s actions amount to jack and shit.

Weiss has to be rescued by her butler from her evil dad

Said butler’s entire character revolves around Weiss.

Blake runs to see her father and Sun

Both of whom are treated as inept and useless while her mother is the only one shown to know what to do.

and Yang has to be talked down to by her dad

Where she insults him and no one bats an eye at him. Also: HIS entire character revolves around Yang.

So 0-4, you failed.

When one or two of these things occur, it’s not a problem (minus the Jaune bit); when it becomes a pattern, you messed up.

And yet when it becomes a COMPLETE pattern with men, no one cares.

Where are the adult female role models?

Dunno, where are they in Sailor Moon?

Oh right, the only one who isn’t evil/a bitch (Kali) gets to talk to Blake personally for one minute and it’s only to say that her father wants her.

All while giving an air of ‘I know what is best for both of you’ while Ghira is portrayed as a completely awkward idiot who can’t talk to his own daughter.

Volume 5 at least has the decency to give the female leads agency again, but Raven is suddenly treated like an obstacle instead of Yang’s goal, while Weiss is nearly killed so that Jaune can unlock his semblance.

A. An obstacle that takes up the majority of the screentime sure.

B. Jaune then proceeds to heal her and do nothing after removing the one impact he had on the battle.

And C. Ren is thrown against a wall and needs bailing out by Nora, Adam gets one shotted by Blake, Mercury is treated as a prop while Emerald gets some actual characterization, Jaune does NOTHING, Sun accomplishes nothing, Leonardo is treated as a joke unlike Raven, Qrow gets tossed around like a ragdoll and Ozpin/Oscar do basically nothing.

And yet no talk about this.

Volume 6 has, to date, given us a topless genie for no real reason other than sex appeal, and Salem’s backstory, where she only became active when a man entered her life and became evil because that man died.

A. So...Salem is Jaune and Ozma is Pyrrha then?

B. Salem is also the only proactive one between the two, she manipulated multiple world leaders BEFORE becoming immortal, she cheated the MALE gods, she’s the one portrayed as in control of the relationship with Ozma and she is the one who actually has agency.

And C. And yet examples of male fanservice (like Ironwood losing his shirt)go unnoticed.

And finally, the bit that has been said many times: when a female in this show acts out, does something compulsive and rash, they’re punished for it. Yang flying at Adam to protect Blake and Winter attacking Qrow for egging her on; both are reprimanded after. Jaune losing his temper and attacking Cinder? Obviously a hero, because despite Weiss nearly dying, he healed her and unlocked his semblance, so that makes it okay in the writer’s eyes.

A. Qrow is also reprimanded (in fact, MORE SO than Winter)

B. Jaune proceeds to remove HIS OWN AGENCY and do nothing the whole fight.

C. He utterly fails to do anything to Cinder, gets saved by Ruby and gets insulted for his actions while being portrayed as helpless. Yeah, real great hero.

For a show that wants to focus on four young women, it has an awfully tough time treating women as equally unique as the men. Older women in this show are either good because they’re passive and obedient (Glynda/Kali/Winter) or active and evil/rebellious (Raven/Salem/Cinder/etc.). Younger women must be taught by fathers or male friends on how to act. While that’s not what the writers intended, it’s what the show comes across as saying.

Except Winter rebelled against her father

Kali messes around with everyone and is treated as the more level headed of the two.

And Glynda’s temper is glossed over while Ironwoods paranoia and Qrow’s alcoholism is over looked.

Raven gets sympathetic moments.

Salem is THE most proactive person in the show

And Cinder is the longest running antagonist.

Now let’s go through the male characters shall we?

Torchwick: Repeatedly humiliated and defeated by four students constantly with only his FEMALE minion making him threatening: Gets killed off with no fanfare.

Port+Oobleck: Irrelevant

Ozpin: Is used for the development of Salem, is the toy of the gods and cannot do anything to stop Salem.

Jaune: Loses all agency and becomes a background character to the point his only development in Volume 5 is basically the writers (mostly Miles) telling him to shut up and look pretty.

Ren: Hasn’t won a fight since Volume 1, needed to be bailed out by Nora from both the Nucklevee and Hazel, barely says a damn thing and is overlooked for Nora most of the time.

Cardin: Asshole bully with no redeemable features (unlike Weiss)

Mercury: Is ignored by the narrative for Emerald all the time and said about two lines in Volume 5. Is also shown to be less moral and more evil than Emerald

Taiyang, Klein and Ghira: have no characters outside of being father figures to their respective daughters. Unlike Raven and Kali.

Jacques: Is treated as Snowy Satan to make Weiss, Winter and Willow look good.

Nicolas: Is only shown in a WOR to set up Willow, Winter and Weiss’ conflict.

Whitely: Is treated with contempt and derision by the narrative despite being in the same situation as Weiss.

Adam: Is no more than an abusive ex and evil racist to make Blake look better. Unlike Illa and Sienna.

Tyrian: Utterly insane, gets humiliated by Ruby.

Watts: gets pushed aside by Cinder

Hazel: Entire character revolves around dead sister.

Need I go on?

From where I stand: Male characters either have no personality outside of female characters (Taiyang, Klein, Ghira, Whitely, Nicolas), treated with far less care than their female counterparts (Torchwick, Adam, Whitely, Jacques, Mercury), have no character (Cardin), are just evil with far less sympathy than their female counterparts (Tyrian, Watts, Adam and Mercury), have their agency taken from them (Ren and Jaune), aren’t proactive (Ozpin, Port, Oobleck) and more.

But hey, can’t stab the creators over problematic shit with guys. Or showcase the guys issues since it would destroy your argument.

#queenypie

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universeoffrerard · 8 years ago

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The Problem with Shojo Anime (Part 2/5)

If you ask someone who knows anime to recommend you a romance, they will tell you to go watch some Shōjo. Be it a romantic comedy, tragedy, drama, or slice of life, it will all be resumed into that one Japanese word. What does it mean though? Shōjo (少女) literally translates to ‘young woman’, rather than a specific genre, it refers to a target audience. In a nutshell, romance is of course to be enjoyed by females hence it has to be girly and moe.

Sure, across cultures, it is a normal trend that female audiences tend to enjoy romance more than male audiences and there is nothing wrong in segmenting the market. The issue is, rather than the target, the clichés, recycled storylines and terrible examples set in these stories. Let’s begin with a well-known one, romantic comedies.

See, when you think about anime rom-coms, they are not far from any American production. Quirky female protagonist, super attractive male obligatory love interest. Occasionally, the female will be ‘strong and independent’ and the male will be their intellectual rival, of course all ‘independence’ is over when the female stops being able to live without the male but oh well. The difference is that females in anime need a man. Girls literally fight to have senpaii notice them or to simply have a boyfriend. They are encouraged to act girly, eat little, find a boyfriend, endure everything for them and win them over regardless of how shitty of a human being they are. Amongst the most infuriating cases you have:

“Ookami Shōjo to Kuro Ouji (Wolf Girl and the Black Prince)”:

Girl goes to a new school and obviously has to have a boyfriend so she makes up one. Sata, the imaginary boyfriend, makes a deal with her and literally makes her act like a dog for him. But they fall in love and have their romantic White Day kiss. So abuse is a-okay.

“I don't know. When I see the way she turns red or pale at one word from me... I just can't seem to stop. I'm just living honestly. I'm not hurting her because I like to”

“Kaichou wa Maid-sama! (The School President is a Maid!)”:

A clear example of strong female protagonist, she has to work at a maid café because she has serious economic problems. One day, Usui sees her and blackmails her into doing as he wishes or else he’ll reveal her ‘secret’ and god forbid! Oh but Usui has money and falls in love with her because of how strong she is… He literally takes it away from her but oh well. (If I have to be honest with you, this is one of my favorites and it was difficult to get rid of my Usui-loving biases.)

“It's fine, I'll come to save you as much as you want. I'll make you fall forme as much as you wish. Leave this to your master.”

“Itazura Na Kiss (Mischevious Kiss)”:

Be warned, this one is straight up insulting.Kotoko is a poor stupid girl, she gets bad grades and only has her looks going on for her, she is in love of course with the smartest guy, Irie. She confesses her love to him,he rejects her coldly, her house burns down cause reasons and she ends up living at Irie’s. In a nutshell, Irie insults her, hits her, abuses her but oh hey, he loves her..

“I am bad in everything I do, becoming a nurse might be impossible for me… But… I want to be a proper wife to Irie-kun!”

One could argue that three anime are not enough to portray the entire spectrum of rom-com shōjo, but the amount of clone works out there is enough... One could look at “Ouran Highschool Host Club”, “Lovely Complex”,“Special A” and find “Kaichou Wa Maid Sama” in them.

Now, on to less comedy and moredrama, we have the other end of the demographic.You see, even when you take out the comedy, the female character doesn’t really change from this vulnerable, necessarily girly character who needs a man to protect herdespite many abuses. The characters are still as flat as a deflated balloon and do not seem tohave any self-worth or actual personality. Shows like “Clannad”, “Ao Haru Ride”, “Kimi niTodoke”, “Re Life” and even critically acclaimed “Kimi No Nawa”, all feature a female protagonist that has as much charisma as that kid in your high-school class who you never noticed. As for the males? All handsome, mostly abusive, highly egocentric who seem to be the only option. After all, those girls need to find a man beforetheir worth is lowered by age or silly male things like work…

Now, I am not saying shōjo anime is shit and should not be watched, in fact I personally enjoyed a few of these stories. What I am making you realize is, they are all pretty much the same and ‘romance’ is an overstatement for what is going on in them. This isn’t romance, this is obligatory get-a- husband. A story about arranged marriage would probablybe more interesting.

Here’s the issue though, Japan has very strong gender based constrictions. If a mangaka tries to publish a work with a strong independent women who doesn’t need a half-guy and has at least half a personality, it would never get pass the editorial stage. This is because of societal norm and how females are generally perceived in said culture. As much as it pains me to say it, shōjo manga and anime are but an x-ray of socially acceptable Japanese relationships. Regardless, some creators wanted to break away from this,to create love their own way. How could they do this? Enter, yaoi.

Part 3/5 http://universeoffrerard.tumblr.com/post/160470948310/the-problem-with-yaoibl-part-35

#anime #shojo #itazura na kiss #kaichou wa maid sama #ookami shoujo to kuro ouji #wolf girl and black prince #romance anime #anime love #misaki ayuzawa #usui takumi #aihara kotoko #irie #sata kyouya

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tiliaeuropaea-blog · 8 years ago

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sapphic-nd replied to your post

“*banging pots and pans* MOFF-TISS-HATE MOFF-TISS-HATE...”

why, though? can you think of a legitimate reason to back up that point or are you just bitter bc your ship wasn't canon?

Under the cut, a list of things I’m “bitter” about, regarding all seasons of Sherlock, in no particular order.

They butchered all the female characters. Straight up butchered their character potential and made them tools to be used by male characters. Let me be a bit more specific about a couple of them:

Irene Adler (and yes, I always going to be bitter about it). Now, Irene Adler in A Scandal in Bohemia (published in 1891!) is a more proactive, progressive, appealing and genuinely interesting character that BBC!Irene will ever hope to be. And if you think about the 120 year gap, it’s kind of sad. ACD!Irene is a successful thirty-something woman who has retired from her career after making a fortune and now lives in a fancy area of London all by herself (IN THE FUCKING XIXTH CENTURY), marries for love and outsmarts Sherlock Holmes so hard he is left speechless. She’s funny, talented, smart, has a wonderful sense of humour, and sometimes dresses as a young lad to walk around London without being restricted by gender norms. An icon to this day. Now Steven Moffat read this story and went, “This is absolutely NOT a feminist victory! I, a straight white cis middle-aged man, know EXACTLY what a feminist victory looks like!” So BBC!Irene is a woman whose power literally comes from her vagina and her being fuckable. Her agency is reduced to her reliance on powerful male figures. Sure, she’s smart, but it’s made clear she’s not smart enough. The Alpha Man outsmarts her, humiliates her and then swoops in to mercifully save her. She should be the Woman who beat Sherlock Holmes, but she’s not. And don’t even get me started on her sexual orientation (and the implications that all gay women are promiscuous and just waiting for the Right Man). I highly recommend reading Antonija Primorac’s The Naked Truth for more insight on the matter.

Molly Hooper. They mistreated her character all along, and I think this is pretty clear. She’s depicted as needy, pathetic, weak time and time again. I thought they were getting better at writing her until season 4 came along. They simply used her when they needed her (e.g. for looking after a baby they created just for the sake of a good pun; and of course Rosie’s babysitter had to be Molly or Mrs Hudson, god forbid it’s a man? Greg who?). Zero agency, zero character development. But the last straw had to be the I Love You scene. First of all, how is it possible that Molly is still in love with Sherlock? Honestly? They literally haven’t spoken to each other in months, it’s just not realistic. This is character regression. Secondly, she is just brought back so she can be humiliated. Again. I truly believe Moffat has a kink for getting praised by women and humiliating them in return. Talk about issues. What’s even worse is that she’s shown visiting 221B in the final episode, as if nothing happened. She’s expected to be humiliated by Sherlock again and again and forgive him every time.

Rosamund Mary Watson. I’ll just refer you back to these two metas, x and x, I wrote after T6T.

Eurus Holmes. Her depiction as the Mad Woman in the Attic is in itself problematic, and if you’re interested in reading more about this, please read @aherocanbeanyone‘s post about the depiction of mental illness in TFP. Also may I add something Beatrice pointed out in private: weird how the only Holmes sibling to be “mad” is the female one, uh? Her own character is inconsistent at best: she’s a mentally ill person, who has been locked up since childhood for murdering another human being, but in the end she just needed... a hug? So you’re either telling me Mr and Mrs Holmes are horrible, cruel parents who never showed affection to her daughter and/or intervened when they realised Euros was jealous of Sherlock and Victor’s relationship? Or her psyche is totally inconsistent and far-fetched. Moreover, when Sherlock hugs her and comforts her, she is once again saved by a man and has her agency wiped away - she’s unresponsive, doesn’t talk, etc. As Kaite Welsh said: “Although Euros in villain mode can be truly horrifying, at least she had power. At least she had agency. [...] Every woman on the show has been systematically defanged and no amount of Mrs. Hudson driving a sports car can erase that.” (x)

That being said, we can safely say Sherlock is a sexist show. Most episodes don’t even pass the Bechdel test, I think.

Now, onto my “bitterness about Johnlock not being canon”. The reason I’m angry that Johnlock was not canon, is that it made the whole series a prime example of queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is cruel and honestly, some of the people on here who believed the most are young queer fans who were really hurt by the way Mofftiss treated us. I don’t approve of the carrot and stick approach they used. They repeatedly insulted and disregarded the Johnlock community in interviews and peppered the show with gay jokes, but kept playing with the subtext and the fans. They exploited their queer fans, their resources and then revealed they actually don’t care at all. If they cared about us they would’ve followed through and made the subtext text. If they didn’t want this from the start, they shouldn’t have played with the feelings of queer youth just because it’s fun. But what’s wrong with an ambiguous ending, you ask? It’s cowardice and cruelty. By leaving the ending ambiguous they revealed that they care more about the money that the larger straight (and homophobic) audience can give them, than about the loyalty and respect of a smaller but dedicated group of fans, whose lives would’ve been changed by this kind of representation. I’m sorry but this is just plain evil.

And now last but not least: they’re mediocre writers at best. They rely heavily on illogical plot twists just for the shock value. They’re like architects that built a house with stained glass windows and a pool with a 30ft slide, but didn’t really bother with the foundation. The house is going to collapse eventually, no matter how pretty it is. The show may be exciting and shiny, but if you take a closer look you’ll notice so many plot holes and fortuitous coincidences. “You know what they say about coincidences? The universe is rarely so lazy.” But they are. Most plot lines are built on coincidences, chance, and far-fetched deductions that magically turn up to be correct. This has always been their modus operandi since day 1 (the suitcase has to be pink because the woman wears a pink coat? you do realise most women don’t have as much suitcases as they do coats, do you?) but it got worse with the seasons. The reason is that they bit off more than they could chew, wanted to build ever cleverer and more convoluted plot lines without being able to make them realistic and plausible. Season 4 was supposed to reference back to previous seasons, to tie up all loose ends, so be the overarching glue that kept all season together. It was obviously not, most characters were OOC and their character development made a sharp U Turn to FuckedUpVille. Also, they said that the big plot twist was something they hinted at throughout the series but they did not??? They literally introduced a new villain two episodes in with no other hint beforehand? Also, it’s pretty obvious they did NOT plan this ahead because this season is completely detached from the others plotwise. Well of course except for Moriarty, who we are expected to believe knew about Sherlock’s secret sister but did not use it against him? Because he’s what, kind-hearted?

They’re also pretty shitty at handling climaxes: all the climaxes in the show have deeply underwhelming resolutions that resolve absolutely nothing: Morairty has Sherlock and John at gunpoint? Ooops, phone call. Euros shoots John? Nah, tranquillizer. Reichenbach Fall? Who the fuck knows how he did it? Not them. What I mean is, they come up with a shocking scene where all hope seems to be lost, how will our hero survive? Cool, right? But they cannot come up with a decent answer to that question either, so they scramble up a (again, furtuitous) way to dodge the situation. That’s a sign of bad writing. If you can’t figure out how your hero survives, you should not write that scene.

But if they’re just plain incompetent, they do not deserve hate, right? They deserve to be explained their mistakes so that they can grow and become better writers! Wrong. We’re past constructive criticism, Moffat refuses to listen to criticism, he even sounds personally offended whenever someone says anything about his shows (x x). He’s just like a giant entitled toddler who needs a reality check. About Gatiss, I honestly to this day cannot wrap my head around what is up with him.

This is the end of my presentation on how much I hate Mofftiss. I’m sure I forgot something but I’ll add if it comes to mind. Anyway, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss are sexist queerbaiting assholes, lame writers and horrible human beings. End of.

#sapphic-nd #mofftiss hate #sherlock #sherlock meta #reply #now i'm even more upset than before #mine

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madelinepreston · 8 years ago

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I would first like to start off by stating that I identify as a white, able-bodied, cisgendered, heterosexual female. I am aware of my privilege, but am not ignorant to the disempowered groups around me. For the purpose of this analysis, I am to aligning myself with black women and the struggles they face as seen in the Oscar nominated film Hidden Figures - after all, solidarity for women and all that jazz. But seriously, the media has long wrongly or underrepresented women and the power they have, so it is incredibly refreshing to see strong black women being portrayed in this film. From a plot perspective, I was hooked from the very first scene – 3 strong, independent women on their way to work, fixing their own car at the side of the road. I buckled in for an empowering film that I was sure to love whilst yelling “go get em’ girl” at the screen *cue boyfriend eye roll*. If you haven’t gotten off the couch to a movie theatre near you to see the film, Peter Debruge couldn’t have said it any better:

While an all-male team of engineers performed the calculations for potential space travel, women mathematicians checked their work, playing a vital role at a moment when the United States was neck-and-neck with the Soviets in the space race. As brash, bright, and broad as Hollywood studio movies come, "Hidden Figures" tells the story of three of these unsung heroes, all of them African-American, who fought a doubly steep uphill battle --as crusaders for both feminism and civil rights in segregated Virginia--to help put an American into orbit.

The movie is fascinatingly based on real people (Katherine Goble, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughn) and events, which were actually created from the non-fiction book of the same name (Melfi and Schroeder). Not only did I love this movie for the refreshingly kick-ass women (both the actresses and their characters), but I also loved the “on-the-nose” dialogue. A perfect example of this is when Kevin Costner’s character learns that Katherine is consistently never around because she is running to “the coloured bathroom” on the opposite side of the campus. This already had my blood boiling, cause when a girls gotta go, she’s gotta go. The light-hearted “Running” theme song by Pharrell Williams did not uplift my mood one iota. It honestly was adding insult to injury, I feel, and was making light of a situation which is steeped in systematic, blatant, intolerable racism! The scene continues with Katherine returning from one of her bathroom breaks and Costner’s character consequently cut down the ‘coloured bathroom’ sign and yells, “Here at NASA, we all pee the same colour!” (Debruge 182) – I’m glad someone finally did. The inhumanity of it all had me feeling uneasy and a bit disgusted. However, this film brought forth two extremely necessary topics of the 1960’s which we still struggle with today – women and the racial ‘other.’

What I mean to say here is similar to Stuart Hall’s argument that explains: “we know what black means, not because there is some essence of ‘blackness’ but because we can contrast it with its opposite – ‘white’ (26). The same can even be said about masculine and feminine, especially within this movie. We see opposing ‘black’ versus ‘white’ and ‘masculine’ versus ‘feminine’, but as we know today there are so many things in between. Even the word ‘versus’ really translates as ‘against’ – setting the ‘bad’ versus ‘good’ in these examples. So basically, the world is doomed to repeat itself if we don’t make necessary changes – not to be dramatic or anything. I also just have to add that it’s all fine and well that she can pee in the other bathroom again, but once again it is a man stepping in to “save the day”. I am happy about the positive message, but I really can’t help but think about the way this once again reinforces these stereotypes and systems of oppression, but I digress…

As Hall describes reminiscing of the past:

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries popular representations of daily life under slavery, ownership and servitude are shown as so ‘natural’ that they require no comment. It was part of the natural order of things that white men should sit and slaves should stand; that white women rode and slave men ran after them shading them from the Louisiana sun with an umbrella…” (37)

This can be seen all too well within Hidden Figures. For example, when Dorothy Vaughn is looking for a certain book, the librarian insists she has “books in the coloured section” trying to rush her out. Dorothy stands her ground and the librarian replies with an indignant, “that’s just the way it is” and escorts her out by security. This situation is one of the most infuriating parts of the movie for me because as an English major I advocate for the promotion of early and for all, literacy. The only thing that brought me some sort of faith in people again was the way in which Dorothy uses this as a way to teach her kids: “Separate and equal are two different things. Just cause’ it’s the way doesn’t make it right. Understand? You act right, you are right…” (Hidden Figures). I couldn’t believe that a woman that was just kicked out of a library for being black, turned it into a lesson learned for her children and a calm attitude to move forward. Dorothy still provides her children with a lesson while sitting at the back of the bus on seats labelled “For Coloured Patrons Only.” However, Dorothy handles her anger in a dignified manner – more than I could say for myself if it were me *cue Mean Girls clip of Cady Heron tackling Regina George*. This is exactly what Sara Ahmed describes in her article “Feminist Killjoys”:

[…] The anger of feminists of colour is attributed. So you might be angry about how racism and sexism diminish life choices for women of colour. Your anger is a judgement that something is wrong. But in being heard as angry, your speech is read as motivated by anger. Your anger is read as unattributed, as if you are against x. You become angry at the injustice of being heard as motivated by anger, which makes it harder to separate yourself from the object of your anger. You become entangled with what you are angry about because you are angry about how they have entangled you in your anger. In becoming angry about that entanglement, you confirm their commitment to your anger as the truth “behind” your speech, which is what blocks your anger, stops it from getting through. You are blocked by not getting through. (98)

In this case, Dorothy doesn’t give in to the ‘angry black woman’ stereotype Ahmed talks about, knowing its adverse effects – now that’s some will power. Although, on the flip side why can’t a woman express her emotions (in this case anger) in the way she sees fit?! After all, Dorothy is clearly being mistreated. Men can beat women, each other, really anything they want to a pulp but God forbid a woman show anything besides grace and dignity? – Gimmie a break. The double standards continue.

Anyway, what is most important to acknowledge here is that this segregation and racism extends even into the more modernized environments; it’s not something just seen back in the day, it’s happening now! An example is Katherine Goble’s work environment in the film. Through stereotyping, the “‘binding’ or bonding together of all of Us who are ‘normal’ into one ‘imagined community’; and it sends into symbolic exile all of Them – ‘the Others’ – who are in some way different…” (Hall 50). This acknowledgement is the foundation for the movie. When Katherine moves to a new team, she is greeted with a man handing her the trash bin stating: “This wasn’t emptied last night” (Hidden Figures) – this is exactly what I am talking about. OF COURSE the black woman was most likely a custodian and not one of the greatest minds of her time. Why else would she be here? – I’d tell him exactly where I’d like him to put that trash can…This stereotyping is what Hall refers to as “classifying people according to norm and constructs the excluded ‘other’” (51).

Speaking of all this stereotyping and unequal relations, can we also talk about the power of white society? Hell yes we can. And we should. It was an extremely hard pill to swallow watching the only female co-worker Katherine had, explain: “I don’t know where your bathrooms are” (Hidden Figures). What struck me was the way that female relationships did not even supersede the racial divide within the movie. For example, in the way Vivian Mitchell (Kirsten Dunst) treats the black women: “As a woman, Vivian can empathize with Katherine's workplace challenges; and yet, as a white woman, she doesn't get it at all, oblivious to her subconscious role in keeping Katherine down” (Debruge). Whatever happened to a little female solidarity? This is what is referred to as “white feminism versus feminism” (UWIRE). Although the women have a common goal, characters like Vivian are only interested in the white woman’s plight as a separate issue. How can we win a fight for women, when all women aren’t united? When Vivian finds that Mary has applied for the engineer training program she storms in: “NASA doesn’t commission females for the engineer training program,” […] “We now require advanced extension courses through the University of Virginia.” This is an all-white school, making it impossible for Mary to attend – think maybe they did this on purpose? Mary is clearly disappointed: “Every time we have a chance to get ahead, they move the finish line” with which Vivian retorts “Ya’ll should be thankful you have jobs at all” (Hidden Figures). I could not believe that she had the guts to even say something like that to another person, let alone a fellow woman. What is crazy to me is that the women don’t share in their fight for equality. The white women still treat the black women like slaves, even though they themselves feel the oppression of the white patriarchal society – talk about a flaw in logic. UWIRE Text provides one of those ‘I couldn’t have said it better myself’ moments:

We see that the black women in the film stick together and uplift one another. Together, they try to ensure the one another's success. Yet, the white women -- who already held higher positions than their female counterparts -- were only trying to achieve personal gain. They struggled with the fact that the men dominated the workplace. Although they didn't work against black women, they certainly didn't work in favor of them […] Just remember, this is an inclusive movement. You cannot call yourself a feminist if you're not fighting for the advancement of all women -- of all backgrounds. White feminism is not feminism.

Again, for anyone who didn’t get that– white feminism. is. not. feminism.

Speaking of white patriarchal society, what is everyone’s problem with these 3 African-American women within NASA? Well, one of the main aspects we see is what Katie Milestone and Anneke Meyer describe as contempt for women exhibiting “the new femininity that gives girls the licence to engage in practices and display attitudes previously reserved for men” (119) – and thank God for that. The privileges other women have fought to provide me things such as; a life that revolves around more than marriage and babies – hallelujah. My University diploma (soon to be) and my one bedroom apartment can attest to that. In my opinion, Milestone and Meyer’s argument can easily be seen in the relationship between Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons) and Katherine Goble. Paul clearly feels threatened that Katherine is told to check his math (can men be any more insecure?), and the reports that Katherine creates can’t even have her own name on them? Let alone the fact that Paul has no problem telling her: “Computers don’t author reports.” Not to mention when Katherine wants to attend the briefings in order to accurately do her job, Paul declares: “There is no protocol for a woman in there” (Hidden Figures) – Guess you better get one then eh, Paul? Milestone and Meyer’s refer to this on page 120 of their article explaining: “From a feminist point of view the intense critique of women do not conform to behaviours prescribed as appropriate by emphasized femininity, then they will be symbolically punished.” This interaction between Paul and Katherine surrounds the idea that “men are associated with the public domain and the world of work, women are associated with the private space and the domestic” (Milestone and Meyer 124). And, at the heart of this feminist struggle lies the plight of women to get educated and out to work into good jobs (125). Not only is this discrimination dripping off Paul, but the team for which Katherine works, is all men. The only exception is one other female who seems to be doing administrative work – not math or ‘man’s work.’ What a shock that was for me. I currently work in an office surrounded with both strong and leadership oriented women – I was so not impressed with the egos and maltreatment from the men.

One of the most laughable aspects for me is the character of Al Harrison (Kevin Costner). Mostly because he is portrayed as ‘one of the good guys’ and an ‘advocate’ for the women within NASA. However, our prince charming is seriously flawed *cue Shrek montage*. Al is supposed to be one of the only ones ‘on our side,’ but even he struggles with some of the encounters regarding both colour, and women. For example, even when Al is providing a motivational speech and states: “I suggest you call your wives, and tell them how it’s gunna be.” So many things are wrong with this statement for me. I have become so much more aware of social taboos. Like, 1. Why is it “call your wives” – this leaves no room for any other sexual orientation (I know it’s the 1960’s, but someone was definitely secretly cringing inside here); 2. Why is it mid-day and your wives are home – this reinforces the gender stereotype of the woman at home in the domestic space and not within the work force *eye roll*; 3. He says: “tell them how it’s gunna be” – let me tell you, if any man ever thought they could ‘tell me’ what to do, they would have another thing coming. Not to mention after all of this, Al was fully aware that Katherine and her other female co-worker were in the room – like, what’s a woman gotta do to get a little respect? He excluded her, maybe not on purpose, but by instinct. The tragedy of it all is that the film captures one tragic main element: “the reality that no matter the amount of intelligence a black woman may have, she'll always have to work considerably harder than the average white man” (UWIRE). The even sadder part is that this is still all too true today. Women are still making less money than their male counterparts and have far less opportunity for advancement and recognition. And you can be sure that black women have to fight even harder.

One of the refreshing aspects for me was to not only see a movie with 3 strong female leads being nominated for an Oscar, but that all three of the women are black. Andi Zeisler provides an intriguing new outlook on this aspect of film: “Perhaps parts created for women of colour would be not only more plentiful but also less stereotypical. Perhaps the juiciest roles for women – would be something other than […] ‘hookers, victims, and doormats’” (143). Although Zeisler sees less promise back in 2008, we have made huge leaps today. Maybe that’s why this film is so important. It changes people’s perspectives and attitudes.

The last thing that is notable to mention about Hidden Figures is that is a celebratory story. The movie is first and foremost about “a group of extraordinary women into an account of how they overcame race and gender barriers, while helping to win the space race” (Kumar). The most important aspect is that the movie “celebrates the skills, achievements and tenacity of women like Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson as they helped launch rockets and humans into space” (Kumar). Can I get a hell ya? CNN Wire touches on this perfectly:

A clever title with multiple meanings, "Hidden Figures" captures the enthusiasm that surrounded putting men in space, but tempers it with the injustices faced by those who assisted them back on Earth. That includes the brilliantly capable Katherine being told by her immediate supervisor ("The Big Bang Theory's" Jim Parsons) that "computers," the rather amusing job title back then for those working in the math department, don't put their names on reports.

I think the fact that it celebrates women, and most importantly women of all colours, is what makes me the proudest. Privileged as I may be in modern society, we (women) still have large steps to climb when it comes to inequality. Manjit Kumar has it right for all of us: “There's an easy moral here: that Neil Armstrong's "giant leap for mankind" will only loom larger in our imaginations once we appreciate all the people - men and women - who got him there."

Hidden Figures makes me feel proud to be a woman and to face our inequality head on. My voice will be heard. I will continue to take a stand – will you?

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