#or the way that white people oversexualize black bodies and this plays out in the overreaction to sex in black music

[elliethesuperfruitlover]

something to get off my chest..

I’ve read about this a bit, and went through some thoughts from others and I’d like to say something. Can fanfiction writers be a bit more inclusive to POC(I’m going to be focusing on black readers, as that’s where I can say what I feel)  and such. The writing from the people I read from is fine, so if you’re one of my fanfic writing moots, don’t worry, you’re in the clear :). It’s just a general PSA type thing of me saying “Please include us, I feel out of place and misrepresented and with writing and fanfiction, I kind of feel left out when I see certain things in a fic or whatever it may be.” Been bothering me a little bit.

Examples Where Inclusion Could be Added:

“Ran fingers through S/O’s hair” As a black girl, I’d love for this phrase to be real, and to happen, but sometimes it’s just not happening. I’ve got tighter textured hair, and I’d enjoy for a character to put their hand on my hair, or take a small piece and scrunch a tiny curl.

“When the character puts their hair into a ponytail” Along with the running their fingers through my hair thing, a lot of the time, my hair won’t be going into a ponytail and stay slick and whatnot. Improvements could be to put their hair into an afro puff, or putting a headwrap on, etc.

“Pale, white as snow skin” This one’s a bit self-explanatory. Now, I will acknowledge vitiligo, and those who have it. That, as well as some POC having albinism. Those scenarios do count, but I can only speak for myself. Compare black skin to the sun, and how it shines beautifully in the golden rays. Also, don’t refer to black/brown skin tones as chocolate, caramel, or mocha. There’s tons of other things, other than food, to compare it to, or to just call it beautiful because it is.

“Discoloration” A lot of the time, POC might have discoloration of the skin, and uneven skin patches, and yes, I know this isn’t just a black people thing, white people may experience it too, but that’s where that comes in. Mention discoloration, or make it a topic to shed light on in a fic.

“Silky smooth hair” My hair is not silky smooth, and it may never be that way. It’s curly, coily, and a lot of the times, dry. It’s rough to the touch, and the curls have their own feel and pattern. Perhaps, you could shed some light on how the hair feels. Do NOT compare it to sheep wool, carpet, anything rough like that. It’s demeaning and rude. Instead, make it seem perfectly imperfect, our hair isn’t going to be like fresh sheets.

“They had long hair, reaching (blank) length.” A lot of our hair IS NOT LONG. Or what is considered long in this white beauty standard. Yes, my hair stretches to my back, but does it look like that upon immediate arrival? No, no it doesn’t. Try mentioning different hair styles that the reader might have it in, such as braids, a hijab, headwrap, afro puffs, cornrows.

How Curly Hair Dries. I am acknowledging that fact that any texture of hair can and does grow out of any person’s head, regardless of race. However, I’m mentioning it. If the fic is talking about it raining, or them getting water on their hair, or being in a pool. Mention how their hair droops then shrinks, because curly hair does that. How it may get frizzy, puffy, all that jazz.

“Character straightened their hair, character did French braids, character did hair crown, character curled their hair” Now, I know black hair does a lot, but we do NOT straighten our hair every day. It takes too long, and it does too much heat damage. We can do French braids, but they don’t come loose immediately. They’re protective styles for a reason. We also can do hair crowns, but like I said, it’s going to be a STRUGGLE. Mention other hair styles, and other black hairstyles, and what the character does or doesn’t do to it everyday. One day it might be moisturizer day, or wash day. They could do a wash and go, or leave it down, braid it, twist out, braid out. Whatever it may be, add it in.

SFW Fic Ideas That Include These Things:

The character’s S/O, or boyfriend, let me say for this example, Nathan Young (teehee) asks if he can help on a wash day, and they approve. He also has curly hair, but it’s a different texture to most black hair, and mention that too. How he might ask for help, try not to hurt them, gets confused at how much product they might have to use. (A LOT).

The character’s S/O or boyfriend, thus again, using Nathan as an example, asking how they might style it, if he can help. He learns how to braid, twist, add in coconut oil, moisturizer, all that. Combing correctly and not RIPPING their hair out,

The character’s S/O or boyfriend helping with hot oil treatments, and heating everything up, parting hair, adding things where they need to be added.

The character might be having a really rough hair day, and they help out, combing through it.

The character might get turned down at work because of how their hair is styled, angst, comfort, fluff. Add in how they feel, how it made them feel, all those negative emotions.

Character got called an “angry black woman”, and how she deals with it, how her S/O deals with it.

Character got turned down at work simply because of the color of their skin, mention the angst (and the fight their S/O had with the company.)

Character wants their hair played with, but carefully. Mention how their S/O twists their finger around their hair, trying not to hurt them. Calling their hair beautiful, a crown, precious, angelic.

Character has their hair touched unwillingly in public, they have a break down, comfort, fluff. How they retort in a respectful way.

Character educating their S/O on what’s okay and what’s not okay to do with their hair, how to care for it, how to touch it, when to touch it.

HEADWRAPSSSSS. Character’s head wrap is always coming off at night, S/O giggles, helps them wrap their hair, always looks forward to helping them find it in the morning.

S/O has never been with a “black girl” before, mention how wrong it is to say something like that, how insensitive it is.

Character goes on a date, a person says “I’ve never been with a black girl/chocolate girl.” before, and storms out, person is ignorant. Mention how they go back to future S/O (friends to lovers yessss) and cry over it “I’ll never treat you like that.”

NSFW mentions below the cut.

“Character touched their pink nipples.” My nipples are NOT pink, thank you very much. They’re much darker than our skin colors. Mention whoever you maybe writing about slowly circling their tongue around the (specific color) nipples, don’t just default to pink

“Character touched their pink pussy; saw their pink pussy.” All vaginas are NOT made equal, let me tell you. Vaginas are different colors, depending on your skin tone. A lot of the time, with POC, they fade into pink, and the actual inside of the vagina is pink, but not the surrounding area. The skin around the pubic mound darkens in color, and the closer it reaches the vagina, the darker it may be, due to discoloration, skin rubbing, etc.

STRETCH MARKS. This one isn’t race specific, every color of skin can have stretch marks, BUT the color does differ. As a person who has stretch marks, mostly near my nether regions, the darker the skin they’re on, the darker they’ll be. Try adding in sprinkles of stretch marks for ALL of your characters.

Body Shape. Now, there are curvier white people, and I do acknowledge that fact, but with black people, there is a certain body type that a lot of us have. Big titties, fat ass, big hips, big thighs. NOW, black people and POC are sexualized and fetishized a fuck ton, and I’m tired of it. If our body types are mentioned, and it’s a specifically black or POC character, don’t make it all that they’re about, especially when writing about smut. Yes, they can be thicc, and beautifully so, but don’t oversexualize that about them.

“Character grabbed on to their hair, pulling it tight.” I don’t like my hair being touched without permission, forget the pulling. Have it where the character might ask permission to touch their hair, even if they’re getting down and dirty.

NSFW Fic Ideas That Include These Things

Character wants their pussy licked, and their S/O mentions how beautiful their pussy is, how beautiful their skin is.

Character and S/O see each other nakie for the first time, mention their pubic hair (if they have it, make it inclusive). Mention stretch marks, how they feel as their S/O/ drags their fingers, tongue across them. Tongue dragging against their nipples (mention color).

Character doesn’t want their hair touched during intercourse. Mention the talk about it, potentially angst if S/O accidentally touches it or unintentionally upsetting them about it.

Character does wash day, turns into something dirty, grinding, close contact.

Character is doing their hair, S/O gets turned on by how careful she is, how her body is so still, how she has no care about how her breast spills out from her bra.

Character is doing a hot oil treatment, oil gets on their body, titties, drips down, S/O gets turned on.

These are just my feelings, a couple of suggestions. Fanfiction is something I enjoy writing, as well as enjoy reading, and I want it to be inclusive for everyone, not just the status quo, and the “average reader”. I hope someone finds something out of all of this, and takes it to heart. :)

[lin-dorie]

Cuties/Mignonnes, from the project to the meaning and international public interactions

OK Let’s talk about it. 

Let me tell you what Cuties is really about, the meaning behind it and what you need, as an international public, to understand it properly.

/!\ Spoilers needed. 

So Mignonnes/Cuties is French-Senegalese movie produced by Bien ou Bien Production in collaboration with Netflix for international distribution. Maimouna Doucouré is an award winning director, she’s french-senegalese, 35 years old, grew up with a dad and two mothers surround by a big religious family. Nothing wrong, just a little girl having thoughts and dreams like any others. 

Mignonnes, her very first long metrage, is based on a study she conducted for the project. She interviewed hundreds of young people with her team (pedopsychologist included) to collect a lot of infos and ressources to built a movie dealing with young people anxiety, sexual discovering, bullying, social media and young black people representation in movies. 

I. Story telling from someone who watched it.

Amy is 11 year old, she came in France with her mom and little brother. While hidden, she discovered that her dad is in Senegal and will soon come back with a second wife as it is authorized by Islam and accepted in Senegal. Her mom and aunt don’t tell her anything but she saw her mom crying about the topic, not knowing what’s happening, she ressents her dad and her condition as a refugee, the typical “it was better where we were before”. 

Her family is muslim, she wore a hijab to her religious ceremonies and practice like she was told to, without the opportunity to do otherwise. In her building there’s a girl, Angelica, she has a rebellious side in opposition to her workaholics parents and she dances hip-hop style which Amy has never saw. She befriend her and her circle of friends and decided to dance with them at a local championship. In order to learn the dance and prove to them she was “cool”, she stole her cousin’s phone, got herself instagram and started relooking herself as a young woman instead of the pre-teen girl style she got before.  But, she gets her periods. She’s afraid, she’s anxious, but most of all she doesn’t understand because nobody told her. Her aunt take care of her telling her “you’re an adult now” and how she wish she’ll live a beautiful life like they are. This is a problem as Amy doesn’t know what it is to be “an adult” nor does she know what it is to grow up, and the only roles model she has at home are her sad mom and her ultraconservative aunt. So she starts acting out, comparing herself to more developped girls, tries to be like them and starts mimicing them for their dances. While fighting for the phone she stoled with her cousin, she locks herself in the bathroom and posts an intimate photo of her on instagram as a last proof she’s a woman. Obviously, she’s getting bullied in school for that, her mom come, slap her across the cheek, call her names and ground her.  Amy became depressed and in her anxiety, tries to reach out for her friends who turned their back on her so they won’t be associated with her.  Nonetheless, she succeed into entering a championship with her former-friends and are disqualifies due to highly innapropriate behaviour on scene.  She go back quickly to her house during a panic attack, her mother comfort her telling her she doesn’t have to attend her father’s wedding if she doesn’t want to. Reassured, she skip the wedding and go play with kids her age. -END-

II. Producing and interpretation. 

DISCLAIMER : Self-made interpretations as someone who’s into thoughtfull movies. It may changes from one person to another. 

As sais before, it was produced by Bien ou Bien Production which a french production corporation based in Bordeaux. They are producing movies dealing with diversity, social issues, minority representation and religious debunking. They also produced Doucouré’s award winning short film “Mom(s)” that was dealing with the topic of polygamy in Senegal, and was based on her own life. 

Being produced by them again for her long metrage was a financial security and a very good deal. She got a France TV (public channels organisation) financial deal and scored that spot into Netflix international catalog making her one of the only black french-senegalese woman director into the international catalog. 

Obviously, as it is not a movie for children/teenagers, there’s few meanings behind the already well written script : 

Growing up without ressources : Amy is a stereotypical 11yo girl who doesn’t know anything about relationships, sexuality and woman body. It is well know that parents tends to have “the big talk” with their children when they are around 15-17yo, but puberty starts around 13yo and with that : sexual desire discovery, gender identity crises and body changes. Innocents idioms like “you’re a big girl now” or “you’re not a child anymore” shortenned childhood, leaving young girls without ressources to develop themselves and, often, shame to ask for answers.

Female representations and social media : We can’t criticize this movie without putting a context around it. Our society has been developped around certains standards, weither they are socials, professional, personnal... Social media and main stream TV promote a way of life that is unattainable for 90% of us but they give us the opportunity to act “as if”. In this movie, Amy is just like one of us except that she is way too young to understand the behaviour she is immitated. You can see it when she doesn’t understand why her friends are lying about their ages, when she’s pushing a girl into the water (possibly drowning the girl), when she cries on stage in front of those parents judging her... What Doucouré is trying to show us is that little girls are little girls, they aren’t tough enough to be shown anything just because it’s socially accepted. 

Children education :  To me, this is the main purpose of the film, showing that it is important to educate children. Predatory behaviour, public image, false advertisment, relationships... There is no “right time” to talk about it, and most of the parents are too late, the fact is protecting your children is also making them understand why this behaviour is dangerous, why this outfit is innapropriate and never blame your children for mistakes they can make. Amy is the exemple of what could happen if you don’t educate your children, and she is brave enough to rise when her my mom take a step toward her to comfort her. 

Religious family and sexual education :  As an atheist, I won’t talk about metaphors behind the prayers or anything, someone who believe in their God the same way her family does will be more adequate to talk about it. But it is one of the main critic and thus, I have to share facts : The movie isn’t centered around it, the only reason it is here is because they needed a traditional figure such as the aunt, they needed a strict environment such as a religious family and they needed a twist that would put the little girl into a negative feeling, they needed her to ressent her situation as a refugee in order to criticize how it is to grow up without help. So why Islam ? Well, in France, we have two main religions : Roman Catholics and Islam. Using Islam as the main religion of the film helped them showing the good sides of this religion such as love, family devotion and loyalty.  Added 22/08/20 : Islam has a lot of branches like any other religion. In Senegal most muslim practice Soufism, find differences between the way you practice and theirs mights come from that. Especially regarding the hijab, it’s common for young people to wear their hijabs only during ceremonies.

III. Streaming plateform and international public : 

If you’ve read all this, you know now that it isn’t about girls twerking or pedo porn normalization, in fact, until Amy came into the group, the girls are doing basic hip-hop dance (well, at least they try...). So how a movie mostly acclaimed by those who saw it can be the center of such a scandal ? 

Well, first let’s talk about culture appropriation.  As a 25yo white european woman I’ve had my share of culture appropriation story, did I mean anything bad when I did it ? No. Was I ignorant ? Yes. As everybody with a little bit of dignity I reflected on myself and stopped whatever the f*ck I was doing that was innapropriate as a white woman. That said, we can’t denied that the world has absorded some part of the black africans culture when it got popularized.

Twerking is actually a mixed between dances from African diasporas (especially Mapouka and Soukous from Ivory Coast and Congo), it is known nowadays a sensual hiphop dance and there is nothing wrong with doing it when you’re a grown up in your right mind doing whatever you want to do. So why using this dance in the movie ? First, it’s part of the heritage of Amy, a 11yo girl who hasn’t lived in a occidental culture before. Second, it is a way of telling you, public, that what you do has consequences. Suggestive dances on TV, sexualized hiphop dances in the streets, rated r music video available on YT... Adult contents are available anywhere, anywhen by anywho. Children included. It is what the director, who study the subject of the impact of oversexualized content on young girls, is trying to tell you through the film. 

Now, Netflix and the art of communication. Netflix has first released a trailer, a poster and a pitch that aren’t the one used to promote the film in the first place (France included). After the start of the backlash they released another set that are stil not the one used to begin with. Why ? Because Netflix is an industry, they aren’t cinema professionnals, they aren’t critics, they are a company like any others. They didn’t watch the film, didn’t understand it and didn’t advertize it as it should : A movie for adults who want to know what they could do to help the younger generations. 

Because a movie isn’t just for entertainment, there is no film just made to amuse you, everyone is trying to tell something thanks to their art. Yes, those same young girls who acted in the movie won’t be able to watch it because they are too young, not because it is inapropriate but because the subject is too thick for them to understand it fully at such a young age. The way Netflix handle the promotion of this movie was also bad because international public can’t resonnate with it the way we do. And I include myself because I was the age of Amy not long ago, in the same country she came to. Cinemas from every country is proper to this country, we have the chance to be able to watch films from other places made by people whom don’t speak our language, have their own religion or not at all and try to reach us with their own issues and traditions. 

I’m not saying this movie will be the best of this year, and I’m not saying that everything inside of it is perfect, what I’m trying to say is that it’s easier to agree with the majority than to forge your own opinion but if you take the time to watch you’ll be able to understand others and empathize with them. 

I hope it will help some of you understand the purpose of the film, that some will be kind enough to watch it before throwing their critics and that most of you will still enjoy movies for watch the director is trying to say instead of what the politics want you to see. 

[enlightened-aura]

Review of Good Kisser (2019) by Makaila Atsonglo

       Good Kisser, one of the films premiered at the Reel Out Film Festival, is directed by Wendy Jo Carlton and follows the romance between two women, Kate and Jenna. These two women have been together for about two years. I would describe Kate as realistic, money-oriented, and a “straight to the point” type of person. To contrast, Jenna’s personality is seen as more bubbly, hopeful and likely to succumb to her emotions. This couple decides to try something new within their relationship to keep it interesting. The new addition comes in the form of Mia, a well-travelled yet sophisticated woman from Kate’s past, (unbeknownst to Jenna), who has agreed to a three-some with Kate and Jenna. Throughout the movie, Jenna is hesitant and anxious about being with another woman besides her partner and feels as though something is off, with the situation and with her relationship. Despite trying to ease her partner, Kate loses herself in the moment and in her attraction to Mia, leaving Jenna suspicious of her girlfriend’s devotion to Mia. In the movie, it is evident that Kate has her attention on Mia more than Jenna. However, Jenna and Mia connect emotionally through their interests and compatible personalities. The three women go along with their intended plans, which results in Mia being the main focus for both Jenna and Kate, leaving the other jealous and feeling neglected. By the end of the movie, it is revealed to Jenna that Kate has been having an affair with Mia for several months and proposed this idea of a threesome as a way to come clean about her transgressions. The movie ends with Jenna leaving Kate, but Mia confesses her attraction to Jenna and asks her to run away with her, leaving Kate single.

        Good Kisser showed a good representation of lesbian women and the LGBTQ+ community, but it lacked representation of racial minorities and those with disabilities. This movie had 5 characters in total, three main characters and two minor characters who had little dialogue. However, all of these characters are able-bodied. The only glimpse of mental illness was when Jenna took a pill to calm her nerves, but this was never elaborated upon. The minor characters were Clark, Mia’s next door neighbour who was helpful in calming Jenna down and providing insight on Mia. Another minor character was Yuka, an androgynous Uber driver who took the main characters to Mia’s house and made a second appearance at the end of the movie, befriending Jenna. Clark is the only male and stands in as a supportive figure to white lead, Mia, and racially ambiguous Jenna. He is one of three non-white characters in the movie, being racially ambiguous, yet has the fewest lines and appearances. Likewise, Yuka appears to be East Asian, and yet again, has a small amount of lines and is only a supportive character to Jenna. Both minority characters were treated just as that, minorities. They had no storylines of their own and simply disappeared and reappeared whenever the leads were in distress. Essentially, they were used for token diversity. The insignificance of their roles incited thoughts of forced diversity as it seemed that Wendy Carlton put Clark and Yuka there to get awarded for having a more diverse cast. It seemed as though the movie wanted to appease the masses in every way possible and did so by using token diversity, which is blindly accepted by popular culture. “Those who refer to popular culture as mass culture want to establish that popular culture is a hopelessly commercial culture. It is mass produced for mass consumption. Its audience is a mass of non-discriminating consumers. The culture itself is formulaic and  manipulative. It is a culture that is consumed with brain-numbed and brain-numbing passivity” (Storey). Merely placing minorities in the movie without careful thought is not going beyond the expectations of society and is a passive way of adding diversity. I feel as though ignoring the blatant misuse of racial minorities would not be progressive in ensuring that people of colour will be added in movies correctly and ensure that their only contribution is to wipe the tears of the white and racially ambiguous leads. I feel like queer and disabled people of colour are underrepresented in the LGBTQ+ community and in order for this movie to be truly intersectional, it should include these people. As a black woman, I did not feel represented in this movie as there was no one that resembled me in anyway. I believe there is definitely room for improvement with people of colour being supporting characters that are not flat, and are not solely their race, but also stand out and represent LGBTQ+ people of colour as well.

         Despite these flaws, Good Kisser has a unique and truthful way of portraying women and lesbian relationships. The fact that this movie was created for LGBTQ+ people and allies, by people who are queer, ensured that the relationships shown between Kate, Jenna and Mia were not exploitative of lesbianism or a form of queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is “a way of appealing to [queer viewers] without alienating their main audience, who may be uncomfortable with openly queer characters, or who may not care about them” (Mitchell). With the director being a woman, I could clearly see that this movie was created with the LGBTQ+  and female audience in mind. Queer people were the majority audience and Wendy Carlton did a fantastic job of appealing to the intended audience and properly representing women in queer relationships. While watching the movie, it was evident that, despite the mature sexual subject matter, the creators were dedicated to an authentic portrayal of emotions and connections between the characters that did not adhere to common fetishes and sexist stereotypes. This was evident in the way that throughout the movie as I was taken on a rollercoaster of emotions following Jenna’s anxiety, was able to get to know all the character’s dynamics and was not just thrusted into the sexual aspects of the plot. The LGBTQ+ audience was appealed to without exploiting them, yet still enticed the entire theatre without baiting us.

        Overall, Wendy Carlton did a good job in her portrayal of women and lesbian relationships by building the main character’s personalities authentically without oversexualization. However, I believe she played it safe by using diverse characters as tokens to appease popular culture. With the amount of underrepresentation queer people of colour and queer people with disabilties recieve, I belive it is important to acknowledge that Good Kisser merely scratched the surface of intersectionalism and more work needs to be done.

Word Count: 1100

                                              Works Cited

Storey, John. “Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction. .” Queen's Single Sign On - Loading Session Information, 2009, ereserves.library.queensu.ca/ares/ares.dll?Action=10&Type=10&Value=117942.

Milton, Josh, et al. “What You Need to Know about Queerbaiting.” PinkNews, 26 June 2019, www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/02/26/what-is-queerbaiting-everything-you-need-to-know/.

[valkerymillenia]

"Aquaman" (2018)

I didn't expect to get to watch this in theaters because of financial issues but I got invited to a theater with circumstances that allowed me to use my free ticket coupon so... Yay.

Bear in mind that is just my personal impression. Also- SPOILERS.

Honestly, I went in expecting nothing. Here's why.

Firstly, because I never liked classic comic book Aquaman: straight, white, upper-middle class, cliché blond male with time and resources to get a law degree, upgrades to superpowered King that is mildly useless outside of water and still manages to be one-dimensional (who's story is only interesting and validated by the characters around him and not himself), goes from mild-mannered Superman-copycat personality to the most boring played out viking/pirate-esque personality that tries to hard to be more than it is, all of this with a splash of arrogance, a truckload of tacky outfits and a touch of toxic masculinity to wrap it all up. Sorry but it's just not my jam.

Granted I haven't read the last, what, ten years of the Aquaman comics? Or watched any adaptations others than the Jason Momoa's since... 2010 or 2012, I think?

But yeah, I was never very much into classic Arthur Curry (but I can appreciate the Aquaman worldbuilding though! That part is pretty cool).

Secondly, I got my hopes up for Jason Momoa's Aquaman because even though the JL movie disappoints (as does the overall DCEU movieverse in general), Jason's new rendition of the character seemed promising and a lot more interesting, but given how only Wonder Woman impressed in the new DCEU and everything else has been somewhat disappointing as a whole, I didn't want to get my hopes up again.

However, considering that I tried not to have expectations (other than "please don't oversexualize Mera or shove her exclusively into the romantic interest role") I actually ended up being impressed by the movie!

My first and most simple impression is:

Aquaman feels like Indiana Jones and Fifth Element meet The Little Mermaid and 20,000 Leagues.

It's also a very Arthurian tale, heavily dependant on family drama.

Regarding Jason's acting, the way he chose to play the character is so much better than anything I could have asked for. He makes for a well rounded imperfectly perfect character, he's not Marty-Stu'ed like other renditions, he manages to effortlessly ooze "tough guy" vibes while still being a giant teddy bear dork. Thehe new look is pretty damn impressive even though the movie returns a bit to more recent comic redesigns rather than the new style of JL, and the way Jason acts makes Arthur feel human, exciting and with realistic emotional development.

Plus, a POC Aquaman, specially a Polynesian one since that's how the movie codes him, with strong connections both his heritages, just fits so much better than the Arian cliché, specially since the Atlanteans always displayed a lot of racism/specism in the comics (and even more outright in this movie).

Mera was shockingly not as sexualized or romanticized as I expected. Yes, she still is on both accounts to a certain degree, with her tight overly-cleavaged suit and her role as princess-promised-to-the-king (which in a fight for legacy story like this will always shove her a bit into the trophy role), BUT somehow Amber Heard manages to balance this out with the badassery of a woman who actively takes charge and though she places duty above all else, she doesn't let her role take away from her individuality or shadow her power, strength and intelligence.

So Mera actually turned out pretty incredible but I still want to see her more on equal footing with Arthur, plot-wise. Could also live without the usual mid-battle pause to talk and kiss though.

Tom and Atlanna were a pleasant surprise! Their romance sub-plot actually sets a good tone for the movie and ties everything together very well in a way that makes the story flow and connect convincingly and full-circle. It's also interesting to see how the relationship defies a lot of stereotypes and metaphors of discrimination- it is, after all, an interracial couple where the woman is the strong powerful one and the man is the gentle heart that does not at all feel his masculinity threatened by his queen wife. Very wholesome.

The chronology and editing were pretty damn good too. Again, I haven't seen editing and story flow this well in DC other than with WW.

The CGI was... Well, for DC standards it was pretty epic but still not up to par to the bar the MCU has set. However, entirely aquatic world/sets are something new and ambitious so we have to cut them some slack.

Then again, the biggest problem wasn't so much the CGI but the leaps in logic.

Sure, the movie is spent 85% under water (aka working around visual distortion, air bubbles, low visibly, pollution/blurriness, unknown landscapes, a very big variety of ecosystems between the different bodies of water depicted, etc) in a universe with fish people, crab people, underwater volcanoes, prehistoric sea monsters, wrecks and decay, millions of aquatic creatures, underwater cities of advanced tech and an alien-quality, completely new mind-blowing architecture... It's all very ambitious and you'd think some of these would be a bit much to swallow or look subpar but that's not it at all.

Yes, some of the more fantastical creatures are still less than perfect (not talking about Uncanny Abyss here but literal CGI stiffness) but that can be absolutely overlooked in favor of their creativity and how well in works with the story.

No, the real problem is some obvious flaws in well established physics, used for dramatic effect. I guess many people might not notice them but to me some were a I little more jarring than others and tended to distract from the actual story. I guess I'll post some of these moments in a separate post.

HOWEVER, the one thing I really have to point out in this movie is the wardrobe!

The females had skintight outfits or flowy pearly things, obviously meant to be sexy but the irony is they actually come off as more practical, simple, realistic and appealing! (The jellyfish dress is an exception for obvious reasons, it's supposed to be over the top). And the ladies accessorize very well too! Meanwhile, the male outfits are straight out of the comics- loudly colorful, nerdy, unnecessary, clunky, heavy and in some cases (looking at you, Orm) just plain tacky.

I mean, Arthur has an excuse- he wears pretty normal clothes unless forced to change and when he finally takes up the legacy suit there's actually a good excuse for the brightness and flourish since it's supposed to be an ancient King's ceremonial armor (taking a corpse's suit and putting it on right away is a little morbid though) and, like the female outfits, it's skintight like a wetsuit so it does have less drag and manages to be practical despite the flourish. And Black Manta has A BIT of an excuse too- he has to reshape and work with tech that is beyond his own and just tries to keep it sustainable so I can totally accept it. No other male outfits can be excused or unseen (*Edna Mode voice* capes? Underwater? Really?).

All in all, it's a good movie and I'm impressed. Now if only DC stopped trying to force dark grunginess and cheap-looking CGI (*cough*JL*cough*SS*cough*) on everything and actually took real risks and raised the bar instead of trying to be edgy, super serious and "sexy"...

Though... What does it tell DC that so far the best DCEU movies have been the ones staring and directed women and POC?

[whatislatinidad-blog]

Book #1 Close Reading

Post by: Literature Expert, Nadine 

I felt this following paragraph was very powerful and essential to point out to readers about the bodies of Latinas:

“The Latina body is not a stranger to popular culture representation. Unfortunately, however, our bodies have been stereotyped and represented in less than desirable ways. In this section, I will examine “tropicalization” the ways in which pan-ethnic difference is erased and subsumed under the umbrella “Latina,” as well as other common stereotypical representations of the Latina body. The representation of the Latina body has been influenced by racial discourse which is often framed by the binary of Black/White. Such a binary erases difference between races and creates a Latina body that is ethnically undifferentiated  As cultural theorists point out, this undifferentiated Latina body made it easy for a Puerto Rican woman (Jennifer Lopez) to be cast in the role of Mexican performer Selena. The general public did not care about ethnic specificity, only that a Brown body played the role. The ethnically undifferentiated Latina body is a product of “tropicalism,” defined by Frances R. Aparicio and Susana Chavez-Silverman as “the system of ideological fictions with which the dominant (Anglo European) cultures trope Latin American and US Latina/o identities and cultures.” Tropicalism erases ethnic specificity and instead helps construct homogeneous stereotypes such as bright colors, rhythmic music, and brown skin that are represented in visual texts. Although Ugly Betty, as an overall text, represents Chicana/o identity, these representations are often either stereotypical or used to get laughs from the audience.” (329-330)

In Acto 3, Jennifer Espito uses “Ugly Betty” a popular telenovela to point out how visual images we see have the power to construct the values we believe are true. Relating this to Latina bodies, there is a battle that exists for Latinas that often have to face a world where the norm is slender bodies (329). In Popular Culture, as referenced in the paragraph above, the Latina body is often oversexed and seen as sexually available due to tropicalism, which is evident in many music videos that Latin@ artists post. Often, Latinas are described to be “exotic” like an object that brings curiosity and fascination from the oversexualization that people witness in videos that force Latinas to conform to unrealistic norms. This paragraph brings up the notion of how Hollywood actually is misrepresenting marginalized bodies like those of Latinas and are created from sexist, racist notions (331). Betty, is a character who doesn’t fit the standards of society and is often degraded or made a joke of that, which is a sad reality for many Latinas. The viewers unconsciously learn that only certain (slim) bodies are acceptable and usually takes discipline like food consumption that can result in bad eating habits for Latinas.  I chose to do a close reading on this subsection because I watched the Spanish version “Betty La Fea” that presented a different perspective to the story. One of the lessons was that lower class women can be beautiful when they learn the mannerisms of the upper class and this is an example of how class, not appearance is emphasized in a storyline that is being broadcasted in two different regions. I would say that the Spanish version is more realistic and examines real issues like racism, sexism etc while the American version is more humor based (341). Overall, I think the two versions show insight into the differences between cultures, but also how what you watch can shape your thoughts about yourself and give an understanding of the struggles of Latinas around the world. 

Citation:

Performing the US Latina and Latino Borderlands, edited by Arturo J. Aldama, et al., Indiana University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rutgers-ebooks/detail.action docID=1025599.

[untiediknot]

Do gender representations and stereotypes in mainstream media benefit women and men, or are there changes that need to be made in the way gender is represented?

When you think of what your first idea of manhood or womanhood came from, what comes to mind? Perhaps your parents, and the ways in which they led by example- a shining reflection of what an ideal gendered human behaves like.

Of course, most of us do not have an inherent gendered lens, and we do not think that we are being molded in a gendered way- but think about the books you read growing up, or the toys you played with, the color of your clothes, and the kinds of movies and cartoons you watched. Byers and Dell assert that while sex differences are rooted in biology, how we come to understand and perform gender is based on culture. Gender speaks to those socially constructed rules, norms and expectations about the roles men and women play and how they are supposed to behave. The ideology of gender as performative speaks to the ways in which the roles are ‘acted out’ or ‘performed’ in daily existence.

It is undoubtable that mass media plays a large role in the gendered socialization we experience from very early. Brooks and Herbert believe that the media is crucial in the construction and dissemination of gender ideologies and, thus in gender socialization. The stereotypical depiction of the black woman as angry, welfare mothers, jezebels, etc... is postulated by Edwards (1993), to be the most persistent representation still used to date, coupled with a seemingly opposite representation that is centered around the oversexualization of the black body and a fetishization of a non-threatening ‘mammy’ like figure. But how does this affect how blackness is internalized by the black woman and the larger society?

The idea that is often internalized by many black women about how they are expected to behave can prove to be unrealistic and invalidating to their individual identities- the pressure to always be a ‘strong black woman’ and to be loud and outspoken but also sexually alluring, possess sexual prowess but also be submissive to a man is an archaic ideal that is rooted in a patriarchal dominant society but also borrows principles from white supremist ideals that sees both black men and women in a confining way; Black men are expected to be tough, sexually aggressive,  or are victims of street crime and violence. Take for example, ‘She’s Gotta have it” by a black man- where the main character is self-described as a pansexual, polyamorous, sex positive black woman. Though the media is commendable for their portrayal of a multidimensional artist as a black woman, the character was depicted in a very messy oversexualized way. For a series that is being produced in 2017, to be glorifying oversexualization while trying to use artistic license as a guise is downright shameful. The same can be said for the stereotypical representations of black men in the well-known hit series ‘power’. The main character Jamie is the classic drug dealer gone corporate, cut throat, cheating but family type man. Making these depictions of gender mass produced and reaffirming them as the ideal standards of expressing is dangerous to the ways in which a plethora of people come to understand themselves in a gendered way through socialization.

The media can be commended for increased efforts into diversifying the way gender is represented and there is more visibility including gender non-conforming people and other people who exist outside of the binary. My suggestion as to how gender representations in mass media can be changed is to do proper research on the variations of people that you are trying to depict. It is just as dangerous to present a stereotype of a ‘diverse group’ than it is to continue to produce the stereotypes we already have. The social construction of gender is not as rigid as it is made out to be, and anything that has been constructed can similarly be deconstructed. The media has a great responsibility in fulfilling its role in the process of gender socialization and should try to ensure that the content that is being mass produced is doing more good than harm for the overall understanding of what it means to be a woman or a man (or neither or both!)

-Shania Daley (620090742)

“Gender, Race and Media Representation, Dwight E Brooks & Lisa P Hebert https://ourvle.mona.uwi.edu/pluginfile.php/373503/mod_resource/content/4/Gender%2C%20Race%20%20Media.pdf”

[nayanasteha]

Blog Post 4

I went to the premiere of, “Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror”, and watching that documentary was so inspiring as it was affirming. The documentary was entertaining and educational. I think the documentary was really great in examining Black characters in horror films, whether they were monsters or the sidekick friend, or one liner character. Also hearing the tropes that Black people play in horror films such as the magical negro or the sacrificial negro was disgusting because I sat there thinking, “How did this go on for so long?” or “Who let this happen?”

The film was really great in tying back the themes of how Black people were seen on screen sort of became the only way people saw them. Or how Black people were mischaracterized in films affirmed the scary trope for many white people which really concluded in real life reationaliton and violence as the rise of Jim Crow laws and the presence of the Klan made life difficult for Black Americans.

I think the film including a Black woman at the forefront really included conversations Black men could maybe hint at but cannot fully articulate. In one instance, many of the Black female scholars talked about Black women in film, and how often they are oversexualized or extremely desexualized. I think men in general would not be able to identify with not having ownership of the narrative surrounding your own body.

In some parts the film was inspiring as there were instances discussed of Black people going out to making their own films or reclaiming their own stories and characters in the horror sphere. I think that’s why the success of Jordan Peele is amazing and inspiring to witness because we hear about so many people who have tried and maybe were deterred or unable to see their dreams come to fruition as they tried to go in that creative lane.

I really liked how though the documentary praised the originality of the films like, “Blacula” and “Candyman” the films were still criticized as they ultimately fed into the white narrative of Black people in horror, stereotyping Black people and Black culture.

The film really left me thinking why Black people were not able to exist in a horror genre as the consumed and contribute to the genre but also lived and combated against the daily horror of racism.