#poc opera singers

[yourdailyqueer]

Jonathon Adams

Gender: Two Spirit (they/them)

Sexuality: Queer

DOB: 2 October 1990

Ethnicity: First Nation (Cree, Métis)

Nationality: Canadian

Occupation: Classical/opera singer

[jaycewithawhy]

Also, while it took the pandemic to really push this, a ton of companies now have regular streaming options for their shows. The Met Opera even has their own streaming service for their past shows which is significantly cheaper than even the cheapest of live opera tickets and has SO MANY SHOWS.

The classical-focused performing arts venue where I work livestreams almost every show we do, for pay-what-you-want pricing.

If you're complaining about the arts being elitist and inaccessible in this day and age, it comes off a lot more like entitlement than any valid critique of the culture.

I think progressive groups have a bad habit of looking at inaccessible areas of academia and art and saying “this thing is for rich people, it sucks, get rid of it” (does not give poor people more opportunities) instead of “this thing should be 1000x cheaper” (does give poor people more opportunities). to goal should always be to improve the lives of the oppressed.

[monotonous-minutia]

Celebrating black/POC opera singers

Here’s Grace Bumbry being my favorite Eboli: 

Lawrence Brownlee sings “Je crois entendre encore” from Pearl Fishers

Jessye Norman’s “When I Am Laid In Earth” from Dido & Aeneas

Ryan Speedo Green sings “Solche hergelaufner Laffen” from Die Entführung aus dem Serail

Kathleen Battle as Zerbinetta (with a bonus: Jessye Norman as Ariadne)

apparently I can only upload five videos on one post so more to come later! Feel free to reblog with your favorites!

[echoesofsouth]

Black opera singers are still invisbilized. If I ask you do you any opera black singers, the majority of will answer no. Khadija Mobwe, is a multidisciplinary artist on their journey on class studies as opera's diversity problem.

[llcooljadzia]

WAIT YOU WEREN'T ASSUMING VIBES+

DO PEOPLE ACTUALLY SORT BY AUTHOR AND PUT THE AUTHORS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER??

I group by author unless there is a significant division then the author group may be split in two if there are enough in the secondary category, unless there's too few to warrant a grouping of their own then they are placed together in the chaos section of lone wolf books

each single authors grouping is arranged by genre/vibe, for example Heinlein novels range from hard sci fi "juveniles" (targeting young adults buy distinctly not the modern ya genre as I understand it, usually marked mainly by lack of sex and it being a standalone, not necessarily kid protagonist) to sci Fi adventures in polyamorous farce satirical incest breeding kink interconnected multiverse novels, to horror and nonfiction essays. this would all represent a single grouping as his weird singular voice as an author is so clear in all of them, but they would be arranged in a gradient

Asimov on the other hand does hard sci fi &space operas, non fiction science and sociological essays, but also old school Agatha Christie style murder mysteries. three groupings that may or may not be sorted directly adjacent to each other.

the author groupings would then be arranged entirely by vibes. Heinlein and asimov would be near each other but , say, Harlan Ellison would be farther away from them near ray Bradbury who would bethr most distant from Asimov on the sci fi area. but all of their writing would fit in one category regardless of SF , fantasy, essays, or just regular ass earth novels about a rock and roll singer in the 50s all Harlans voice belongs in one group.

George RR martins fantasy would all be sorted with the SF and probably not directly adjacent to Tolkien

spider Robinson: all the Callahan's crosstime saloon books would go together distinct from the rest of his SF work, with the non fiction/short story compilations in between

yeah they're all white men I know but I started working my way through the big names a long long time ago and it didn't occur to me immediately to be critical of those lists of big names and look for equally foundation women and poc authors I just lamented that it would take me a while to make my way through all the white guys and assumed they were excluded from publishing altogether! an error! I regret my ignorance I'm not worried about being cancelled lol . I started in my teens but it's a lot of read (in publishing order if at all possible naturally)

plenty of other perspectives in my history and theory books lol just barely got out tf the white boys on my "read every notable work before you write you own" phase

[mogwai-movie-house]

Why is studios hiring minorities a bad thing? How is studios hiring minorities a bad thing? Is it a bad thing because you personally feel like its shoehorned and insincere and that these modern movies/shows focus way too much on saying "WE HAVE LGBTQIA+ AND POCS ISNT THAT GREAT?" or is it a bad thing because it doesnt align with your particular politics and worldview? If the existence of marginalized ppl in modern media is what you consider "virtue signaling" then idk what youre talking about

I have no issue with studios hiring people of all different races, just so long as they are the best people for the job. As an example of that, my last post talked about how much I am enjoying Better Call Saul: in that show, Michael Mando as Nacho Varga and Giancarlo Esposito as Gustavo Fring are both fantastic actors, stealing the show whenever they're onscreen, but at no point does it ever seem they are being shoehorned into ill-fitting roles that make no sense:  it’s obvious that they are perfectly cast and the very best people on the planet for those specific parts.  They’re not being cast as 300lb Norwegian opera singers from the 1700s.

Whereas, a couple of years back, Channel 5 notoriously cast a black woman as Anne Boleyn in a show they made. Now, Anne Boleyn is not a fictional creation but an actual historical personage, the actual Queen of England and the mother of another, Elizabeth the First. Neither of these very pale real-life personages were African, so to insert a black actress into this role is just insulting to both the facts of history and the audience’s intelligence. Needlessly confusing, too. There is simply no justifiable reason to do such a thing, but the TV companies have allowed activists to push for hiring quotas that insist on such nonsense and can only distract from the quality of the work. 

Netflix followed that up a year later with yet another race-swapped historical figure, Queen Charlotte, wife of George III:

Once again, this was a real person, with great, great, great, great grandchildren still alive today. Within this fictional retelling are they black too? It’s as much an insult to their memory and the indisputable facts of the situation as it would be to cast Adam Sandler and Steve Buscemi as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X in a biopic about the civil rights movement. 

But of course that would never happen: the traffic only ever runs one way, with only one political agenda.

Another example: Amazon’s forthcoming “Rings of Power” show, where they have inserted black elves(!) into Tolkein's world that cannot possibly make any sense and makes a mockery of the painstakingly constructed mythology and world histories he spent a lifetime creating. 

Or the numerous recent BBC adaptations of historical dramas that race-swap lead characters in, for instance, Charles Dickens' stories that make no sense being there and would have stood out like a sore thumb at the time.

All these things are there only to push to a specific political narrative, and they all make the works actively, objectively, worse, because they explicitly - even enthusiastically - put the work second to the politics. If you’re an artist, art should come first. If you’re a comedian, being funny should come first before preaching. In the movies and TV today, art doesn’t even come tenth, and that’s what I’m against.

[ninja-muse]

September 2021 Wrap-Up

Books read, in rough order of personal worth-it-ness:

Nettle & Bone - T. Kingfisher (A shy princess gathers the tools and people she’ll need to kill a prince.) Out in April 2022.

The Witness for the Dead - Katherine Addison (A detective-priest searches for the killer of an opera singer.)
 - 🏳️‍🌈

The Unidentified - Colin Dickey (A history of pseudoscientific thinking and conspiracies.)

Fuzz - Mary Roach (An examination of human-nature conflict, including garbage bears, Vatican gulls, and danger trees. Full of interesting problems, bioethics, and humour.) 
- BIPOC interview subjects

A Radical Act of Free Magic - H.G. Parry (The Reign of Terror might be over, but the revolutionary spirit is still strong. At what cost, freedom? Especially now that Napoleon is in play.) 
 - BIPOC POV characters

How Not to Kill Your Houseplant - Veronica Peerless (Plant care tips.)

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina - Zoraida Córdova (A family comes to terms with their difficult matriarch and her magical past.)
 - BIPOC, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character, #ownvoices

Matrix - Lauren Groff (A noblewoman turned reluctant nun works to build her power.) 
- 🏳️‍🌈, neurodivergent secondary characters

The Aeneid - Virgil, Robert Fagles (Translator) (Aeneas and his people flee Troy, but building a new life won’t be easy.)

This Poison Heart - Kalynn Bayron (A teenager inherits a mysterious house which allows her magic to flourish—but there are secrets and others want them.)
 - BIPOC, 🏳️‍🌈, #ownvoices

The Finder - Will Ferguson (An Interpol agent, a shadowy thief, and the people their lives affect.)
 - BIPOC secondary characters, 🇨🇦

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead - Emily Austin (A woman accidentally gets a job as a church receptionist. She’s very gay and very anxious. THIS IS FINE.)
 - 🏳️‍🌈, mentally ill MC, 🇨🇦

Folklords - Matt Kindt with Matt Smith (Illustrator) (A teen, certain that something is wrong in fantasyland, seeks the powerful folklords.)

DNF

The Ship of Stolen Words - Fran Wilde (Sam has lost his favourite word. Tolver is the boglin who helped take it. Then the kidnapping Prospectors get involved.)

The Bookseller’s Secret - Michelle Gable (Nancy Mitford, a frustrated novelist, a lost manuscripts, a bookshop, London.) - 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character

Currently Reading

Spirits Abroad - Zen Cho (Malaysian fantasy short stories.) BIPOC, sometimes 🏳️‍🌈, #ownvoices

The Verifiers - Jane Pek (A woman who does background checks on online daters seeks a missing client.) Out in February 2022 - BIPOC, 🏳️‍🌈, #ownvoices

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle (Victorian detective stories)
 - major disabled character


Stats


Monthly total: 
13 Yearly total: 124 + 3
 Queer books: 4 #ownvoices POC books: 2 Canadian authors: 2

Read any of these? Interested in them? I’m happy to talk about my thoughts further!

January February March April May June July August

[rachelbethhines]

Vintage Shows to Watch While You Wait for the Next Episode of WandaVision - The 50s

So the first three episodes of Wandavision have dropped onto Disney Plus and like me you’re probably already obsessing over it. Also like me you’re probably jonesing for another fix while waiting for more as the episodes only come out once a week. 

But never fear, we literally have decades of cheesy comedy sitcoms to sift through to keep us entertained during quarantine. Along with the occasional action and/or horror stuff  if you’re so inclined. So if you’re trying to decide where to start I’ll be making short lists for each decade that coincides with each episode. 

1. I Love Lucy (1951- 1957)

The granddaddy of all American television sitcoms staring the first lady of comedy herself, Lucille Ball. While not the first sitcom to air, tv had been kicking around since the late 40s, this show did pave the way for many technical innovations for the new medium both on and behind the scenes. As such Elisabeth Olsen cited Miss Ball’s work as one of her inspirations for her role as Wanda in the series, as do many a woman entering into the comedic field. 

Also the show is just flat out funny. One of those rare 50s sitcoms that manages to overcome some of it’s more dated aspects through shear force of personality and peak comedic screwball antics. The only downside is you have to have Hulu to watch it as the copywrite is tightly controlled even to this day.  

2. Amos ‘n Andy (1951-1953)

The 1950s television landscape was overwhelemingly white. It’s no secret that POC had a hard time finding work in the field of entertainment let alone be the stars of the show. Amos ‘n Andy, a spin off of the earlier same titled radio show, was one of, if not the first black led shows on television and so deserves a mention just for that alone. 

Now I will not act as if this show is perfect or ahead of it’s time. The series was controversial even during its day for is depictions of racial stereotypes. Eventually the series was canceled because of protests from the NAACP despite being very popular in the ratings. However I’m a full believer that history should be observed and talked about in order to progress further so check out an episode or two on youtube and decide for yourself if it’s worth remembering or not. 

3. The Adventures of Superman (1952 - 1958)

Ok, not a sitcom, but as we all know, Wandavision isn’t just a sitcom it’s also a superhero show and this is one of the first tv series in this genre. It and the Fleischer Superman cartoons from the previous decade helped to make the juggernaut industry that we know today. 

Plus Superman did an official crossover with I Love Lucy, seriously. 

4. The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952 - 1966)

Hardly anyone talks about it today, but Ozzie and Harriet is the longest running sitcom to date. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia being the only other show threating to up seat it come next year. However the two sitcoms couldn’t be any more different. 

The series stared the real life Nelson family who had got their start in radio as comedians and singers who then crossed over into tv. While the show was completely scripted it tried to hew as close to real life as possible, kicking off American’s obsession with platonic voyeurism. Much in the way Wandavision has the meta storyline of being watch in their own home. 

5. Father Knows Best (1954 - 1960)

Another radio to television entry here, however the series drastically changed the main character during the transition. During the 40s radio sitcoms were very biting and sarcastic, often either going the complete surreal screwball route or were satires of the day. This fell out of favor as tv became more dominated by commercials and advertisers feared offending their potential costumers. So things were greatly toned down as the decade progressed. 

Therefore when Father Knows Best hit the small screen gone was the rude and domineering dad and in his place we got the very model tv father; affable, gentle, loving, devoted, and very congenial. All traits we love to see in Vision some six decades later.      

6. The Honeymooners (1955 - 1956)

I physically can not make a recommendation list of 50s sitcoms and not mention The Hoonymooners. I just can’t. It’s one of the greatest sitcoms ever made and hugely influential. So much so that The Flintstones ripped off the series whole sale to the point that Jackie Gleason threatened to sue Hanna-Barbera. However there’s little such influence in Wandvision. 

See what made The Honeymooners stand out at the time and what gave it such longevity is the fact that the main characters were poor. They lived in a cramped and over crowded sparsely furnitured one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. They owed bills, they dressed plainly, they worked long hours at low paying jobs, and they were often dirty from said work. 

Much like how Wandavision will pull back the curtain a little to see the reality hiding underneath their suburban utopia, so too did The Honeymooners defy the the ‘perfect American dream’ that was soled on tv during the 50s to show us the trauma of poverty and the only thing that you can do when you find yourself trapped within that reality, laugh. 

7. Leave it to Beaver (1957 - 1963)

You can not get any more quintessentially 50s than Leave it to Beaver. The series has become synonymous with the decade and it’s take on the ideal American family life to the point where it’s become a punchline of numerus jokes criticizing the values and attitudes of the era. 

Does it really deserve such mockery? Who knows. I think one needs to watch it for themselves to decide. However it slots right into the aesthetic that the first episode of Wandavision is trying to recreate and it must have been popular for a reason, right? 

8. The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959 - 1963)

We featured wholesome family sitcoms and screwball comedies with married folks but we haven’t covered any surrealist humor yet, and Wandavision is seeped into that sort of stuff. That’s because there really isn’t a lot of fantasy in most 50s sitcoms. So while the trappings for episode one of Wandavision is very 50s the effects and premise is more 1960s. 

That’s where Dobie Gillis comes into play. Like Wandavision, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis is based off a comic book, or comic strip rather. However that comic was very down to earth and tame compared to the tv show. More fondly remembered as the inspiration for Scooby Doo a decade later, Dobie Gillis quickly transformed from a typical coming of age show about teenagers to a surreal, sarcastic, tongue in cheek comedy, complete with get rich quick schemes, spys, bongos, and a giant chicken. 

9. Bonanza (1959 - 1973) 

Yeah, I know all of y’all are judging me right now. “A western in a sitcom/sic-fi list? What are you thinking?” Well one really can’t talk about 50s television and not mention westerns of some sort. They permeated all mediums and dominated the cultural air waves. And Bonanza is far more than just a western.

Bonanza is literally every thing. It’s every genre at once; western, historical drama, sitcom, action adventure, satire, crime drama, soap opera ,and yes even the occasional foray into science fiction, albeit with a more Jules Vern take than a typical spaceman theming. 

If Wandavision is a melding pot of seemingly disconnected genres then it’s because Bonanza paved the way with it’s similar breakage of formula. 

10 The Twilight Zone (1959 to 1964)

Yeah, you probably knew this was coming. When not being a homage to sitcoms Wandavision is a downright horror movie, but not one with gore and mindless monsters. Rather the show evokes old school surrealist horror, like that employed in the famous (or infamous) Twilight Zone. 

What you probably didn’t know is that we have the I Love Lucy show to thank for it. See Lucille Ball and her then husband Desi Arnaz had created their own production company in order to make I Love Lucy. This production company,  Desilu Productions, is responsible for picking up Rod Sterling’s pilot and producing The Twilight Zone. 

Runner Ups

Good shows that have little to do with Wandavision but are good anyways.

What’s My Line (1950 - 1967)

Just a really fun game show. Stars of the day would sometimes appear on it including many of the sitcom comedians listed above

Have Gun - Will Travel (1957 - 1963) 

One of the very few pure westerns that I can tolerate. The lead actually cares about people and justice and will stand up to bigots.  

Dennis the Menace (1959 - 1963)

While I have fond memories of the 90s film, I thought it was a tad redundant to put on the list when there’s already Leave it to Beaver. 

So there’s the 50s list. On Wednesday I’ll post a list for the 60s and cover some of the more obvious stuff Wandavision was paying homage to. 

[thejudgingtrash]

so okay Nico and Bianca was originally described as olive skin, and then Rio whitewashed his own character and continued to describe him as white and pale? Was this RR forgetting he originally describe Nico as olive skin? Or is olive skin not considered POC? I genuinely don’t know. I honestly can’t tell tbh.

Alright. Let’s tackle this. I have to say that I’m European so my viewpoint on this may inherently differ from the standard US centric tumblr vision. The fact that Italians/Italian-Americans (and even Irish people? Y’all’s history is fucking weird. And no, Europe isn’t better) are classified as their own race in the US sounds simply insane coming from a European background. All Europeans consider themselves pretty much white.

From what I’ve gathered, olive skin is more an undertone that anyone can possess, but not a skintone of its own. Undertones vary from orange, pinkish to more neutral, to golden, blue, greenish. Olive is on the greener spectrum I guess? ”Olive skin“ doesn’t automatically turn you into a person of color, there are more factors that weigh in.

Also important: many authors use the words ”olive skin“ as fancy writing terms for describing a person that is white with a little hint of a tan. Not brown or black. And yes, if you are on the whiter side with olive undertones of course you can pale out. Probably not the extreme of sicklish Nico, but still. In that regard I don’t think Riordan whitewashed Nico/Bianca, he simply phrased it stupidly and then decided: oh wait, Nico’s team Hades, chills in the underworld and malnourishes himself with McDonald‘s —> He’s pale af.

Also let’s not forget that Nico and Bianca are Italians, not Italian-Americans. They would’ve considered themselves to be white especially when they grew up (upper middle class??? Wasn’t their mom an opera singer or something?) in 40s facist Italy.

So: Nico is a white European Italian and not a person of color.

[yourdailyqueer]

Holden Madagame

Gender: Transgender non binary (he/they)

Sexuality: Queer

DOB: Born 1990  

Ethnicity: Native American (Odawa)

Occupation: Opera singer, activist

[emeraldskulblaka]

Does Stage Entertainment Germany ever get backlash because they cast white actors in poc roles? (Like Sarah Bowden as Esmeralda or Nienke Latten as Jasmine etc.) I always makes me a bit uncomfortable when I see them in the roles

Oh same!! This is why I'm so glad I got to see Kristina Love as Esmeralda instead.

As for backlash - I don't really know, to be honest. Sarah Bowden must have been cast some time in 2016, and I wasn't particularly involved with German musicals back then. However, when Mercedesz Csampai was cast as her replacement, people were quite happy about it. I'm not sure if Mercedesz is necessarily a person of colour, but she has a rather diverse background (grew up in Sweden with Hungarian and Russian heritage, according to Wikipedia). Obviously, she doesn't have to disclose her ethnicity online. She's been cast in the West End production of The Prince of Egypt as well, so idk.

Generally, I'm under the impression that Stage Entertainment gets away with a lot of things in Germany simply because they're the biggest company and most German theatre fans don't really care. They support all performers and shows without thinking critically. Stage Entertainment are notorious for their egregious ticket prices (and questionable production changes) and justify casting white performers in roles meant for people of colour by saying that they're casting people with diverse nationalities. I hope that over the past few months, awareness has been spread among fans and producers alike. From what I've seen, they specifically encouraged performers of all ethnicities to audition for Hamilton and Frozen, which is new, I hadn't seen that before.

All in all, Stage Entertainment have to get their shit together and start casting people of colour to play characters of colour. They've been doing alright with The Lion King, so why do they still cast white performers to play Jasmine and Esmeralda (among others)? I can make exceptions for smaller theatre companies (e.g. Staatstheater Nuremberg: Andromahi Raptis (American/Greek) played Maria in West Side Story simply because they wanted their own opera singers to play the leads), but Stage Entertainment is an international company with high-budget productions. They CAN employ performers of colour if they want to!

And yeah, the German theatre fandom in Germany? I don't know. If there is one similar to the Broadway fandom, I haven't heard of it. It certainly makes ME uncomfortable to see a white woman play Esmeralda, but the average German audience member won't care one bit as long as her German is understandable (which more often than not isn't the case lol).

[hedgefairy]

Okay, I know, I know, it's already old news, everybody and their uncle in the costuming community has already talked it over, but anyhoo, I made notes when I crawled my way through effing Bridgerton and I will be damned if I don't vomit them onto this site. I have 32 pages of this shit, I'm not gonna throw that away.

I'm also typing this on my phone because I'm stuck on a trainride that's just doubled in length because this is the 2021 Northern German snow storm. What, there's snowflakes on the rails? We cannot possibly keep up our schedule, say goodbye to 90% of the connections.

Okay, on to Bridgerton, Episode 1

We're in Britain (oh, London, okay), allegedly 1813. I see people who are clearly meant to be asympatico, but is this size incusivity I spot there? Daring! Gasp! Me li...

Oh wait, no. The character is promptly shamed for her figure (which is mostly caused by the horrible cut of her dress. Every size can look great in Regency garb, but never mind, we need to make the "fat one" look bad!).

Also, no shifts under the stays. Why. There was obviously enough budget, don't tell me you couldn't afford a few strappy tops - it's not like the rest is historically accurate, so it would have sufficed to send some poor underpaid intern to H&M and get some. Nvm, that wouldn't be sexay.

Wait, is the garishly dressed (always a sign of a character of bad character in a costume drama) woman Delphine from Selfridge? Does she always have to play bitches? That's not nice, and just because she has a recognisable face, which by modern (read: americanised) standards is not favourable enough. Ugh. But I like the actress, so I'll let it slide (for now).

Lol, buttocks.

Not sure about the girls' dresses. Also, the Queen is a WOC, cool!

Oh no, one of the Featherington sisters faints! But that's okay because the Featheringtons are just comic relief and foil anyway.

I get weird incest vibes from the Bridgertons.

So the court is clearly 18th century and the show is set in the 1810s. I've by now seen several explanations for this decision, I still think it robs the Queen of reproductions of her actual historical gowns which were heavily inspired by the 18th century but so. Magnificently. Weird. It would have been so neat, and more of a "hey, I'm kinda out of touch with things" vibe, but hey, I'm not the one getting paid for making those taffeta gowns here (her hair is glorious, tho).

I'm very into the intro.

That Regency gossip girl is a real b, not unlike the Dowager Countess of Downton (unpopular opinion, I think she's pretty overrated, yes, I like Maggie Smith).

Again, no shifts.

Where do I know the "pragmatic" Bridgerton sister from? Ah, it's The Paradise. And Jonathan Strange. (Wait, she's my age. And she's supposed to be a teenager. Man, do I love a good Dawson casting. I like the actress, though, she has a face ™!).

Aaaah. We get it. She's the spirited one. She also doesn't care about dresses because she's not like other girls™. I really like her voice (but she still doesn't sound like a teenager).

The heck is up with Lady F's dress and that of her friend? Oh, yeah. Antagonist fashion.

Of course the Featheringtons are Horrid Hags™ aside from Penny who's nice, but the pudgy one (at least we don't get a case of "she's not conventionally attractive so she's bad").

Oooh, the cousin! Supposed to suck, but ofc she's a stunner, and only Penny (who's the nice one, remember!) is delighted to have her around. She's also a POC, which is nice but apparently that means she does not follow fashion, hair-wise. I would have loved to see some Regency hair on her, it would have been so pretty *cries in Greek updo*

Ugh, we're still in Ep. 1, typing this on my phone was a bad idea.

Lady Danbury and the Duke guy are delightful with each other (more POC! So neat!).

The girl the oldest Bridgerbro screws is apparently a singer, which isn't up to status for his doucheship, and she doesn't wear a shift.

The music at the ball sounds like something from the Top 40s, but I'm woefully ignorant of contemporary music charts so I can't tell what it is. I like it when they do that in historical-ish works, making well-known pop or rock stuff work for the ambience (ugh, that dance scene to Golden Years in Knight's Tale. My heart. In a good way.)

I dig the Ducktail hair of Penny's crush. Oh, wait, that's a Bridgerbro. I don't quite get why the hair trends of the time don't apply to the POC characters or extras, but seeing how most white characters also show a shameful disregard for the weirdnes and gloriosity (that's not a word) that is early 1800s hair (the 1830s take the cake, tho) despite those hairdos being basically designed for white people hair, I don't think I care much (well, I do, but about all of them). Overall the hair is horrid and not very 1810s. Let's just leave it at that.

Like a good old romance novel (I've since been told that Bridgerton is supposed to be a pastiche of such novels, but I really couldn't tell from the series, not at all, and I'm not inclined to read the books) we have

a pretty, kind, superpure daughter of the main family

the mean matriarch (could have been an aunt, too, but here she's the mum) of the rivalling or antagonist family

a spirited daughter of the main family (in most romance novels this would be our heroine but so far she refreshingly lacks a love interest and pretty daughter seems to get the most screen time)

a Horrid Suitor™

a Hot Suitor™ who doesn't want attention

a really good and doting good parent

Lol, misheard Greece for Grease with Ducktail Bridgerbro, whose name is Colin, apparently. This is funny because of his Danny Zuko memorial hair.

Overall a bit too much bling for my taste, and too few pearls. It looks like an episode of My Super Sweet Sixteen with a Regency theme.

Of course the romance is going to be the Pretty One aka. Daphne and the Duke and he's even bros with her eldest bro. Wait, are they exes? I can haz bi? No? Aww, shucks. Maybe in another episode (spoiler: no).

Okay, WHAT is it with Lady F's dresses and hair. Like, she reminds me of Mars Attacks. Which, as you might remember, was not set in the Regency period.

Lord B (Bridgerbro the Eldest) sucks, he's screwing Opera Girl without any intention of marrying her but he's bitchy about his sister being ogled by his Eton (or wherever) bestie?

Oh, I'm in Hamburg now. And my train back home got canceled, so back to Berlin it is because there's not a single option to get to Hanover tonight, at least that's what the lady from the train station is saying, "oh well, you'll have to go back and try again tomorrow", so that's awesome...

Honestly, if it weren't so late and I didn't have things to do at home I'd find this terribly exciting.

Back to Bridgerton!

Where were we? Ah.

I can't even read my own annotation. Something about George III. I think I was upset about how they totally ignored that it's called Regency because George IV acted as the regent king, and he doesn't even feature in the series, I guess because they wanted to play up the Queen? Not a fan, because thanks to Horrible Histories I'm quite fond of that guy.

Again, no shifts.

Oh, look, it's Horrid Suitor™, destined for leftovers.

The Featherington cousin gets all the attention but no fleshed-out character.

Penny Featherington's dog is named Lord Byron, which ❤️

I like the Duke! He's there, drinking in his club (even though they're a patriarchal remnant of the past I have a weird appreciation for stuffy Gentlemen's Clubs, I blame Bertie Wooster and the Drones), calling Lord B out for his general fuckery.

Oh no, Ducktail Colin is more into the Cousin than Penny, who obviously pines for him!

Thank you, Lord B, for enabling Horrid Suitor™. Nobody asked you to be such a fucktwit.

The Queen is, of course, a bit of a bitch, but patronage from cool Lady *scrolls up for name* Danbury ensues for Protagonist Girl™ Daphne.

"I wish they had found a better trend language", what the heck did I even mean by that? That's what you get for just scribbling down notes while watching and simultaneously sewing. 18th century pants, in case you wanted to know.

Cousin is angry, probably because Lady F behaves like Cinderella's evil stepmother, because Cousin is prettier than her daughters and gets, like, all the suitors because Lord B bitched away everyone who wanted to get into Daphne's dowry ifyouknowwhatImeanwinkwinknudgenudge, right across the street into Cousins parlour.

The Bridgertons are annoyingly perfect. Ugh.

Oh look, it's "banter" between Daphne and Dukey! It's so Pride & Prejudice! It's almost a tiny bit Shakespeare! I put banter in parentheses because wow, nope, I'm not getting any chemistry here.

Uh, Lady B calls out Lord B (aka. her son aka. Bridgerbro the Eldest) for his screwery with Opera Girl and his outpimpery of his sister to Horrid Suitor™, buuuurrrrrnnn. He promptly calls of his affair with Opera Girl.

No shifts!

Penny gets to dance with Ducktail Colin at the thing! Good for her, but it's a country dance with jumping and fun, because she's a) the pudgy character and b) a Featherington, so it can't be something romantic and pretty (I personally like country dances, but they aren't protagonist dances).

Oooh, Cousin had her period, oh no, oh snap, oh she didn't, because she's PREGNANT! Shit, that's problematic, and not because she's an unmarried woman in the 1810s, but because she gets close to no lines at all so far, and suddenly she's pregnant and telling Lady F that she sucks for being privileged, violence ensues, this is ugly. Man, I get what some critics mean by "the POC actors*actresses get all the problems" and that not exactly being great.

Horrid Suitor™ makes property claims about Daphne, eeewwwww, thanks to Lord B's general suckiness, ewww, r@pe attempt ensues, was that really necessary? It doesn't really fit in with the rest of the series and generally nope, yay, broken nose! (which was indeed totally necessary). Nice one, and probably the only scene so far (spoiler: overall) in which I actually like Daphne. Dukey thinks a mean left hook is attractive, and, generally speaking, he's not wrong.

Daphne and Dukey come up with a pseudo-shakespearean plot to pretend to be totally into each other so she can attract suitors by being not available and he gets not to have fangirls by being not available, and as someone who has read a few too many historical-ish bodice rippers I know exactly where this is going. I mean, come on.

I can't see enough of the following choreography to complain about it. Man, I miss historical dance classes.

And that concludes Ep. 1! Finally! Thank you for getting this far, sorry for all of it (especially typos, it's the bane of unwanted autocorrect), I guess?

Update on the train situation: I've been told by the ticket control person that I shouldn't get my hopes up until noon tomorrow.

To be continued,

because I didn't take these 32 pages of notes for nothing.

[leporellian]

Some white person I was arguing with made this ridiculous argument asking that if there was ever a certain opera production where all of the POC singers got bronchitis then should I cancel it if there are only white singers left

the classic Old Opera Coot move of inventing a scenario to get mad at,

[writingwithcolor]

Handling a White Female Savior in story

Backstory:

WoC harassed by White Man Co-Worker (18th Century)

A creole opera singer in mid 18th century Paris is dealing with targeted harassed by her white male composer for her weight and for not being feminine enough (this is a visual medium, and she is depicted as very beautiful). The harassment is not openly racist, but it’s obviously racially motivated. 

White Woman Co-Worker Acts on her Behalf 

Her co-star, a gender non-conforming white woman who plays men’s roles,  realizes something is wrong and pressures the creole woman into talking about her harassment.

The white woman is enraged at how her friend is being treated, and dramatically challenges the harasser to a duel on behalf of the creole woman’s honor, not listening when she tells her not to. The creole woman knows that the duel will only make things worse in that pattern, and the white woman is too high on her own heroism to listen. 

Writer’s Intentions

The framing is meant to sweep the viewer up in the white woman’s dashing heroism and initially cheer for her defending her friend, and then later you get to hear the creole woman’s side of the story and realize that the white woman was harming more than helping. The creole woman becomes a main character in the next section of the story with her own arc, but for this section she is a side character to the white woman’s. 

Questions on this plot:

Is this an acceptable depiction of a WOC and her struggles, or am I being exploitative? She is not the only POC of importance in the story - there are two others that are main characters - but she is the only WOC. 

How bad would the white woman’s actions play to an audience member of color? Is it a nice change to see the creole woman being protected and allowed to be vulnerable, even though the white woman is being a bad friend and failing to listen to her? Or is it completely patronizing from the get go and the creole woman wouldn’t realistically consider her a friend at all?

[Ask Shortened for Length]

Is this an acceptable depiction of a WOC and her struggles, or am I being exploitative? 

Things done well:

You seem conscious and deliberate in addressing the White Savior, which is the first step to being equipped to write such a topic. 

You’re not excusing or justifying the white woman’s actions, instead showing how harmful her good intentions can be, and the unintentional consequences they have. 

Giving the Woman of Color (do depict a specific race) a perspective and arc of her own is also a great way to keep her from being voiceless and not simply an object to teach us a lesson about the harms of white ally-ship gone wrong.

Things to watch out for:

Addressing racism isn’t inherently off-limits, but do keep in mind:

Perspective. 

From blogs, vlogs, and books - there’s a lot you can read up from Women of Color’s perspective on femininity, harassment, and white friends with good intentions but harmful actions. 

Still, you don’t want to be an unintentional white knight yourself and speak over Women of Color. You may need to leave in some fill-in-the-blanks when it comes to the complexities of her struggles if you’re not the race & gender.

Balance. 

Don’t focus your only Woman of Color’s narrative on struggles and pain. That’s when you get into tragedy exploitation. Showcase her talents, her joys, her clearly positive relationships. I do not recommend making her narrative about the Struggle. It’s an aspect of her life, sure, but there’s more to her story than oppression. 

How bad would the white woman’s actions play to an audience member of color? 

As Women of Color aren’t a monolith, you’ll get varying opinions on just how bitter of a taste this will leave in mouths. This isn’t something that’d make me slam closed the book, personally, if that’s the concern. Particularly because you’re intentionally depicting a white savior and will show that she’s in the wrong. 

Is it a nice change to see the creole woman being protected and allowed to be vulnerable, even though the white woman is being a bad friend and failing to listen to her?

The white woman’s pushy actions won’t be received well from those who understand it’s wrong. But isn’t that the intention here? 

As we know, addressing the harassment should’ve been done on the Woman of Color’s terms. The threat of backlash could be especially dangerous in this time period. Your white woman’s actions are harmful, period. 

I personally don’t think you should attempt to tag a positive spin to it. Her “protection” was non-consensual and risky. It is said that “intent doesn’t matter” when it comes to harm done, and this is a case where that’s especially true.

is it completely patronizing and the creole woman wouldn’t realistically consider her a friend at all?

There’s many possibilities. This really depends on your character.

Maybe she stays cordial, but no longer trusts her.

Maybe they rebuild after she’s sure she can trust the friend never to do that again and to actually listen before acting.

 Maybe she stays clear of her completely.

Some things that may influence her decision:

Is the white woman apologetic once she learns her actions were harmful?

What were the consequences of those actions? 

Was she able to make things right in a way that the Friend of Color consented to, even if that meant just staying out of it?

It does seem like you’re on the right track, just keep in mind this advice! 

–Mod Colette 

[therealsehinton]

Okay, let me see if I can get you to understand.

Freddy Mercury. He could often pass for white. Was he white? No. Is anyone who tries to argue that he’s white an idiot? Yes.

honey now who's gonna say that freddie was white did you hear what I said chile 😭

skin color does NOT equal race

the way you act/talk does NOT equal race

Freddie Mercury was a pale rock opera singer, but he clearly was not white. He was quite obviously what he was, Indian Parsi. Skin tone is just one insignificant area of what makes up race. There is hair texture, bone structure, the fat of your skin, the shape of your cartilage, etc etc. All things that help determine race, not just being pale

And understand that I am black and Mexican, there's a reason why it's called BIPOC, black and indigenous people have experienced some of the worst crimes and genocides on earth, and their experiences should be understood and respected. A black person can't tell an indigenous person, or vice versa, their oppression was worse(especially considering just how intertwined our communities are, like, directly affecting each other, we're literally huge factors in each other's history). And my Mexican family is mestizo, mixed with Indigenous Mexican, they have dark skin and a specific skull shape, nose shape, and lip shape--all different things that make up their race

Now listen here. if you're not a person of color, then you're not a person of color. Race is about physicality and phenotypes. It's unfair for someone who experiences white privilege to group themselves with poc. idk how else to explain that, what's so hard with a white passing person admitting that they’ll never be as effected by society as much as poc???

like I'm a lightskinned black person, I have no issues admitting that I'm never gonna be as affected as a dark-skinned black person. does that invalidate my experience? no. I'm just not being an idiot and I'm respecting the fact people will have it worse than me. because by fully understanding the privilege I have, I can make more of a difference

[feyrareads]

♥ 𝓕𝓮𝔂𝓻𝓪𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓭𝓼 𝓑𝓸𝓸𝓴 𝓡𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮𝔀𝓼:  𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓗𝓪𝓭 𝓜𝓮 𝓪𝓽 𝓗𝓸𝓵𝓪 ♥

𝓡𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰: ★★★★★

𝓖𝓮𝓷𝓻𝓮(𝓼): contemporary romance, POC, chicklit, Spanish-speaking

You Had Me at Hola is an August 2020 contemporary romance novel and it was certainly a fun ride! And God, just look at that COVER! Absolutely gorgeous.

It follows Jasmine Lin Rodriguez, a soap opera star who is currently dealing with a messy public breakup with a singer, and Ashton Suárez, a longtime telenovela star looking to keep his career in show business(as well as make his introduction to American audiences) alive after his last character was killed off. They are both signed on to a new bilingual romcom called Carmen in Charge by the number one streaming service in the States, and any hopes of their chemistry is dashed by a disastrous first meeting. With their careers on the line, they resolve to rehearse in private...which leads to things that could destroy Jasmine’s new image, and expose Ashton’s most closely guarded secret.

𝓜𝓪𝓲𝓷 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓬𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓼

Jasmine Lin Rodriguez is our gorgeous, feisty, independent main female lead who kicks ass and takes names-or so she seems. Right off the bat, it’s revealed that Jasmine has her emotional insecurities and issues just like any other human. She’s far from perfect, and far from the clout creating tabloid fodder that she is presented as by the media. Jasmine has a goal set for herself; to be a Leading Lady. And Leading Ladies don’t need a man. “Leading Ladies are badass queens making jefa moves.” It was moving to see her grow out of her old securities and feel complete and secure even without Ashton. Yes, 

Ashton Suárez...where do I begin with HIM. He’s such an adorable sweetheart, which is laughably ironic considering as a telenovela star, he plays all sorts of “macho” characters. He’s so protective and loving of his family, and reading from his POV, I could see how his want to open up to someone warred with his need to protect his precious secret[SPOILER ALERT], his son, who he has shielded from the world for so long. He’s just a protective father at the end of the day; a protective father falling in love with the most magical woman he’s ever met!

𝓢𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂

I love the way Alexis Daria never threw away the core story in the sole interest of romance. Throughout the book, Daria writes in the acting scenes from Carmen in Charge, so you can read Jasmine and Ashton’s “on screen” scenes. Seeing the contrast of the “on screen” scenes versus the internal monologues of each character after shooting, and that growing tension between them, added something brand new to the typical romance novel formula that I’ve become used to. I love that Daria fleshed both character’s individuality and core beliefs and had them each individually grow.

Not only was the romance steamy and lovely, the FAMILY aspect of this novel made my heart so happy. You Had Me at Hola celebrates Latinx culture in a beautiful, beautiful way, and it was an honor to be so immersed in that world.

♥ 𝓑𝓸𝓸𝓴𝓼𝓱𝓮𝓵𝓯 ♥