Women & Sci-Fi/Fantasy Don’t Mix (Lead Me To A Fainting Couch, I’ve Heard This One Before)

Let me just begin by saying, me and my delicate girly-brain will be watching Game of Thrones (and Camelot, and all the sci-fi/fantasy I want to).

[Image: A screencap of Ginia Bellafante’s wikipedia page; text reads: Ginia Bellafante (born March 31, 1965) is an American writer (of incredibly poorly written articles) and critic, for the New York Times, New York Observer, and Time (magazine).]

Ginia Bellafante’s Wikipedia page is not kind (and rightly so- though yes, Wikipedia pages are supposed to be ‘objective’, etc) and describes her work as “poorly written”. Unfortunately, she is read at the New York Times, which gives her undue credibility. Her most recent offense offering is A Fantasy World of Strange Feuding Kingdoms, a startlingly sexist (critique??) New York Times article on the new show, Game of Thrones, and what she deems is its failure to appeal to women and its success at being “boy fiction”, whatever in fresh hell that means.

I’ll warn you now, this article didn’t meet a sexist entertainment media gender stereotype it didn’t write an ode to:

Keeping track of the principals alone feels as though it requires the focused memory of someone who can play bridge at a Warren Buffett level of adeptness. In a sense the series, which will span 10 episodes, ought to come with a warning like, “If you can’t count cards, please return to reruns of ‘Sex and the City.’ ”

The show has been elaborately made to the point that producers turned to a professional at something called the Language Creation Society to design a vocabulary for the savage Dothraki nomads who provide some of the more Playboy-TV-style plot points and who are forced to speak in subtitles.

The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise. While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.

You’ve got your bingo cards out, right?

Epic fantasy as a boy’s only activity. Check.

Heternormativity. Check.

Complex story lines (and apparently, too many characters!) being beyond a woman’s limited understanding. Check.

Reinforcing an oppression (in this case racism, “savage Dothraki” wtf?) instead of critiquing it. Check.
(What’s interesting here is that she misses the opportunity to critique the show on its racist othering of characters of color in the Dothraki. Instead she uses “savage” to describe them and seems to be more annoyed at the mere existence of subtitles (because y’know, subtitles were created just to inconvenience privileged.)

It doesn’t forget the classic, the romance was put there for the delicate flowers that are our women. Check.

So, you ever wonder why there aren’t more Sarah Connors on your TV/movie theater? Because mess like this still gets published in major media.

To Be Quite Vanilla, Oh Dear.

There’s a “Vanilla Privilege Checklist” floating around. To the list, this kinky rambling feminist woman of color says, the dangers of appropriation are staggering, also erasure of marginalized identities from vanilla is not the way to go about this:

A vanilla person will have an easy time finding media that portrays people with their sexual preferences sympathetically and accurately.

Queer sex isn’t necessarily kinky. Sympathetic and accurate portrayals of queer people in the media however? Nearly non-existent.

A vanilla person will not have their being vanilla brought up during a rape investigation (either as accuser or accused)

I’m pretty sure that I don’t have to remind everyone that not all women are kinky. When they are victims in rape investigations, their being women is enough to work against them. Rape culture, anyone?

Symbols of vanilla affection/romance will not be appropriated as “edgy” fashion statements.

Someone please look up Lady Gaga’s commercializing of the gay community.

A vanilla person will not be assumed to be sexually experienced because of their vanilla-ness.

Vanilla is not taken to mean sexually available.

POC (peoples/person of color) sexuality is automatically offered to some people. It means that when I walk down the street, my sexuality is not my own, it is others’ to delegate and make use of as they see fit.

There’s another post similar to this on vanilla privilege and while it makes a good point on privilege reactions and why people shouldn’t react violently to accusations of privilege, I’m still not sure privilege is the right name to assign to “not being kinky”.

Listen.

Being kinky is not a cakewalk, I get it; I know this- but there’s a line and it is crossed at appropriating queer, POC, and other marginalized movements. You know the roots of kinkophobia?

Gender norms. Racism. Heterosexism.

POC sexuality has been corroded to the point of erasure of anything that didn’t mesh with the “pure white sexuality” within POC communities.

Homophobia is so prevalent, the queer community bends to heteronormative norms in an effort find sameness which ends up being just another oppression.

Women aren’t supposed to be vocal, dominant, or agents of their own sexuality- and kinks? No way.

This is a conversation we need to have in the anti-oppression community- of kinks and kinkophobia, and why kink has been erased from our intersecting marginalized identities- but I believe that this list does more harm than any good.

Quick One You Might Have Missed: Equal Pay Day Round-up || Raspberry Pencil-

There’s a lovely equal pay day link round-up at Raspberry Pencil.

Definitely check it out!

Diplo & Cultural Appropriation: Trendy Imperialism

A new conversation’s come up on Racialicious surrounding DJ Diplo:

The question of whether or not Diplo’s methods are ethical aside, the process is usually the same:

1. musical genre or artist relatively unknown in the United States (save small immigrant groups still connected to the homeland or marginalized American communities of color) gets samples or featured in one of Diplo’s live sets, recorded mixes, podcasts, or via the Mad Decent blog (sometimes without the artist’s knowledge, though this is a common practice in DJ culture and not exclusive to Diplo)

2. said artist might be included as a headliner to the show of a more popular Mad Decent artist when applicable

 

3. genre and the artists performing it gain popularity as a result of their association with Diplo/Mad Decent

4. Diplo picks up a new genre/artist and the previous artist, often still unsigned, is left to continue self-promoting

It’s Complicated: DJs, Appropriation, and a Whole Host of Other Ish || Racialicious

Now, apparently DJ Diplo has developed a reputation for cultural appropriation – a term we’ve discussed often here, without much resolution…Diplo is best known for taking the sounds of other cultures and presenting them as hip consumables for a western audience. He rose to prominence alongside collaborator M.I.A. – and interestingly enough, even that story was steeped in appropriation of the work of a woman of color to advance his own ends.

[…]

When we talk about cultural appropriation and musical imperialism, we’re ultimately asking who gets to be the arbiter of what is cool. Baile funk was doing its own thing pre-Diplo – but did it only make it to the States because there was a white face to make the sound more acceptable?

[…]

Racism and cultural imperialism are not the sole controlling factor for success and failure in the industry – but it would be disingenuous to pretend they aren’t a persistent bass line.

Venus Iceberg X and the Ghe20 Goth1k Crew Call Out DJ Diplo for Musical and Cultural Imperialsm || Racialicious

 

Hardly news, especially as the man has already admitted to appropriation (dare say he wouldn’t call it that) in regards to his musical relationship with MIA,  though I wish I could say I’m shocked. Just look at the history of rock & roll, Elvis Presley, Amy Winehouse’s ‘signature sound’, Gwen Stefani’s Harajuku girls, Madonna and voguing, just to name a few. The music industry has always had a flagrant history of cultural appropriation, usually to the benefit of white artists, producers, and record label managers.

The usual argument is normally, “but it’s just appreciation!”. The uncomfortable question most forget to ask themselves is put quite frankly in the Racialicious article, can you only appreciate it because there’s a white face to give it value?

I am glad that the conversation’s rearing up again, maybe this time it’ll take? I’ll cross my fingers but I won’t hold my breath; thus is the reality of capitalism.