The “WML” stands for “White Male Lead“. Which stands as a metaphor for basically everything I’m going to be writing about in this section here. It comes from George Lucas’ statement on why it took so many damn YEARS (he started work on it in 1988 ok?) for him to get the movie Red Tails financed/filmed and into the theaters. (Not to be confused with the 1995 made for television/HBO film The Tuskegee Airmen).
Basically Hollywood said (according to Lucas) that they had no idea how to promote/market/distribute etc a film with an all Black cast. Like bottom line – how were they going to get White people to go see the film and thus make money from the film. Or whatever. But you get the idea.
Here is where I’m going to hash out my issues about being Black in America. About being a Woman in America. About being a Black Woman in America. (oh and btw I heard there’s not even one Black WOMAN in Red Tails. ati ouch!)
If you are reading this, then I’ve turned off the privacy switch. It may get turned back on again as I work on another article. All depends. Some of this is my private struggle, and this blog is (partly) my journal – since my handwriting has gone to hell due to my frequent hand tremors – so here is where I can write now. (Praise Buddha I can still TYPE!) ___________________________________________________________
ARTICLE I
The Misogyny and Racism of Supernatural
I’m talking about Supernatural the TV Show (2005-Present). Why I should give a heck about some random TV show? Well to start with let me cut and paste and slightly edit a lil somefin I wrote (on my myspace blog) way back in July of 2005. Yeah I wrote on this very subject over 6 years ago. Crazy how ain’t a damn thing changed:
For those who are vocab-challenged, misogyny is: “hatred of or strong prejudice against women. Compared with anti-woman sexism or misandry (hatred of or strong prejudice against men), misogyny is usually regarded as directed against women by some men, though women can also hold misogynistic views. In feminist theory, misogyny is recognized as a political ideology – similar to racism or ant-Semitism – that justifies and maintains the subordination of women by men. The word comes from the Greek misosgyne “woman” ”
I’ve come to the conclusion that there is strong current of disrespect and yeah I said it hatred of women going on in America. Now this is nothing new, but what has really got me concerned is that is has come out of the closet so to speak.
I premise this contention based on my theory that television is a way to guage certain trends in society. I’m sure there’s a ton of people out there who “don’t watch TV” or “Don’t have a TV”. That’s wonderful. But for every single one of those types there’s at least millions of others who do participate in this national pasttime.
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TV makes its money on viewers. Sponsors/ads etc make money by enticing as many of those viewers as possible to purchase their products. Products they promote during breaks during the showings of well TV shows and so on. Successful TV shows get bought up/signed on for additional seasons etc ok you know how this works. Chances are you’ve been a fan of a show that’s gotten cancelled. Either after a one season or maybe if its lucky these days after its third season. I would say that’s a good run. Even the eternally popular and money-making (even when the writing gets bad) Star Trek franchise only gets up to 7 seasons maximum per each genre run. (STNG, DS-9, Voyager, Enterprise etc).
So if a TV show gets going on into its 7th season, you have to figure its got a solid core of money making mojo or whatever going on. People view each weekly episode in the millions. It may fall back from its initial popularity (which is typical) but it never drops into that cancellation area.
Turns out that Supernatural is on its 7th season. I’ve only Netflixed up to episode 18/22 on Season 6. Seven is not available there yet. But I’ve got enough or had enough to get me to writing this out so it doesn’t stay inside me and make me so sick at heart.
First of all. I’d heard bits of pieces about this show from fellow supernatural genre lovers, but never actually got into watching it. Then I ditched my TV. So now it was really out. But here comes Netflix to the rescue and they have the series on streaming/instant play direct to my computer. So I decided to give it a whirl.
If you’re into supernatural stuff, X-files, Ghost Hunters, angels, demons, Dan Brownesque codes/symbology, ancient rituals, possession, the paranormal, ghosts, zombies, vampires and whatever all else – that type of thing, you’d be interested in this show like I was. You can read all about it the link I provided above you want the details on the show.
And just so you know, this is going to be major spoilerish, so if you want to watch the show without me messing it up for you. I suggest you don’t continue reading further. Like I said. This is for ME to work out, and if it gets confusing to you and/or reveals too much or whatever else: I’m not sure I care much. Ya been WARNED.
On average I can say I enjoy the series. The writing (aside from the issues I’m going to go into soon) is decent, the story lines and character arcs are cool, and things go along pretty well up until round about near the end of season 5. They really shouldn’t have taken on armageddon. I mean really. How can you follow up on that?
Ok I got from the two main characters – both White males – and both relatively young, that that was the demographic they were going for. Funny thing happened tho. They became what is known as a “cult series“, and have a huge following and (online) fan base which goes on its own crazy sidetrips – but so much so that memes (themes?) from that base get written into the series itself. I could tell from just the writing alone (before I even did an online search) as each season rolled by, what one of those themes might be. Homosexuality.
At first it seemed the writers didn’t mind so much, and wrote in cute funny-haha moments where Sam and Dean Winchester (the main characters, brothers who drive around ghost hunting etc) get mistaken for a gay couple lots of times. Then things took a turn for the worse I GUESS. Things got a little bit backlashy if thats even a word, and here comes the misogyny.
In order to escape the whole icky gay male thing, you gotta go waaay the whole other direction and be a red blooded macho male caveman. Apparently. Dean’s role was already the “pick up on chicks every second” type to begin with. But he turned extremely mean about it, and for damn near three whole seasons (2nd thru 4th approx) every other word – in reference to women – was “bitch” (that’s still going on actually), “skank”, “whore”, “slut”. and so on.
Other characters got say fun things like: “shut your painted hole”, and “slut girlfriend”, and so on. Women no matter their age are refered to as “girls” or “chicks”. The Winchester brothers, as tangled up and close-knit as they are: never ever hug each other. They hugged their long-lost dad in season one and 5 years later Dean hugged his long-lost grampa end of season 5. Sam hugged both Dean and Bobby in season 6 when he got his soul back from hell. In between that? No touching. Any emotional openness or heartfelt moments always come with the caveat that they should end the “chick flick moment” before they started to grow “girl parts” or any variation along that theme. Yeah. I know.
Another favorite word which gets bandied about a lot is “douche”. Which I guess is short for douche bag. Which is a common enough epithet. Which is in reference to part of the aparatus used to (supposedly) clean a woman’s vagina. So being called anything in reference to femaleness is a pretty bad insult towards a male. (“you throw like a girl”, “(pussy) whipped”, “dude you’re a total douche” etc)
____________Brief Interlude In Case This Does Go Public________________
BTW: Pretty sure douche’s these days don’t come with bags anymore, but since I don’t buy into that whole “Your Vagina Is Dirty” industry – I wouldn’t actually know. If you don’t use regular hygiene (you know, soap and water) and/or engage in unprotected sex, then ok maybe your vajayjay is all ick. If you use douches: you RUIN The ph-balance up in there and things can go horribly, horribly wrong – so DON’T USE THEM!!
Did you know? The vagina is a wonderful self-cleaning organ. You use a douche, you distrupt the natural process, irritations and other (sometimes really ick) issues occur, you think its dirty or whatever so you run for the douche again. You get caught in a vicious circle and all for what? Expense and pain and ignorance and health-risk all because you bought into that industry. Make the creators and sellers of douches Go Out Of Biz. Boycott em. Don’t Use Em. Please.
And if you’re unsure. Think for a sec. How many clean the male organ area products are out there and pushed and advertized on TV and in magazines? Like NONE. Because penises and balls and all that junk are GOOD not bad like dirty icky vaginas. And how many disgusting, smelly and unhygienic and (lets keep it real here) just plain dirty male organs have you run across in your day? I rest my case.
When you are in power: YOU get to decide what’s good and what’s bad. What’s dirty and what’s nice. And even make an industry out of it and make millions. Don’t. Buy. Into It. Educate Yourself.
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Anyhoo. That’s the whole Woman-bashing thing on Supernatural which gets terribly old, and distracts from what is a very good show. Shame that. Things have toned down a little bit, but like I said, the whole “girl” and “bitch” thing is still going on. And the way women are portrayed in general is awful. (ogling women, cleavage shots, gratuitous stripper club venues etc). Female characters are there for eye candy, played as ditzy, cloying older (read too old to be sexually attractive) women, evil “bitches”, mom/mother (overbearingly nurturing and protective) figures, sexpots (so they can be called sluts whores and skanks), superficial, victims etc etc the list goes on and on. So its still all pretty Not_Good_At_All.
RACISM and BLACK is BAD on Supernatural
I know that there is a dearth of Black people represented pretty much everywhere, including TV shows. Why does Oprah always have herself on the cover of O Magazine? So people like me can see someone who looks like herself peeking out amongst the sea of whiteness at the news stand rack. Yes. It was purposefully done that way. I understand these things. I’ve been living in America so I get it. But dayum.
Usually things aren’t as noticeable as they are on Supernatural. So maybe there aren’t Black actors at all on a show. Or one or two show up sprinkled here and there in a season. Whatever. Well I was (at first) pleasantly surprised to see that there was more than a few Black co-stars and even some that hung in there for a season or two. But whether 0r not they guest starred for an episode or a season, they majority of them played The Bad Guys.
Black = Bad – did you get the memo? I thought we were over that. Apparently we are NOT.
Here’s my listing on this so far.
Black People Playing Good Guys:
1. Bobby’s Pal from back in the day. Re-occuring guest role, makes it up to mid season 6 where he gets offed by one of the White Male Leads.
2. Young Black Couple, fellow hunters (not even American Blacks but from England, judging from the accents). Single episode – the husband dies horribly. I forget what happens to the wife with her cute Toni Braxton hairdo.
3. God’s Gardener, elderly helpful fellow. Single episode.
4. Local Sheriff, married to a White woman, gets turned into a Bad Guy so dunno if he counts on this list. He’s shown mostly in flashbacks and gets ganked (hunterese for killed) by Sam and Dean. (you know, the White Male Leads) Single Episode.
Black People Playing Bad Guys:
1. Uriel. Angel who’s the boss of the White angel who helps the Winchester bros from time to time. Re-occuring role. It gets revealed that he’s been going around killing fellow angels (his story arc gets him a demotion and becomes the subordinate to the afore mentioned White angel) and eventually gets offed by a (White female) angel.
3. Raphael. Archangel portrayed to be one of the top echelon who’s not happy with the Plan and goes against the Good Guys the few times he appears (one time as a Black woman) – he’s still alive and kicking as of 17/22 season 6.
4. Crazy Loner Hunter Dude. Re-occuring role. This poor messed up individual, tho a fellow hunter, most steer him a wide berth as he’s a complete nutter. (most hunters are a lil crazy but apparently he takes the cake in that department). He gets turned into a vampire and gets his head torn clean off by one of the White Male Leads.
5. Alpha Vampire. The Good Guys have been searching for many of the OG baddies and turns out this particular head honcho is a Black guy. He spends his time onscreen behind bars and in chains. (seriously??) He may have been decapitated by (see above) or escaped captivity, but I forget. Single(?) episode.
6. Soldier Guy. Two episodes. He’s played by that AMAZING actor (from TV show Leverage) Aldis Hodge. He starts out being a pawn in ole Yellow Eyes’ (baddie demon) game then he goes bad and starts playing for real – killing all other contenders thereby going against the White Male Lead. (Who offs him of course).
7. Shape Shifter Gramma. Single episode. Almost steals a baby from the White Male Leads. Roughs em up some too before they’re able to get away.
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So thats is the Black representation so far from almost 6 years of Supernatural. Only one Black character thats even mainstream and now he’s down for the count. The rest are minor characters or one-offs. But the overall theme is pretty clear to me. (And Black women are hardly represented at all). Tho I do remember this gorgeous Black woman actor who had a tiny speaking role (as a bartender) in one of the episodes. But still. Pretty slim pickings if you ask me.
What is also pretty clear to me is that pretty much nobody has noticed anything wrong. I checked the reviews on Netflix, did a cursory google search or three. It makes me sad. One of the reviews on Netflix was from a woman who says she and her husband watch the show with their preteen daughter and wow don’t they just LOVE this show! So she (and I’m sure tons of other moms too, judging from the viewership numbers) is exposing her young daughter to misogyny on a scale that has me wincing eight or nine times per episode. (Well now down to four or five as we get further along in seasons).
I guess because our culture is so White Male Lead so to speak, that people like that woman just don’t even notice anymore. Its perfectly ok for her to see grown women being referred to as girls and the ever present b-word. And allow her young daughter to see that right along with her.
There is no excuse for this sort of thing. This show has won tons of awards, acclaim and has the paranormal geekdom all in a tizzy apparently. Not a peep about the bashing or the innate racism. Because that is the way things are and nothing sticks out to them.
That’s what its like being a Woman in America. A Black person in a America. A Black Woman in America. Stuff sticks out at ya. You’ll be happily engaging in what should be a pleasant activity and BAM! You get stuck. Its ouchy being who I am. I always have to take the bad with the good because I refuse to just drift along and not notice. I can’t help but notice.
I’m tried and true horror fan. I’m thusly a fan of Stephen King. I’d be happily engaged and immersed in one of his (earlier) novels and BAM! The N-word would pop right out and stick me. Yeah I guess it was just one of his characters talking and I guess (maybe?) that’s how say an elderly White male from Maine refers to a Black person but um? I did notice that he stopped doing that in his later books so now I don’t have to get poked and ouchy just cuz I want to read something scary.
What I’m saying is. The racism in Supernatural is unconscious. However. That doesn’t make it right. I think that it makes it even wronger than if there was a collective get-together making these decisions on purpose. What I’m also saying is that the misogyny in Supernatural is conscious. I think it was a result of some (very) homophobic writers wanting to backlash against one of themes from their cult following. Women get thrown under the bus. Because we are merely objects and can be used as a foil in order to show the White Male Lead to be as macho as he can be. Never mind the collateral damage. Just as long as we don’t allow the White Male Leads to be shown as (gasp!) gay or anything ick like that. So yet again, women bear the brunt.
What is also disturbing to me is that I KNOW there is a process to these things. Backlash all you want but someone higher up has to greenlight the script. Nobody said “umm hey isn’t this really a bit much???” or “hey isn’t this seriously WRONG??” or even “hey you’re turning Dean into a male chauvanist asshole idiot. I really don’t think his character needs to say THAT in order to move the scene along.” or anything really. But it got the greenlight all the way and somewhere out there is a young girl sitting on the couch watching women get degraded in all sorts of ways each and every week.
And all this on regular network TV. I daren’t even get into what’s been happening on CABLE TV. But even so, my info wouldnt be very current as I ditched my TV for Netflix and Hulu forever ago. Most people/writers know certain words are not going allowed to be used on network TV. It used to be that “bitch” was one of those words. Now its on the ok list. But I’m a writer and I know you can set up a very damaging scenario without even saying any of those forbidden words.
You can constantly objectify women. You can show the majority of Black characters as being the Bad Guys. You can even ratchet it up a notch and use the words that are allowed now (bitch, skank, whore, slut etc) on top of all of that. You can ratchet it up a notch by making sure the Black Baddies are done away with by the White Goodies. You can drive it all home by repeating it all over and over and over again until everyone is so mindless and desensitized that they’ll allow their preteens to imbibe the koolaid right alongside themselves.
So that’s why “some random TV show”. Because I’m pretty sure that Supernatural is not alone in what it does. I’m sure there are many more shows and movies and novels and all sorts of media out there engaging in the same old same old. The status quo. The White Male Leadism that sticks it to me each and every time when I’m simply trying to get my entertainment moment on. When I’m trying to take a break from the madness and drama of what it is to be a Black Woman in America. I guess we don’t get a break.
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