#internalised racism
No one can convince me that we don’t need feminism or that women in the West have it good.
We have gone backwards, we are in the dark ages. Where to even begin with this.
interesting how only the women in the family got it…
This is so sad. Here’s a look at what internalised sexism and racism can do, pushing white standards of beauty on girls and women create psychological damages of course, the problem is this isn’t even treated as an issue. It will be commented with “their bodies, their choices” and “stop shaming them for wanting to love this part of themselves” instead of thinking of the reasons why they are doing such a thing. It’s the language of the oppressor used to pretend to defend the oppressed. All these girls/women are from the same family and are collectively physically opting to erase these features from their faces.
What makes them individuals, human beings, with flaws and beauties, an heritage, something they should be proud of, is seen as errors to be rectified. Feminism is always needed because the hatred against women is persistent, to the point it is internalised and acted on in extreme ways.
I wanted my first-year film students to understand what happens to a story when actual human beings inhabit your characters, and the way they can inspire storytelling. And I wanted to teach them how to look at headshots and what you might be able to tell from a headshot. So for the past few years I’ve done a small experiment with them.
Some troubling shit always occurs.It works like this: I bring in my giant file of head shots, which include actors of all races, sizes, shapes, ages, and experience levels. Each student picks a head shot from the stack and gets a few minutes to sit with the person’s face and then make up a little story about them.
Namely, for white men, they have no trouble coming up with an entire history, job, role, genre, time, place, and costume. They will often identify him without prompting as “the main character.” The only exception? “He would play the gay guy.” For white women, they mostly do not come up with a job (even though it was specifically asked for), and they will identify her by her relationships. “She would play the mom/wife/love interest/best friend.” I’ve heard “She would play the slut” or “She would play the hot girl.” A lot more than once.
For nonwhite men, it can be equally depressing. “He’s in a buddy cop movie, but he’s not the main guy, he’s the partner.” “He’d play a terrorist.” “He’d play a drug dealer.” “A thug.” “A hustler.” “Homeless guy.” One Asian actor was promoted to “villain.”
For nonwhite women (grab onto something sturdy, like a big glass of strong liquor), sometimes they are “lucky” enough to be classified as the girlfriend/love interest/mom, but I have also heard things like “Well, she’d be in a romantic comedy, but as the friend, you know?” “Maid.” “Prostitute.” “Drug addict.”
I should point out that the responses are similar whether the group is all or mostly-white or extremely racially mixed, and all the groups I’ve tried this with have been about equally balanced between men and women, though individual responses vary. Women do a little better with women, and people of color do a little better with people of color, but female students sometimes forget to come up with a job for female actors and black male students sometimes tell the class that their black male actor wouldn’t be the main guy.
Once the students have made their pitches, we interrogate their opinions. “You seem really sure that he’s not the main character – why? What made you automatically say that?” “You said she was a mom. Was she born a mom, or did she maybe do something else with her life before her magic womb opened up and gave her an identity? Who is she as a person?” In the case of the “thug“, it turns out that the student was just reading off his film resume. This brilliant African American actor who regularly brings houses down doing Shakespeare on the stage and more than once made me weep at the beauty and subtlety of his performances, had a list of film credits that just said “Thug #4.” “Gang member.” “Muscle.” Because that’s the film work he can get. Because it puts food on his table.
So, the first time I did this exercise, I didn’t know that it would turn into a lesson on racism, sexism, and every other kind of -ism. I thought it was just about casting. But now I know that casting is never just about casting, and this day is a real teachable opportunity. Because if we do this right, we get to the really awkward silence, where the (now mortified) students try to sink into their chairs. Because, hey, most of them are proud Obama voters! They have been raised by feminist moms! They don’t want to be or see themselves as being racist or sexist. But their own racism and sexism is running amok in the room, and it’s awkward.
This for every time someone criticizes how characters of color and female characters of color especially are treated in text and by subsequent fandoms. It’s never “just a television/movie/book”. It’s never been ”just”.
“…and by subsequent fandoms.“ <— bless this addition.
This one is always worth reblogging.
When I say, “Representation matters,” it’s not just the presence of PoC, women, PwD, LGBTQIA, in narrative, it’s the roles are those characters are occupying.The hall of mirrors that is the interplay between fiction and real life becomes a negative feedback loop with real consequences, because we internalize things and then we act them out.
Storytelling is a powerful thing. What stories are we telling, and why?
How media clearly reflects the sexism and the racism we cannot see in ourselves.
The fact that racist people really think physical attraction is void of social power structures is beyond me.
No, science and biology didn’t make you not attracted to an entire race of people. Racism did that.
It’s called a preference???
Did you not read the post? You can’t have a preference that excludes an entire race of people without being racist. Where do you think those preferences come from?
Especially preferences that exclude people of color. We learn what race/ethnicity/phenotype are attractive by the social power structures we are surrounded by.
There’s absolutely no possible way for a person to find every single black, or every single Asian or every single (Insert race) person unattractive because there is so much physical, phenotypical and internal diversity within each race.
So, as an example, folks who say “I’m not attracted to black people, that’s just my preference” what they are really saying is “I don’t want to be with black people because I have been taught to think they are ugly, undesirable, and I know nothing about how diverse black people are”
Tl;dr preferences are not void of social power structures :)
