#media accountability
ok, so it’s been a few days since i’ve watched captain jack harkness (aka the episode where jack and tosh get sent to the 1940s) and it just feels completely false to me that tosh doesn’t feel any anger at being placed in a situation that she has stated to be personally traumatic for her. after tosh expresses her fears about being stuck in a time period close to the pearl harbour attacks, the discussion immediately shifts towards discussing jack’s experiences in the 1940s! and when tosh ends up facing the samepersecution as her grandfather, we don’t get her reaction or any scene where she actually talks about how she feels, nothing! how can you have a character, particularly a british japanese woman facing anti-asian racism during ww2 andnotfocus on her reaction to a moment you have previously established as frightening for her?
yes, you could argue that tosh’s way of ‘processing’ is by immediately trying to solve problems and getting to work. sure! but i can’t help but draw parallels to ianto, who is similarly defined by his work and service to others in the earlier episodes, but his anger and frustrations are still given fair treatment, particularly in the cyberwoman episode. also, this is more of a note on torchwood/doctor who as a whole, but if you’re engaging with narratives of oppression and not actuallycentring the experiences of the characters from the oppressed group, particularly their justified anger, then who is this story for? to push a saviour narrative about how altruistic the white leads are? or using racism as ‘set dressing’ while the episode ultimately focuses on the pain of the white lead? (as many people have already mentioned, the family of blood is an egregious example of this with how it treats martha).
again, i’m only midway through season 2 and i’m hoping that the show ends by delving into tosh’s psyche in a more interesting and meaningful way. they almost got there with greeks bearing gifts and i can see what they were trying to achieve in to the last man. but also, what is it with all of tosh’s extremely few standalone episodes heavily featuring a storyline where she needs to emotionally/physically service the needs of a white guest character? usually achieved by manipulating tosh and taking away her agency? mary in greeks, tommy in last man and in an extremelygross way with adam. and they never address it again!
listen, i love tosh. i think naoko mori gives a fantastic performance and i think her empathy, capability in tough situations, and predilection for defining herself by her achievements are all really interesting traits. but at times the writing for her character feels dangerously reminiscent to say, someone like glenn in the walking dead, who was also the sole asian lead actor in a predominantly white genre show. steven yeun puts it best in this interview, that there’s just frustration at being consistently reverted to “dependable, supportive, benign” asian sidekick for the white leads.
