Sigh… I can say the sky is blue right now and that will be wrong.
Alternately, you could say, "I'm sorry; I didn't realize that was offensive and I didn't mean it to be." Full stop.
You could also try setting aside your defensiveness and listening to what we're trying to say, and to look at it from a point of view other than your own.
Sorry. I meant alien as in Andromeda alien, Predator alien – I can send you to photos if need be. It’s as simple as that.
No, I'm afraid it's not. Because you are still making the association that Ronon looks alien--other--because of his hairstyle Or, conversely, if dreadlocks aren't being used by the producers as a marker of otherness, why would it matter to them or to the fans if he cut his hair? Why else would you argue that without the dreads, he'd look less alien?
FOREIGN c: EXOTIC 12: differing in nature or character typically to the point of incompatibility”.
And you honestly don't understand why this is offensive, either when applied to the actor, or to the character who is supposed to be human? I realize that last year's miscegenation imbroglio was centered in HP fandom, but still: the whole point of that was that it touched on the long, ugly history of people of color being considered so "differing in nature or character" as to be less than fully human,
Alien does not mean bad, and never has as far as I know.
As you just pointed out, it means "other". Fundamentally different from whatever's being posited as the norm. In SGA, the fact that the most visible aliens in the show, the ones who are "not like us", are both played by people of color is implicitly stating that "normal" and "Earth human" = white.
What I find ironic in having this discussion about Jason Momoa is that he's very aware of how not being white has impacted his casting and the way he's written in the show. In the "Extra" interview, he points out that Ronon and Teal'c are always compared because they're a) fighters, and b) big, dark-skinned guys. Early on, he commented that one of the reasons he took the part was because as someone "with dreadlocks, you know, not white", this was as close as he was likely to get to doing a Western. And his recent comment about how "both of the aliens have wigs now", meaning him and Rachel? He was making a point there, whether most fans got it or not.
As to why do tv/film producers insist on using color, hair, clothing to differentiate aliens from humans? Ask them.
Except that's not the question. The question isn't even, "why are skin color or other markers of ethnicity used as shorthand for other", because the answer to that is obvious: the film and TV industries are overwhelmingly staffed by and aimed at white Americans. My question is, "why can producers in 2008 still get away with assuming that normal = white?" The answer seems to be because most fans don't bother to challenge that assumption and simply accept it as a given. And then, when those of us who do find it problematic point that out, we're reminded yet again of why fandom is such a maddening, frustrating place for people of color.
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Date: 2008-06-18 12:46 am (UTC)Alternately, you could say, "I'm sorry; I didn't realize that was offensive and I didn't mean it to be." Full stop.
You could also try setting aside your defensiveness and listening to what we're trying to say, and to look at it from a point of view other than your own.
Sorry. I meant alien as in Andromeda alien, Predator alien – I can send you to photos if need be. It’s as simple as that.
No, I'm afraid it's not. Because you are still making the association that Ronon looks alien--other--because of his hairstyle Or, conversely, if dreadlocks aren't being used by the producers as a marker of otherness, why would it matter to them or to the fans if he cut his hair? Why else would you argue that without the dreads, he'd look less alien?
FOREIGN c: EXOTIC 12: differing in nature or character typically to the point of incompatibility”.
And you honestly don't understand why this is offensive, either when applied to the actor, or to the character who is supposed to be human? I realize that last year's miscegenation imbroglio was centered in HP fandom, but still: the whole point of that was that it touched on the long, ugly history of people of color being considered so "differing in nature or character" as to be less than fully human,
Alien does not mean bad, and never has as far as I know.
As you just pointed out, it means "other". Fundamentally different from whatever's being posited as the norm. In SGA, the fact that the most visible aliens in the show, the ones who are "not like us", are both played by people of color is implicitly stating that "normal" and "Earth human" = white.
What I find ironic in having this discussion about Jason Momoa is that he's very aware of how not being white has impacted his casting and the way he's written in the show. In the "Extra" interview, he points out that Ronon and Teal'c are always compared because they're a) fighters, and b) big, dark-skinned guys. Early on, he commented that one of the reasons he took the part was because as someone "with dreadlocks, you know, not white", this was as close as he was likely to get to doing a Western. And his recent comment about how "both of the aliens have wigs now", meaning him and Rachel? He was making a point there, whether most fans got it or not.
As to why do tv/film producers insist on using color, hair, clothing to differentiate aliens from humans? Ask them.
Except that's not the question. The question isn't even, "why are skin color or other markers of ethnicity used as shorthand for other", because the answer to that is obvious: the film and TV industries are overwhelmingly staffed by and aimed at white Americans. My question is, "why can producers in 2008 still get away with assuming that normal = white?" The answer seems to be because most fans don't bother to challenge that assumption and simply accept it as a given. And then, when those of us who do find it problematic point that out, we're reminded yet again of why fandom is such a maddening, frustrating place for people of color.