Jason Momoa featured in TV Guide (includes PHOTO)

[wraithfodder]

Jason Momoa of Stargate Atlantis is featured on page 10 of the U.S. June 23rd TV GUIDE on 'top 10 breaking news.' However, most of us know that Jason .... oh, hmm, just in case, under the cut!

Yes, he cut his dreads but his head and neck were hurting from the weight of the dreads. He added that all that hair kept him from wearing a bike helmet and kept ruining his balance on a surfboard. Eek! but SciFi execs didn't want him to cut it so now he's got a wig.

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Comments

[telesilla.livejournal.com]

As to why do tv/film producers insist on using color, hair, clothing to differentiate aliens from humans? Ask them.

What I would like to ask you, in all sincerity and not wanting to be confrontational, is where your critical thinking is in all this? Why are you just taking what tv/film producers give you and accepting it without questioning it? Without examining it for subtext the same way you'd examine a scene in the show for subtext?

Here's the thing about Othering PoCs, about making them the aliens: I don't need to ask the producers. I know some of the reasons they do it and I'll try to explain them here, although it's probably been done much better elsewhere, so please, please, bear with me and read this with an open mind.

It's an easy fix. It's a cheat. It's bad, lazy writing. And, far more dangerously in a totally insidious way, it reflects a buried fear that's been exploited by storytellers for a long damn time. Ronon, Teal'c, Tyr Anasazi from Andromeda, the dreadlocked Predator alien, Worf and the rest of the Klingons in the Star Trek franchise...they are a modern day mix of the scary black "jungle bunnies" or "spear chuckers" of the '30s adventure films and the trope of the Noble Savage. We are supposed to be a little afraid of them because while they all have codes of honor (well maybe not the Predator alien; I don't know anything about it) they're also dangerously violent and warrior-like and could turn on us if we aren't careful.

This would be why all of those aliens (again, except for the Predator alien) are under the command of a white guy who can, presumably, control them with his superior logic and technology, and simply because he's better. And that's the only safe place to have him, because if the Big Damn White Hero can't control the Brown Savage Warrior, then we're screwed, because the next thing you know, the Brown Horde will be battering down our doors, killing our men and stealing white women.*

And that's another fun level here that I think needs to be looked at; white female viewers are supposed to find all that expressed violence and the whole warrior code of honor sexy. This is the guy who barely keeps his passion in check, this is the sweet savage lover who will ravage us in all the best ways. He is, of course, not the guy we want to take home to meet the folks. No, that's John the Air Force officer and hero or Rodney, the brilliant man of science. Ronon's the "exotic" bit of rough.

If you really want to understand why Othering PoCs, why making them the violent warrior types, is playing into a ton of ugly stereotypes, I'm sure a little research online will dig up some interesting information--presented sooo much better than a person suffering from mild sleep deprivation can--and give you something to read in a non-confrontational setting.

*What was the very first thing we saw Teal'c doing in the pilot episode of SG-1?