The information age is making us more and more aware of this. We now have the ability to interact without knowing gender, race, age, etc - in a forum that we can exchange stories and ideas without a middle man.
As a result, we start seeing the patterns emerging.
Racefail, Comicfail...all of those come back to the same root cause...
I think it all boils down to the idea that mean are the default
it's the same with race ---white is the default
This is so true. When I was a kid there were two popular movies that I adored, that were a fixture of pop culture - Star Wars and Indiana Jones. In school, we did a children's play called Idaho Jones, written by one of our classmates. While there were female writers in the class, including myself, the person assigned to write the play was a guy. And I got the role of a female German villian who was a giant, while Idaho Jones was played by a cute and small red-head. I remember writing my version of a female Indiana Jones, I called her Jade Falcon - and my tale was very different than his. Same deal with Star Wars - the hero was a farm-boy, the damsel - Princess Leia - who had to bind her breasts so they didn't show up and she didn't look too feminine in the first film. Chaste and in white. Later, after she got involved with Han Solo, in the last film, she were a slave-girl's bikini.
There were no films with a female action hero in which I could identify. TV came closest. And perhaps the occasional book - if you looked hard enough, there were women writers such as Anne McCaffrey and Andre Norton.
I think about what people are squeeing about now on my flist. Is it female heroines? Not really. It is Harry Dresden, not Rachel Morgan. While Kim Harrison's novels have hit best-seller status, they don't have the same appeal as Butcher's. Or it is Doctor Who. A white male and British iconic hero. (The default is white, male, and English(British) or (American) English speaking. That's who controls the media.)
Oh sure, JK Rowling broke through with Harry Potter - but it was with a male icon that she did it. And Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series - but again it is a series that celebrates a male hero, the heroine caters to his whims. Both writers are examples of what living under a white male default setting has done to our brains. Why we begin to think that being a girl is a bad thing, and hate to be called one, people have even changed the word to gurl to avoid it. Even the tv shows written by women, demonstrate this tendency to cater to the male default setting - heck look at Shondra Rimes' Grey's Anatomy...she's a black woman, but in her story - the people with the power are the men. She shows the world as it is. She has broken some barriers with a lesbian relationship, but not quite.
It's hard to not think like this. Not when the media and everyone around you is telling you to do so.
I had a discussion with a white guy a few months ago, which was rather interesting. We were talking about racism and gender equality, which he was for. He said that those of us with the power - with these privileges - don't want to give it up. We don't want to let go of it. Not even to share it. Whether we admit it or not, he told me, this is the case...for everyone. Yet, I remember saying, you want to feel good about yourselves at the same time...think of yourselves as good people. Yes, he said, this is true. So we justify it or try to find ways to share it, without having to give anything up in the process.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2010-05-01 01:38 am (UTC)As a result, we start seeing the patterns emerging.
Racefail, Comicfail...all of those come back to the same root cause...
I think it all boils down to the idea that mean are the default
it's the same with race ---white is the default
This is so true. When I was a kid there were two popular movies that I adored, that were a fixture of pop culture - Star Wars and Indiana Jones. In school, we did a children's play called Idaho Jones, written by one of our classmates. While there were female writers in the class, including myself, the person assigned to write the play was a guy.
And I got the role of a female German villian who was a giant, while Idaho Jones was played by a cute and small red-head. I remember writing my version of a female Indiana Jones, I called her Jade Falcon - and my tale was very different than his. Same deal with Star Wars - the hero was a farm-boy, the damsel - Princess Leia - who had to bind her breasts so they didn't show up and she didn't look too feminine in the first film. Chaste and in white. Later, after she got involved with Han Solo, in the last film, she were a slave-girl's bikini.
There were no films with a female action hero in which I could identify. TV came closest. And perhaps the occasional book - if you looked hard enough, there were women writers such as Anne McCaffrey and Andre Norton.
I think about what people are squeeing about now on my flist. Is it female heroines? Not really. It is Harry Dresden, not Rachel Morgan.
While Kim Harrison's novels have hit best-seller status, they don't have the same appeal as Butcher's. Or it is Doctor Who. A white male and British iconic hero. (The default is white, male, and English(British) or (American) English speaking. That's who controls the media.)
Oh sure, JK Rowling broke through with Harry Potter - but it was with a male icon that she did it. And Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series - but again it is a series that celebrates a male hero, the heroine caters to his whims. Both writers are examples of what living under a white male default setting has done to our brains. Why we begin to think that being a girl is a bad thing, and hate to be called one, people have even changed the word to gurl to avoid it. Even the tv shows written by women, demonstrate this tendency to cater to the male default setting - heck look at Shondra Rimes' Grey's Anatomy...she's a black woman, but in her story - the people with the power are the men. She shows the world as it is. She has broken some barriers with a lesbian relationship, but not quite.
It's hard to not think like this. Not when the media and everyone around you is telling you to do so.
I had a discussion with a white guy a few months ago, which was rather interesting. We were talking about racism and gender equality, which he was for. He said that those of us with the power - with these privileges - don't want to give it up. We don't want to let go of it. Not even to share it. Whether we admit it or not, he told me, this is the case...for everyone. Yet, I remember saying, you want to feel good about yourselves at the same time...think of yourselves as good people. Yes, he said, this is true. So we justify it or try to find ways to share it, without having to give anything up in the process.