Sunday, October 18, 2009

Where are your women?

Check that. Where are your women who look closer to the undesirable version of the racial spectrum, but who are just as competent, just as capable and just as curious as the souped up versions that are presented?

We've been treated to lots of stories heroes and heroines saving the world, making a difference and having fun on the internet, the big screen and the small screen. I rarely see people who look like the kind of woman I physically became in those stories. I usually see them as victims, as dimwitted, unimaginative, non progressive people, as an archetype who is a 'magical negro' or who has 'the ancient Chinese secret,' but not leading a full live that has ups and downs and highs and lows except as some sort of 'afterschool special'.

I reflect on the current crop of medical dramas and again notice that women of color as doctors, as supervisors, as specialists are missing in large numbers. I was thinking about 'Grey's Anatomy,' which does have women of color as a part of the writing staff, but none as attendings in the show's hospital staff. Make no mistake-Miranda Bailey may huff and puff, but she and Callie are HNIC and HMIC respectively.

Sci-fi, action and fantasy makes you want to cry because of the dearth. Even if a woman of dark color is presented, she rarely is in on the action and she lives in a vacuum. She's married and/or is a mother and is remote.

Of course, I can write my own stories...but will they ever be read?

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