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Heroes and fandom response to it on LJ have been fascinating to watch. Perhaps, cropping up in the middle of a resurgence of the Great Cultural Appropriation Debate of Doom that never really goes away but seems to ebb and flow, it is especially marked for speculation, derision and analysis due to its multicultural cast. I, personally, love that the cast is such a mixed bag of ethnicities. I love that DL is married to Niki and that they have lovely little caramel Micah. What I didn't like was what we saw, or didn't see, of DL in the first few episodes. I thought, okay, great, deadbeat dad. Black deadbeat dad. Angry, black, criminal deadbeat dad. Thumbs up on that one, Tim Kring, way to go.
DL has, however, evolved into the strong, primary caretaker despite the financial problems created by his criminal record. He is the more emotionally stable parent. He has shifted from an ethnic stereotype and into a gender stereotype, the strong, capable masculine figure.
However, other examples of ethnic typecasting and/or stereotyping (with the exception of the Haitian's continued namelessness) have gone pretty much over my head. My particular area of interest is gender and I more readily see examples along those lines than I do in terms of race. Granted, they tie together sometimes.
Looking around, trying to figure out what was what on Heroes as it regards race and ethnicity, I realized that, with shades of grey, all of the characters on Heroes are stock characters, archetypes of very specific models.
( Read more... )
DL has, however, evolved into the strong, primary caretaker despite the financial problems created by his criminal record. He is the more emotionally stable parent. He has shifted from an ethnic stereotype and into a gender stereotype, the strong, capable masculine figure.
However, other examples of ethnic typecasting and/or stereotyping (with the exception of the Haitian's continued namelessness) have gone pretty much over my head. My particular area of interest is gender and I more readily see examples along those lines than I do in terms of race. Granted, they tie together sometimes.
Looking around, trying to figure out what was what on Heroes as it regards race and ethnicity, I realized that, with shades of grey, all of the characters on Heroes are stock characters, archetypes of very specific models.
( Read more... )
