Doctor Who

The other day, I decided to rewatch a few older episodes of Doctor Who, the popular British sci-fi show. Normally I am not into science fiction, but I really liked this show when I watched it on Netflix a few years ago. Eventually, it got too confusing and I stopped watching, but every now and then I put it on in the background for noise while I do homework.

I have never looked at Doctor Who in terms of race, as it was something I didn't think about too often before taking my Women's Studies class. After watching a few hours worth of the show, I began to think about the writing of the show, and how that writing works in terms of race.

The writers of the show do a good job with the few Afro-european characters. Now, I don't necessarily know what stereotypes exist in the British media, but from what I can tell the characters are not written in a stereotypical way. They act and speak in the same way that the white characters do. They are written as intelligent people, who are just as necessary in helping the Doctor as any other character is. However, despite this, there are still so few Afro-european characters on the show. From the episodes that I have seen, there were maybe two or three major characters that I can remember the names of that were of color. I'm not necessarily sure if this is representative of the British population, or if BBC has the same problems with not writing people of color as NBC in America does, but I'm leaning towards the second one.

The thing that most surprises me about the writing of Doctor Who is the fact that in 50 years, there has not been a Doctor of color. For those of you that don't know, the Doctor is an alien (who looks and acts just like a human) that can regenerate as a person of any age, any gender, any race. However, in all of the 12  Doctors there have been, they have all been white males. I think this says a lot about the team of writers. Do they not think a women Doctor would be as popular? The Doctor has had plenty of woman companions who have been incredibly intelligent and necessary for the Doctor to complete this work. Why could the next Doctor not have been a woman with a male companion? Or ever better, a female Doctor with a female companion? The companion does not always have to be a love interest, as in the case with Donna. A female Doctor would still have the same brain and act in the same way as the Doctor. I know for a fact that a female or Afro-european Doctor would be just as funny as the current Doctor. I just don't see what the writers or casting directors thought processes are in terms of characters that aren't white males.

As great as I think the show was when I watched it, I do see a lot of flaws in terms of the writing of women or Afr-European characters in the show. I believe this shows that it is just not America that has trouble representing non white males in the media.

If any of you have watched the show, or just have opinions on this issue too, I encourage you to comment below. I would love to have a discussion with you!

New Blog Focus - It's More Than Words

It's been a long time since I've posted, and that's because I've been feeling very uninspired. I realized that the focus of my blog causes me to go out and search for material to write about, and I've kind of been putting it on the back-burner. So, because of this, I have decided to refocus my thoughts. I'm going to try to look at the way media is written (movies, television, music) and find patterns or just speak about things I find interesting or confusing in these words. I will not be creating a new blog for this, as I feel that More Than TV fits this description as well. I hope that this new focus will be better for me as a writer and for you as a reader.

Dehumanizing Black Women

The other day I read this article from The Frisky and I found it very interesting. I always knew that black women were very sexualized in the media, if not more sexualized then white women. However, I never thought of it in terms of "dehumanizing" black women. But I can definitely see where the author gets that idea from.

We are shown daily in the media, black women as either highly sexual, or "mammies" who never have sex. It is thought to be odd if a woman of color on TV or in a movie does not have an extremely curvy figure. A flat chested or flat bottomed black woman is a rarity on screen, and usually if there is one, the character is more of an "Oreo" with a more "white" personality. Black women are strippers and prostitutes on screen or in music. Black women in music are also less likely to be called women. They may be called bitches, or even just a piece of ass, but never a woman. They are broken up into parts of their body, but never seen as a whole. And yes, this does occur to white women, but it seems to be most aggressively done to women in the hip hop culture, who are predominately black.

I can see how this language dehumanizes women in the eyes of the public. Women are not whole people, they are only breasts and ass. This could possibly explain the widespread violence in predominantly black neighborhoods. It could also explain the thought processes of many people, especially on issues such as rape and domestic violence.

I truly feel that knowing why we think things can help us change the way we think. I'm hoping to spread this information and to try and get women to seem more like humans and not pieces of something to the public. I hope you do too.

In case the link above does not work: http://www.thefrisky.com/2013-10-04/true-story-i-grew-up-a-poor-black-sex-symbol/

Intro Post

The other day I was sitting at Market One, by myself, doing a bit of people watching and eavesdropping. Conversations were boring and mundane, but after a few minutes, I heard this little gem from two boys sitting a few tables down. One of them said to the other, "White girls need their coffee like black girls need their welfare." My mouth almost dropped.

I was incredibly shocked. Now, I know they were just joking around, but it got me to thinking. This really reflects the way the media portrays African American women. There's a reason this joke is considered funny and it's because of the stereotype of women of color being poor. Countless TV shows, movies, books, perpetuate the idea of working class, poor black women. Usually, it is a single mom, but sometimes it can be a couple. Very rarely is a married black couple poor on TV (Fresh Prince, The Bill Cosby Show, et al).

Not only does the media keep fueling this stereotype, it also reinforces that it's okay to make this joke. Because it is thought to be true, it's okay to joke about it. All white girls drink Starbucks frequently, while all black girls are on welfare. Those are two equal comparisons, sure. I wondered what media those boys were watching that reinforced these stereotypes. Was it the news? Maybe it was something they saw at the movies. I'm not sure where they got this idea from. Yeah, sure, some black women are on welfare, but so are many white woman, and many white men. The fact that this joke targets black women shows how the media has influenced the thoughts of these men.

 I know I can't do anything to change this stereotype now, especially with how frequently women of color are shown on the news and other programs fitting this stereotype. No one ever thinks about the successful black women that the news and media doesn't air.

However, I can try to figure out where these stereotypes are coming from. That's what this blog is about. I am going to try to analyze why people, including myself, have these stereotypical thoughts. I want to find out what influences these thoughts.