“Six years ago, I had a deal with Lifetime Television to develop my bestselling novel, The Dirty Girls Social Club, as a TV series. It soon became clear that the relationship wasn’t going to work, when two executives insisted that my pilot outline “wasn’t Latin enough,” because it told of middle class, educated American women who happened to be Latina. “This reads as if it were about me and my friends,” complained one executive in disgust. I didn’t know how to respond, so I asked her what she’d prefer. “Why don’t we make the girls debating whether or not to date men in prison? I know that’s what Latinas talk about, just like it’s what black women talk about.”
—Opinion: The problem with “Devious Maids” goes far beyond Hollywoodpeople always want to talk shit about us when we complain about fucked up representation…but these are the conversations happening in board rooms. like, jesus fucking christ. fuck this planet.
No, Texas Law Does Not Say You Can Shoot an Escort Who Refuses to Have Sex
rhrealitycheck.orgA misreading of the verdict in a strange and upsetting Texas case has gone viral, since Gawker claimed: “Texas Says It’s OK to Shoot an Escort If She Won’t Have Sex With You.” Texas law does not say that, and the jury didn’t say that either. Pushing the idea that an “Insane Texas Law Made it Legal for a Man to Kill a Prostitute” is irresponsible; it misinforms the public and sends a terrible message to violent misogynists.
It is not in dispute that the defendant, Ezekiel Gilbert, paid the victim, Lenora Frago, $150 for 30 minutes of escort services advertised on Craigslist. After Frago refused to have sex with him, the defendant shot her. Frago was paralyzed and the defendant was charged with aggravated assault. When she died seven months later Gilbert was indicted for murder instead.
At trial, defense attorneys made the shocking argument that Gilbert was justified in shooting Frago because she had stolen from him and Texas law permits the use of deadly force to defend one’s property at night. That a defense was raised in this case based on Texas’ awful defense of property law is certainly newsworthy and even more reason to reform that law. But there is no evidence that the jury acquitted based on the defense of property law in the first place.
The much more plausible reason for the verdict is that the jury believed the defendant’s claim that he didn’t intend to shoot the victim. Per Texas’ homicide statute, the prosecution needed to prove that Gilbert “intentionally or knowingly” killed Frago or intended to cause her “serious bodily injury.” The defense argued that Gilbert lacked the requisite intent for murder because when he shot at the car as Frago and the owner of the escort service drove away, he was aiming for the tire. The bullet hit the tire and a fragment, “literally the size of your fingernail,” according to Defense Attorney Bobby Barrera, hit Frago. Barrera does not believe the jury acquitted because of the defense of property law. He believes they acquitted because they believed Gilbert didn’t mean to shoot her.
Another reason why we need to be thoughtfully critical of the media we consume. Gawker isn’t exactly known for its accurate, fact-based headlines. They wrote something and the media rang with it! It’s still upsetting that he was acquitted, but at least let’s not misread the situation for what it really is.
Who gets to be heroes, who gets to be human?
Right now we’re seeing geek culture across a lot of spaces fight the same battles- misogyny, racism, heterosexism, in videogames, Sci-fi/Fantasy books, movies, etc.
I saw a specific question - “What is gamers problems with women protagonists in games?” - which, you can broaden out to all of those issues.
Heroes.
Idealized characters. Characters with power. Characters with agency. Characters who matter. The fictional examples help us see the potential for real people.
But kyriarchy sits heavy on making sure we never see people HAVING potential. Widening the view of people makes them into full people, and not the roles kyriarchy needs. Which is why the marginalized are best set up as sidekicks, supporting characters, sacrificial characters, caretakers, anyone who demonstrates the “proper place” for such people.
When we see women primary protagonists? They’re sexualized, because even if they’re the “main character”, they’re really there to remind the (assumed, het male) reader/watcher/gamer, who they’re there to serve.
It’s also why we see a lot less POC, non-straight male, non-femme women, women who don’t fit male gaze, characters - because they don’t serve the role of serving the presumed white male consumer, they in fact, displace him by not putting his desires at the center of the universe.
So what the backlash is, is the fact that anyone else might get heroes too. The idea anyone else might… save the world, free the kingdom, destroy the demon lord, whatever. The megalomania of kyriarchy is so deep that even mattering in an imaginary world is too much of a threat to these folks.
Because they have to work so hard everyday to keep those blinders up because reality doesn’t always match their fiction - all of us ARE people, not just worthy of respect, not just demanding it, but also, a lot of us are a lot more fucking competent than you, because we actually had to work for it instead of imagining it. And because that’s too hard to face, even as you have all the institutions serving you, communities working to protect you even when you fail, and taking from our labor to benefit you, you create imaginary worlds where everyone knows their place.
And that’s it. You’re afraid of losing your perfect world in your head. Your ultimate delusion.
Strangely, just because some movies/tv shows/comics/books/videogames exist where you are not the worshipped center of the world - doesn’t magically reach into your head and rip out whatever media you ARE enjoying that puts you at the center.
You’re just so narcissistic that you can’t let anyone else imagine a world where they matter too.
And we see hundreds and thousands of dudebros willing to show up, organize DDOS attacks, get people fired, toss rape and death threats - because they’re afraid of not being the center of the universe.
Willing to spontaneously organize to make rape and death threats because they may not be the center of imaginary worlds.
And society doesn’t see exactly how damaged and dangerous that mentality is? Where a fiction > than someone’s life?
But that’s what it’s always been. The fiction that men are better > women’s lives. The fiction that white people are better > POC lives. The fiction that straight people are the only way > LGBT lives. etc. etc. Anything that challenges that narrative must be silenced.
You maintain your delusions in our blood.
And that’s why anything, no matter how small, “It’s just a game/book/movie”, must be protected.
Because your superiority only exists in delusion.
“Can someone tell me whether we're supposed to be offended by Johnny Depp's portrayal of Tonto or not? Must know for dinner parties/twitter.”
—Lena Dunham Does That Thing That Lena Dunham Does
Yeah, she actually asked that on Twitter. Next time I see a fauxminist site peddling her series because “OMG WE NEED MORE WOMEN ON TV”, I’m going to go be the Hulk to their sorry Loki. There is nothing worth defending in her or her products at this stage. And if I am supposed to consume her flavor of shit because it’s about women, well, I’d rather die of starvation.
