A thread for discussing representation and diversity in all kinds of media. This covers creators and casting decisions as well as characters and in-universe discussions.
Historical works and decisions are in-scope as well, not just recent news.
Please put any spoilers behind tags and clearly state which work(s) they apply to.
This week, producer Ross Putnam started a Twitter account called "femscriptintros
", where he puts up examples of how women are introduced in the screenplays he's read. And nearly all of sound like terrible porn or are too concerned with emphasizing said lady is beautiful despite whatever traits she may have. Here's a Take Two podcast made today where he talks about it.
(Edited April 19 2024 to add mod pinned post)
Edited by Mrph1 on Apr 19th 2024 at 11:45:51 AM
If the point of the book had been Park learning about his own internalized racism, that would be one thing. But it's not. It's just the author's own racism showing through.
The juvenile prose style and the sheer implausibility of there being a guy who looks like a Kpop star in 1986 (Author Appeal to a point that becomes cringeworthy) makes me think of one of those things I might see a teen girl starting off her writing career with. It's more coherent than My Immortal, but reading through it I'm imagining the situation at the publishing house was someone being offered a manuscript that used to be a crummy Kingdom Hearts highschool AU with the copyrighted names taken off and deciding that, yes, this should deserves to be made into a novel, and a bestselling one at that.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Worked for Fifty Shades of Grey. That was just soul crushingly awful though, not racist.
Yeah, from those excerpts it sounds like it was written by a white k-pop stan with no real other knowledge of koreans and their culture.
Oh, hun, Clearly you haven't heard of that woman's latest book.
I had no idea that The Mister was a thing, but yeah from the description alone it set off a few flags. Given who wrote it I would indeed expect the worst.
No, I haven’t. I’m gonna regret asking, aren’t I?
Screaming Into The Void
Worked for Fifty Shades of Grey. That was just soul crushingly awful though, not racist.
About One Day at a Time, I keep hearing that Netflix is starting to cancel shows after a few seasons because the number of new subscribers that a show adds decreases with time. Still, I get the feeling the show was also poorly marketed; I watched the first season about three times and I still didn't get notifications when new seasons were up, yet Netflix keeps trying to get me to watch Riverdale of all things.
Edited by Pseudopartition on May 15th 2019 at 5:27:36 AM
ahem
The hero is "an English earl who’s also a model-slash-DJ-slash-photographer-slash-composer" named Maxim Trevelyan who falls in love with his undocumented Albanian maid servant. She's also a victim of rape and sex trafficking (BUT SHE'S ALSO A VIRGIN GUYZ!) and James handles these topics with all the sensitivity of a wrecking ball.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/04/e-l-james-the-mister-review/587515/
The above review has several examples, such as it apparently taking FOUR HUNDRED PAGES for the heroine to find the courage to so much as look at the guy's dick... Oh boy...
Edited by InkDagger on May 15th 2019 at 3:35:54 AM
Good, awful and racist. And that’s not nearly as bad as mine, where it keeps telling me to watch Titans. As in “not available on Netflix in the US because of DC Universe please let that service die by year’s end” Titans.
Wow. That may be one of the dumbest premises I’ve ever read for a story. I know there’s an audience for this, but does the world’s slowest moving porno need a racist backstory?
And how the blue hell can you be a victim of rape AND a virgin? I don’t think it works that way. Ever.
Edited by Beatman1 on May 15th 2019 at 6:43:59 AM
I haven't read the book (and I don't plan to), but maybe the book treats the heroine as a virgin so long as she wasn't vaginally penetrated? Ugh, I feel dirty just for typing that.
My main concern is that there are still publishers willing to greenlight a 500 page manuscript with the mention "written by EL James".
The Shadow
Many people don't count it if it's not consensual.
EDIT: Money, dear troper.
Edited by TheShadow on May 15th 2019 at 4:34:08 AM
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
She's established and her books do sell. So does tripe like Left Behind.
Based on the reviews, it sounds more like she was kidnapped for the PURPOSE of sex trafficking so we can get that sweet sweet tragic backstory, but nothing actually happened sexual assault wise so she's still a virgin.
Which... Like, I don't want to discount how traumatic kidnapping and attempted sex trafficking, but I think this is less James being empathetic to such trauma and more author shilling so we have the tragic backstory without dealing with the sexual trauma and consequences of such a backstory. Does that make sense? Tragic enough to be dramatic, but not enough to ruin the sexy.
Or so she's attempting. I'd never describe anything she's written as sexy. I also could be totally wrong since I, obviously, haven't read it.
Edited by InkDagger on May 15th 2019 at 4:45:52 AM
, I guess so… How she ever became established in the first place is beyond me though. =[ Like, at what point did a publisher see an awfully written lemon Twilight fanfic and think "Yep, that's gonna bring us bucks." And it did.
Edited by Lyendith on May 15th 2019 at 2:37:28 PM
A lot of literary erotica is like fast food. It doesn't have to be high quality, and in some cases the lower quality makes it less intensive to consume. As long as it tickles those carnal urges.
Sometimes the low quality is part of the appeal.
I mean sure not with trite like this, but short stories where they replace all mentions of sex or intimacy with skills, names, and the like as its going on so it just sounds ridiculous.
Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.
Purple Prose and even Beige Prose have their entertainment value even if I can't derive any sexual pleasure from consuming them. Better yet if it gets really creative with the metaphors, a la the infamous translations of Kinoko Nasu's sex scenes.
The Mister's depiction of Albania was so offensive and inaccurate, it actually drew criticism from the Albanian ambassador to Britain.
Edited by windleopard on May 15th 2019 at 8:14:00 AM
Good! That’s the only way this kind of crap is gonna get slapped down. Education.
Oh, bother.
While that is good news, is there an article covering it that's not from the Daily Mail?
I don't want to click on that fascist apologia rag.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Yeesh.
That... seems rough.
Set in 1986 though... that's odd. I generally think YA romance books as not being period pieces, at least not a period most of them would think of as "my dad's generation." Given the time period, one would probably expect there to be low-key racism in the characters' dialogue and inner thoughts, but some of those narration bits are pretty rough too.
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