race fail is full of fail, aka this is a rant (but with gifts!)

[kristin]

i do not generally read sf/f anymore. not since high school, except a few beloved authors i keep up with. i had been considering getting back into it, but have decided not to. right now my list of authors i would be willing to read is far shorter than the list i am now avoiding.

maybe it is because i had been paying so much attention to racefail, to everyone (at least outside of flock) in fandom decrying the pros, but i got super angry earlier looking at the fandom steel cage match. i saw the qualifying round, voted without really looking at the results, then checked back for the first round and noticed my options.

now i don't know all the fandoms, but using wikipedia i found (not surprised, but disappointed) there are seven characters of color who made it through to the first round, two of which (Cameron from T:SCC and Michael on Prison Break) are not coded as CoC. That is out of 48 characters, so roughly 15%. discounting cameron and michael, 12.5%. as an aside, there are 19 women. all in all, not surprising, and not as bad as it could be.

the issue i have is when you look at the results so far. only one CoC (the wonderful Gus of Psych) is winning. only one. (of the women only 7 are winning, none of whom are CoC.)

i think it is a pretty safe bet a white male will win this. now i know the CoC are often underwritten, suffering from lack of knowledge on the part of the creators, shoehorned in and under utilized. i know this. but still, it is a bit disappointing.

people, there are characters of color and they are awesome! take a look at nextian's characters of color yenta meme!

.

Now for the gift. tell me about your favorite CoC and i will make you an icon of them. (i would appreciate it if you could provide an image if it isn't a fandom i know.) depending on how many people reply, you might get more than one.

eta: i'm now unlocking this post
eta the second: gus didnt make it to the next round, so the sweet 16 is all white, with four women, at 25%, when fandom is 95%(guesstimate) female. looking at the results, it looks like there will be one woman (VMars) in the top 8 for certain (is she just that awesome or is it the fact that she hasn't been up against a guy before? i really hope it is the former, because she is pretty fucking awesome.) and one possibly (lorelei gilmore).

Comments

rant for the win! (part 2 and final!)

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

I think Johnson shows us that Lewis loses something after what happens in early season 3, and while Lewis can't quite get that same joie de vivre back—at the beginning of season 1, he proposes starting a mail-order adult diaper business as a second career, or flooding Memorial Stadium and turning it into a giant aquatic theme park; the other detectives in the unit treat his proposals with a certain gravity despite the joke factor, and little moments like that help make early Homicide such a joy—but in his partnership with Kellerman, Lewis slides into a new role. He's the older partner, the sometime voice of experience, even when Kellerman scoffs at him, and Lewis sometimes rags him back.

Clark Johnson has chemistry with everyone, and Lewis has memorable moments with people who aren't partnered with him as well. In the season 2 opener, "See No Evil," Lewis has a crisis of conscience that includes a shoving match with fellow detective Beau Felton across the men's room. Lewis isn't the featured character in "See No Evil"—he enters the story halfway through—but he steals the show in pivotal scenes. In that episode and in general, despite Lewis's tendency toward resisting emotional intimacy, Clark Johnson's marvelous facial expressions and body language show us something captivating about what's going on under the surface.

Understated but complex emotions! Dry wit and wisecracking banter! Partners who have conflicted and intense relationships with each other; who also grow into each other at the same time! Who sometimes just go and have a barbecue on Kellerman's boat! I'm finally getting to quote Terry Pratchett's description of Watch Captain Sam Vimes, from Men at Arms:

Vimes wanted to say that he liked traipsing around dark wet streets, but it would be no use. He didn't like it much. It was just what he'd always done. He thought about his badge in the same way he thought about his nose. He didn't love it or hate it. It was just his badge.

In many ways, that's the Homicide spirit, and Meldrick Lewis, in a nutshell. (And for a moment there I had a happy vision of Clark Johnson circa 1994 playing Sam Vimes in a screen adaptation...)

Some Lewis quotes through season 4, episode 18 ("Scene of the Crime"):

LEWIS: Refresh my memory. Was the name Abraham Lincoln up on the Board today?

LEWIS: Baltimore, home of the misdemeanor homicide.

LEWIS: Don't open your mouth.
MUNCH: Me? Open my mouth?
LEWIS: No, no. Promise me. I gotta hear it from you. Say, "I'll be good."
MUNCH: I promise I'll be good.
LEWIS: Oh, and there's one other thing. Don't wear that tie with the little Buddhas on it. It's ugly.
MUNCH: And what's wrong with that tie?
LEWIS: I wouldn't give directions to a guy wearing a tie like that.
MUNCH: Well, guess what? That just happens to be my lucky tie. I love that tie. Felicia gave me that tie.
LEWIS: Well, there you go. I rest my case.

LEWIS: You're a writer and you had to ask me for a pen?

LEWIS: Lemme tell you one thing, all right? You gotta do everything I say.
KELLERMAN: Well, there's nothing I won't do... but some things are gonna cost you extra.

KELLERMAN: You know, he shouldn't leave a department vehicle running like that.
LEWIS: Yeah, could get stolen.
KELLERMAN: Lieutenant said take the first car in.
LEWIS: We shouldn't.
KELLERMAN: You're right.
LEWIS [as they pull away in the car]: Grand theft auto, baby.
PEMBLETON [running after it]: You sons of bitches!

LEWIS: Iced tea keeps me in a summertime frame of mind.

AL-HADJ [referring to KELLERMAN]: How can you work with him?
LEWIS: What? Who, him?
AL-HADJ: He hates us. Why do his bidding?
LEWIS: Nah, he hates you. And most of the time, he does my bidding.

Re: rant for the win! (part 2 and final!)

[attempt-unique.livejournal.com]

okay, this was an awesome reply! homicide has been on my list for a while, though i haven't yet found a convenient source. and this is inspiring me to start pricing to buy, even before seeing the eps. (something i almost never ever do.)

i hadn't thought summer was a poc either, but apparently fox (the nextwork) counts her as a poc in their annual 'look and see how diverse we are' survey. so... who knows. but it is for certain that she is not coded as a poc, which is why i qualified her inclusion.

also, i will totally make you an icon(s), though i'm not sure how long it will take me. (i'm being bad and replying from work and i'm going to montreal this weekend, but def. within this week.)

Re: rant for the win! (part 2 and final!)

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

I received the Homicide season 1 & 2 box set and the season 3 set as very special presents and felt lucky for it! More so as I watched and got hooked. I believe it's possible to get all seasons except the last and seventh one online (even possible to get the TV movie that comes after the seventh season that way)... though it takes a long long time, going by my experience with trying to get slightly more than one season's worth that way. If you're interested I can PM or e-mail you (that is, supposing you don't already know all about it).

Looks like I've learned something today - that Fox survey is news to me, interesting! But yeah, I agree that Cameron's not coded as POC.

Hooray and thank you! I look forward to the icon(s). I have next to no skills in that arena; I am like the safety scissors of Photoshop users when other people are using surgical lasers.

I wish you a safe and hopefully restful weekend!

icon delivery!

[attempt-unique.livejournal.com]

have two icons:

.

let me know if you want text on either of these!

edited because there really are two icons, not just one posted twice!

Re: icon delivery!

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

Whee, thank you! Textless is just fine. I only have the one space open right now, but I saved both icons!

H:LotS

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I just looked up how much my H:LotS box sets cost... seasons 1&2 are in one set, which cost $17 used, and season 3 cost $14 new.