I agree with what the poster says... but I'm having a hard time figuring out what alternative language to use.
Yeah, that's about where I depart from the poster, too. I get the impression that the original poster comes from a queer activist background, as well, and as much as I love and identify with that background, I think that sometimes queer activists put a little too much stock in pinning down the language we use to describe our activist endeavors, and/or we think finding the right word will solve our problems. I think that's a bit naive. I take away from this article the idea that simply identifying as an ally is not enough, and that working in solidarity with marginalized communities is an ongoing and frequently unsettling process. But I don't think we can blame the word "ally" for people insulating themselves from that fact.
Re: comment about RTD as well-intentioned white man, at this point I can't even begin to accept that he might have good intentions after the chimney-sweep remark, never mind the Evil (but oh so hot) South Asian of Doom thing. Or the fact that all the white guys in Voyage of the Damned survived.
I hadn't thought about Voyage of the Damned! I think I was too preoccupied with thinking: "Oh, shit, you're going to make me watch an hour of Kylie Minogue?!" to notice how very, very problematic that episode was from an anti-racist perspective. But wow, it is.
I totally agree re: the Filipino chimney sweep comment, and I kind of want to smack RTD in the head for it. I dunno. I won't even claim to have that great of an understanding of how race relations in the UK differ from those in the US, but I'd really like to dig a little deeper into how race issues are treated in Torchwood and RTD-era Doctor Who. Because it seems to me that RTD wants to wave his anti-racist qualifications around, by virtue of introducing the first companion of color to DW. And I found that TW radio play "Golden Age" really fascinating (if infuriating) from an anti-racist and postcolonial perspective: the script seems outwardly to lambaste colonialism, and to argue that the UK is better now that it's given up its worldwide imperial ambitions. And yet Indian people are all but absent from the episode, and by bringing the Torchwood team to India, the implication is that India needs outside (read: white) assistance once more.
I dunno. I still think that RTD is, for the most part, a well-intentioned white man, but I don't intend that to be an apologia for his work. Clearly, there's a lot of problems in it that I don't think are really very forgivable. Maybe it would be more accurate to describe him as one of those gay white men who mistakenly thinks his experiences with heterosexism give him a special sensitivity and/or immunity to other times of isms. Although even there, I feel cautious, because I think there's been a lot of fanwank lately in which (mostly straight) fangirls are trying to diagnose him as a self-loathing gay man in order to "explain" his killing off of Ianto.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-07-17 11:00 pm (UTC)Yeah, that's about where I depart from the poster, too. I get the impression that the original poster comes from a queer activist background, as well, and as much as I love and identify with that background, I think that sometimes queer activists put a little too much stock in pinning down the language we use to describe our activist endeavors, and/or we think finding the right word will solve our problems. I think that's a bit naive. I take away from this article the idea that simply identifying as an ally is not enough, and that working in solidarity with marginalized communities is an ongoing and frequently unsettling process. But I don't think we can blame the word "ally" for people insulating themselves from that fact.
Re: comment about RTD as well-intentioned white man, at this point I can't even begin to accept that he might have good intentions after the chimney-sweep remark, never mind the Evil (but oh so hot) South Asian of Doom thing. Or the fact that all the white guys in Voyage of the Damned survived.
I hadn't thought about Voyage of the Damned! I think I was too preoccupied with thinking: "Oh, shit, you're going to make me watch an hour of Kylie Minogue?!" to notice how very, very problematic that episode was from an anti-racist perspective. But wow, it is.
I totally agree re: the Filipino chimney sweep comment, and I kind of want to smack RTD in the head for it. I dunno. I won't even claim to have that great of an understanding of how race relations in the UK differ from those in the US, but I'd really like to dig a little deeper into how race issues are treated in Torchwood and RTD-era Doctor Who. Because it seems to me that RTD wants to wave his anti-racist qualifications around, by virtue of introducing the first companion of color to DW. And I found that TW radio play "Golden Age" really fascinating (if infuriating) from an anti-racist and postcolonial perspective: the script seems outwardly to lambaste colonialism, and to argue that the UK is better now that it's given up its worldwide imperial ambitions. And yet Indian people are all but absent from the episode, and by bringing the Torchwood team to India, the implication is that India needs outside (read: white) assistance once more.
I dunno. I still think that RTD is, for the most part, a well-intentioned white man, but I don't intend that to be an apologia for his work. Clearly, there's a lot of problems in it that I don't think are really very forgivable. Maybe it would be more accurate to describe him as one of those gay white men who mistakenly thinks his experiences with heterosexism give him a special sensitivity and/or immunity to other times of isms. Although even there, I feel cautious, because I think there's been a lot of fanwank lately in which (mostly straight) fangirls are trying to diagnose him as a self-loathing gay man in order to "explain" his killing off of Ianto.