"True Blood", "Glee" & The treatment of Black Women on TV

PART I: TRUE BLOOD

I hate when people say "I'm not a homophobe" cause that usually means you have some deep seeded phobias of homosexuals. And since the more you try to deny something, the more you fail, I'm not even gonna try. Gonna dive right in. I hate that Tara, the sole black chick on TRUE BLOOD is now a lesbian. Despite no inkling of liking chicks before. But more than that, I hate being sold a bag of goods. As a faithful viewer, you take me on a journey every week and get me to believe a certain truth about your characters and then you sell me out. You give me a bag of gimmicks to win my already freely given love. Dear Mr. Alan Ball: How dare you sirrah!

I don't like gimmicks. I hate them with a fevered passion that I can never fully articulate to you. Ever. See my seething hatred for Lady Gaga. I hate that entertainment is contingent on that and not about the individual's ability to communicate a thought or emotion based on their God-given ability to connect with hundreds or, and this is when it's most beautiful and pure in my opinion, with one other soul. You can be great without wearing a meat dress. And you can be a great show with great characters without deciding to illustrate one's soul quest has led her to become a lesbian.

The character Tara has been through a lot in the previous season...well, seasons actually. She was raised by an abusive alcoholic mother, who knows where her father is, if he is. Was hopelessly and tragically in love with her best friend's brother, who never noticed her let alone reciprocated those feelings. She then falls for an enigmatic man nicknamed "Eggs" while they're all living with a mysterious woman, who just so happens to be an ancient evil goddess trying to bring back her master, the god Dionysus. Then her crush, Jason--best friend's brother--accidentally on purpose kills her lover Eggs, she spends most of last season angry about that and then gets kidnapped, raped, and overall psychologically tortured by a vampire trying to get to her best friend Sookie. She escapes him by killing him, or so she thought, returns to her hometown only to find out that Franklin the vamp isn't dead at all--bashing his brains out won't work hun, he's a fuckin' VAMPIRE. Stake in the heart or sunlight, haven't you seen INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE? No, well rent it. Brad, Tom, Christian, and ANTONIO...need I say more?--so he comes back to reclaim or kill her, he's fine with either option, and she's saved by Jason, her former crush and killer of her lover Eggs, a fact that Jason hasn't yet revealed to her but does so once she succumbs to familiar feelings and plants a sultry lip lock on him. After hearing this, she flees Jason's, strikes up a casual fling again with her boss Sam, who she was messing around with in season 1, and then finally in order to cleanse herself of all she's been through and to rediscover herself, she leaves town. We find her in this season in New Orleans. She's now a kickboxing/UFC/lesbian. Guess that's what it takes to get over a trauma.

Bitch has been through a lot, I get it. And I was all for her starting anew at the end of last season. She cut her hair and drove off into the night without a word to anyone. Cool. Stealthy. Like it. But why does that have to translate into now I'm a lesbian? And where was the hint of these leanings before? There weren't any. This is why I feel it's a ratings trick geared toward keeping an already edgy show even edgier. It seems since the late 1990's, self discovery and hip became synonymous with gay characters. I don't mind gay characters, but treat them honestly. This 'sexuality is constantly fluid' mess kinda bolsters idiotic stereotypes that gays are hyper sexed. Bouncing back and forth from bed to bed regardless now of who's in it with them. Given the cultural index on gay marriage and gays in the military, stereotypes like the above, may help to bolster the idiotic fringe. But to me, this cheapens her whole journey. It just feels like the writers and TV execs got together and determined the quickest way to get her from here to there. It feels disingenuous to what she's been through and how she rose above it and went from being a victim to a survivor. That's a helluva story and one I would have enjoyed and empathized with. She's already my girl, I root for the black chick on every show I watch cause she, they, are automatically my niggas! And it pisses me off cause the creators are treating me, the viewer, like I'm an idiot, incapable of understanding a character's hard fought pilgrimage to inner peace without having said character do something incredibly salacious like jumping into the sack with another chick. It's not done for truth in really having her discover that part of herself, although if they stick with that storyline, which they probably will, it will become that. But let's not be fooled into thinking that now, at this moment or at the moment of conception, that was the case. It's titillating to watch two attractive women make out and be naked together so...ratings!!! And if this is the tongue in cheek way homosexuality is dealt with on TV, no wonder attitudes in politics haven't changed. Makes sense we can't get our government to pull the trigger. Perhaps we need Dick Cheney back. He never seemed to have a problem pulling the trigger--even if it was aimed at your face.

PART II: GLEE

So this issue has kinda already been handled at the end of this season but I still feel it's worth mentioning. I was really irritated this whole season by the character Puck dating the fat white girl who's character name eludes me at the moment. Again, I know this was a soul searching thing for this character; a way to give him more depth. Sure, make the handsome bad boy date the fat girl. It'll give him character. Soften him up so we all think he's a nice guy now. And it can make those of us who were the fat girl in high school hearken back to ye olden days, when we were fair maidens dreaming of a hot boy with a Mohawk to whisk us away to his castle on a hill. Oh, was that just my fantasy? That's a typical TV show convention and GLEE is hardly the first to use it, and damn sure won't be the last. Fine. But they tried that last season. By making the same character pursue Mercedes, the fat black chick on the show.

I was weirded out and thrilled inside when I watched that story line last year. But by the time the credits rolled at episode's close, the curtain had come down on their faux romance. Yes, it was all a rouse to get him back into the popular circle--she'd become popular cause of her brief flirtation with the cheer leading squad known as THE CHEERIOS. I love that GLEE unabashedly tries to tell teens anyone can fit in anywhere. Not exactly how I remember high school, but whatever. But they ended last season focusing still on the main love triangle, hexagon, or whatever with Rachel, Finn, Quinn, and Puck with a bit of Artie, Tina, and Mike thrown in for good measure. By the time this season began, it seemed like everyone was dating someone or was the object of some secret crush, EXCEPT Mercedes. There were gay crushes--Kurt and Blaine & Santana and Brittney--there were straight crushes and boyfriend and girlfriends--everyone else EXCEPT Mercedes! I'd read going into this season that Ryan Murphy the show's creator, said that Mercedes would get a love interest this year. So I watched with bated breath. Who would it be? Would he already be a cast member or is someone new coming in? And nothing. THEN to add insult to injury, they make Puck, who'd previously been interested in her, date the ugliest, tallest, and dare I say fattest girl on the show. The fat white chick. And I was pissed. If you wanted to give him depth and all that jazz, why not go back to the Mercedes well? She's cute and positive and happy with her body. And though the FWC is too, she's just so hard on the eyes. What, all of a sudden, Mercedes wasn't good enough to give him the transformation the show wanted? She's good enough to be second fiddle to Rachel (though I think many of us know who the real powerhouse is here) and do her fat black-woman-who-can-sing duty when needed, but she can't be the object of a good looking (by TV standards) white boy's desires? I call bullshit on that.

So she went all season as a romantic leper and I watched only out of hope that things would turn around...and the singing's pretty good...and I love the show. But every time we took a trip down Kurt's love woes, and veered into Rachel/Finn/Quinn territory, with a Santana/Brittney/Artie detour, I rolled my eyes and sucked my teeth in typical angry black bitch fashion. When was the fat black chick gonna get some damn play?!

And then as a cop out or an after thought, it's revealed in the last damn episode of the season, that she's been secretly seeing the new blond white boy who's only really attractive to television casting agents and has a passable singing voice, since the prom. Beggars can't really be choosers can they? I'm curious to see what happens here next season. And thank you Mr. Murphy for finally living up to your promise and for realizing that this is a character of untapped potential.

PART III: THE GIST

These are but two examples of what I find to be a bigger problem. Black women are systematically underused and/or ignored on television, particularly as it pertains to romance. I'm all for black love on television and off. Healthy images of black men and black women loving each other and supporting each other as family units are desperately needed. But black women being ignored as romantic leads for white men on television really makes a big statement. Which is why, though I have some logistical (and by that I mean writing, plot lines and the like) with the show HAWTHORNE starring Jada Pinkett-Smith, I do like that her character is now married to the attractive lead white male character Tom, played by Michael Vartan. And that's not just cause I've been crushing on him since NEVER BEEN KISSED, either. Or cause he's fluent in French, which I find uber sexy. Ok, maybe it is. Like it or not this country is still polarized by race, and television is a microcosm of that. And who the white boy finds attractive, so goes the country. Think about the shows you watch. Are there any black women in them? If so, what are their roles? Are they comic relief? The innocuous best friend? Do they have love interests? If so, what do they look like? And do they really seem to love each other, or is that too a device for comic relief? You may find some examples to refute me, but not many. I know. I watch a lot of TV.

Black women are disappearing from the television landscape. We're routinely cast off as romantic non-desirables. Or we're painted with the "black bitch" brush--hard edged, aggressive, asexual types. And if the lead white male character has a choice between a pretty black love interest and either a dynamite white one or even a run of the mill white female lead, it's clear which one is chosen time and time again. And if it isn't lemme share...the white girl wins. Just like in life. We're not an intelligent society anymore, and people take their lead from TV, cause hey if it weren't true, it wouldn't be on the air. So I believe subconsciously that's the lead that penetrates...black women aren't as good. They're not worth as much and definitely not worth the same amount of time. All those fine ass men running around the fictional town of Bon Temps, LA, and not one could develop an interest in Tara? Not every woman who's brutalized by a man switches teams. Sometimes they can, and sometimes they take a break from dating and work on themselves, get some therapy, take self defense classes too. All the dating combos on GLEE, and Mercedes rides the bench till damn near the last minute.

It's just disheartening and suffocating as A). a black woman, B). an actress, and C). an avid TV viewer; to have to sift through the endless onslaught of images and plot lines and whatever else, telling you that you are a non-person. And then getting those same messages out in the world. I see a correlation. Others may not. But then again, it's my blog. I'll see what I wanna see.

Till next time, lovers!