Showing posts with label Torchwood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Torchwood. Show all posts
Monday, August 2, 2010
The Science Fiction Emmys: Best series at portraying LGBT characters
I thought, in addition to my series on post-colonialism in sci-fi, I'd conduct a sci-fi Emmy series. So, I decided to start with an easy Emmy: Best LGBT characterization. Does anyone really even need to guess here? It's Captain Jack, from Torchwood, of course! Captain Jack is one of my favorite characters in all of science fiction. I don't understand how anyone, even the most homophobic bigot, could hate old Jack. His one liners recall Kerr Avon, he has the charisma of Paul Darrow as well, and he is an LGBT-advocates dream for positive science fiction depictions. Indeed, my only problem with Captain Jack's characterization is that it is so well done that it's almost too easy to like him. He's in some sense, a safe LGBT character, not a "Rocky Horror Picture Show" drag queen with a heart of gold. But I think it's important to realize that until the new Doctor Who and Torchwood brought in LGBT characters into the realm of sci-fi, LGBT characters were still in the closet. I think, unfortunately, they still are to a large extent in American sci-fi. While homoerotic subtexts could be found in British sci-fi as far back as Blake and Avon, those same subtexts are fairly rare in American science fiction. If I could nominate an honorable mention, it would definitely be Babylon 5, which quietly promoted a very sincere pro-gay reading of modern science fiction. I've heard that Dark Angel, DS9, and perhaps Dollhouse have also attempted this, but the recent controversy over the American adaption of Torchwood (since fortuitously canceled) shows that we have a long way to go.
Friday, July 23, 2010
The problem of Gay saints
A post of mine from my other blog, that applies to Torchwood and sci-fi portrayals of LGBT characters.
One of my favorite blogs is by Kittredge Cherry, an LGBT activist who deals with queer art. Kittredge often blogs about the need for more positive spiritual portrayals of LGBT characters in art, and I agree with her on that. The day of the suicidal gay man and moody lesbian should have long ago past, at least as the standard categorization of gay and lesbian people.
Yet, at the same time, I think there is some danger in resorting solely to the "gay saint" image. Like mentally ill people and blacks, the LGBT community has been historically misrepresented in film, leading many LGBT people to conclude that this generation needs a kind of perpetual Sidney Poitier image. I think that kind of image can only harm LGBT people, because its as unrealistic as the demonization of the gay community in the past. Instead of having only negative portrayals, we have only positive portrayals, making LGBT characters as monochrome and unexciting as they were in the past. Occasionally, in an urge to promote a more tolerant vision of LGBT people, pro-LGBT activists and their allies target series that are clearly meant to be sympathetic to LGBT causes. The third season of Torchwood, for instance, gained flack for killing off one of its LGBT characters, even though the evidence seems to suggest that this was not done for any homophobic intent.
I think it is wonderful that LGBT people are being more positively portrayed in the media. But if we stick at simply the Poitier portrayals, the LGBT community will be as hampered artistically as the black community was by the Poitier image in the fifties and sixties. We need LGBT characters that are fully and richly human, which move the LGBT population into its "Shaft" and "Spike Lee" era. Only when LGBT people are accepted as fully fine and fully flawed as the rest of us, will the community feel truly at home in American society. That is my wish and prayer.
One of my favorite blogs is by Kittredge Cherry, an LGBT activist who deals with queer art. Kittredge often blogs about the need for more positive spiritual portrayals of LGBT characters in art, and I agree with her on that. The day of the suicidal gay man and moody lesbian should have long ago past, at least as the standard categorization of gay and lesbian people.
Yet, at the same time, I think there is some danger in resorting solely to the "gay saint" image. Like mentally ill people and blacks, the LGBT community has been historically misrepresented in film, leading many LGBT people to conclude that this generation needs a kind of perpetual Sidney Poitier image. I think that kind of image can only harm LGBT people, because its as unrealistic as the demonization of the gay community in the past. Instead of having only negative portrayals, we have only positive portrayals, making LGBT characters as monochrome and unexciting as they were in the past. Occasionally, in an urge to promote a more tolerant vision of LGBT people, pro-LGBT activists and their allies target series that are clearly meant to be sympathetic to LGBT causes. The third season of Torchwood, for instance, gained flack for killing off one of its LGBT characters, even though the evidence seems to suggest that this was not done for any homophobic intent.
I think it is wonderful that LGBT people are being more positively portrayed in the media. But if we stick at simply the Poitier portrayals, the LGBT community will be as hampered artistically as the black community was by the Poitier image in the fifties and sixties. We need LGBT characters that are fully and richly human, which move the LGBT population into its "Shaft" and "Spike Lee" era. Only when LGBT people are accepted as fully fine and fully flawed as the rest of us, will the community feel truly at home in American society. That is my wish and prayer.
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