Help me, Obi-Fan!

[rivkat]

Okay, so I am going to this conference, and Madhavi Sunder and Anupam Chander have a paper, The Right to Mary Sue (28 pages long, pdf), which will be published in a major law review.  They use Mary Sue as a shorthand for much fan fiction, and also they argue that self-insertion into copyrighted works is a good thing.  I am very sympathetic to their argument towards the rehabilitation of Mary Sue, though I have serious doubts about using her as the representative creation of fan fiction.  Part of this may well be the usual fear that fandom will be misrepresented or misunderstood by outsiders.  Chander & Sunder are very sympathetic – in fact, I think they overstate the liberatory potential of fan fiction – but there’s always that worry.

Anyway, I have an opportunity to offer comments, and I have plenty about Mary Sue as feminist heroine and slash as feminist liberation of the original text.  What I lack, shamefully, is a comparable ability to discuss race in fan fiction/media fandom.  Chander & Sunder argue that fan fiction allows marginalized groups to insert themselves in the text or reorganize the narrative around themselves, and couple that with discussion of the underrepresentation/misrepresentation of characters of color in TV/movies, but how often does that happen with race?  We have plenty of gender-swaps; does anyone know of a race-swap story?  Any good discussion of Teyla and Ronon as characters of color in SGA fanfic? 

Things I already know I want to show them: Mimisere’s Jesus Walks (found a copy on YouTube, by the way; that result came up before any LJ result).  Remember Us, the archive.  (No SGA section, interestingly.)  Coffeeandink from 2002.  Them Mean Ol’, Low-Down, Lando Calrissian Blues.  Blaise Zabini is black (oh darn, am I going to have to explain FandomWank to them?).

I have been reading cultural appropriation posts with interest, but I didn’t realize I’d need to try to do some outreach.  So if anyone has links to good discussions of race in fandom that could help explain us – the good and the bad – to some smart, capable people, I’d really appreciate it. 

Comments

[abbylee]

Most of the discussion I've seen on my own friends list, re: Ronon and Teyla seems to bemoan the discussion of them as characters of color. That is, those who seem to focus on it manage to completely miss the point that for most of them, what's differentiating isn't that they're not white, but that they're not from Earth. They face hurdles, but it's discussed more in terms of culture than in terms of race. Which I suspect might actually be more freeing for authors, and also make it blend in to the story better.

Sort of related, isn't there an SG-1 episode where they end up in some underground genetic lab and all the people are wary about Teal'c? Jack etc, writes it off that Teal'c makes them uncomfortable because he's Jaffa, but later on we discover that they're evil and their real problem with Teal'c is that he's not "pure" or some such?

[liviapenn.livejournal.com]

That is, those who seem to focus on it manage to completely miss the point that for most of them, what's differentiating isn't that they're not white, but that they're not from Earth. They face hurdles, but it's discussed more in terms of culture than in terms of race.

In the world of the story, yes. In the world of fandom? I'm not so sure people *are* looking past their skin color. I mean, maybe it's just me, but when Markham and Stackhouse get more fic than Ford, and Kavanagh gets more fic than Bates, and *Chuck* gets more fic than Grodin, and there's ten times as much Parrish/Lorne as there is Ronon/Teyla... well, you start to wonder, you know?

[abbylee]

No, I completely agree that we're fucked up about race. I just think that Teyla and Ronon are bad examples of where to look for that kind of discussion.

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

I just think that Teyla and Ronon are bad examples of where to look for that kind of discussion.

Actually, I think they are perfect for the discussion. Much has been made of Teyla's alieness (Wraith DNA and native to the Pegasus Galaxy) but not one word has been said about the prejudices that the Earth people brought with them, beyond ones about encountering cultures vastly different than their own.

Which is why I think fan fiction is a good place to fill in some of those blanks. If people can go on and on about homophobia then you can slip in discussions about race.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Have you read any fic that addresses SGA personnel's racial attitudes? I've seen plenty on Ford's homophobia or lack thereof, which includes an assumed culturally conservative/religious background for him, but I can't remember reading about racialized reactions to the Pegasus folks. Or, for that matter, a black Marine assuming he has more in common with Teyla and Ronon than he does. I do remember some theorizing about possible Pegasusian (?) attitudes towards people with blue eyes ("ring-eyes"), but that struck me as fantasy wish-fulfillment that didn't engage with the racial implications at all, and therefore left me pretty cold.

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

Have you read any fic that addresses SGA personnel's racial attitudes? I've seen plenty on Ford's homophobia or lack thereof, which includes an assumed culturally conservative/religious background for him, but I can't remember reading about racialized reactions to the Pegasus folks.

Alas, no. And Ford was so severely underused on the show that having someone wrtie about a possible culturally conservative/religious background for him just hits me in the wrong place. The "Oh, Black folks are way more homophobic than white folks" argument, explicitly stated or assumed, is so annoying.

One person you might want to ask is jalabert who writes very good, in-depth Ford fic and probably has a better handle on what's going on Ford-wise.

Or, for that matter, a black Marine assuming he has more in common with Teyla and Ronon than he does.

Now there's a thought.

I do remember some theorizing about possible Pegasusian (?) attitudes towards people with blue eyes ("ring-eyes"), but that struck me as fantasy wish-fulfillment that didn't engage with the racial implications at all, and therefore left me pretty cold.

I can see why it would. The story that comes to mind right now is "Blood on Old Snow" (and I can't remember the author right now, dang it) which is John/Rodney/Teyla. Ronon sees how very pale John is but again that's from the Pegasusian point of view.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the additional info.

I think the religious/conservative idea is aided by the text's references to Ford's grandparents, but why it was Ford written that way and not Carson already has some racial implications. I think fans are taking canon and running with it in perfectly predictable ways, which is not to say that either should be that way.

Thanks to these comments, I have a page of links for Chander & Sunder that will probably intimidate the hell out of them.

[corinna-5.livejournal.com]

I think Parrish/Lorne is one of those things (like Devon/Oz on Buffy) where the writers are looking for a wedge into the universe that they can call their own, and find one in a tertiary character and/or relationship. It's a form of fanfiction that allows you a lot more leeway in terms of character and canon.

As to why Ford doesn't get more fic, though, or Ronon/anyone but Rodney, I'm right there with you.

[liviapenn.livejournal.com]

Also, personally, I think the fact that Ronon and Teyla are aliens makes them harder to write, not easier-- I always say that the difference between John/Elizabeth and John/Teyla is that John/Elizabeth is romance and John/Teyla is science fiction. *G*

But really, you have to look at the casting directors' choices, too. Why is it that Teal'c, Ronon and Teyla are all played by actors of color, and maked as "different" by the way they speak and dress-- whereas aliens like Vala and Jonas, played by white actors, tend to already speak in casual American English, immediately wear "normal" clothes once they become regulars, and generally blend in so well you might not even realize they *were* aliens if you hadn't ever watched the show before? Are the casting directors using Teyla and Ronon's dark skin to indicate that they're "different," -- and if they're not, why is *every other Athosian we've seen* white? Why is it that we see black Satedans in Ronon's flashback, but every Satedan with *lines* is played by a white actor? -- and what does that mean about what they assume is the *default?*

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I love this analysis of J/T versus J/E, and great points about the clothing choices. I was just wondering to what extent this holds or doesn't on Star Trek. Seven stays marked, though she does take on the uniform.

[abbylee]

To me, given the choice between writing about Bates's perspective on how his skin colour marks him as different and effects how others treat him and and Teyla's perspective on how her upbringing marks her as different and effects how others treat her, the second seems much easier. Because not only could I make up anything I wanted and would only need canon to support it rather than actual knowledge about race and racism in America, but I wouldn't have to worry about accidentally offending anyone.

I'm not arguing about the racism and choices in the industry and fandom. It's very obviously there. I just think that if we're looking for examples of "characters of color in SGA fanfic", or even any fanfic, we have to look at the characters who aren't aliens :D We can meta about Ronon and Teyla as characters of color, and dozens upon dozens of other behind the scenes decisions, but as soon as we place them in their world, we can't do it without also focusing on their non-Earth status.

[corinna-5.livejournal.com]

It's interesting, to your point, that they're using race as difference given the, hm, liminal to our typical categorization schema of the characters and/or actors. Rachel Luttrell is pretty pale-skinned and her features aren't particularly ethnic -- especially given the wig, I would have guessed she was Chicana if someone had asked when I first started watching the show. I also would have pegged Jason Momoa as mixed-race, since he doesn't look stereotypically black -- and, in fact, he isn't black, he's either Hawaiian or more generally Pacific Island in his heritage, I thankfully haven't stored that information to long-term memory.

So, to sum up my blathering, they're using race as a marker of difference, but using less-specific/less-common racial markers as the identifiers of that difference.

It's an interesting dance -- does Teal'c at-sign on his forehead make Christopher Judge seem less black as well? (I don't think so, and tend to get weirded out at the racial coding of the Jaffa from the little of SG1 that I know, but that's another post.)

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

Rachel Luttrell is pretty pale-skinned and her features aren't particularly ethnic -- especially given the wig, I would have guessed she was Chicana if someone had asked when I first started watching the show.

Interesting because the first time I saw Teyla I immediately thought she looked like some of my cousins who are mixed. Meeting Rachel in person I realized she's not all that pale.

As far as Teyla's hair goes, this season I figure a sister on the expedition hooked her up with some Dark and Lovely and they had a beauty session. ;)

[corinna-5.livejournal.com]

this season I figure a sister on the expedition hooked her up with some Dark and Lovely and they had a beauty session

That one, you *have* to write! :)

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's "The Other Side." True story: I didn't realize there was supposed to be a racial issue there until the second time I saw the episode. The first time, I made it all the way through blithely thinking that the Bad Guys disliked Teal'c because he was Jaffa.