Okay, first of all, I really want to emphasize that 1) I agree with 99% of this post, and 2) my discussion of the 1% I disagree with is meant as a criticism of a show I otherwise love, and to a lesser extent the potential problems with meme wording, and not a criticism of you or your opinion of the show. And if you feel my wording comes off otherwise, please let me know so I can fix it!
Anyway, I love, love, love Firefly to bits, but this bit leaped out at me:
The setting – human colonies in space with a Western/frontier vibe plus Chinese cultural influence – is creative and beautifully brought to life.
In principle I agree - acknowledgment that future!culture might draw from more than Western traditions is pretty rare, and I love that Whedon thought to do that. In practice, though, I find it very troubling that Chinese and other Asian cultural influences are used for worldbuilding, but there are no visibly (see below) Asian main characters and very few Asian background characters, if any.
(I think the Tams are meant to have Asian ancestry, given their surname, but they're all played by white/white-passing actors. As a white-passing biracial Asian/Caucasian I like this in the abstract, but don't consider it an acceptable substitute for having people who are visibly of Asian ancestry play important roles on a show whose universe is very obviously heavily influenced by Asian cultures.)
This wasn't a deal-breaker for me, but it has been for a number of people that I'm aware of. I know you're working with pre-existing wording of a meme, but the phrasing "Firefly is for everyone" bothers me, even though I myself adore the show. I think it glosses over the very legitimate reasons people can have for not wanting to watch a show rife with cultural appropriation -- which very likely is a reflection/magnification of the cultural appropriation going on in their own lives.
If "Firefly is for everyone," then that implies that anyone who has a problem with Firefly is a weird outlier, and not that there's a legitimate problem with the show -- does that make sense?
Anyway teal deer Firefly rocks (mostly); cultural appropriation sucks.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-15 07:53 pm (UTC)Anyway, I love, love, love Firefly to bits, but this bit leaped out at me:
The setting – human colonies in space with a Western/frontier vibe plus Chinese cultural influence – is creative and beautifully brought to life.
In principle I agree - acknowledgment that future!culture might draw from more than Western traditions is pretty rare, and I love that Whedon thought to do that. In practice, though, I find it very troubling that Chinese and other Asian cultural influences are used for worldbuilding, but there are no visibly (see below) Asian main characters and very few Asian background characters, if any.
(I think the Tams are meant to have Asian ancestry, given their surname, but they're all played by white/white-passing actors. As a white-passing biracial Asian/Caucasian I like this in the abstract, but don't consider it an acceptable substitute for having people who are visibly of Asian ancestry play important roles on a show whose universe is very obviously heavily influenced by Asian cultures.)
This wasn't a deal-breaker for me, but it has been for a number of people that I'm aware of. I know you're working with pre-existing wording of a meme, but the phrasing "Firefly is for everyone" bothers me, even though I myself adore the show. I think it glosses over the very legitimate reasons people can have for not wanting to watch a show rife with cultural appropriation -- which very likely is a reflection/magnification of the cultural appropriation going on in their own lives.
If "Firefly is for everyone," then that implies that anyone who has a problem with Firefly is a weird outlier, and not that there's a legitimate problem with the show -- does that make sense?
Anyway teal deer Firefly rocks (mostly); cultural appropriation sucks.