Sorry But Criticizing A TV Show For Its Lack Of Diversity Does Not Equal ‘Woman Hate’

Huh? That was not how I interpreted the Girls debate: What I (and others) have wondered is why so many WHITE MALE journalists who never before cared for diversity, whether gender or race, especially not in their own editorial office, suddenly cared for it when it came to Girls… Which unfortunately has remained the only time they have voiced this… Suspicious.

About racial diversity on Girls and Bunhead: I dislike the stereotypical annoying representations that Girls has included (the Asian intern…). However, I don’t think that Lena Dunham should include Black and Asian and Latina friends of hers if her circle of friends in reality is lilywhite. Instead, she should have a character comment on how lilywhite their circle of friends is. Faux inclusion can be detrimental.

I learned an important lesson on this via Prof. Susan Douglas’ book “Enlightened Sexism: How Pop Culture Took Us from Girl Power to Girls Gone Wild”. Although the title doesn’t show it her book details thoroughly how overrepresented career women are on American primetime TV series (if compared how many the ACTUAL REAL WORLD, not the MTV version, has). That might seem like a good thing… The problem is that studies have found that people after seeing shows in which women are presidents, CEOs etc. believe that women have ALREADY achieved equality and that sexism does not exist. Thus the willingness to support women actually goes down after watching such series.
–> I would have never thought of this unintended consequence. My strong guess is that the same applies for people of color in powerful positions or (regarding Girls or Bunheads) as wealthy uppermiddle class people. Support for affirmative action and understanding that racism is alive and well would go down.

Nonetheless, that of course doesn’t mean that both Bunheads and Girls shouldn’t include people of color.

Sorry,  I don’t think I was clear enough in my other comment on something VERY important:
I absolutely agree with Jen on her criticism of Amy Sherman-Palladino’s appalling response to Shonda Rhimes’ warranted criticism.
BUT my ‘suspicion’ isn’t with Disgrasian or with Racialicious or any such websites who do a tremendous job in writing about lack of diversity in popular culture. And as you’ve pointed out keep doing this.

It’s with White men whose own offices are not inclusive in any way *suddenly* discovering a lack of diversity on Girls… which they never saw before in any of their touchstone male-centered TV series… and have yet to address again in new male-centered TV series.  

As someone who loved Gilmore Girls before AS-P left it, I have to say that I was disappointed by her BS mysogyny argument while mostly ignoring what’s being said of the casting of her new show. I’m surprised she didn’t accuse Rhimes of racist for being so race obsessed (but I did read that response in the cesspools that are comment section).

It’s another reminder of how “women” only includes women of color when it’s convenient for “women” to do so. If a lot of “women” had their way we’d only focus on “women” and stop being so “divisive”.

To be more blunt—prolly shoulda covered this last go ’round—oh, nevermind… I think everyone got what I meant. Tho I will add this: Anyone who thinks it’s accidental that nearly 90% of  all women in major/minor roles on TV—both cable and network are still White women  probably thinks Shonda Rhimes is being  ‘mean and petty’.

I’ve been reading this blog for a couple years and I rarely post, but in regards to this particular situation I have some extra knowledge, I guess. I have been involved in ballet for about 24 years, now. I used to dance professionally, quit to go to college, started again in grad school, now I perform again and I’m training with the Royal Academy of Dance to become an instructor. I’ve been part of the casting calls for dancers (I live near LA) and I’ve been involved in some tv shows, commercials and music videos, as well. So, I’ve been involved in ballet for a long time and on all levels and I have a reasonably good idea about how the ballet world works. I know Emma personally, she attends a studio where I teach. The other girls are also dancers in their daily lives and I’ve seen them around for the past few years.

According to Emma and several of my students who also attended the audition, it was a pretty small showing and the demographics were quite similar to what they are in your typical ballet class – the overwhelming majority of the dancers were White. Does it surprise me that the dancers on the show are all White? No. Is it realistic that they are all White? Honestly, yes. To be blunt about it… the Whiteness of the dancers is probably the most realistic part of this show. The lack of realistic dance sequences and the ignorance about the teacher’s showgirl background are huge complaints in the ballet/dance community, at the moment. But it is what it is. Ballet is very White in reality, it’s a huge difference when you’re in a city like LA and you’re outside with a lot of different people… then you walk inside and see 48 White girls and 2 Asian girls.

I understand the complaint about the lack of diversity, but at the same time, I can see why it’s all White characters and I wouldn’t be surprised if that was accidental in this case, because the ballet world is extremely White/European.

Yes ballet and dance in general is very “white” but that doesn’t mean Misty Copeland is a figment of my imagination.  Even Ballet magazine does articles on why dancers of color are marginalized for not having “dancer bodies” Which is usually a paper thin excuse to boot out those who can’t pass for white. 

But couldn’t the show address that?  What about casting one of the three as a young woman of color and then having some plot lines that address this?  (Of course, they’d probably screw it up – but in a world where they would actually cast a character of color, maybe they’d be smart enough to do a good storyline).   I think a show can acknowledge that a milieu is majority-white and still reflect the experience of people of color in that milieu.  What would it be like, for example, for Theoretical Dancer’s family to be supporting her in this largely white environment?  How would Theoretical Dancer deal with the similarities (ballet, probably class background) and differences between her and the white dancers?  Would people say screwed up stuff to her?  Would they exoticize her?  Could there be a cameo appearance by an actual famous dancer of color?  Could there be a non-tokenizing exploration of the complicated ways that race and dance intersect?

Or heck, you could create a show with two young dancers of color (and their white friend! If you’ve got to include a white person) as main characters, and show that there are, for example, both African American and Asian American women in ballet.  What would it be like to have people constantly bracketing you both as “the dancers of color” regardless of whether your background was similar or not?  Would you be friends?  Would you find each other annoying but stick together anyway? 

I would actually watch a show like that, even though I think the fascination with ballet as an archetype of femininity (a theme which recurs in US culture every 15 years or so) is kind of freaky-deaky. (Not to impugn actual ballet dancers – but ballet is fetishized the way lots of other athletic/artistic endeavors are not.)

Thank you for pointing out the con that’s getting put over on women of color being sold that this show is important, and just exactly who this show is important for.  Where was the call for universal sisterhood to get behind Issa Rae and get her web series picked up by the same network that gave the keys to the kingdom to Dunham?

 @nicthommi:disqus : While I have read and send others over to derailing for dummies many times, it seems that you did not read my other comment at all (see further down). That’s a shame. I posted them at the same time. The second comment explicitly addresses your point- cause I wanted to be clear that that’s not what I meant.

It is true that it’s really easy for people of different races to live side-by-side and not really be in the same social circle, and in this particular case, I’ll also say that even when I lived in Seattle, POCs were super rare in my dance studio.
However, I’ve never noticed any TV show that didn’t bend reality when they felt like it. And in the case of Amy Sherman-Palladino, she included an Asian character in a show set in small-town Connecticut – where the “reality” argument would have carried even more weight. Plus, one of the more popular ballet movies, Center Stage, had two POC main cast characters and no one got down on the film’s realism because of it. Basically, it needs to be less unusual to see POCs in the media doing real people things, and I feel like the realism argument doesn’t hold up in the context of the whitewashed media culture.
As much as I don’t like feeling like I’m shooting down shows that succeed in important ways, or giving some dude the chance to jump all over the women that make it into the media sausage fest, I also don’t like the way that every single time, someone will find a reason why their favorite show gets a pass on inclusion. Everyone can find a plausible excuse to have an all-white cast, so at some point, the excuses get pretty worn. If you had characters of color in the shows where reality would more or less demand the, you might get off not having them where that reality argument has a point. Since you don’t, the “reality” standard ends up a pretty flimsy argument.

People keep emphasizing that Hollywood is controlled overwhelmingly by white men, which is true, but white women aren’t improving matters by refusing to be part of the solution. Perhaps some Guerilla Girls can get in touch with Amy Sherman-Palladino and Lena Dunham.

Pretty much. Any time you try to have these discussion you get a lot of “wah-wah why aren’t you criticizing the white men?” and you can give them examples until you are blue in the face but they will ignore it and continue with the white whine and claims of misogyny (which is a common fall-back position anytime you criticize some white women). As usual, our womanhood is less important than theirs, and we are supposed to shut up and be happy standing at the end of the line waiting for crumbs.

Don’t forget Miami…I have to laugh at shows set in Miami where all of the characters are non-Hispanic whites.

Yes, and apparently it is totally normal for only white people to have jobs, b/c having shows set in workplaces that still manage to be all white is pretty normal too.
Don’t forget the argument about how fake it is to just “ram in” a POC when they wouldn’t be present in “real” white people’s lives.

I’m not going to lie, as a ballet dancer, I am rather angry at the ridiculous way ballet is treated in the media with BS like Black Swan. So when I see something that is somewhat realistic regarding ballet on tv, I get kind of excited. You’ll just have to forgive me for that weakness and I’d also appreciate it if you didn’t project your anger at the mainstream media onto what I’ve said, here. We all read this blog because we don’t like a lot of what we see in regards to race on tv. I know a few excellent Black ballet dancers and unfortunately, they weren’t at the audition. Summer is a bad time to film a show using amateur ballet dancers, because they’re all off at summer intensives, anyway. That was short-sighted of them, but that’s Hollywood for you.
I also suggest that you take a look at ballet companies in LA, such as Los Angeles Ballet. You will quickly see that the real demographics of the ballet world are what I claim, whether the surrounding city is White or not.

I will admit that I have my own set of issues with the way that ballet is portrayed in the media (and most dancers feel similarly) and because of that, I tend to get defensive about it. I’m tired of all the stereotypes.
On that note, Bunheads had already pissed me off for many other reasons, including the way they portrayed Vegas showgirls. To be blunt, I dislike the show, and race has nothing to do with it. The dance community has its own share of complaints about the show, already. But at the same time, we all feel a bit obligated to support it, simply because ballet never gets any airtime, making the stereotypes even worse.
As I had mentioned to another poster, it would have been interesting to add these elements, but this show is not that good. It’s just not.
Keep in mind, I am not defending or agreeing with the choice of casting (although the young dancers/actresses are very talented and deserving), what I am saying is I know why the casting ended up the way that it did.