Responses from the Whoniverse

It still doesn't feel right to be posting my "usual" stuff right now, so I'm not going to. In the coming days, I'm not exactly sure how this blog will look, but one thing I've thought about doing is collecting some different social media responses from assorted fandoms. Not that actors' voices are more important than others or their insights more valuable, but I appreciate people using their platforms to speak out about vital issues and amplify others' words. Also, as a fan, I just appreciate seeing that people who've helped make something I care about stand up for what's right.

Since this is the Sunday Who Review, we're looking at Whoniverse cast members today. It feels fitting - Doctor Who and its companion shows are about standing up for others and standing against evil. As it happens, quite a few Whoniverse cast members either don't have social media or only post infrequently, so I wondered at first whether this venture would end before it started, but I found my way eventually. (A couple notes: to the extent that I'm interested in social media, I mostly check out Twitter, so unless, say, an Instagram video/picture was cross-posted as a tweet, I probably didn't see it. Finally, this is my first time attempting to embed tweets; we'll see how I do.)

One thing I appreciated about the posts I looked through today was the demonstration of solidarity shown for Black Americans from people in the U.K., as well as the acknowledgement that the U.K. has its own work to do on racism. A lot of the actors I looked at here were mostly retweeting stuff coming out of the U.S. - tweets, articles, videos, pictures - but there were some comments from the actors themselves as well.

Noel Clarke (Mickey) has been posting quite a bit about this subject (not least of which because, a few days ago, he pointed that he was the only main actor left off the poster for a recent movie he was in - all his costars were white - and he got a lot of "the man who cried racism"-type responses.) Here's one I really appreciated:

People on here acting like this is just a US problem. #Racism is prevalent here too. Embedded in the fabric of society, the industry I'm in. Sometimes it's hard to keep fighting, when whenever you speak up, your silenced or, labelled as aggressive, difficult or "Chippy"

— Noel Clarke (@NoelClarke) May 29, 2020

Anjli Mohindra (Rani from The Sarah Jane Adventures) called on everyone to do their part in dismantling racism. She pointed out that no offhand racist comment is too "small" to go ignored, saying this:

It’s in tiny bits of apathy that racism begins to thrive.

If you hear anything anti-black, however small, challenge it.

When the woods seem too wild to wrangle we tackle it at the roots. #BlackLivesMatter and the problem is all of ours to bear.

— Anjli Mohindra (@AnjMohindra) May 31, 2020

Mohindra also stood up for John Boyega when people got huffy over him expressing his anger about George Floyd's murder.
 
 Mandip Gill (Yaz) and Naoko Mori (Tosh from Torchwood) have both been retweeting a fair amount, and Sacha Dhawan (The Master) shared this graphic on ways to contribute:

#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/0DzmblkDzh

— Sacha Dhawan (@sacha_dhawan) May 31, 2020

Arthur Darvill (Rory) urged white people not to be silent on racism and educate themselves. Here's one of his tweets:

White people, we need to step up and engage with this.. this is all of our responsibility.. we need to be better and learn, listen grow and support #BlackLivesMatter

— Arthur Darvill (@RattyBurvil) May 29, 2020

I also found retweets from Karen Gillan (Amy), Eve Myles (Gwen from Torchwood), and John Barrowman (Jack), along with plenty of comments from Barrowman on Trump's place in all this.

A Few Thoughts on Hairspray

Today was another day that, months ago, I’d bought tickets for a play that I of course won’t be seeing now. As I did with The Color Purple back in April, I originally planned to sit down and listen to the cast recording for the Broadway production of Frozen, following it up with a Top Five Songs post. However, I’m not in the mood for it right now. I’ll get around to it some other time, but for now, I have something different in mind.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, streaming free theatre on his The Shows Must Go On YouTube channel, got through all of his shows that have been professionally recorded and has, it seems, moved on to some of the live musical events put on by NBC in recent years. It just so happened that this weekend’s show is Hairspray. I saw this back when it aired at the end of 2016, and I enjoyed it pretty well then, although I didn’t wind up writing a review for it. And I’m not reviewing it today either, but I will another day. Instead, I’d just like to talk about some of my thoughts about the show as I watched it again this week (a few spoilers.)

Back in high school, when I was first introduced to Hairspray via the original Broadway cast recording, I was a definite fan of it. The music was catchy, it was my introduction to Kerry Butler and Matthew Morrison, Tracy Turnblad was a plucky/rootable heroine, and I liked the message. I do remember thinking some of the lyrics seemed a little glib given the subject matter (I also hadn’t seen the original John Waters film yet, so I didn’t know where some of that sensibility came from.) Over the years, my impressions of the show have gotten a lot more complex.

It’s pretty clear that Tracy fits into a White Savior role. Even though her work to integrate The Corny Collins Show is done alongside Motormouth, Seaweed, and the other Black characters, it’s still her story and she’s the one leading the charge. White allies obviously have a place in the fight against racism, but that place shouldn’t be front and center, and unfortunately, that’s where the media frequently puts them. Hairspray is one more example of a story about Black issues that centers on whiteness, and even back in 2002, we weren’t aching for more of that narrative. This is especially egregious in Hairspray Live! because, likely as a side effect of cutting “The Big Dollhouse,” Tracy becomes the only person who gets arrested at the protest. Really?!

Even more uncomfortably, we see how Tracy gets her spot on The Corny Collins Show in the first place by appropriating Black culture/dance styles. In fairness to her, she learns these steps directly from Seaweed and her first wish is for them to dance together in front of Corny – plus, from a meta perspective, the show has Seaweed cheering her on in taking his moves, using him to condone her actions. But despite that, what we ultimately see is the white girl gaining recognition by using Black moves, which, when paired with the White Savior narrative, isn’t a good look.

Fortunately, for all of Tracy’s missteps, she has a good heart, and like I said, the minute she learns Seaweed’s moves, she wants them to be able to dance together. Appropriating Black culture gets her in the door, but once she’s there, she wants to be able to hold that door open to let in the Black people that helped her. She wants to give credit where credit is due, and and she wants to take part in making that dream a reality. Rewatching Hairspray Live!, a lot of my favorite scenes were probably the ones where Tracy and Seaweed are dancing together – in detention, at Motormouth’s record shop, and finally, triumphantly on The Corny Collins Show.

And even though the whole “well, we rolled up our sleeves and solved segregation in this 2-hour musical!” vibe is definitely trite, and I can see how some might find it insultingly-simplistic against the backdrop of what’s been going on, it’s also a nice fantasy, just for a moment. It’s heartwarming when Tracy storms the stage of The Corny Collins Show announcing, “This is my dance, and it’s for everybody!”, with all the Black kids running in to join her. And maybe in a show where a girl gets sent to detention for “hair-hopping” and there’s like a 15-foot-tall novelty can of hairspray with Harvey Fierstein hiding inside, maybe a little fantasy is all right.

News Satire Roundup: May 24th

Sunday, May 24

·       Main Story – Inequities in the Legalized Marijuana Industry

o   Hasan hearkened back to the first days of the pandemic, when he hoarded toilet paper, Purell, and batteries – “I really thought the apocalypse would involve a lot more flashlights”

o   He admitted that he wasn’t the ideal person to discuss the marijuana industry, given that he gives off “big narc energy”

o   I liked Hasan’s confusion that weed is still illegal federally but deemed an essential industry in 31 states during lockdown – “Illegal but also necessary: it’s the water boarding of drugs”

o   John Boehner brushing off all the people thrown in jail for drug charges while he was an anti-pot Speaker of the House (when he now runs one of the biggest cannabis companies in the U.S.) was gross – as Hasan argues, you can’t use the “it was a different time” excuse when you left office 5 years ago

o   We looked broadly at how legalization laws profit large companies over small business, and specifically at massive racial disparities in profit in an increasingly-legal industry that’s historically shown massive racial disparities in punishment

o   Case in point, profit? 81% of dispensaries are white-owned

o   And still-ongoing, punishment? Black people make up 13% of the U.S. population and 40% of the people jailed for marijuana, despite equal rates of usage in Black and white communities

o   In Montana, Black people are 10 times likelier to be arrested for pot than white people – Hasan felt bad for “the one Black dude in Montana. (Clarence, if you’re watching this, be careful)”

I really missed The Daily Show this week. At first, it was just Trevor’s ongoing perspective on the pandemic and his always-thoughtful interviews, which I’ve been appreciating a lot these last few months. But then, of course, it was the murder of George Floyd and the unfolding situation in Minneapolis. As the protests have continued there and throughout the country this week, I’ve been wishing I could hear Trevor speak on it, and thankfully, he posted a long video on YouTube thoroughly breaking down all the “dominoes” that have fallen this week.

•  Setting the stage – “While everyone is facing the battle against coronavirus, Black people in America are still facing the battle against racism and coronavirus”
• Next, we looked at Amy Cooper – “So many people act like they don’t know what Black Americans are talking about when they say it, and yet Amy Cooper had a distinct understanding” of why calling 911 on Christian Cooper was a threat to his life. Trevor described it as a “curtain being pulled back,” explicit proof of a white woman overtly weaponizing her whiteness to threaten a Black man
• This brought us to George Floyd. Trevor looked at Derek Chauvin’s calm as he murdered Floyd, in sharp contrast to the usual “the officer feared for his life” defense – “You can do it, so you did it”
• He also had great remarks on the protests and some of the property damage/looting that has gone on, focusing on the idea of society as a “contract” that people need to agree to in order to maintain it – with the oppression Black people experience everyday, “the contract that they have signed with society is not being honored by the society that has forced them to sign it with them,” so what’s in it for them to keep holding up their end?
• He asked people to take the disgust/horror they feel at the footage of Target being looted and imagine having that feeling every single day: “Police in America are looking Black bodies”

To the protesters, be safe.