Prejudice in Media, Pt 1: Lost
Lately, when watching TV shows or movies, I can't help but analyze them for racism and sexism. I feel like sharing my observations, though I probably do sometimes see issues where there really aren't any.
Lost
Note: Contains very minor character spoilers.
Okay, first, here's a list of the characters at the start of the show: The Doctor (White), The Con Man (White), The Fat Person (Hispanic), The Pregnant Person (White), The Ditz (White), The Federal Agent (White), The Convict (White), The Businessman (White), The Survivalist (White), The Subservient Spouse (Korean), The Controlling Spouse (Korean), The Torturer (Arabic), The Magical Kid (African American), The Person Waiting For his/her Spouse (African American), The Easily Angered Person (African American).
Sexism: "Lost" is insanely sexist. For instance, how many of the above characters are female? If you've never seen the show, I'm sure you'll only fail to guess one of them. Of the fifteen characters mentioned above, five are female, and the four obvious ones are completely useless for quite a long time. The Pregnant Lady is, well, pregnant. That's really it until she has the kid, and then she's The Mother. Really, that's all there is to her. The Subservient Spouse is, well, married. Her husband is very controlling. Apart from that, and some racial stereotyping, she has a husband, and that's kinda it. The woman waiting for her husband before she'll do anything is, well, waiting for her husband for an entire season. We're occasionally reminded that she's still sitting there and still waiting for her husband, but that's really all there is to her character until she becomes a blatant racial stereotype. The Ditz is useless the entire time she's in the series. Oh, and she slept around a lot.
The character that people have pointed me at and said, "Look, this series isn't sexist! It has a strong female character who isn't a negative stereotype!" would be the Convict. You know, the one who killed a man, is being chased by a man who its vaguely implied has fallen in love with her, whose primary plot is deciding which guy she loves, and who gets repeatedly caught (by men) in that Damsel In Distress part of the upper arm that renders women helpless who have been previously shown to be badass in combat. The number of times she's used as a hostage for people to gain leverage over male characters is quite absurd.
Several more female characters are introduced, some of them not negative stereotypes, but the general trends continue. In general, the female characters in the series exist for one or more of the following purposes: (a) to give birth (preferably on screen), (b) to be married, (c) to be useless, (d) to be protected by men, (e) to die. Sure, most of the characters in the series die, but the women die to spurn men into action or to trigger emotional growth in male characters, whereas the men die and that's that.
Also, the number of gratuitous birth scenes in this series made me want to punch a writer in the face. Seriously. There's more to women than babies, babies, and more babies. Yes, I know some of those were important to the series, but many of them really, really weren't.
And, lastly, The Doctor is effectively the main character, and he himself is written as a misogynist. His plot includes that he treats women poorly, and he treats The Convict rather badly the entire series, constantly lying to her to keep her out of dangerous situations. Sure, that's a valid character trait and not a trait of the show itself, but he's the main character, does it repeatedly, and never gets called out for it. It's passed off as chivalrous and totally acceptable.
Racism: "Lost" is quite racist, though not nearly as bad as the sexism. The above illustrates this point rather nicely. There are non-white people, but they are mostly portrayals of negative stereotypes. The African American guy snaps at the slightest stress and comes across as "the scary angry guy." Sure, the majority of the characters in the show are horrible people, but this is a negative stereotype being played up. The same is true of the Arab torturer - sure, there's more to him than that, and he's a rather interesting character, but neither of those things change the fact that the only Arab in the show (not counting, of course, those in his backstory, who are murderers and suicide bombers) is a torturer.
The Korean woman was raised in luxury with servants to do everything for her... and yet she is highly skilled at gardening and making herbal medicines out of random foliage. Why? Because don't all Asians know how to do that kind of stuff? The African American woman waiting for her husband later becomes a classic "Magical Negro" stereotype, appearing at just the right time to give just the right piece of advice to the white characters so they can solve their problems.
The Fat Guy and The Magical Kid are the only two who aren't obvious negative stereotypes to me.
Later, the series gets a bit worse and a bit better. More non-white characters are introduced, which include a Nicaraguan drug smuggler (totally not a negative stereotype, right?), an Hispanic woman who is completely unprofessional and defined by violent overreaction to everything, a Chinese (?) scientist who wasn't really a negative stereotype, and a Chinese (?) man who also wasn't a negative stereotype as far as I remember.
So, overall, the show's non-white characters are about half racist stereotypes and half non-racist portrayals, which is still a pretty bad score if you think about it.
Homophobia:Even though there was only one character who was explicitly non-heterosexual, "Lost" was not homophobic. The series did one thing that made me very happy - from what I recall, the way you find out that he's gay is that he's shown in bed snuggled up another guy when he gets a phone call, waking him up. (I could be wrong on that - it's been a while.) I recall it being treated just like a heterosexual person in bed getting a phone call. No mention is made of his non-heterosexuality, nor did he strike me as acting Hollywood Gay. It's not a plot point in any way, it's just there. TV needs more of that.
Lost
Note: Contains very minor character spoilers.
Okay, first, here's a list of the characters at the start of the show: The Doctor (White), The Con Man (White), The Fat Person (Hispanic), The Pregnant Person (White), The Ditz (White), The Federal Agent (White), The Convict (White), The Businessman (White), The Survivalist (White), The Subservient Spouse (Korean), The Controlling Spouse (Korean), The Torturer (Arabic), The Magical Kid (African American), The Person Waiting For his/her Spouse (African American), The Easily Angered Person (African American).
Sexism: "Lost" is insanely sexist. For instance, how many of the above characters are female? If you've never seen the show, I'm sure you'll only fail to guess one of them. Of the fifteen characters mentioned above, five are female, and the four obvious ones are completely useless for quite a long time. The Pregnant Lady is, well, pregnant. That's really it until she has the kid, and then she's The Mother. Really, that's all there is to her. The Subservient Spouse is, well, married. Her husband is very controlling. Apart from that, and some racial stereotyping, she has a husband, and that's kinda it. The woman waiting for her husband before she'll do anything is, well, waiting for her husband for an entire season. We're occasionally reminded that she's still sitting there and still waiting for her husband, but that's really all there is to her character until she becomes a blatant racial stereotype. The Ditz is useless the entire time she's in the series. Oh, and she slept around a lot.
The character that people have pointed me at and said, "Look, this series isn't sexist! It has a strong female character who isn't a negative stereotype!" would be the Convict. You know, the one who killed a man, is being chased by a man who its vaguely implied has fallen in love with her, whose primary plot is deciding which guy she loves, and who gets repeatedly caught (by men) in that Damsel In Distress part of the upper arm that renders women helpless who have been previously shown to be badass in combat. The number of times she's used as a hostage for people to gain leverage over male characters is quite absurd.
Several more female characters are introduced, some of them not negative stereotypes, but the general trends continue. In general, the female characters in the series exist for one or more of the following purposes: (a) to give birth (preferably on screen), (b) to be married, (c) to be useless, (d) to be protected by men, (e) to die. Sure, most of the characters in the series die, but the women die to spurn men into action or to trigger emotional growth in male characters, whereas the men die and that's that.
Also, the number of gratuitous birth scenes in this series made me want to punch a writer in the face. Seriously. There's more to women than babies, babies, and more babies. Yes, I know some of those were important to the series, but many of them really, really weren't.
And, lastly, The Doctor is effectively the main character, and he himself is written as a misogynist. His plot includes that he treats women poorly, and he treats The Convict rather badly the entire series, constantly lying to her to keep her out of dangerous situations. Sure, that's a valid character trait and not a trait of the show itself, but he's the main character, does it repeatedly, and never gets called out for it. It's passed off as chivalrous and totally acceptable.
Racism: "Lost" is quite racist, though not nearly as bad as the sexism. The above illustrates this point rather nicely. There are non-white people, but they are mostly portrayals of negative stereotypes. The African American guy snaps at the slightest stress and comes across as "the scary angry guy." Sure, the majority of the characters in the show are horrible people, but this is a negative stereotype being played up. The same is true of the Arab torturer - sure, there's more to him than that, and he's a rather interesting character, but neither of those things change the fact that the only Arab in the show (not counting, of course, those in his backstory, who are murderers and suicide bombers) is a torturer.
The Korean woman was raised in luxury with servants to do everything for her... and yet she is highly skilled at gardening and making herbal medicines out of random foliage. Why? Because don't all Asians know how to do that kind of stuff? The African American woman waiting for her husband later becomes a classic "Magical Negro" stereotype, appearing at just the right time to give just the right piece of advice to the white characters so they can solve their problems.
The Fat Guy and The Magical Kid are the only two who aren't obvious negative stereotypes to me.
Later, the series gets a bit worse and a bit better. More non-white characters are introduced, which include a Nicaraguan drug smuggler (totally not a negative stereotype, right?), an Hispanic woman who is completely unprofessional and defined by violent overreaction to everything, a Chinese (?) scientist who wasn't really a negative stereotype, and a Chinese (?) man who also wasn't a negative stereotype as far as I remember.
So, overall, the show's non-white characters are about half racist stereotypes and half non-racist portrayals, which is still a pretty bad score if you think about it.
Homophobia:Even though there was only one character who was explicitly non-heterosexual, "Lost" was not homophobic. The series did one thing that made me very happy - from what I recall, the way you find out that he's gay is that he's shown in bed snuggled up another guy when he gets a phone call, waking him up. (I could be wrong on that - it's been a while.) I recall it being treated just like a heterosexual person in bed getting a phone call. No mention is made of his non-heterosexuality, nor did he strike me as acting Hollywood Gay. It's not a plot point in any way, it's just there. TV needs more of that.