0:00:07.841,0:00:10.077
Vampires! Vampires! Vampires!

0:00:10.077,0:00:13.280
They're everywhere and they want equal rights too dammit.

0:00:13.280,0:00:17.551
Yes I'm talking about True Blood. The problem I have with True Blood is

0:00:17.551,0:00:22.322
I feel like it's structurally flawed. The writers are equating vampire rights with the struggle

0:00:22.322,0:00:29.429
of civil rights and queer rights. Let's be clear, vampires are evil, manipulative,

0:00:29.429,0:00:33.508
blood-sucking, monsterous, undead beings.

0:00:33.908,0:00:40.574
Now to equate these evil beings with Black folks and Queer folks is not a far cry from the

0:00:40.574,0:00:46.146
actual accusations against Black folks and Queer folks both historically and currently.

0:00:46.146,0:00:55.322
To make this show that's this sort of serious drama but fun commentary is offensive, at best.

0:00:55.322,0:01:00.093
Good old Sookie Stackhouse who the story is actually based on.

0:01:00.093,0:01:09.670
She's so boring, really... okay I take that back, there are some things that are

0:01:09.670,0:01:14.241
interesting about her like the psychic ability is kind of interesting, but ultimately

0:01:14.241,0:01:21.915
she is the white, female, blonde, cute, virginal protaganist.

0:01:21.915,0:01:26.653
Which is very typical, there's not anything super special about that representation.

0:01:26.653,0:01:31.558
I do appreciate that she stands up to Bill occasionally, even though she always go back to him

0:01:31.558,0:01:36.597
and even though he's this 'I have to save you' creepy guy just having those little

0:01:36.597,0:01:43.403
lines, you know, makes me happier in general and I think it's also a good representation

0:01:43.403,0:01:49.276
for women to see that resistance, it just falls short, constantly,

0:01:49.276,0:01:53.213
because she still goes back to his ridiculous patriarchal behaviour.

0:01:53.213,0:01:56.083
In season two there is a really great example of the backlash against women if they

0:01:56.083,0:01:58.719
want to defend themselves against their patriarchal boyfriends.

0:01:58.719,0:02:02.910
"That does not give you license to behave like an irresponsible child!"

0:02:02.910,0:02:08.161
"She is a loaded gun Sookie, not a doll for you to dress up and play with."

0:02:08.161,0:02:09.427
"What are you doing?"

0:02:09.427,0:02:11.461
"Walking!"

0:02:11.461,0:02:14.431
"Don't be ridiculous, Bon Temps is nearly twenty miles away."

0:02:14.431,0:02:19.115
"I'd rather walk all night then spend another second in that car with you!"

0:02:24.592,0:02:26.289
"What the--"

0:02:41.827,0:02:47.367
So now look what happens, Sookie's getting punished by a near death experience

0:02:47.367,0:02:52.706
because she decided to stick up for herself. Now that's not cool, the writers are writing

0:02:52.706,0:02:56.910
this, they could have written it in any other way, but instead they are going with the very

0:02:56.910,0:03:01.381
archaic storyline of women as fragile and need to be protected, 'and don't you dare

0:03:01.381,0:03:04.386
stick up for yourself or be strong willed.'

0:03:04.386,0:03:10.090
Now Bill the other main characters is also incredibly boring and annoying and you

0:03:10.090,0:03:13.627
would think that if you've been alive for a hundred and some odd years

0:03:13.627,0:03:19.600
you would adjust to the way of life now just like every other vampire on the show has,

0:03:19.600,0:03:22.870
but no, you don't.

0:03:22.870,0:03:28.208
Bill is positioned as this sort of romantic old school, 'I'm gonna take care of you and

0:03:28.208,0:03:34.681
respect you' but it's just so contrived and really messed up. I mean do we really want

0:03:34.681,0:03:40.821
to celebrate these old sort of victorian ways of engaging in relationships?

0:03:40.821,0:03:45.092
I mean, almost every other word out of his mouth is something about having to

0:03:45.092,0:03:46.238
protect Sookie.

0:03:47.183,0:03:51.899
"The more people know what you do the harder it is for me to protect you."

0:03:51.899,0:03:54.401
"Sookie must be protected."

0:03:54.401,0:03:57.538
"And I need you to watch over Sookie, protect her while I'm gone."

0:03:57.538,0:03:59.806
"My only desire is to keep you safe."

0:03:59.806,0:04:03.277
And now Sookie will demonstrate the appropriate response to these comments.

0:04:03.277,0:04:06.102
"Shut the fuck up"

0:04:06.102,0:04:13.344
Tara is Sookie's best friend and I really like Tara. I think that she is really kind of

0:04:13.344,0:04:19.860
dynamic and interesting. I really believe her character. I believe that she has had a really

0:04:19.860,0:04:24.218
messed up childhood and her mom's an alcoholic and she's lashed out and

0:04:24.218,0:04:29.770
been promiscuous and hasn't had the emotional support and doesn't really know

0:04:29.770,0:04:33.574
how to, you know, love herself because nobody's really ever loved her.

0:04:33.574,0:04:39.913
So that when this evil god like creature masked as a beautiful woman, who eats

0:04:39.913,0:04:44.618
a lot of organic food, comes in and gives her that emotional love and support

0:04:44.618,0:04:46.653
she's going to fall for that, I buy that.

0:04:46.653,0:04:51.525
What I don't buy is that unfortunately, even though I think Tara is really interesting

0:04:51.525,0:04:56.930
she's still the Black sidekick, she's still the loud, pompous, aggressive, hypersexualized

0:04:56.930,0:05:03.904
Black woman. Lafayette, oh, you know we all love him. He's really dynamic and really

0:05:03.904,0:05:07.174
interesting and funny as some definitely some choice lines.

0:05:07.174,0:05:14.248
But he is every stereotype about Black queer men all rolled into one little pretty package and

0:05:14.248,0:05:20.187
it constantly infuriates me because we don't want to reinforce these stereotypes

0:05:20.187,0:05:24.324
we want to dispel them and break them down and make very interesting complicated,

0:05:24.324,0:05:29.062
textured characters that are beyond stereotypes but NO, True Blood can't do that.

0:05:29.062,0:05:33.667
We see Layfayette working in the kitchen of Merlotte's but on the side he's also a

0:05:33.667,0:05:37.722
prostitute, and he runs his own porn website and he's a drug dealer.

0:05:37.722,0:05:42.242
I mean, really? Could there be any other stereotypes thrown in here?

0:05:42.242,0:05:46.613
Putting Lafayette's character into the greater context of the True Blood universe

0:05:46.613,0:05:50.517
there's no other Black men and no other Queer men on the main cast so he's

0:05:50.517,0:05:59.390
really all we get in terms of alternative sexuality and as far as Black male masculinity.

0:05:59.390,0:06:03.297
Eric's character has developed a lot more in season two and I'm kind of disturbed by the

0:06:03.297,0:06:07.644
direction it's going. So in season one we establish that he's this pompous arrogant

0:06:07.644,0:06:13.140
sort of quiet but very powerful asshole. He doesn't really care about humans very

0:06:13.140,0:06:17.544
much they are just kind of toys to him and he can get whatever he wants because he

0:06:17.544,0:06:22.726
is the most powerful vampire in the area. So in season two we start to see a bit of his

0:06:22.726,0:06:28.555
emotion as far as being concerned about his maker and he even cries, which I think it's

0:06:28.555,0:06:32.926
totally acceptable and great that men are crying on television but I don't think

0:06:32.926,0:06:38.932
this gives us license to feel sympathy or attraction towards Eric. I think that he is

0:06:38.932,0:06:47.040
still continuing to be a perpetrator really. The scene in which he tricks Sookie into drinking

0:06:47.040,0:06:51.044
his blood is really reminiscent of sexual assault and unfortunately that sexual

0:06:51.044,0:06:57.084
assault hasn't been dealt with in a respectful way. So he thinks that it's totally okay and funny that

0:06:57.084,0:07:01.088
he did that, Sookie's pissed but what is she gonna do? And he gets to emotionally

0:07:01.088,0:07:05.492
stalk her. I think it's characters like Eric in the scene that I described that really

0:07:05.492,0:07:09.759
reminds me that there are people behind the scenes who are purposely writing things

0:07:09.759,0:07:14.101
and get to choose which directions these stories and characters go and more often

0:07:14.101,0:07:19.173
then not, they are not in the direction in which fans want to see them.

0:07:19.173,0:07:25.712
Especially female fans because we live with the constant fear of violence towards

0:07:25.712,0:07:29.683
us on a daily basis we don't need that to be dealt with on TV

0:07:29.683,0:07:33.187
in a very negative, dismissive sort of way.

0:07:33.187,0:07:36.924
I could probably go on for hours about the specifics of how messed up True Blood is

0:07:36.924,0:07:41.695
but I will leave you just with those gems and I'm also going to provide some links to some really

0:07:41.695,0:07:46.162
awesome articles that talk more in depthly about race and gender in True Blood.

0:07:47.234,0:07:54.137
"I don't know who you think you are but before the night is through

0:07:54.137,0:07:57.744
I wanna do bad things with you."