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Beyond True Blood's Sensationalism

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    Vampires! Vampires! Vampires!
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    They're everywhere and they want equal rights too dammit.
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    Yes I'm talking about True Blood. The problem I have with True Blood is
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    I feel like it's structurally flawed. The writers are equating vampire rights with the struggle
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    of civil rights and queer rights. Let's be clear, vampires are evil, manipulative,
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    blood-sucking, monsterous, undead beings.
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    Now to equate these evil beings with Black folks and Queer folks is not a far cry from the
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    actual accusations against Black folks and Queer folks both historically and currently.
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    To make this show that's this sort of serious drama but fun commentary is offensive, at best.
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    Good old Sookie Stackhouse who the story is actually based on.
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    She's so boring, really... okay I take that back, there are some things that are
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    interesting about her like the psychic ability is kind of interesting, but ultimately
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    she is the white, female, blonde, cute, virginal protaganist.
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    Which is very typical, there's not anything super special about that representation.
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    I do appreciate that she stands up to Bill occasionally, even though she always go back to him
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    and even though he's this 'I have to save you' creepy guy just having those little
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    lines, you know, makes me happier in general and I think it's also a good representation
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    for women to see that resistance, it just falls short, constantly,
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    because she still goes back to his ridiculous patriarchal behaviour.
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    In season two there is a really great example of the backlash against women if they
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    want to defend themselves against their patriarchal boyfriends.
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    "That does not give you license to behave like an irresponsible child!"
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    "She is a loaded gun Sookie, not a doll for you to dress up and play with."
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    "What are you doing?"
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    "Walking!"
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    "Don't be ridiculous, Bon Temps is nearly twenty miles away."
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    "I'd rather walk all night then spend another second in that car with you!"
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    "What the--"
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    So now look what happens, Sookie's getting punished by a near death experience
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    because she decided to stick up for herself. Now that's not cool, the writers are writing
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    this, they could have written it in any other way, but instead they are going with the very
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    archaic storyline of women as fragile and need to be protected, 'and don't you dare
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    stick up for yourself or be strong willed.'
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    Now Bill the other main characters is also incredibly boring and annoying and you
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    would think that if you've been alive for a hundred and some odd years
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    you would adjust to the way of life now just like every other vampire on the show has,
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    but no, you don't.
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    Bill is positioned as this sort of romantic old school, 'I'm gonna take care of you and
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    respect you' but it's just so contrived and really messed up. I mean do we really want
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    to celebrate these old sort of victorian ways of engaging in relationships?
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    I mean, almost every other word out of his mouth is something about having to
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    protect Sookie.
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    "The more people know what you do the harder it is for me to protect you."
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    "Sookie must be protected."
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    "And I need you to watch over Sookie, protect her while I'm gone."
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    "My only desire is to keep you safe."
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    And now Sookie will demonstrate the appropriate response to these comments.
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    "Shut the fuck up"
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    Tara is Sookie's best friend and I really like Tara. I think that she is really kind of
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    dynamic and interesting. I really believe her character. I believe that she has had a really
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    messed up childhood and her mom's an alcoholic and she's lashed out and
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    been promiscuous and hasn't had the emotional support and doesn't really know
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    how to, you know, love herself because nobody's really ever loved her.
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    So that when this evil god like creature masked as a beautiful woman, who eats
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    a lot of organic food, comes in and gives her that emotional love and support
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    she's going to fall for that, I buy that.
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    What I don't buy is that unfortunately, even though I think Tara is really interesting
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    she's still the Black sidekick, she's still the loud, pompous, aggressive, hypersexualized
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    Black woman. Lafayette, oh, you know we all love him. He's really dynamic and really
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    interesting and funny as some definitely some choice lines.
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    But he is every stereotype about Black queer men all rolled into one little pretty package and
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    it constantly infuriates me because we don't want to reinforce these stereotypes
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    we want to dispel them and break them down and make very interesting complicated,
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    textured characters that are beyond stereotypes but NO, True Blood can't do that.
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    We see Layfayette working in the kitchen of Merlotte's but on the side he's also a
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    prostitute, and he runs his own porn website and he's a drug dealer.
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    I mean, really? Could there be any other stereotypes thrown in here?
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    Putting Lafayette's character into the greater context of the True Blood universe
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    there's no other Black men and no other Queer men on the main cast so he's
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    really all we get in terms of alternative sexuality and as far as Black male masculinity.
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    Eric's character has developed a lot more in season two and I'm kind of disturbed by the
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    direction it's going. So in season one we establish that he's this pompous arrogant
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    sort of quiet but very powerful asshole. He doesn't really care about humans very
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    much they are just kind of toys to him and he can get whatever he wants because he
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    is the most powerful vampire in the area. So in season two we start to see a bit of his
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    emotion as far as being concerned about his maker and he even cries, which I think it's
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    totally acceptable and great that men are crying on television but I don't think
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    this gives us license to feel sympathy or attraction towards Eric. I think that he is
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    still continuing to be a perpetrator really. The scene in which he tricks Sookie into drinking
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    his blood is really reminiscent of sexual assault and unfortunately that sexual
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    assault hasn't been dealt with in a respectful way. So he thinks that it's totally okay and funny that
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    he did that, Sookie's pissed but what is she gonna do? And he gets to emotionally
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    stalk her. I think it's characters like Eric in the scene that I described that really
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    reminds me that there are people behind the scenes who are purposely writing things
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    and get to choose which directions these stories and characters go and more often
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    then not, they are not in the direction in which fans want to see them.
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    Especially female fans because we live with the constant fear of violence towards
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    us on a daily basis we don't need that to be dealt with on TV
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    in a very negative, dismissive sort of way.
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    I could probably go on for hours about the specifics of how messed up True Blood is
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    but I will leave you just with those gems and I'm also going to provide some links to some really
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    awesome articles that talk more in depthly about race and gender in True Blood.
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    "I don't know who you think you are but before the night is through
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    I wanna do bad things with you."
Title:
Beyond True Blood's Sensationalism
Description:

From the first time I heard about the concept behind HBO's True Blood I was a little bit horrified. Vampires are "coming out of the coffin" and want equal rights? Since television producers (and especially HBO) want to make shows that are as sensational and scandalous as possible, I had my doubts about whether they could provide commentary about social justice struggles in America without being painfully offensive, ignorant and stereotypical. I am unhappy to report that, no, they completely failed.
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Video Language:
English
Team:
Feminist Frequency
Duration:
07:58

English subtitles

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