Carrie Pruett wrote:
>>Here's my thing - if the minority sidekick is
automatically offensive than
>it seems your alternatives are (1) never have a white
male hero or (2) have
>a white male hero with only white friends so that
there's no risk of one
>coming off as superior.
Kerry wrote:
>I thought I gave a couple of examples of better
alternatives.
you didn't say the minority sidekick was automatically
offensive, either, I was just trying to play devil's
advocate, perhaps not very well.
>>Well, they don't "have to be" that way, but they
are. You can't >fault a
>story for all the "better" alternatives it
rejected.
>Uh, why not? That's what you did above.
No, I praised a story for all the worse alternatives it
rejected. Or something like that. :) I suppose I could admit,
though, that that's slicing the distinction a little thin (or
as my brother says when I get on these kicks: "Holy
Hair-splitting, Batman, here comes the Quibbler.") Anyway,
while it would certainly be less stereotypical to have a
black psychologist girlfriend and a streetwise Jewish
sidekick, I don't think that means any story with a Jewish
psychologist and a streetwise black man is irredeemably
stereotypical by comparison. Not that I necessarily think
that was what you were saying but. . . oh boy, starting
over:
from my limited exposure to the series, I find Hawk to be
smarter and more articulate than the pure "stereotype" view
would suggest, and Susan, while somewhat annoying in herself,
a progressive portrayal for the mid-70s. I'd even suggest
that Parker was actually trying to promote
racial/ethnic/religous/gender harmony by giving his tough
Irish PI important relationships with a professional Jewish
woman and a black man. I can't imagine Marlowe involved with
either; not calling him racist or anti-Semitic, but basically
a loner, certainly not closely tied to anyone classed as
"other." So in that sense, Parker was relatively progressive,
even if the portrayals seem dated now (perhaps explaining the
compulsory injection of the disabled lesbian Martian Spenser
will no doubt encounter in the next couple books. . .)
Carrie
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