[aishah]

it's not that i find the stories monolithic - they aren't. it's that the first character with no redeeming qualities whatsoever is a black woman, which is kind of odd, and i really am uncomfortable with the fact that it feels like a lot of the storylines around vee and the characters of other black women in the show are told in a way that feels - manipulative to the point of being contrived. like the show is exploiting the very real pain of taystee, poussey, cindy, crazy eyes, and the others (mostly at the hands of vee) for entertainment.

which, i get it's a tv show. it's just that it feels like the portrayals have changed. in the first season the stories told felt more real, less manipulative, less...like "watch what these black women do to each other to hurt each other." for your entertainment.

i'm not black and i'm definitely not saying my way of seeing it is the only way. but if this were a group of native women portrayed this way i would have had an impossible time watching this (as a native woman).

it just feels wrong that the group dynamics of the black characters were exploited in this way. there are other group dynamics - you could argue that pennsatucky had vee's leadership role with the meth addicts and red with most of the white girls - but pennsatucky and red were shown in a way that was more sympathetic and the angst of the characters in their groups was not done in such a manipulative, contrived, here-let's-put-this-on-display sort of way.

there were a lot of things about this season - and this show in general - that i've liked (pretty much everything except for piper and alex, they get on my nerves). and maybe i'm reading this wrong, it just really made it hard to finish out this season and it's made me think twice about whether i want to keep watching.

edited to add - and i'm really particularly frustrated with the way the stories around these characters and the way their relationships to each other were affected by vee. not in general. i am grateful for the fact that this is one of the few/only shows that depicts queer and trans women of color well. i do think that there were some redeeming qualities to the complex portrayal of vee's relationships to both taystee and crazy eyes - the way both of them are looking for affirmation and develop a sense of loyalty, etc. the show also does a good job portraying the latina characters, it feels to me, at least. it's not that ointb is terrible at portraying women of color.

it's just - taken as a whole, the big picture with the vee storyline and how her actions affect all the characters did not come off very well to me. maybe if vee had been less one-dimensional, it would have felt less like black women's pain (at her hands) was being put on display for ratings. it was over the top and unnecessary. and it was painful to watch.