Miriam Heddy's "The Lone Jew In Fandom"
Jan. 17th, 2009 10:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
browngirlI was going to post about the "how to write the Other" discussion going on (posts by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala and deepad among others) but I hadn't yet compiled an exhaustive list. Then lomedet sent me a link to miriam_heddy's "The Lone Jew in Fandom", about the recent NUMB3RS episode "Arrow of Time" and about the depiction of the Eppes family as Jewish in general, and I found myself considering the discussion from the other side, as it were. This is a situation where I'm a member of the majority, a person benefiting from privilege, and I want to be the kind of ally that I would like others to be to me in the situations where I'm not.
My reply, which I wanted to put here too:
Thank you very much for this post. A friend of mine pointed me to it.
[Paragraph on my perspective, because there always has to be one.] Being a woman of color, I think about discussions like these a lot; I may be over-analogizing, but I feel as if I'm looking at this one from the "other side", not from the POV of a member of a misrepresented minority but from that of a member of the oppressive, privileged majority, one who wants to do what I can to be an active ally or at least not actively contribute to oppression. So I'm thinking of what I want people to do with respect to characters of color, and trying to see how I can do that with respect to Jewish characters.
I was at first delighted by The Arrow of Time because I was delighted to see Don in synagogue. I let that delight blind me to the huge problems in the way that was presented, from the emptiness of the synagogue to its use as the location of a potential shootout (!) -- even setting up that moment at the end where Robin tactitly gives Don her approval of his religious journey doesn't excuse that. I should have seen better before you pointed it out; thank you for saying this, personally because you opened my eyes, but globally because it needed to be said.
I've been thinking about how to write Don and Charlie as Jewish, how to show how their heritage informs every aspect of their lives the way I see it inform my Jewish friends' lives, the way being Black and a former Christian informs my life, the way it *should* if they are to be fully rounded people. This is uncomfortable to say, but that extends to thinking about their relationships. I love Amita, I am delighted to see a woman of color in her role on the show and an interracial relationship presented as a stable and long term one, but I have to consider if her role was taken from a potential Jewish character who should have had a claim to it.
But then, perhaps that very discomfort indicates that I should think about these things.
Thank you for having written this. I've learned a lot from it, both about how to do better by characters I love and the real people they represent, and about how to be true to oneself while being a fan of problematic canon.
PS I realized that "obviously Fallacci's comment was asinine so I won't say anything about it" isn't going to cut it, so I came back to edit my comment. *smile* It struck me as being the same statement people often say about characters of color or LGBT characters, that same 'it doesn't matter' dismissiveness, but that may be my particular lens. Regardless of what it is or isn't like, that statement was certainly *wrong*, and I thought I should at least say so.
Last but not least: yes, I feel weird about posting this on a Saturday morning; I don't want to feel like I'm trying to hide this from people who might have a perspective on it. But I also wanted to write this post while my thoughts were fresh, so.
matociquala and deepad among others) but I hadn't yet compiled an exhaustive list. Then lomedet sent me a link to miriam_heddy's "The Lone Jew in Fandom", about the recent NUMB3RS episode "Arrow of Time" and about the depiction of the Eppes family as Jewish in general, and I found myself considering the discussion from the other side, as it were. This is a situation where I'm a member of the majority, a person benefiting from privilege, and I want to be the kind of ally that I would like others to be to me in the situations where I'm not. My reply, which I wanted to put here too:
Thank you very much for this post. A friend of mine pointed me to it.
[Paragraph on my perspective, because there always has to be one.] Being a woman of color, I think about discussions like these a lot; I may be over-analogizing, but I feel as if I'm looking at this one from the "other side", not from the POV of a member of a misrepresented minority but from that of a member of the oppressive, privileged majority, one who wants to do what I can to be an active ally or at least not actively contribute to oppression. So I'm thinking of what I want people to do with respect to characters of color, and trying to see how I can do that with respect to Jewish characters.
I was at first delighted by The Arrow of Time because I was delighted to see Don in synagogue. I let that delight blind me to the huge problems in the way that was presented, from the emptiness of the synagogue to its use as the location of a potential shootout (!) -- even setting up that moment at the end where Robin tactitly gives Don her approval of his religious journey doesn't excuse that. I should have seen better before you pointed it out; thank you for saying this, personally because you opened my eyes, but globally because it needed to be said.
I've been thinking about how to write Don and Charlie as Jewish, how to show how their heritage informs every aspect of their lives the way I see it inform my Jewish friends' lives, the way being Black and a former Christian informs my life, the way it *should* if they are to be fully rounded people. This is uncomfortable to say, but that extends to thinking about their relationships. I love Amita, I am delighted to see a woman of color in her role on the show and an interracial relationship presented as a stable and long term one, but I have to consider if her role was taken from a potential Jewish character who should have had a claim to it.
But then, perhaps that very discomfort indicates that I should think about these things.
Thank you for having written this. I've learned a lot from it, both about how to do better by characters I love and the real people they represent, and about how to be true to oneself while being a fan of problematic canon.
PS I realized that "obviously Fallacci's comment was asinine so I won't say anything about it" isn't going to cut it, so I came back to edit my comment. *smile* It struck me as being the same statement people often say about characters of color or LGBT characters, that same 'it doesn't matter' dismissiveness, but that may be my particular lens. Regardless of what it is or isn't like, that statement was certainly *wrong*, and I thought I should at least say so.
Last but not least: yes, I feel weird about posting this on a Saturday morning; I don't want to feel like I'm trying to hide this from people who might have a perspective on it. But I also wanted to write this post while my thoughts were fresh, so.
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-19 04:21 am (UTC)Yes and no. If the creators didn't envision the Eppes as Jewish characters but happened to cast three Jewish actors I'm a little more okay with an outside source bringing the issue to the fore. If, however, they envisioned the characters as Jewish, hired Jewish actors, and then just decided not to ever make any of it explicit, then yes, I don't think Morrow should have had to say anything.
I also think that affects how we see Amita. If the characters weren't conceived of as Jewish than I don't think hiring an actress of another ethnicity raises the same problems.
I've always believed in fanfic as a way to patch various kinds of problems with canon,
Yes!
and I might be able to get an interesting story or three out of her asking herself these same questions about herself that I'm asking about her. (Not to get too personal, but this would also be writing what I know, or rather have experience with. *wry smile*)
I think you probably could, too. But I'm just not sure any of this is as important in Charlie's world as it is in Don's. If anything I think it would be the reverse for them, where it's Amita who has concerns about faith and fitting into a culture. Certainly her parents expressed that concern at one time. Do we know anything about Amita's faith? If Jewish heritage isn't important to Charlie, should not being Jewish be important to Amita? And if it is important, why? Does she think Charlie is wrong for not placing a higher value on his ethnicity? Is Alan wrong for not encouraging it? If it's not okay for Charlie to date someone outside his ethnicity/religion why is it okay for her?
no subject
Date: 2009-01-19 01:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-20 11:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-19 11:44 pm (UTC)But I don't think the guns-in-shul thing is fixable without saying, "It didn't happen like that" and going slightly AU (like Buck tracking Don down instead of Don pickingthe place). I've had to do that on a couple of occasions when Academia Doesn't Work Like That, especially with Amita.
I think it would be easier to write what Charlie feels about being Jewish, because it isn't as important to him as it is to Don, Charlie's religion being mathematics, of course. And they don't seem to have had much part of the Jewish community growing up, so he probably thinks of it just in terms of ethnicity. I can see him having a dee-down uneasy feeling that he doesn't quite belong to America, actually.
As for Don, who knows what's going in his head? Not me, that's for certain. Oh, Don...
no subject
Date: 2009-01-30 07:42 pm (UTC)