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Smokey has a nice ramble about American feelings on race, sexuality and gender touched off by watching "The Sandman" with his mother.
Smokey, if you read this, I want to make it clear that I appreciate your point of view and I do think that you're approaching the topic from an open minded place. That said, I am both a long term fan of The Sandman and a person who cringes every time the term 'woke' is used unironically. So I may at times come off a bit confrontational, and I ask that you don't take that personally.
I became aware of The Sandman in the mid 90's and quickly fell in love with the storytelling. I have literally been waiting for most of my adult life to see this turned into a show. Having read every issue, close to the time that it was released, and having that time in close context, I would say that obviously it pushed boundaries. It pushed them Hard. But that was never the point, it was always about the stories.
One of the casting choices that drew some attention was Death. In the comics, Death was a porcelein skinned goth girl looking like a more grown up Winona Rider ala Beetlejuice to Dream's Robert Smith or the Cure. But they're both of The Endless, and they can appear literally however they wish. This is apparent in a later issue where we meet Dream in Mesopotamia, at a time when he fell in love with a mortal woman (and we get a hint of this in the series, out of continuity, when we meet said woman in Hell). But frankly, their appearance is hardly important compared with their personalities. And their personalities are captured perfectly.
Death in the comics was incongruously cheery considering her role. She absolutely adores her brother, while also pulling no punches when telling him off for how self absorbed and silly his depression is. In the episode, 'The Sound of her Wings', this comes across perfectly. The actor nailed it, to the point that she is now the definitive version of the character in my mind.
Going back to the idea that appearance doesn't exactly matter so much as character development, the entire idea of the character of Fiddler's Green is that he is the personification of a place. That was pretty damn abstract in the 90's. And it also reinforces my point. These stories are about storytelling, and you are meant to look past the surface.
Are there more lesbians, people of color and other minorities in the show than in the comics? Well yes. But is it pandering? I really don't see it that way. It's the nature of the stories being told.
Lucifer was modeled off of David Bowie during his most flamboyantly genderqueer era.
Desire was always androgenous.
The issue in the diner always had a lesbian front and center. And I'm actually quite glad that they made some changes in presentation at this point, because I was uncomfortable reading that issue originally and I think it works better.
I get the point that Smokey was going for, and yeah, there's a lot of media out there that is obviously a cash grab with no deeper meaning. One need look no further than all of the teen oriented superhero shows on the CW network (interestingly, more DC properties). Then, of course, there was the king of pandering, Donald Trump. That asshole took it to another level entirely and actually convinced middle America that he was doing what was in their interest. Of course he's not alone. I don't believe for one second that Joe Biden is as open minded as his current political platform, because of his history.
I also have kids who are in the process of coming of age. And it colors my point of view. One of my daughters is gay. She is also a successful business woman at the age of 23, and I couldn't be more proud of her. Another of my kids is trans. Add to that the fact that their mother is Latina, and I immersed myself wholly in her family while we were together, and I'll tell you I doubt I think like the average middle aged white guy. Maybe it does make my contemporaries uncomfortable to see all of this gayness and color, but for a whole lot of other people they had to grow up with zero representation, or with the only representation on TV bordering on characature. So I'm not particularly sympathetic. Yes, it's going to take some time for people's minds and hearts to change. I have a lot of extended family that I never quite pulled along for the ride so I'm well aquianted with that concept. But I got over this stuff myself a long time ago, and my advice for everyone who is being made uncomfortable by it now is to do some real self reflection and ask yourself if you like that about yourself. Does the fact that this sort of thing bothers you say anything good about you as a person? Is it actually wrong of minorities to be getting some representation, and is it actually out of proportion? Or are you just not actually the sort of person (yet) who can look past those things and enjoy the deeper stories?
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