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alias_sqbrI just saw one of many posts I've seen on tumblr praising the progressive messages in Golden Girls, specifically an episode about chronic fatigue syndrome. I don't remember the show very well but have no reason to question the praise. But this post went one about the great things the actors have done, implying they were the ones responsible for the nature of the show. Which is something I see a lot, and that's not how TV shows work!
I mean yes, sometimes actors push for improvements or are also, as it happens, part of the production staff. But I haven't seen anything to imply that this applies to the Golden Girls main cast(*), and people seem to act like actors are the ones to praise for good parts of live-action shows in general, unless the show-runner happens to be well known.
So. I looked it up, and Golden Girls was created by a woman called Susan Harris, and she's the one responsible for the episode about chronic fatigue syndrome, based on her own struggles with the illness. But there was a large writing team and multiple show-runners so there's no one person responsible for the good things in the show overall.
Still, if we're going to praise a woman who gave visibility to people with chronic fatigue syndrome in the Golden Girls, we should be praising Susan Harris.
Another similar example I've seen is people talking about how the Star Trek episode Amok Time (the one with Ponn Farr) was very homoerotic and helped launch the Kirk/Spock ship etc, and pondering how deliberate the subtext was. But they always talk about the show runner Gene Roddenberry (since he's one people have heard of), or the actors, and never even bother looking up who actually wrote the episode.
When it was written by Theodore Sturgeon! Who, yes, is best known these days for creating Sturgeon's Law, but a brief scan of his bibliography reveals how much his work included very deliberate queer themes: he was the first author to publish scifi dealing explicitly with homosexuality, back in the 1950s. To ignore all this when discussing whether the episode he wrote was deliberately slashy, and instead care more about the opinion of William Shatner is... unfortunate.
I mean one reason I know so much about Theodore Sturgeon is I happen to have read some of his books (including one set in a non-binary utopia that meant a lot to teen!me). But I didn't know anything about Susan Harris until I looked her up just now. And while I get that most people can't be bothered googling this stuff just to reblog a gifset, it really wouldn't have been hard for any of the people writing multi-paragraph additions to this and other similar posts I've seen to stop and look into the writers and creators instead of just talking about the actors. But it feels like noone ever does.
And of course these individuals were part of a team, I'm not saying Theodore Sturgeon or Susan Harris were lone geniuses personally responsible for all that was good etc. But their contributions to the content of those episodes was certainly significant enough to be worth noting. In some other cases, all you might be able to say is "the writers" rather than any one person but then...say that!
I guess it's more satisfying to imagine all the things you like (or in some cases, dislike) about a canon can be laid at the feet of famous people you're familiar with and already have positive/negative feelings about. But it means the contributions of the less famous people who are actually responsible get erased. And it annoys me.
I realise I'm shouting into the wind here. I mean, at least these Nice Actor Facts are (as far as I know) neither untrue nor problematic, which is a step up from a lot of tumblr posts. But sometimes I just feel like ranting!
(*)Ok, looking it up, Beau Arthur complained about there being too many jokes about her character's appearance, and that got toned down. But the cast don't seem to have ever added anything. Which is fine! That's not their job! And they seem like cool women and I'm all for talking about cool stuff they've done! But unless I'm missing something, the progressive themes of the show aren't one of them.
I mean yes, sometimes actors push for improvements or are also, as it happens, part of the production staff. But I haven't seen anything to imply that this applies to the Golden Girls main cast(*), and people seem to act like actors are the ones to praise for good parts of live-action shows in general, unless the show-runner happens to be well known.
So. I looked it up, and Golden Girls was created by a woman called Susan Harris, and she's the one responsible for the episode about chronic fatigue syndrome, based on her own struggles with the illness. But there was a large writing team and multiple show-runners so there's no one person responsible for the good things in the show overall.
Still, if we're going to praise a woman who gave visibility to people with chronic fatigue syndrome in the Golden Girls, we should be praising Susan Harris.
Another similar example I've seen is people talking about how the Star Trek episode Amok Time (the one with Ponn Farr) was very homoerotic and helped launch the Kirk/Spock ship etc, and pondering how deliberate the subtext was. But they always talk about the show runner Gene Roddenberry (since he's one people have heard of), or the actors, and never even bother looking up who actually wrote the episode.
When it was written by Theodore Sturgeon! Who, yes, is best known these days for creating Sturgeon's Law, but a brief scan of his bibliography reveals how much his work included very deliberate queer themes: he was the first author to publish scifi dealing explicitly with homosexuality, back in the 1950s. To ignore all this when discussing whether the episode he wrote was deliberately slashy, and instead care more about the opinion of William Shatner is... unfortunate.
I mean one reason I know so much about Theodore Sturgeon is I happen to have read some of his books (including one set in a non-binary utopia that meant a lot to teen!me). But I didn't know anything about Susan Harris until I looked her up just now. And while I get that most people can't be bothered googling this stuff just to reblog a gifset, it really wouldn't have been hard for any of the people writing multi-paragraph additions to this and other similar posts I've seen to stop and look into the writers and creators instead of just talking about the actors. But it feels like noone ever does.
And of course these individuals were part of a team, I'm not saying Theodore Sturgeon or Susan Harris were lone geniuses personally responsible for all that was good etc. But their contributions to the content of those episodes was certainly significant enough to be worth noting. In some other cases, all you might be able to say is "the writers" rather than any one person but then...say that!
I guess it's more satisfying to imagine all the things you like (or in some cases, dislike) about a canon can be laid at the feet of famous people you're familiar with and already have positive/negative feelings about. But it means the contributions of the less famous people who are actually responsible get erased. And it annoys me.
I realise I'm shouting into the wind here. I mean, at least these Nice Actor Facts are (as far as I know) neither untrue nor problematic, which is a step up from a lot of tumblr posts. But sometimes I just feel like ranting!
(*)Ok, looking it up, Beau Arthur complained about there being too many jokes about her character's appearance, and that got toned down. But the cast don't seem to have ever added anything. Which is fine! That's not their job! And they seem like cool women and I'm all for talking about cool stuff they've done! But unless I'm missing something, the progressive themes of the show aren't one of them.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-20 08:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-21 12:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-22 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-20 10:20 pm (UTC)(I saw a tweet going around saying he approved of queer readings of Spock/Kirk, and when I looked at the source, he was actually going, "I don't see it that way at all, but you do you.")
no subject
Date: 2021-03-21 12:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-21 12:38 am (UTC)But this post was great to read! Especially in its giving love to scriptwriters and creators.
But it means the contributions of the less famous people who are actually responsible get erased. And it annoys me.
Saaaaame. I'm glad I haven't seen this around Tumblr, but if I do, you can bet I'm gonna post some gentle corrections about it dslakf (Although I haven't been on Tumblr at all in the past few days so maybe you're already doing this x.x)
no subject
Date: 2021-03-21 01:44 pm (UTC)The nice thing about crossposting from dreamwidth is all my "ranting on dreamwidth about an annoying tumblr post" get onto tumblr too (at least the![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alias_sqbr ones), so there's always the vain hope people will see it and
all decide to stop being wrong on the internet.
Boom!
Date: 2021-03-21 11:40 pm (UTC)You hit this target with a well-fledged arrow
Re: Boom!
Date: 2021-03-22 12:45 am (UTC)Thank you :)
no subject
Date: 2021-03-22 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-25 02:03 pm (UTC)nods :)