I only saw the full first season so I can’t comment on the rest. I found the first season to feel VERY stereotypical, and in many ways the ‘defying stereotypes’ stuff felt like flawed attempts.
Take Kala, it’s often argued that she is not in an ‘arranged marriage’ trope yet her storyline about marriage follows all the old ‘arranged marriage’ storyline tropes, in a slightly different coating. http://queeranarchism.tumblr.com/post/126102575013/sense-8-and-racial-stereotyping She’s a scientist, yeah, but in season 1 we see very much of her going through the motions of a classic arranged marriage trope and only a few minutes of her doing science or in any other way defying stereotypes.
It is possible that Sense8 managed to truly subvert stereotypes in the second season, I can’t comment. But since a show never knows whether it’s going to get a second season, judging the impact of season 1 on it’s own is valid and in general I found that the first season of sense8 claimed to subvert stereotypes but showed so much of the stereotype that it was counter productive. It’s like Fight Club in that way, a movie that claims to be about how bad violent masculinity is but spends so much time portraying violent masculinity that it is counter productive and most of the people who love Fight Club also love violent masculinity.
Finally: it is possible to subvert stereotypes without ever reinforcing stereotypes or presenting stereotypes as something to be ‘overcome’. Orange is the New Black (which definitely has flaws of its own) did a much better job in that regard. Many of the people of color on Orange is the New Black are perceived by the outside world as stereotypes like ‘the drug dealer’, but we never meet them as such. They do not make a magical journey from stereotypical drugdealer to human, they are just shown as always having been human beings. They do not ‘overcome’ their stereotypes, they are portrayed as threedimensional from start to finish.
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Seperate note 1: I wrote my original post about Sense 8, the one that got lots of notes, after being very disappointed about the first season. I got a lot of hate over it including some really vile shit. I understand that a lot of people are upset now because the show got cancelled. I don’t want a role in that debate. Please don’t try to push me into that debate.
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Seperate note 2:
Will, the white cop who defies stereotypes and cares deeply about people of color is a pretty sickening part on it’s own because we do not need more tv shows that humanize cops. That’s not defying stereotypes. That’s cop propaganda and it’s fucked up.
QueerAnarchism 