TOW #24 - IRB - Bad Feminist

Roxane Gay’s enticing book Bad Feminist reveals truths in many aspects of our culture.  She covers books, movies, and public figures and examines the way all three of these things affects our culture.  Gay aims to emphasize the inequality minorities face in the public eye.  Not only that, she succeeds in evaluating the good and bad aspects of popular pieces of entertainments.  Through evaluating these pieces, Gay touches on how recognizing injustice can further better our society.

                In an attempt to follow with popular culture, Gay decides to watch Orange is the New Black (OITNB), an extremely popular TV show based on the experiences a woman faced during her time in prison.  At its release, OITNB captivated a large audience, known for its groundbreaking plot and diverse characters, OITNB was praised for its excellency.  Gay agrees, “the show is reasonably well written, there’s a ‘interesting’ premise, and the cast is diverse” (250).  Despite its showcase of several characters, Gay finds this aspect overly repetitive.  Every time someone mentions the show, its diversity never fails to be mentioned.  Laverne Cox and Tanya Wright, actresses on the show, “create beautifully acted scenes that are intimate, bittersweet, and honest” (251).  However, all many can say about the show is remarkably diverse” (251) is it.  Furthermore, with its diversity comes a possibility of mistakes.  For example, “so many opportunities for the show to be truly original and smart are missed by wide margins” (251).  The Haitian character on the show does not even seem Haitian.  Another con with the show is the fact that all of the character revolve around the main, Piper.  Instead, Gay emphasizes the importance of supporting character creating their own solar system, and revolving around their issues rather than another.  Despite the show’s popularity many viewers fall into the trap of recognizing its diversity rather than seeing some of its faults.

                In recognizing the diversity of a show, Gay agrees with its popularity when it was released.  However, now it is all anyone can talk about.  Gay questions the bar set by our culture when it comes to “different” TV shows.  Is a small piece of diversity considered ground breaking, or are our standards for what’s new too low?  Yes, Orange is the New Black is different, and exciting, but one shouldn’t let that overpass the faults in the show itself.  Perhaps seeing these issues can create more shows changing entertainment’s platform, and work towards exposing more racial issues at hand.