I've been thinking on this all week

[riseupwithfists]

Does anyone know of a Western world-based source text where all or almost all of the character deaths or departures are the straight white men? In texts where the character pool is significantly more varied than just straight white men, obviously.

Does such a source text even fucking exist? And I'm not trying to sound snide or trolly, I just honestly don't know, though I have my suspicions.

Tonight I tried to keep my story from becoming a full on musical because that's a bit hard to make work in the written word, and I watched Community for the first time. It was cute!

Comments

[gloss]

I cannot think of such a source. UGH.

Yay, Community! I only caught the last ten minutes, but dear god I love Abed & Troy. <3

[riseupwithfists]

I can't either! It just seemed like a thing to think about this week, what with the Heroes staff fail and what may or may not have just happened on Supernatural. Thinking about how much we take from our entertainment before we have had enough, where our lines are. How much we're *expected* to take, more importantly. I mean, shit, remember when I was never reading DC Comics ever again?

I've now seen one whole episode and all of the Abed Batman parts of the Halloween episode. Bwee.

[gloss]

*nod nod* It's been quite the week, huh?

It's weird; I'm not really reading DC comics any more because they're *bad* and because they're wrongheaded.

Yay ABED! Also, Shirley is for the win. <333

[riseupwithfists]

My kinda faily justification for comics has always been that one can pick and choose pretty easily which parts of the canon to read and enjoy. NOT THAT THIS ALWAYS WORKS. I'm reading two and a half titles a month, and that's suiting me just fine (Booster Gold is on and off for me, so I'm only counting the Jaime backup). But this is a coping mechanism that isn't really that much different from saying "I recognize that this show/book series/whatever is remarkably offensive and faily, BUT I continue to watch it because (whatever)". So I'm trying to figure out how to converse about when enough is enough in general without coming off as ridiculously hypocritical, because *I'M* still hanging on.

ANYWAY. Quite a fucking week, indeed.

I actually like everyone on this show so far! Straight White Guy Who Stars (can't remember his name right now) is even less obnoxious to me than your usual SWGWS. I think because everyone else on the show is kinda aware that he's obnoxious and that takes the edge off.

[gloss]

I share your justification, pretty much. I don't know what's wrong with me and comics lately, except that my expectations are way disproportionate to the content.

SWGWS is pretty funny, so that helps big time. He's not the usual meta-sitcom white guy who's ~vulnerable~ and ~pining~; he's basically a jerk with wisecracks, and that I can deal with. He is, however, no Abed. ABED IS THE BEST.

[riseupwithfists]

Also, I just totally coined a palindrome. GO ME.

[glitterandlube]

Never mind, I looked it up.

[eisen]

I ... may be attempting to write one, actually. I'll let you know when someone dies.

I know I've never read such a thing before, though.

[riseupwithfists]

I'm attempting to write one, too! When my mind isn't being eaten by school and fanfic. In which I usually only kill off Batman.

I can't recall having come across such a thing before, either. Oh, and I need to remember to disqualify the rare but common enough to be annoying trope where the heroic white dude sacrifices himself all heroically to save the ragtag group of minorities.

[eisen]

\o/

Euurrrrgh but White Dudes Can Save Everybody, don't you know? :(

[msilverstar]

Not a lot before the 1970s, wow, hard to even think of any. I feel like even George Sand and Jane Austen are hugely relationship-focused.

Maybe some ensemble pieces, like Mary McCarthy's "The Group" but I don't remember it very well. Maybe Lillian Hellman. Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own.

Maybe Laura Ingalls Wilder. Anne of Green Gables.

Tillie Olsen, "Tell Me a Riddle"

in the 70s, Marge Piercy wrote a multi-character book about World War II, where I learned a lot more about the Pacific war than I had known before. It was both men and women, but, by the nature of the book, more of the men died.

Marilyn French, "The Women's Room".

Erica Jong tried, but she was pretty male-focused.

Vonda McIntyre, early feminist SF author. Also Johanna Russ.

"Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen"

Tamora Pierce, YA Fantasy books, published in the early 80s, great stuff.

While trying to remind myself, I hit this Bibliography of Early Women Writers. It's got everyone from Hildegard of Bingen to Margaret Mead.

[glitterandlube]

I doubt it exists. For all the whining [by retarded writers who suck at their jobs anyway dudes] about how white men are are not welcome in Hollywood - something like 95% or higher are white men and they aren't going to start tossing their beloveds out the window any time soon.

I'd have to sit down and make a list of character deaths in DC to see percentages and I can't do that at work right now. :|

[riseupwithfists]

Character deaths in comics are just so commonplace that thinking about such a list breaks my brain! I would be interested in seeing how many white dude heroes get glorious resurrections compared to how many women/minorities get to have glorious resurrections.

[glitterandlube]

I'll do it for DC when I get home if you really want to know. I'm sure scans_daily would help me if I have problems finding obscure stuff.

I would have to count manner of death as well - not just glorious resurrections, but meaningful deaths as well.

This could be interesting.