Strange Fruit #105: TV That Shatters Stereotypes (and Porn that Reinforces Them)

After spending January looking back at some of our favorite conversations, we're back this week with a brand new episode — and we have a lot of hot topics to catch up on! So this week, we're doing an all-Juicy-Fruit episode, and we're joined by PR guru and friend-to-the-show, Walter Walker (you might remember him from WFPL's 2013 Defining Fairness series: http://wfpl.org/life-without-labels-walter-w-walker-ii-defining-fairness/). We talk about a Huffington Post article last week by Mike Alvear, which looked at racial dynamics in gay porn. The piece, "Why Are Whites Always the Bottom in Interracial Porn?" says the porn industry caters to white people, who they say are their highest-paying customers. We talk about the ways in which we're socialized to view black men as hypersexual and aggressive, and how those images are perpetuated (and even exaggerated) in the fantasy world of porn. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-alvear/why-are-whites-always-the_b_6503674.html) We also talk about the Ghostbusters reboot — both our own opinions, and internet fanboys' sexist reactions. Also, remember Mary Cheney? She's the white lesbian daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and she was apparently confused this week about drag and blackface. She wrote on her facebook wall, "Why is it socially acceptable — as a form of entertainment — for men to put on dresses, make-up and high heels and act out every offensive stereotype of women (bitchy, catty, dumb, slutty, etc.) — but it is not socially acceptable — as a form of entertainment — for a white person to put on blackface and act out offensive stereotypes of African Americans? Shouldn't both be OK or neither?" As a public service to Mary (because our Fruitcakes already know) we break down the differences between subversive and oppressive entertainment, and talk about the roots of each phenomenon. We're also not sure what kind of drag shows she's been to; when we see drag done in queer spaces, it doesn't tend to poke fun at women at all. And finally, while we were on break, Empire took television completely by storm! We talk about the new resurgence in scripted black television, and the importance of three-dimensional characters of color with complex relationships and lives.