Happy 23rd Birthday Kat Graham
Kat Graham, Prestige Outtakes
2/25 ► Kat Graham
When I go to airports, I just go to magazine stands and then just, like, look at photos of myself.
1/20 Kat Graham Sets
Look boo, I would too. Don’t look so guilty. 8-)
“I do my own thing. I’m very much in the paradox of things. I enjoy the little things in life, what’s big is small and what’s small is big. It might not be the coolest thing to do, but it’s important to me.” ~ Kat Graham
as an active member of several fandoms I will be the first one to admit that they’re never not clusterfucks. things get messy and everyone has opinions and no one wants to hear what the other side has to say because the other side is always wrong or w/e, and a lot of other bs—so yes, fandoms in general are fucked.
I really am kind of upset about the way the media is covering this entire TVD fandom/Julie Plec/Matt Davis meltdown, though.
like yes, I do admit some members of our fandom could have handled this much better without going with the typical “SHUT THE FUCK UP OR GET OUT OF MY FUCKING UNIVERSE” but can the media and pretty much everyone else NOT make this about fandom merely being upset about the romantic aspect of Bonnie’s “storyline?” Because by doing so they’re just blatantly trivialiazing the whole issue and essentially rendering the entire Bonnie fandom as a bunch of stupid fangirls who enjoy shipping her fave with everyone and get pissy when they don’t get what they want.
Which—
No.
For fuck’s sake, this really, at its core, has absolutely nothing to do with shipping and everything to do with the fact that every single one of her storylines, so far, have either a-) gotten shafted or b-) never really been her storylines but someone else’s and in the end she ends up being just a plot device. Like, real talk here: Bonnie gets like half of the screen time Caroline (played by a white, blonde and talented actress) gets in this show, and they’re both supposed to be at the same level when it comes to relevance.
And I just. It’s so frustrating to me that they don’t seem to GET this. Like, I don’t care if you don’t agree or not? but let’s be real here and admit that everyone is entitled to criticism when it comes to the poor treatment poc get in television shows. And before anyone comes at me saying “lol I hate Bonnie” I will tell you while this is your pregorative, that it certainly not the point of this entire thing - it’s about the fact that Bonnie’s character is basically the toilet of the TVD writing crew, only really relevant when the three (white) leads are in need of her help, and then after she helps she always gets the short end of the stick. Furthermore, do we even know anything about Bonnie’s family? We know they’re witches, and we know it’s very much a matriarchal sort of family (one of the very few good things writers have done right with her character) but she also lives with her dad and like—
we don’t know anything about him. we’ve never seen him, no one ever mentions him and I don’t even think we’ve gotten a name? Bonnie, a series regular and someone who is supposed to be part of the central story, lives with a man we know absolutely nothing about. And, I’m sorry, but this is ridiculous. Like, for fuck’s sake they’re even doing a flashback episode where we’ll get to meet Elena’s dead parents and yet Bonnie’s father remains conspicuously absent.
And I know that at this point I shouldn’t be making book vs. show comparisons because they’re completely different and the books are kind of really ridiculous? but this is pretty unavoidable, considering that in the books Bonnie was a small and bubbly and white, curly-haired girl who rather than being a plot device (as our show Bonnie unfortunately is), was actually always in the middle of things—SHE EVEN HAS HER OWN BOOK COVER—had two love interests in the form of Matt and Damon, and we even got to meet her SISTER. and yet now that she’s played by a black woman she is… none of these things. so, like, what do the writers expect us to think? as a woc myself, how am I supposed to feel?
And do you really have to be a fan of Bonnie as a character to accept how deeply problematic all these things are? They need to be addressed.
So, I’m sorry, People Who Have Written About This in Gossip Blogs, but you really need to check your privilege.
Angie’s posts are always relevant, as are her tags. The end.
