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A thread on #bridgertonnetflix 
(OR, why we get this shlock instead of a Haitian Revolution epic!)
#BRIDGERTON is a post-racialist fantasy. In its utopian world, Blacks & whites are equally powerful in Eng. Or rather, the scale is tipped toward Blacks, since Queen Charlotte... 1/
(OR, why we get this shlock instead of a Haitian Revolution epic!)#BRIDGERTON
is a post-racialist fantasy. In its utopian world, Blacks & whites are equally powerful in Eng. Or rather, the scale is tipped toward Blacks, since Queen Charlotte... 1/
...(rather than simply having been rumored to be of mixed racial heritage & passing as white) is presented as a Black woman reigning openly as one.
There is no slavery or brutality - or acknowledged racism - in this world. Servants and aristocrats alike are of mixed hues. 2/
There is no slavery or brutality - or acknowledged racism - in this world. Servants and aristocrats alike are of mixed hues. 2/
The benevolent intention here was to repopulate London with POC – after so many “costume drama” productions which erased Black Londoners from history. GREAT!
However, #Bridgerton OVERCORRECTS, to create a warped world in which (as Lady Danbury tells Hastings), the... 3/
However, #Bridgerton
OVERCORRECTS, to create a warped world in which (as Lady Danbury tells Hastings), the... 3/
Black kingdom & white kingdom were simply united when Charlotte married King George – &now they all need to continue unity & mixing.
THIS IS SHLOCK, I repeat. Where was all of this money coming from? Do we see the brutality of the enslavement that was actually going on... 4/
THIS IS SHLOCK, I repeat. Where was all of this money coming from? Do we see the brutality of the enslavement that was actually going on... 4/
...in the colonial plantations these aristos owned or invested in? Nope, nope, nope - that would be too stressful for white people. @Netflix would not be going #ChaChing while the view count rolled up. In fact, #BRIDGERTON fits into a long Hollywood studio tradition... 5/
fits into a long Hollywood studio tradition... 5/
...where films on Black history (I am using history loosely here) are funded only when they make white people COMFORTABLE. Slave revolt stories in which brutal enslavers receive retributive justice (like a Haitian Rev epic that would sympathize with enslaved Haitians)? 6/
Too stressful for white people! So studios won't fund ("where are the white heroes?" they asked Danny Glover when he was trying to make his Toussaint Louverture epic).
But stories in which whites and Blacks live together in racial harmony: studios love that sh*t! 7/
But stories in which whites and Blacks live together in racial harmony: studios love that sh*t! 7/
Hence: the integrated costume drama. If you love British royalty & arist'y - but felt kind of bad b/c it was depicted as a thoroughly white world - feel guilty no more! Here's more of the same - but hip & integrated!! (let's NOT discuss how the wealth was produced... 8/
...that gave us the sumptuous dresses & lavish buffets).
This is part of a PATTERN of how films on Black history get funded by studios, as I discuss in #SlaveRevoltonScreen. Keep in mind, even as more showrunners & directors are Black, the balance is still tipped so that...9/
This is part of a PATTERN of how films on Black history get funded by studios, as I discuss in #SlaveRevoltonScreen. Keep in mind, even as more showrunners & directors are Black, the balance is still tipped so that...9/
...funding decisions are made by largely white execs on the basis of what wh. audiences will not recoil at.
This WARPS the history we see on screen. Formerly colonized countries & ppl - b/c of the econ. legacies of col'm & slavery- do not have the same power to greenlight 10/
This WARPS the history we see on screen. Formerly colonized countries & ppl - b/c of the econ. legacies of col'm & slavery- do not have the same power to greenlight 10/
So we get benevolent revisionism that wipes away slavery (too controversial, too polarizing) in favor of racial harmony & utopia that tells us: we really can all just get along! 11/
I could say much more (for instance on the sexualization of Bl women in the show v. white women's chastity), but needed to get that out now. I've been grateful to @AnnetteJosephG for unpacking with me what's going on as we proceed through the episodes. I'd love to see 12/
her share more (here or elsewhere) about the probs she sees. & I'm hoping that some of our specialists in Black Europe (no pressure @tnflorvil
) also might write s'thg.
I've got two eps to go, but having suffered 6 hrs of this - & thought about what FAILS TO GET FUNDED -13/
) also might write s'thg.I've got two eps to go, but having suffered 6 hrs of this - & thought about what FAILS TO GET FUNDED -13/
...I had a few things to get off my chest, that I hadn't read elsewhere yet!
More on how whites' real (or perceived) disinterest in the history of slavery combines with funding inequities to warp what we see on screen, coming later this year in #SlaveRevoltonScreen. fin/
More on how whites' real (or perceived) disinterest in the history of slavery combines with funding inequities to warp what we see on screen, coming later this year in #SlaveRevoltonScreen. fin/
(one last thing - we know this is not real, b/c of the way that actual Black royalty - the Queen of Hayti, Marie-Louise & her daughters - were treated when they showed up in London in 1820! Ppl like Wilberforce were happy to support them FROM AFAR, but basically iced them out...
...in person, as @NicoleWillson & @TabitaSurge can tell you in detail!).
@analuciaraujo_ @RachelMesch FYI
(and @DrO_aorzoff - TV is a serious object of inquiry!
)
@analuciaraujo_ @RachelMesch FYI
(and @DrO_aorzoff - TV is a serious object of inquiry!
)
