TW: anti-LGBT bigotry
Issa Rae basically uses homophobia and transphobia in her show Awkward Black Girl as punch lines
in the first season the T-word was used as an insult levied at one of the characters
also in Jay’s awkward raps she uses the phrase “no lesbo”
the crunk feminist collective {which has QTPOC} and many other individual QTPOCs called her out on her use of transphobic slurs and the phrase “no lesbo”
and her response was basically “y’all are being too sensitive, its just a show, comedy is comedy, get over it cause i’m not really sorry and i’m not going to change things”
and a whole lot of people covered her ass and defended her “creative license” to use the T-word and “no lesbo”
brooklyn boihood included, most notably in my mind
which allowed her to get away with it again at the beginning of season 2
when she comes into work wearing white jay’s clothes, there is magically some masculine of center identified woman working there, and she assumes J is queer in conversation and she’s like “naww lez-bitch i aint bout that life” or something including the phrase lez-bitch
and every time QTPOC have brought it up, particularly black queers and trans folk, we’ve basically been told “ya win some, ya loose some/get over it/its just a show/its not a big deal”
here’s my personal take on it: if straight people, straight black people in particular, want to watch Awkward Black Girl, then go right on ahead. Yet don’t try to convince me, a queer person of colour, why i’m overreacting to her use of homophobic and transphobic slurs and why i should just “enjoy the show/get over it/stop complaining about nothing” and yadi yadi yada.
so yeah……Issa Rae, not the independent TV wonder child folks make her out to be
if all those straight POCs {and select tragic queers} who rushed to defend her knew their black television show history, they’d know her use of homophobic punch lines is not original in the slightest. a lot of 80s, 90s, and even 00s television shows had and still use them to this day. and its actually mad insulting to the premise of indie tv to basically play off that history in an attempt to be original and cater to an audience mainstream black tv theoretically hasn’t before. but by using homophobic punch lines you’re essentially catering to the same audience shows like single ladies caters to.
