WHY IT IS TIME TO BE MORE KIND TO THE CAST AND CREW OF THE 100

SOCIETY'S ISSUES AND LESBIANS: WHY IT IS TIME TO BE MORE KIND TO THE CAST AND CREW OF THE 100

 

 

 

 

 

I have resisted the blogging universe for quite some time, despite having far too many opinions and a love of writing. The recent death of Lexa (played by Alycia Debnam-Carey) on The 100, as well as the resulting backlash, has left me feeling as though I need to weigh in. So here I am, a 30 year old high school teacher who gets far too attached to fictional characters: writing my first blog.

Like most of the other fans out there, I felt my heart break as Clarke kissed Lexa at the very moment that Lexa's last breath passed her lips. It was too soon. They had only been together for moments. It was Tara dying again. It was Xena dying again. It was a fifty other characters 'turning straight' or turning into rampaging stalkers. It was far too familiar. The characters have been so well written and so beautifully portrayed that I couldn't help but let them into my pop. culture psyche and hope against hope that the creative team would find another way to deal with Alycia's stardom and contracted role on Fear the Walking Dead. I was among many who sent Jason R. a tweet asking him why he did it. I was one of the thousands who stopped following him and expressed my frustration at "the trope". This is still something I feel strongly about, but others have written about this concept so I won't dwell on it here, except to say that as someone born in the 80s, nearly all of my lesbian role models have either been hidden in subtext, hetero-normified, or killed off. I'm there with you all. I am. It is actually one of the reasons I insist on being an 'out' lesbian teacher, because I want my students to know that they aren't alone and it does get better, despite heartbreaking television moments like these.

What concerns me is the way that expressions of disappointment (because, let's face it, the attempts to justify writing Alycia out in such a final manner just didn't cut it. This is science-fiction) have become a beast of our own making. We need to stop harassing the cast and crew through social media. Science fiction teaches us many things, one of which is that just because we can do something, doesn't mean we should. Rob Tapert and Joss Whedon might be very lucky that Twitter didn't exist in the 1990s.

Just this morning, I woke up here in Australia to find "Alycia wanted to come back" being used all over Twitter. People were celebrating the fact that it is trending. Adina Porter may have been referring to some of this when she said she needed to stay off Twitter for a few hours, seeing why the cast and crew were also staying away.  I understand the outrage and disappointment. Lexa is the first character in a decade that I've seen who is strong, vulnerable, loving, kind and ruthless all at the same time. The fact that she is also in love with the lovely Clarke made her multi-faceted portrayal all the more appealing and important in our world of lesbian-killing TV shows and films. It was as though I had Starbuck back in my life, a lesbian Starbuck! How a 22-year-old woman captured the hearts of hundreds of thousands of pop culture consumers is a tale in and of itself.


I don't know ADC personally, just like anyone else who is a fan of the program. I can tell you this though: she must be extremely hard-working, receptive to criticism, incredibly intelligent, humble and most likely very kind. I discern this from comments made about her by everyone she's worked with, but also from my knowledge of the way she performed in high school. As a NSW high school teacher (the same Australian state that ADC attended school), I can tell you that her HSC results are almost unbelievably impressive. No student, at 16 or 17 years old, could have achieved those results whilst pursuing creative arts in their spare time, without possessing all of those traits. This makes me think that she is likely to feel uncomfortable by the way her name is being used as some kind of negative comment of harassment toward the creative team behind The 100. It won't change anything now. The death has happened. Articles have been written, letters sent, and surely the writers and producers understand the way we all feel. If I were Alycia (though, no one could ever come close!), I would feel so uncomfortable that people I worked with, people I respect, people who helped me build my career beyond the soap-opera trap many Australian performers become ensnared in, are being harassed online using my own name to do so.  If we respect this performer and the way she moved us all emotionally, we shouldn't be using her name without her permission, especially in such a way that is likely to be upsetting or make her feel in any way unprofessional if she were to interact with fans or writers alike.

The next point is also one that's difficult to write about. I can't do it in a way that can truly convey the gravity of it, so please forgive my feeble attempt. I have noticed some people sending messages to Jason and some of the writers suggesting that they are the cause of suicide. As I said before, I take my role as a teacher to be much more than delivering English and History curriculum. I want to show young people who are same-sex attracted and/or gender diverse that they are supported and cared for. Popular culture has the power to do as much also.

If anyone out there felt so saddened by the portrayal of Lexa's death that it sparked feelings that could lead to such deep depression or feelings of self harm, then I am truly broken right here inside my chest. Please, talk to someone if you ever feel like it won't get better. We all need reminding sometimes that we are loved and that we are important. But please, don't suggest that writers and directors DID it.  They are human beings.  I am angry at some of them, but they're still people. Could you imagine if you created something, anything,  and then people blamed your creation for suicides?! Could you imagine being the partner, child, or parent of someone being attacked online for supposedly causing suicides?

The fact is, there are much bigger societal issues at play here.  Decades, centuries, of under-representation or insulting representation of LGBTI characters in popular culture is a symptom, as well as a cause, of much pain and angst. Popular culture reflects the values of a society but also has the power to change those values. That's why we were so disappointed by all of this. The 100, and the people who work hard to bring that program to us, however, did not create the zeitgeist that underpins issues of conscious and un-conscious homophobia. Though they did, in all fairness, fall into its gaping jaws to be swallowed whole. Change happens slowly. It is frustrating. It is infuriating, but it is true. The change is evident in the fact that Clarke's sexuality became more fluid at all. The change is evident in that Lexa was not a side-lined character, but the respected leader of an entire race. The changes end there, and the trope returns to haunt us, but perhaps this can be a stepping-stone to the next show which will dare to enact even more change. 

I do hope that it isn't true what I've seen on Twitter. If a writer truly said that Clarke's bisexuality was a phase, an emotional journey to open her up to a heterosexual love interest, I will be very disappointed. This was a silly thing for anyone to say if it is actually true. Bisexual people are always bisexual, even when engaged in a relationship with someone of the opposite sex. I haven't seen anything VERIFIABLE about this though. People are re-tweeting it, but that doesn't make it fact.

That being said, I see Finn as having helped Clarke grow up and connect, so that she would then truly appreciate the depth of her very real, mature connection with Lexa. I do wish that connection lasted more than three minutes, but I believe the writers are very aware that this upset people and are feeling sorry for it. We can't expect any more than that now that season 3 has been made. We also can't expect that a second death for Lexa won't be equally as heartbreaking, though I suspect that some of what has made the audience upset will be corrected in those final scenes, to then be exacerbated again by a down-the-line male love interest (but let's face it, would any of us accept her with any woman but Lexa? Maybe Niylah, that's probably the only one?).   Let's keep things in perspective though: at least it happened at all. I wouldn't ever want it to have not been so. The performers and writers behind all of this need to be able to feel something of their achievement, so please don't all lose sight of everything that came before. Be kind to real human beings, even if they may have hurt you through a fictional artistic creation - because there is absolutely no way that this was their intention. Story-telling is their intention. Sometimes stories hurt.

Please, let's calm down on social media. The team behind this program are in fact real human beings. If you accuse them of causing suicides, when that would be a gross over-simplification of the cultural issues that lead to feelings of self-hate because of homophobia, or employ their name to launch a campaign of negativity against their friends, we aren't achieving anything. All we are doing is potentially making the team too nervous to ever include sexually-fluid characters ever again. It could even cause similar feelings of discord to those being experienced by the people supposedly being defended. Blood must not have blood - the only way that ends is with everybody broken. I highly doubt that the people we are looking up to, Eliza, Alycia, all of them, are remotely impressed by any of it. 10% of fans being negative can dilute the love they're being sent by the other 90%.

One last note. This is my fan-girl comment of no real relevance to anything else above. The Xena re-boot is happening. At first, I was very much against it because of Lucy and Renee being excluded. The fact is though, a new style is coming to the show and I'm so excited by the fact Xena and Gabrielle's relationship will no longer be subtext. We can't stop the fact a new cast is needed. In my ideal fan-girl world, Alycia will be in it. She could be Xena, she could be Gabrielle. Eliza could even play the counterpart. No one else is good enough to fill Lucy or Renee's shoes. If you read the articles about what they're looking for in the new casting, these amazing women fit the bill perfectly. So if anyone attached to the re-boot happens to read this little rant of mine, can I just say...#AlyciaForXena

UPDATE:  It's been a few days now. The Australian newspapers have picked up on all of the goings on within social media and an amazing fundraiser has been set up. I want to say that I'm so proud and impressed by the wonderful campaign to raise money for the TREVOR PROJECT. Kudos, Krew! Wow! Collective action can be such a beautiful thing, which you've all proven. I'm also amazed by the trending Twitter messages about respect for the LGBT community.   I would guess that the people attached to The 100, including our beloved Alycia and Eliza, would be so inspired by this as well.

I don't, personally, approve though, that people are still calling Jason "JRat" or that people are actively working to have people fired from their jobs. The nature of messages sent to cast and crew, often fishing for insults against their own bosses and/or colleagues, is also not my favourite part of what's still happening. I fear that it would make them feel terribly uncomfortable, even if any of them DID agree with some of the emotions expressed.  There's a lot of negativity out there, but I love the trends and comments that look to the future and celebrate ADC as a wonderful ambassador of powerful LGBT representation.  If we could re-think the vilification of people though, that might go a long way to garnering more respect for this issue. It might also show that our wonderful LGBT community of pop culture consumers will not stoop to demeaning people in the same ways we would never accept for ourselves.  What Would Lexa Do?

@beckles1985