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(Okay, so this was actually typed up long, long ago, but I'm clearing out my backlog, so that's one reason it's being posted.)
Thoughts on Stargate Atlantis.
First: I'm amazed to discover that this show is actually NOT forty minutes containing two men macking on each other.
Secondly, while I was really enjoying the show, five episodes in I almost stopped watching.
Don't be shy now - does anyone else find Stargate: Atlantis' treatment of the Athosians violently problematic?
Thoughts on Stargate Atlantis.
First: I'm amazed to discover that this show is actually NOT forty minutes containing two men macking on each other.
Secondly, while I was really enjoying the show, five episodes in I almost stopped watching.
Don't be shy now - does anyone else find Stargate: Atlantis' treatment of the Athosians violently problematic?
Some background:
First, I've been having lingering doubts about the shows potryal of the Athosians for a couple episodes now.
First, while they were living in fairly primitive conditions, the neat little lighter of Taylia's had lead me to believe that due to their extra-planatary trading, they had strange little pockets of advanced technology looming around (so far nothing).
Then, their rituals are used to portray them as ready to die, and the type of people who easily give up (wanting to allow Taylia to prepare herself for death in "38 minutes").
Now, it seems there's a spy on Atlantis, and NO ONE is even entertaining the idea that it could be someone from the Earth delegation tipping the Wraith off.
Yep, you read that right. You put a roomful of genius and near genius IQs together in a room with the knowledge that there's a spy around, and NO ONE plays devil's advocate?
They're so positive that the spy is one of the Athosians, simply because they're Other, not one of Our Kind and so they Must Be Guilty.
It's sickening.
And what's really revolting is that no one is calling them on it.
Even John, who's initially pissed off at Weir for excluding Taylia from the discussions about the spy, is angry because she excluded *Taylia* not because she's promoting racism.
And what gets me even more angry is that they have Taylia, the Athosian we spend the most time with, being so *understanding* and *empathic* to Weir's dilemma.
Taylia should be way the hell more pissed than she is, and while it's an advantage to be able to see things from the other person's perspective, she should be calling Weir on her racism and blatant stupidity for automatically excluding the members of her team simply because they come from earth.
Instead, Taylia is put in the position of facilitating this racist behavior and what's really setting my teeth on edge is the tone of sickly sweet, 'we don't like it but we have to act like this.' Everyone is participating in this racism, and that makes it less a conflict within the show, and more the show justifying racism in these situations.
I can only think of the Japanese interment in the 1940s.
We had great reasons back then, but it was still a fucking violation of human rights, and I don't think this show actually gets that just because everybody is white (or white enough to pass) we can't read the subtext screaming at us.
The subtext saying: this may be wrong, but the best way to deal with racism is to make the lives of the racists easier.
Instead of calling Weir on her stupidly (and I refuse to believe neither Rodney nor John would bring up the STRONG POSSIBILITY of the spy being from earth - say what about that guy Elizabeth threatened to maroon last episode?) everyone participates in this racist, moronic behavoir.
Elizabeth says she's pursuing all options while ignoring half the suspects.
John goes for a joy ride while this is all going on.
Rodney and the rest of the geeks are either ignoring this or claiming the Athosians must have done this, they just must have.
Taylia is telling them to just be patient, the meek will inherent Altantis,
And the other athosian, volunteers his people to go wait on the mainland, which is what Elizabeth wanted, because it's not enough to confine them to their rooms, she wants them three states away enclosed by razor wire.
I could spit.
And then John, who supposedly trusts Taylia, won't let her go off by herself to try and coax the natives out of hiding. And while I wouldn't suggest wandering off by oneself is a smart move when you've just come through a Stargate, on top of all the other stuff filling this episode, this just feels like now he doubts her too, or is already making sure she has an alibi if anything goes wrong. (And that fact that she needs one... well, see the above rant.)
And then we get down to only Taylia knowing about the latest mission, and they still assume it's an Athosian.
Seriously!?!?! Are these people taking Moron Pills? Does no one suspect some random person they work with that they never liked?
Didn't any of them take some sort of Awareness and Acceptance of Other Cultures as part of their prep, since, you know, supposedly this is a scientific expedition from multiple countries?
I am so furious that it turns out Taylia was inadvertently causing the Wraith attacks. Because it justifies the behavior of Weir and co, and that Taylia ended up OVERTLY APPROVING OF THAT BEHAVIOR ("In your place, I would have done the same.") is just - have the writers never heard of subtext? Are they totally unaware of the message they're sending?
And that the end result of all this is that the Athosians stay on the mainland planting crops (that Atlantis will, presumably, consume) is just....
*grinds teeth*
First, I've been having lingering doubts about the shows potryal of the Athosians for a couple episodes now.
First, while they were living in fairly primitive conditions, the neat little lighter of Taylia's had lead me to believe that due to their extra-planatary trading, they had strange little pockets of advanced technology looming around (so far nothing).
Then, their rituals are used to portray them as ready to die, and the type of people who easily give up (wanting to allow Taylia to prepare herself for death in "38 minutes").
Now, it seems there's a spy on Atlantis, and NO ONE is even entertaining the idea that it could be someone from the Earth delegation tipping the Wraith off.
Yep, you read that right. You put a roomful of genius and near genius IQs together in a room with the knowledge that there's a spy around, and NO ONE plays devil's advocate?
They're so positive that the spy is one of the Athosians, simply because they're Other, not one of Our Kind and so they Must Be Guilty.
It's sickening.
And what's really revolting is that no one is calling them on it.
Even John, who's initially pissed off at Weir for excluding Taylia from the discussions about the spy, is angry because she excluded *Taylia* not because she's promoting racism.
And what gets me even more angry is that they have Taylia, the Athosian we spend the most time with, being so *understanding* and *empathic* to Weir's dilemma.
Taylia should be way the hell more pissed than she is, and while it's an advantage to be able to see things from the other person's perspective, she should be calling Weir on her racism and blatant stupidity for automatically excluding the members of her team simply because they come from earth.
Instead, Taylia is put in the position of facilitating this racist behavior and what's really setting my teeth on edge is the tone of sickly sweet, 'we don't like it but we have to act like this.' Everyone is participating in this racism, and that makes it less a conflict within the show, and more the show justifying racism in these situations.
I can only think of the Japanese interment in the 1940s.
We had great reasons back then, but it was still a fucking violation of human rights, and I don't think this show actually gets that just because everybody is white (or white enough to pass) we can't read the subtext screaming at us.
The subtext saying: this may be wrong, but the best way to deal with racism is to make the lives of the racists easier.
Instead of calling Weir on her stupidly (and I refuse to believe neither Rodney nor John would bring up the STRONG POSSIBILITY of the spy being from earth - say what about that guy Elizabeth threatened to maroon last episode?) everyone participates in this racist, moronic behavoir.
Elizabeth says she's pursuing all options while ignoring half the suspects.
John goes for a joy ride while this is all going on.
Rodney and the rest of the geeks are either ignoring this or claiming the Athosians must have done this, they just must have.
Taylia is telling them to just be patient, the meek will inherent Altantis,
And the other athosian, volunteers his people to go wait on the mainland, which is what Elizabeth wanted, because it's not enough to confine them to their rooms, she wants them three states away enclosed by razor wire.
I could spit.
And then John, who supposedly trusts Taylia, won't let her go off by herself to try and coax the natives out of hiding. And while I wouldn't suggest wandering off by oneself is a smart move when you've just come through a Stargate, on top of all the other stuff filling this episode, this just feels like now he doubts her too, or is already making sure she has an alibi if anything goes wrong. (And that fact that she needs one... well, see the above rant.)
And then we get down to only Taylia knowing about the latest mission, and they still assume it's an Athosian.
Seriously!?!?! Are these people taking Moron Pills? Does no one suspect some random person they work with that they never liked?
Didn't any of them take some sort of Awareness and Acceptance of Other Cultures as part of their prep, since, you know, supposedly this is a scientific expedition from multiple countries?
I am so furious that it turns out Taylia was inadvertently causing the Wraith attacks. Because it justifies the behavior of Weir and co, and that Taylia ended up OVERTLY APPROVING OF THAT BEHAVIOR ("In your place, I would have done the same.") is just - have the writers never heard of subtext? Are they totally unaware of the message they're sending?
And that the end result of all this is that the Athosians stay on the mainland planting crops (that Atlantis will, presumably, consume) is just....
*grinds teeth*
no subject
You just perfectly outlined why I could never like this show. I started watching it when it first came out, but something just irritated and I could never really pin down to anything so elegantly specific - just a general 'um, this seems really off...' sense.
Thank you.
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irritating character, but this...daaaaaaaaaamn. That's just fucked up on so many levels.On a writer's note, it's also a wasted opportunity. "There's a spy among us!" is a perfect chance for everyone to mistrust everybody else. Paranoia, testing friendships, revealing that everyone's keeping secrets- plots like that are so much better without racism. Fucking morons.
no subject
The writers really were drinking the stupid juice that day.
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Not SGA-specific, but there's tons and tons of interesting stuff you might like browsing through in past issues of the POC in SF Carnival (http://ofcolour.blogspot.com/) -- Carnival 6 is up at
no subject
does anyone else find Stargate: Atlantis' treatment of the Athosians violently problematic?...Now, it seems there's a spy on Atlantis, and NO ONE is even entertaining the idea that it could be someone from the Earth delegation tipping the Wraith off.
They're suspicious, sure. And there are members of the expedition who don't trust them, but isn't it warranted? Yes, it's imperialistic and wrong, but they are working on a military hierarchy of "secure, train, expand the perimeter." They haven't cleared the Athosians yet and garnered a level of trust to justify full security on their part. At that point in time they didn't know if the their intentions were good or bad. They've never encountered this group before, so it's warranted to be cautious. I mean, look at the Genii. They accepted them at face value and that was a big, big mistake. You can't trust everyone automatically or else your expedition will fail. And it's not as if NO ONE trusts Teyla or the Athosians. It just takes different people different amounts of time to gain that trust. John is more trusting of her, Bates (who doesn't work with her) relies more on the military structure.
Then, their rituals are used to portray them as ready to die, and the type of people who easily give up (wanting to allow Taylia to prepare herself for death in "38 minutes").
I disagre with this. It's not that they are portrayed as "ready to die" it's that they are tied to their rituals and it is important for them to prepare for death when it is pressing. Death in battle is different than death in waiting. Her death in 38 Minutes seemed to be imminent, so they requested she be allowed to prepare as is their ways. The Athosians go out fighting, but it's important for them to let their souls be at peace when leaving this plane of existence, if possible.
All in all, yes they are less trusting of the Athosians and they DO get called on it. They are just finding their way in this new situation at this point in time, but as the months go by and the interactions increase, the network of trust gets larger, they make attempts at bonds with different cultures (some good, some really bad), but it is an overall learning experience.
no subject
See, my problems with suspecting the Althosians has to do with two things: that they completely ignored the possibility of their own team being spies, and that the show itself/the writers supported them in that choice. And as for the military hierarchy, they spent the first chunk of episodes pressing the idea that this was a civilian lead expedition, with a large focus on science, which makes it ever more problematic that no one was calling them on acting so racist, in my mind.
All in all, yes they are less trusting of the Athosians and they DO get called on it.
When? I haven't seen the whole series (and I seriously doubt I will) but they certainly weren't called on it in this episode, and now that the Athosian are safely off growing and harvesting crops, I doubt that they will.
no subject
no subject