I apologize to any and all Southerners that I have offended with this here caption!
Honestly, the idea wasn't necessarily to follow all the stereotypes of those rebel-rousers Hazzard County dwellers, but more feed in to how that varmint urbanite viewed those nice, down home folk with simple values.
And love tales in which someone gets hoisted on their own petard and have their fate locked in, with them almost helpless to stop behaving like that which they have judged others to be. This just happens to be poetic justice that is also so enjoyable to imagine playing out. I can theorize that she'll end up being the most 'redneck' person in town within the end of the week, and all the people in town will LOVE to have fun with it.
I bring this up because recently, I've been reading something on Fictionmania that seems to me offensive. It's a story about a white guy and his two sons (Very 'Red State' non-SJW) becoming black people for a college research project. I've read 4 chapters, and I almost feel like this author has a fetish for ebonization, pantyhose, ballet, and is just writing something that comes from a place that doesn't know much about ummm, the current real world?!? I am not an African American, so it's not necessarily my place to be offended, but I can see all sorts of red flags that says the writer is a white, somewhat affluent, older gentleman that is writing from a power vacuum aesthetic .. and not going about it with any subtlety in the slightest.
Here's a snippet from Chapter 4 of Changing Life by Tylera on Fictionmania, after the Dad and his son, along with another man with two sons that also were part of the "study" had recently been dyed black and moved into a tenement building:
One thing I can tell you we were also truly amazed by is the third day we were living there, I got a check in the mail for $600 directly from the city government and Mo'nique also got one, and I found out directly
from calling my sister that the check is in fact from a new SJW type program of the last couple of years where they are just directly giving all black residents a UBI of this amount. I was stunned as I was told even if I was a white guy of lower income that might rightly qualify, I couldn't get this stipend because of my race.
"WOW, this is a new compelling reason to keep staying this way," I said out loud. i really was not expecting this kind of money and I could put this to good use.
As much as I seriously hated so much of this predicament as far as how I was looking and acting, I had to admit this did kind of have it's upsides, like with this money coming in and also it was nice not having to do hardly anything, like I could just get dinner and stuff but then I had most of the day to relax on the Internet and could look at guys or girls stuff, or watch television and generally relax and not have to worry at all about a job. It was actually pretty great, and some of the clothes weren't bad either. The girls were mortified by me and how I was looking, but like I said we were all in the same predicament.
Ummmmm, so much there to unpack. like for instance that 600 bucks was gong to make a huge impact in someone's life .. and that would let them stay home and do nothing .. Perhaps this is more of a setup for a HUGE downfall, but I just feel that the tone underneath it all is still very problematic.
I wrote this caption back about a month ago, and wasn't sure whether I wanted to post it, but after reading that story over the last week, I wanted to post it and hopefully contrast my creation verse that story. I'm hoping that my caption does not read / feel like Tylera's fiction, well at least how it's been posted so far. Being a fan of TG genre's for a LONG time now, I just see that plot turning where the family ends up being trapped as African Americans, and the former man being controlled by / submitting to a dominating black man, he hates that his boys are now so deeply into the new culture (hip-hop dress - ebonics (which was mentioned in part 5 .. eesh!) that blah blah blah .. even though they are happy. I'm hoping I'm wrong.
So feel free to blast me in the comments or discuss differences between mine and the story I am referencing .. and do check it out on Fictionmania if you'd like to read the the 4 chapters posted so far .. and maybe we can figure out if/where lines can be drawn as to how we view topics like this in the future.
This came to mind as Wendygirl made me a caption last night, and references "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" so why not post a former C&W tune that was amped up by George Thorogood & The Destroyers" ?!?
Funny!!!!!
ReplyDeleteGlad that you enjoyed it in the way it was meant to be viewed. It should feel like the brainwashing lessons that "she" is learning came from watching the late 60's early 70's episodes of Hee-Haw!
DeleteI have been reading that fictionmania story. Throws up the same red flags for me.
ReplyDeleteGood meme.
Looking at the comments for part 6 .. two things were interesting to me.
DeleteOne was that apparently Tylera was also Lashaunda, which makes sense because I see the current story as almost a re-write of her previous work.
Second was that she's thinking about doing an Asian story next! Eeek! Which also lines up with LaShauna, who had also written a white man to Asian female story as well.
Maybe she took some of the comments from back when the older stories were written, and took them to heart. I guess we'll see!