suprasternalnotsh:

inspectorboxer:

normalgiraffes:

Something I’ve noticed is that when we criticize Mon, someone always jumps into the notes to defend him. And the way they defend him is always the same – “well, he’s new to this planet, he doesn’t know how things are here!” / “he’s still learning, give him a chance” / “Well, but Kara likes him that’s all that matters” / “He lost his whole planet he’s probably traumatized” / “When he choked Kara and threw her through a window, he was scared and confused because he’d just woke up” / etc.

But here’s the thing: he is not any of those things. People are defending him as if he is a real person. He is not.

When we criticize Mon, we are not criticizing him as a person, because he isn’t one. He is a fictional character. We are criticizing the way he is being written. We are not angry at Mon the person because he does not exist.

We are angry because on a television show about a female hero, one marketed toward young girls, we just got an episode where two men fought over which one of them Kara belonged to, completely disregarding Kara’s agency and (lack of) consent.

We are criticizing the writing because we have yet to see a single reason why Kara likes him, or why he is somehow worthy of her, because his attraction to her, and him feeling bad because he thinks she doesn’t like him is not, by any measure, a reason why she should return that affection. As written, her interest in him is completely inexplicable, other than the fact that the actor playing this character is conventionally attractive. That’s not me saying “Mon is a terrible person and Kara doesn’t even like him”, because again, he’s not real. That’s me saying “The writing this season is terrible.”

We are critical of his character because, as we learned last season, they can easily write a character being confused on Earth, and not understanding how things work without writing the character as an admitted misogynist.

We are critical because if they wanted to show a character being scared and confused, there are dozens of ways to do that without him violently assaulting his future love interest, but they chose to write it this way.

We are criticizing the writing because if they wanted to show a relationship between two characters from different worlds, they could have done that with James and Kara, because James is from Earth and Kara is from Krypton. But they chose to suddenly and abruptly break up a relationship that they spent an entire season establishing and still haven’t adequately explained why in the story, and put Kara in a romantic relationship with Mon instead.

Mon isn’t real. He is a fictional character. We aren’t angry at him, because he doesn’t exist. We’re angry at the systemic culture of misogyny and racism, where the writers and producers and network executives think breaking up an interrracial couple after a season-long slow-burn before they even have a date so they can bring in a white guy; where the writers may have intended to write a brash hero, but think that means he should belittle and humiliate his love interest, our title character; where nobody seemed to have stopped to think “perhaps we should not have our future male romantic lead violently assault our female lead in a manner extremely reminiscent of domestic violence in a show aimed at young girls?”; where nobody seems to have stopped to think, period.

Look. I get that people who ship it think Mon is handsome, and that you think he just needs to be given a chance and he’ll change for Kara because he loves her so much. But he’s not real. He’s not capable of that, because he doesn’t exist. You can’t remove him from the context of the world we live in, because fiction doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and a show for young girls about a female hero normalizing that this is what romantic relationships should be like is incredibly irresponsible, and just plain bad writing.

There are hundreds of different ways they could have written this character. They chose to write him as a misogynist. They chose to take the romantic lead role away from the black man playing a beloved character, and give it to the new white boy instead. They chose to show our new romantic lead being physically violent to our female lead on more than one occasion – and specifically showed her being physically vulnerable to his strength (the scene where he chokes Kara and throws her through a window? Watch it again. He chokes her with one hand, picks her up by the throat and throws her with one hand – as Kara struggles and uses both hands to try to free herself and can’t, watch Kara on the ground as he kicks her in the stomach, sending her body sliding clear across the room). They chose to show him treat Kara as a prize to be won. They chose to write it in such a way that it, at best, is something very close to emotional abuse. They chose to show him disrespecting Kara. And they chose to have Kara be interested in him. They chose to sideline Supergirl in her own show (the only plot Kara has this season is supporting Mon).

They did not have to write him this way. But they did, and it’s reprehensible and irresponsible.

So, no. I don’t hate Mon. He doesn’t exist. What I do hate is every single one of the decisions made by the writers, producers and network executives that led to them thinking this was how to write a romantic relationship. It isn’t.

How many young girls will aspire to this kind of relationship because of this show? How many will be treated cruelly and think it’s just the way things work in relationships because of the message the writers are teaching them? Shows have shoved this nonsense down people’s throats for decades. It’s not revolutionary, it’s not cute, it’s not “banter” as the EP calls it, it’s damaging. They could literally be harming young woman with this story line. Whoever is responsible for turning a show about empowering women into a show about treating them poorly needs to be fired.

As they like to say in comics, with great power comes great responsibility. The Supergirl writers need to start taking some for their actions.

It is not only young girls who will be affected by this irresponsible portrayal, those who will be impacted the most are actually young guys watching this show, as I am sure there are plenty who still do, despite the perceived negative connotations a of a female superhero show.

What the majority of the US based online fandom does not seem to be fully aware of, is the fact that this show is being broadcasted in other areas of the world, alongside the other superhero shows from the same network. It is reaching a wide spectrum of viewers, from different cultures and backgrounds. If anyone is still under the illusion that media, precisely superhero themed media content, is not influential and essential in shaping one’s perception and outlook on life, especially among teen and younger viewers, then well, I feel sorry for them.

Nowhere this influence is more crucial than in patriarchal and conservative societies. Turning on the tv and seeing a genuine female superhero, the main star of a show, a lone girl on the show’s poster, that is not something trivial, common or inconsequential. This is a show that is shaping the imagination of young girls and boys from my region, who are not being brought up in the same environment and culture as US viewers,
who have not grown up with superhero comics,

who lack real life role models, and who, despite an easier access to the internet with its infinite content, are still enamored with comic book heroes, who still turn up in huge numbers to watch DC and Marvel movies anytime they get released.

I am worried about these viewers more than any others. These mostly young guys will tune in to watch the latest episode on a cable network that broadcasts to millions of subscribers in more than a dozen countries, think HBO but bigger. These young guys and girls will continue to be subjected to this toxic semblance of a romance, all the while the message that their mind is processing is that the patriarchal practices that they are witnessing first hand in their societies, the objectification of women, the misogyny, the verbal and physical abuse, the remaining horrible traits that this male character is exhibiting, all these features are being normalized, justified and ignored in the narrative, all in favor of the MALE love interest, at the expense of the FEMALE superhero. 

So no matter where the writing ends up taking Kara and Mon-El’s relationship, the damage that has been inflicted on the show’s image, its message, its core values, in the aim of imposing this relationship, through heavily marketing it as a counterpart to the other main couple of the show, that damage is permanent and irrevocable. Its negative ramifications cannot be swept away with a convenient “cautionary tale” twist. Kara’s character was literally obliterated in order to accommodate for the insertion of a “white male savior”, the Danvers Sisters dynamic, the literal heart and soul of the show, has been dismantled to further facilitate this insertion. These atrocities and all the other messed up storylines, plot holes, bad characterizations and missing development are supposed to be resolved how exactly? During a few minutes of exposition between fight scenes?

No, the big twist escape route will not do, the writing has become irresponsible, inexcusable and downright unethical. If even just ONE impressionable viewer stops watching, misses out on this supposed twist and comes away from the show with a distorted view of “romantic” love, with a mental image of a “weak” female superhero reduced to being the typical damsel in distress, or with a reinforced sense of male entitlement, that’s all it takes to negate any moralistic lesson or absolution that the writers might intend to flesh out for either Kara or Mon-El. Cosmetic fixes in the narrative won’t achieve any remedial effects and frankly, seeing their track record, the current writers are highly unqualified for the task and have run out of adequate screen time to salvage the show before this season ends.

This is the kind of discussion that is so inspiring because it shows the audience is active.  The audience can and will participate in the critical commentaries on these programmes and will make noise and bring attention to the failings of an entire industry.  

We saw it last year when the Clexa fandom rose up to challenge the industry, how that spread through other fandoms to demand better and here it is, now, with Supergirl. 

Keep these discussions going, make the industry pay attention to you.  Make them notice and care and change – or find their work, their money, their effort, for naught.