This Felt Like A Punch To The Throat

do you guys ever think about dying? ✨

His smile at the end put one on my face, as well.

star juice

@flowernets been thinkin bout this

Guillermo del Toro, from now on, forever and ever Totoro-san! In this ugly violent world of ours, here is one of the purest things I have seen!

Do not stan Great Pretender. It sexualizes black women + compares them to animals. There's a scene where she gets drunk and starts acting like one. And another boxing episode and her opponent is another black women who pummels her and she starts acting like an animal again, it's disgusting. I admit that I've not seen the show and only basing this of YT clips but I don't think I can watch more of it without feeling more sick.

Okay, so I will start off by saying that since I am NOT a PoC I dont know that I can answer this right, but I will share some observations.

What I will say though is that I know exactly what scenes you are talking about, and both times are an act. That woman is an Iraqi soldier and is the most skilled member of the "Confidence man/woman" team. In the first scene, she is pretending to play a dumb Hollywood wannabe to help take down a mafia drug lord who prays on innocent young women. In the second, she is partaking in a fake underground fight club where they are supposed to make it look entertaining and like she is going to lose so they can make a sleezy man bet a bunch of money and lose it all - the reason they do this is because a single-parent black woman was fired by this man for refusing his sexual advances.

The show actually goes on to explore her PTSD, how she got pulled into the war after her parents died, and how when she was a kid she was a ballerina prodigy. What you see as her being depicted as acting like an animal is her A), acting like she is on drugs to fool the mafia, and B), a bit of PTSD induced violence that is depicted in the same way later by a white man.

The show goes on to talk about and includes discussions of ethnic conflicts, the different wars, and has many other PoC that are represented. For instance, rewind to the mafia drug lord, his right hand mans last name was "salazar" and he was appearing to be PoC (I'm just not sure what exactly) , and he was an amazing dude. So much so, that the con team helped set him up with enough evidence to get safely out of the mafia so he could go raise his son - because that kid was his world and he made sure the kid knew that.

It is also important to mention that their roles change depending on the case they are working. This same woman is depicted as a serious. And capable, athelete in the next case as she is showcased flying highspeed racing planes and easily able to soar like a champ. And while this occurs, a male opponent (also PoC) is heavily attracted to her, but other than whistling at her figure (not in a cat call way, but in a "daaamn" way) and calling her cute, all he discusses is her talent as a pilot.

I understand and respect if you don't want to watch the show, but for a show that is based around con-artists, maybe try to not believe everything you see at face value.

The con artists play into many stereotypes because one of their tools is "people believe what they want to believe", so the French man will play a dumb tourist, the big breasted red-head will play a dumb woman, the young Iraqi soldier with PTSD plays an aspiring actrist who barely speaks English, and the Japanese man tries not to play anything at all, but he slips into many roles. They essentially bring to light how much they are underestimated and looked down on and use it as a smoke screen.

Just a reminder...

Saves Izzy without hesitation

Quickly comforts Sadie

Checks to see if Bridgette is okay and does not force her to do the challenge

kindly persuades Harold to go for it

kindly encourages Duncan to face his fear

admits that she messed up

calls for the Tyler roasts to come to an end

was happy to see the good in Duncan

Calls out Duncan and Geoff for bullying Harold and doesn’t know that Harold is going to screw her over 😑

checks on Duncan and brings him food

acts empathic towards Geoff and doesn’t chew him out for losing

still wants Duncan to win even though he was the partial cause of her departure

calls Gwen “smart”

gives kudos to Leshawna

still looks out for Duncan

still looks out for Leshawna

worries about the safety of those that surpassed her

“Dunkie!”

thinks they are about to die and immediately hugs Duncan

“Chris! Owen and Izzy need help!”

is sorry about sitting on Gwen’s hurt hand

makes the effort to heal Gwen’s hurt hand when Gwen could have easily gone to an infirmary

Many of these moments contradict the idea that Courtney is totally evil.