[reece(:]

Oh my gosh.....

The Problem With Queenie on American Horror Story
image

To be honest much of the time I hate watch American Horror Story. From season one it has been filled with racism, sexism, homophobia and ableism. When I learned that Gabourey Sidibe had been cast, a shiver of dread went down my spine. Though Sidibe is an Oscar nominated actress and is extremely talented the fact that she is fat, dark skinned Black woman had little chance of resulting in a well rounded character. While I am not surprised with the hot mess that Queenie has become, I am disgusted. Why bother getting an actress who is so talented and then reduce her character to a cheap stereotype?

American Horror Story: Coven has taken Queenie and run down a positive bingo card of racist and fatphobic stereotypes and portrayals.

She is loud, angry and, yes, sassy - the trifecta of a cookie cutter Sapphire character. Snarky, loud and angry, she just needs some finger snaps and to talk about wig snatching.

Her signature power is being a human voodoo doll - which is problematic on many levels. First of all, the “voodoo doll” is not a major factor of Voudoun, or wasn’t before Hollywood got its hands on the religion and decided to transpose one of the most well known aspects of European witchcraft. The use of a poppet to transfer effects onto a person is an ancient tradition in many branches of European magical beliefs - in Voodoo? Not so much. But it remains the most stereotypical “Black people” magic that television and our general culture know of - Voodoo is Black people magic. Voodoo = Voodoo dolls so of course the Black witch will have a Voodoo Doll power.

It has the added bonus of reducing Queenie to an object and forces her to graphically mutilate herself (even if the wounds disappear) to fight her enemies.

This bodily destruction is especially poignant because Queenie is fat and fat people are coded to hate their bodies - which includes Queenie. While Queenie describes her virginity as her “waiting”, she is clearly lonely, unhappy and looking for companionship and a relationship. Relationships that are considered beyond her, even comically, because of her weight. She even overtly talks about her weight and her eating as being because she is unhappy, lonely and abandoned - that food is a comfort to her. Queenie can’t just be a fat character, she can’t be a happy fat character - she has to be miserable in her fatness, her eating is portrayed almost as a form of self-harm and rarely does an episode go by without one character commenting on her weight in a mocking and derogatory fashion.

And on top of all that, her backstory involves her, a Black woman, fighting with a Black man over fried chicken. Chicken. Seriously, it could have been anything in the world and American Horror Story chose to have Black people fighting over chicken. We should be grateful there wasn’t a watermelon dessert and a fifth of malt liquor as a drink, I suppose.

It only took until the third episode for American Horror Story to cross an extreme line. When LaLaurie is threatened by the minotaur she created, Queenie jumps up to help. Queenie went on a tour of LaLaurie’s house and is well aware of the crimes this woman committed - not only that but LaLaurie has hurled racist abuse and even physically attacked Queenie.
Queenie could have thrown LaLaurie out to the minotaur, she could have turned her back, but instead Queenie channeled Mammy and decided to help this woman who tortured scores of Black slaves for the sadistic pleasure of it. Not only did Queenie help LaLaurie, she risked her safety to protect her by going outside. Why are we alway getting the stories in the media of Black people rushing to protect hateful bigots? We don’t even get a proper explanation as to why Queenie would decide to help LaLaurie.

Things go from bad to worse when Queenie gets outside. She doesn’t use her magical powers to disable the minotaur, no, Queenie starts to frantically masturbate. But wait, what’s wrong with masturbation you say? Well, honestly, nothing but when it is done by a fat Black woman who has been portrayed as unloveable, while she croons for a half beast man to have sex with her, well, that’s just (say it with me folks) RACIST. This encounter with the minotaur will be Queenie’s first sexual experience and she of course is the only virgin in the girl’s school. No man will have sex with Queenie and it is heavily implied that this is because she is both fat and Black.

We must take a moment to deal with the minotaur itself because it is a very specific kind of horror. Black men have long been constructed as beasts and this is particularly true when it comes to sexuality. They aren’t understood to be gentle lovers, capable of being in a committed relationship. They are nothing but beasts with roving dicks desperate to get sex anywhere and anytime they can. What does it say when a White writer literally turns a Black man into a sexual predator for the sake of entertainment? Further, what about the fact that the Black man is wearing the head of a beast because he is a victim of horrific racially based violence? By placing that animal head on him, LaLaurie turned him into an animal and American Horror Story reified it by making him act like one. It screams racism and no amount of twisting, turning, or white-washing can cause this horrible scene to be read in any other way.

Originally Posted by reece(:

Oh my gosh.....

The Problem With Queenie on American Horror Story
image

To be honest much of the time I hate watch American Horror Story. From season one it has been filled with racism, sexism, homophobia and ableism. When I learned that Gabourey Sidibe had been cast, a shiver of dread went down my spine. Though Sidibe is an Oscar nominated actress and is extremely talented the fact that she is fat, dark skinned Black woman had little chance of resulting in a well rounded character. While I am not surprised with the hot mess that Queenie has become, I am disgusted. Why bother getting an actress who is so talented and then reduce her character to a cheap stereotype?

American Horror Story: Coven has taken Queenie and run down a positive bingo card of racist and fatphobic stereotypes and portrayals.

She is loud, angry and, yes, sassy - the trifecta of a cookie cutter Sapphire character. Snarky, loud and angry, she just needs some finger snaps and to talk about wig snatching.

Her signature power is being a human voodoo doll - which is problematic on many levels. First of all, the “voodoo doll” is not a major factor of Voudoun, or wasn’t before Hollywood got its hands on the religion and decided to transpose one of the most well known aspects of European witchcraft. The use of a poppet to transfer effects onto a person is an ancient tradition in many branches of European magical beliefs - in Voodoo? Not so much. But it remains the most stereotypical “Black people” magic that television and our general culture know of - Voodoo is Black people magic. Voodoo = Voodoo dolls so of course the Black witch will have a Voodoo Doll power.

It has the added bonus of reducing Queenie to an object and forces her to graphically mutilate herself (even if the wounds disappear) to fight her enemies.

This bodily destruction is especially poignant because Queenie is fat and fat people are coded to hate their bodies - which includes Queenie. While Queenie describes her virginity as her “waiting”, she is clearly lonely, unhappy and looking for companionship and a relationship. Relationships that are considered beyond her, even comically, because of her weight. She even overtly talks about her weight and her eating as being because she is unhappy, lonely and abandoned - that food is a comfort to her. Queenie can’t just be a fat character, she can’t be a happy fat character - she has to be miserable in her fatness, her eating is portrayed almost as a form of self-harm and rarely does an episode go by without one character commenting on her weight in a mocking and derogatory fashion.

And on top of all that, her backstory involves her, a Black woman, fighting with a Black man over fried chicken. Chicken. Seriously, it could have been anything in the world and American Horror Story chose to have Black people fighting over chicken. We should be grateful there wasn’t a watermelon dessert and a fifth of malt liquor as a drink, I suppose.

It only took until the third episode for American Horror Story to cross an extreme line. When LaLaurie is threatened by the minotaur she created, Queenie jumps up to help. Queenie went on a tour of LaLaurie’s house and is well aware of the crimes this woman committed - not only that but LaLaurie has hurled racist abuse and even physically attacked Queenie.
Queenie could have thrown LaLaurie out to the minotaur, she could have turned her back, but instead Queenie channeled Mammy and decided to help this woman who tortured scores of Black slaves for the sadistic pleasure of it. Not only did Queenie help LaLaurie, she risked her safety to protect her by going outside. Why are we alway getting the stories in the media of Black people rushing to protect hateful bigots? We don’t even get a proper explanation as to why Queenie would decide to help LaLaurie.

Things go from bad to worse when Queenie gets outside. She doesn’t use her magical powers to disable the minotaur, no, Queenie starts to frantically masturbate. But wait, what’s wrong with masturbation you say? Well, honestly, nothing but when it is done by a fat Black woman who has been portrayed as unloveable, while she croons for a half beast man to have sex with her, well, that’s just (say it with me folks) RACIST. This encounter with the minotaur will be Queenie’s first sexual experience and she of course is the only virgin in the girl’s school. No man will have sex with Queenie and it is heavily implied that this is because she is both fat and Black.

We must take a moment to deal with the minotaur itself because it is a very specific kind of horror. Black men have long been constructed as beasts and this is particularly true when it comes to sexuality. They aren’t understood to be gentle lovers, capable of being in a committed relationship. They are nothing but beasts with roving dicks desperate to get sex anywhere and anytime they can. What does it say when a White writer literally turns a Black man into a sexual predator for the sake of entertainment? Further, what about the fact that the Black man is wearing the head of a beast because he is a victim of horrific racially based violence? By placing that animal head on him, LaLaurie turned him into an animal and American Horror Story reified it by making him act like one. It screams racism and no amount of twisting, turning, or white-washing can cause this horrible scene to be read in any other way.

Someone needs to tell whomever wrote that, that AHS isn't a documentary.

[reece(:]

Spoiler:

Murphy teases that what Spalding puts the dead witch through is “the most shocking thing we’ve ever done on the show.” And unfortunately for the teen, she won’t be getting a proper burial anytime soon. Dressed up in a bra and panties last time we saw her, Ryan Murphy dished that “dead Madison is in many, many, many episodes.”

[Smithy]

Originally Posted by reece(:

Spoiler:

Murphy teases that what Spalding puts the dead witch through is “the most shocking thing we’ve ever done on the show.” And unfortunately for the teen, she won’t be getting a proper burial anytime soon. Dressed up in a bra and panties last time we saw her, Ryan Murphy dished that “dead Madison is in many, many, many episodes.”

How much more shocking can it get

Spoiler:

I hope he doesn't have sex with the body ewwwww

[reece(:]

Originally Posted by Smithy

How much more shocking can it get

Spoiler:

I hope he doesn't have sex with the body ewwwww

I can definitely see that coming sadly

[Jords]

So Ive started S2 (3 eps in) and ****ing hell its stepped up on the freaky level compared to S1

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Jords

So Ive started S2 (3 eps in) and ****ing hell its stepped up on the freaky level compared to S1

Yeah, S2 was very different, I couldn't separate them until the very end and then I decided that i preferred S2 because I thought they ended it better than S1

[Me. I Am Salman]

Originally Posted by Jords

So Ive started S2 (3 eps in) and ****ing hell its stepped up on the freaky level compared to S1

It's SO much better <3

[Smithy]

renewed for S4

[reece(:]

Originally Posted by Smithy

renewed for S4

Woooo!

So excited for tonight's episode

[Glenn.]

Originally Posted by Smithy

renewed for S4

[Tom4784]

S2 had a slow start but it surpasses the first season by the end.

[Me. I Am Salman]

I was so emotionally invested in series 2
Couldn't give a toss about any of the characters in series 1

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by Salman!

I was so emotionally invested in series 2
Couldn't give a toss about any of the characters in series 1

I thought S 1 told a better overall story while the characters were stronger in S2 but were let down by an inconsistent plot.

[Glenn.]

S1 had me gripped. I watched S1 way after it aired so I had the glorious advantage of being able to watch episode after episode.

S2 did lack something. I enjoyed it and it definitely got better towards the end.

[Smithy]

Spoiler about who gets burnt at the stake tonight

Spoiler:

[Glenn.]

[MeMyselfAndI]

I can't tell who that is

[Smithy]

Originally Posted by MeMyselfAndI

I can't tell who that is

r u srs

[Smithy]

I saw it coming tbh

Spoiler:

she said you're as blind as your mother, then blinded her..

[MeMyselfAndI]

Oh it's who i expected I can tell who it is from your quote

[MeMyselfAndI]

oh wait im confused

[Smithy]

Spoiler:

she's got bright red hair how can you be confused

[Glenn.]

*facepalm

[MeMyselfAndI]

I can't remember the characters hair colours

Spoiler:

Is it the girl working for the council or Lana from AHS2