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detectiveguapo · 6 years

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Why do think the backlash towards Emily on Mayans is so mean spirited? I understand people will not like every character, but some of the comments about the character and even Sarah herself are disgusting. I noticed after some of things Potter said last night to Emily some were way too happy to applaud and cheer him on.

Misogyny is the simple answer. The Sons fandom has a track record for being unnecessarily harsh toward women, so it’s not surprising that Emily gets a lot of that harsh criticism. The men on the show get away with far more than the women ever do, and I’m not only referring to ‘crimes’ but also personality flaws. I’ve seen comments about Emily and Adelita manipulating EZ and Angel respectively, and the reactions are often angry and defensive of the men. But EZ and Angel have lied, too. And while most people acknowledge that these guys’ actions can be questionable, the reactions tend to view these men as ‘precious’ and only ‘making mistakes’ in the moment. All is easily forgiven because the thirst is real (which, I admit, I relate to because Miguel is fiiine and my threshold for ~bad behaviour~ is much higher given he’s not a real person). The takeaway here is about how we hold these characters accountable – are the standards higher for women? Are we more lenient with the men? Are we reflecting society? Yeah, probably because there’s a lot of ingrained shit we need to wade through as humans.

The way Emily was portrayed early on – this seemingly innocent porcelain doll who was willfully blind to her husband’s wrongdoings – it didn’t make her a likable character. However, I do find her to be one of the more strongly developed characters because we’ve seen her sort-of embrace the darkness and ruthlessness of the cartel. And, now, with her knowledge of EZ’s status as an informant, it adds to her complexity and further complicates her relationship with both EZ and Miguel. I find this arc more compelling to watch than a character that’s loyal and 100% aligned with the lead right from the get-go, and I’ve seen some people online express this reason for disliking the character. So yeah, she isn’t exactly written to be likable in a superficial good guy/bad guy sort of way, so I get why there’s backlash. I just, personally, don’t watch the show that way so my opinion of these characters is more dependent on development and how much they contribute to the story.

The complicated answer is the fact that Emily is white, and two Latinx male characters have a white woman for a love interest. Let me preface by saying I’m a WOC but I’m not Latinx, so I don’t feel like I’m in the right position to explain why this writing and casting choice is controversial. Representation matters. I’ve spoken ad nauseum regarding my disappointment in the lack of women in the main (and supporting) cast. And I’ve also spoken about my hope for subsequent seasons to include more diverse representation of Latinxs to include Afro-Latinxs and LGBT people. I mean, they’re there in the periphery. EZ’s one-night stand and Gracie from the dog kennel come to mind, but they’re not even recurring characters, which is sad.

All that being said, it’s not Sarah Bolger’s fault that the writers of the show purposefully wrote Emily to be a white woman. Why they wanted to portray a biracial love triangle? I don’t know. Maybe it’s got something to do with Elgin James’ own relationship. If people were really upset by this writing and casting choice, I think the anger is better directed toward Kurt and Elgin rather than the actress hired to play a very specifically written part. Sure, this show is lacking severely in the representation of brown and black women, but just because that’s true doesn’t make it any less worthy to explore on television the nuances of biracial relationships. Just because it’s true that there aren’t enough brown and black women on this show, doesn’t make it all right to make aggressively mean-spirited comments about a white female character. Especially if those comments are about the woman’s appearance, which the actress happens to share (hoo boy, imagine that). For me, it becomes so easy to dismiss negative commentary on Emily/Sarah the moment her appearance is brought up. Like you said, anon, it’s disgusting and I like to spare my eyes from having to read things that disgust me.

The answer most people will say, whether or not it’s the absolute truth: Sarah isn’t a good actress and she just doesn’t have chemistry with either JD or Danny. People have a right to their opinion. I don’t agree with either point and I haven’t really seen any convincing arguments to validate them, but it’s totally cool if people feel differently. I think Sarah’s a good actor, and her experience is clearly demonstrated relative to a cast that features quite a few “new” actors (no shade). I’m also not going to reblog and argue with every person on this site who says they can’t see the chemistry in a ship. I don’t think that approach has ever been effective in persuading anyone to ship a ship in the history of ships. At the end of the day, people should be forming their own opinions, provided they aren’t hateful, and just enjoy the show (which is advice I should probably take given the length of this answer, but I promise I enjoyed myself writing this response). Thank you for the question.

#asks #mayans mc #emily thomas #sarah bolger

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