Amy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
such_heights) wrote2011-03-07 08:24 pm
such_heights) wrote2011-03-07 08:24 pm
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some character stats from FSCMM
I made some tallies on the characters over at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
f_march_madness the other day, looking at the gender and race of the characters chosen to represent the 64 fandoms present in the original polls.
A note before I start - I'm not attempting to draw anything particularly conclusive from any of this for a number of reasons, not least of which that I don't think these polls are necessarily that representative of general fandom behaviour patterns. However, it is interesting.
The list of original 64 characters can be found here. These were selected after preliminaries between characters of the same fandoms.
Of those 64 characters, 34 are women, and 30 are men.
And of those 64 characters, 58 are white, and 6 are characters of colour.
That first statistic is cheering! The second ... less so.
Those six characters of colour, incidentally, are Troy Barnes (Community), Kelly Kapoor (The Office US), Burton Guster (Psych), Kalinda Sharma (The Good Wife), Kono Kalakaua (Hawaii 5-0), Annie Sawyer (Being Human).
That's three from the comedy bracket, two from the drama bracket, one from the SFF bracket, and none from the teen bracket.
We are now down to the last sixteen, which breaks down as 15/1 white/character of colour, and 10/6 male/female.
Talking about race in fandom and which characters become fan favourites is naturally complicated, and this poll skews particularly towards US shows with very white-dominant casts - the Teen bracket, for instance - that don't necessarily reflect LJ/DW fandom's interests even just looking at Western media fandoms.
Naturally, there's a number of factors here - both in characters of colour being written and decently-portrayed in the first place, and then the way that fandom reacts to those characters. But although white women are doing pretty well this year, it seems that chromatic characters are still lagging behind in these kinds of polls. Food for thought.
*waves Troy flag*
f_march_madness the other day, looking at the gender and race of the characters chosen to represent the 64 fandoms present in the original polls.A note before I start - I'm not attempting to draw anything particularly conclusive from any of this for a number of reasons, not least of which that I don't think these polls are necessarily that representative of general fandom behaviour patterns. However, it is interesting.
The list of original 64 characters can be found here. These were selected after preliminaries between characters of the same fandoms.
Of those 64 characters, 34 are women, and 30 are men.
And of those 64 characters, 58 are white, and 6 are characters of colour.
That first statistic is cheering! The second ... less so.
Those six characters of colour, incidentally, are Troy Barnes (Community), Kelly Kapoor (The Office US), Burton Guster (Psych), Kalinda Sharma (The Good Wife), Kono Kalakaua (Hawaii 5-0), Annie Sawyer (Being Human).
That's three from the comedy bracket, two from the drama bracket, one from the SFF bracket, and none from the teen bracket.
We are now down to the last sixteen, which breaks down as 15/1 white/character of colour, and 10/6 male/female.
Talking about race in fandom and which characters become fan favourites is naturally complicated, and this poll skews particularly towards US shows with very white-dominant casts - the Teen bracket, for instance - that don't necessarily reflect LJ/DW fandom's interests even just looking at Western media fandoms.
Naturally, there's a number of factors here - both in characters of colour being written and decently-portrayed in the first place, and then the way that fandom reacts to those characters. But although white women are doing pretty well this year, it seems that chromatic characters are still lagging behind in these kinds of polls. Food for thought.
*waves Troy flag*
no subject
It surprises me to see Troy representing Community rather than Abed, who strikes me as a more memorable character, played by a more charismatic actor. (Er, sorry, Troy fans! He *is* a sweetie!) But I suppose that has something to with the way the preliminary rounds were set up? Some shows seem to have a central character representing them, some don't.
It would be interesting* to see some campaigning and some kind of tangible reward for the character and/or fandom at the end, which might activate block voting, once folks know what issues and outcomes are at stake. Right now, I suspect, long-running shows and iconic main characters have a big advantage in that the only thing voters consulting is a vague sense of loyalty or affection. I think the vagueness of its tends to reproduce the social order ("I've been watching Doctor Who since I was a kid!") where a more specific goal might bring out targeted, issue voting ("I'd like a woman and/or a character of color to represent fandom this year").
Anyways, my vote's with Troy--love the character and the show and would like to see it get more exposure. M.
* Interesting or distressing, given that it might quickly turn into wank
no subject