Jessica Szohr - Vanessa Abrams ✿#8: Because she's moving on with her career; Haiti, studying aboard, film; no one else can top that! - Page 4

FenixxB · 06-28-2011, 11:32 AM

Alternate universe CV, but on the show NV... they were cute and hot, but the writers never properly gave them a chance.

They completely eff up DV, which why I can't pick them.

SolveMyMystery · 06-28-2011, 02:41 PM

NV is my all time fav:lolve:they're just sooo pretty and cute

***Artemis*** · 06-29-2011, 09:03 AM

I'm getting back into NV. I was done at 2x19, but thinking about them, makes me miss it so much. But, DV/NS still my OTPs for the charries. Unfortunately.

FenixxB · 06-29-2011, 08:00 PM

Speaking about missing ships... I also kind of miss NB

. I think I just miss Nate in general

... when he was a part of the main storylines and not being stuck with guest stars much like Vanessa/Jess had to put up with.

***Artemis*** · 06-30-2011, 12:11 PM

At least we got a lot of CN in the end. But I'm sad we didn't get BN besties. Then again, I'm super duper sad about the lack of BV when there were so many great opportunities for it!

SolveMyMystery · 06-30-2011, 02:18 PM

Something is missing and NB in a way represents the old school GG.

***Artemis*** · 06-30-2011, 05:30 PM

My favorite episode for them!

And for Vanessa in general.

SolveMyMystery · 07-01-2011, 12:47 PM

1.12 ia my fav V ep

***Artemis*** · 07-01-2011, 07:07 PM

*sighs* BCV, as usual - wasted potential.

SolveMyMystery · 07-02-2011, 03:16 PM

I found this on tumblr:

Quote:

I’m disappointed in how Gossip Girl treats the storylines of its women of color and even more disappointed in how the fanbase is so unaccepting of them.

Beneath a read more so as no to kill your dashes.

I’m going to start this argument off with saying that I may be slightly biased to the side of women of color on television because I am a woman of color and it is difficult to find other women of color in the media portraying characters that you can actually look up to. Hollywood has the bad habit of putting black women into minor roles where they play ghetto girls, hoochie-mamas, teenaged mothers with no future, or some mix of the three. Needless to say that when I see a black woman or a show or in a film and she is none of these things - a la Jada Pinkett Smith on Hawthorne or Regina King on Southland or as in this example Jessica Szhor and Tika Sumpter on Gossip Girl - I get incredibly excited and I feel proud.

With Gossip Girl in particular though I love the show as a guilty pleasure, it’s difficult to relate to it in any way - I am a lower-middle class black girl from North Carolina who likes pretty things as much as any girl, but who has never been into a Henri Bendel’s or put on a pair of Blahniks and I don’t have Upper East Side white people problems like “Oh, God! So-and-so has a yacht bigger than mine and no one will want to attend my white party” or “Crap, my uncle is back in town and plotting to take over my empire.” I have lower-middle-class black girl problems like “Wow. What am I going to do with my life after college? How am I going to pay my loans back? What can I do to make life financially easier on my family?”

What I can relate to is Vanessa feeling like an outsider when it comes to that world. She may have some sort of in through her (ex)friendships, but she will always be an outsider. I don’t mean to pull the “black in America” card, but if you’re not black, it’s not something that you’ll understand. I think my family usually puts more emphasis on it than I do, but color isn’t really a big thing to me - a lot of my friends are white and I’m usually attracted to guys of a different race than my own - but you do start to feel different after a while. And it’s not just from people of other races, but people of your own as well which is the worst. These images of stereotypical black people are so widespread that if you’re a black person who doesn’t fit the mold, your own people will have something to say about it. It not only disgusts and angers me, but saddens me as well.

To get back to how this relates to Gossip Girl, as I’ve said before I’m Team Women of Color and Vanessa and Raina haven’t done anything any worse than any other character on Gossip Girl, so I just do not understand why people hate these characters so much. I don’t mean to imply that it has anything to do with a subtle racism that encourages an Us vs. Them in which their characters can never belong, but I can’t help but wonder.

So whether you’re a Gossip Girl fan or just have an opinion, can you shed some light on this issue for me?

i would rather look at you

I agree with this but what I found more aggravating is the portray of women in general and the way the fanbase make it own all the elitist bullying and how cheer when the girls on the show insult /degrade each other.

This show.

***Artemis*** · 07-03-2011, 08:37 AM

Word, Vanessa.

Hmm... I definitely don't see the "race card" play in GG. I don't think Raina...she was a guest star for half a season and had more storyline than Nate. And she was a successful businesswoman. And Vanessa? That's just because the writers are ****ing idiots who don't know what to do with her. It's not about race. Hell, they brought in her mother, who was black. I'm sure half the audience doesn't really know that she's black.

I agree, Karla. It's women in general that's the issue on this show.

SolveMyMystery · 08-06-2011, 04:04 PM

Not at least in the way Raina or Vanessa was portrayed.

Although I see a lot of racism in the fandom.I read some awful things about Vanessa that people said that it wasn't for her race but about her character but then I read the same things about Raina and the truth came out.

FenixxB · 08-09-2011, 03:24 PM

The fandom itself can be pretty racist... I've seen some pretty awful comments about Vanessa/Jess and Reina/Tika (when she first appeared) which disappointed me greatly. As for GG... the show itself is not racist. I mean it focuses on a world that is predominately about rich white people, so the underrepresentation of people of color and or other minorities is not unexpected.

I have a problem with the way the writers, CW network, and Hollywood in general casts a lot of people of color/minorities as side characters and rarely in roles where they are main or leads in a tv series or movie. The portrayals of those characters tend to be questionable, but this is the way the system is run and it's a refelection of the issues that still exist in society today. Though, some progress has been made on the CW with Maggie Q being the lead in Nikita... there is still much more that needs to be done in adressing the problem.

SolveMyMystery · 08-09-2011, 11:12 PM

My main issue with the show is the way they portray women

Tho the CW has TVD were the witches are black,the werewolves have mixed features and the vamps are mostly white.

I like the show but it kinda bugs me.

FenixxB · 08-10-2011, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Tho the CW has TVD were the witches are black,the werewolves have mixed features and the vamps are mostly white.

That annoys me to no end... at first I was like well I'm sure there's a story behind that, but yeah they have really made no attempt to address the blatant racial lines on that show. smh


Fan Forum > Archived Celebrities > Jessica Szohr > Vanessa Abrams ✿#8: Because she's moving on with her career; Haiti, studying aboard, film; no one else can top that!