Shrinking

  I watched this show because a friend mentioned it. 

One thing I am trying to learn in adulthood is selection. The good from the bad, the worthwhile and not. the problem is that I have a lot less energy than I used to. The problem is I need to learn how to measure out my energy so it lasts. When I was younger I had infinite energy. Partly I no longer have this massive expanse of energy, but additionally I don't have the motivation nor the desire to run myself into the ground like I could when I was younger. Mostly, it is a result of healing from my eating disorder. I disavow all the parts of me that seek perfection and performance above actually feeling and living my life. Therapy and surviving under capitalism have taught me that an emotion is an expensive privilege, and I intend for my cup to runeth over in this particular category. 

Anway. I watched shrinking. It was a waste of energy, but writing a blog post about how much I hate the show is a perfectly acceptable use of my time. 

let's begin: 

what the fuck this show is racist. The writing was completely irresponsible, feeding into the racialized tropes of Balck masculinity that whiteness thrives off of.

The scene I hated the most was at the soccer game when Sean starts beating up the white husband character. Immediately after that scene I started writing this blog post because I was so mad. Like look, here is this Good Black man who defends the white people he is loyal to. He's violent, but don't worry, he's one of the good ones because he protects white people. As if only through violence black men are capable of being worthy? That's what I hate the most - that there is a moralizing quality to the violence because it protects white people. This is reinforced by how the show genders both Jimmy and Sean. We could argue that Jimmy has become emasculated and feminized through the death of his wife. He is helpless and in need of rescue. He's emotional. Suddenly he must become, as he claims in one impassioned scene, "da mama". Sean's Violent Black masculinity doubly expounds this by contrast. Sean complement's Jimmy's newfound femininity. Why is the only masculinity available to a Black man one of violence?

Also, the scene where he cleans the kitchen and Alice comes in to see Sean cleaning, noticing he has thrown out the flower that was special to her mom. Having a Black man causally doing chores in your house? totally not racist. 

 Why do you have to use a stereotype of an angry violent Black man in your shows? I hate how they use Jessica Williams character, Gaby, as a way to intellectually absolve the use of this stereotype, like, “ oh, look, we have a Black woman who is cutesy and smart and so not like the Violent Black man so that counteracts everything. And she’s self-aware about it !” Because she tells the Jimmy hey it’s really problematic to have a Black man engaging in violence. So you’re aware of the trope, but you persist? Maybe, maybe you don’t write racist tropes? Is it really that fucking hard? 

 Shrinking is fucking racist and I hate the writing. It's like the writers are trying to gaslight you about racial oppression and how politically aware they are. For example, they denounce racist pam while simultaneously using racists tropes in their writing. Or the joke about vaguely racist Taco Tuesday. I'm sorry, I fail to see how an alliteration about tacos is racist. Racist pam and racist Taco Tuesday serve one point: to absolve the writers of their errors in using racial stereotypes.