Popular Culture Review 29.1 (Spring 2018) | Page 75

coach or general manager who risks black players ’ safety to win at all costs , or profit at all costs . This subtle critique reflects the recent # metoo movement , which has been criticized because its recent public attention to sexual violence has disproportionately benefited white victims whose voices are privileged racially .
Darrius ’ s black body is as commodified as any black body in popular culture . Aisha Harris wrote , “ That even surface-level ‘ admiration ’ for black culture on the part of white people can give way to insidious interactions that are , at best , a persistent annoyance black people must learn to laugh off , and , at worst , the kind of fetishization that only conceals deadlier preconceptions .” Darrius is fetishized as thoroughly as his contestants are when they are dressed in skimpy outfits playing a football game , a move which places the cheerleading eye-candy from the margins of the game to its center . Darrius is secretly filmed having sex with Ruby , all for gaze of the voyeuristic audience . And during the run of the show , Darrius , like so many black Americans , has to distinguish between the comments of well-meaning , ignorant white people , the more nefarious racist intentions of others , and the ways the former can devolve into the latter . Well-meaning ignorance , such as Beth Ann ’ s belief that wearing the Confederate flag will earn Darrius ’ s admiration of her bravery and the fetishizing of Darrius ’ s dark body can and do devolve into quite deadly preconceptions on Everlasting .
Women Embracing Dominance Theory
Quinn and Rachel grapple with their quest for power in a show that operates along patriarchal lines , and they know it . Quinn rants : “ If I was a man , they wouldn ’ t be doing this to me . I ’ d be wearing sweatpants , scratching my nuts , and boning 22-yearolds .” Later referring to Jeremy , Quinn snipes , “ When I see him I ’ m going to rip off his balls , deep-fry them , and force him to eat them .” But both Rachel and Quinn choose to occupy the male space in an entertainment world governed by patriarchy . Rachel repeatedly forgoes her feminism in order to do so , and Quinn is a different beast altogether . As Bastién , writes , “ Quinn isn ’ t a feminist . She isn ’ t trying to dismantle or change the sexist system . She only wants to benefit from it . She wants to gain power , then control the men that have misused their own .” For example , Quinn performs masculinity when she grabs her crotch and says , “ I ’ m so hard right now .” She uses gendered discourse to dominate Coleman when she asks , “ Have your balls even dropped yet , or do we still have that to look forward to ?” Rachel occupies the male space when she is tempted to fire Jeremy , her ex-boyfriend , after he describes one of the contestants as “ Hot Rachel .” He says to her : “ She ’ s the one who kind of looks
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