JamalSpunky
Well-Known Member
Man, you don't even know. I've been meaning to dive into this subject for a long while.
Not denying that. A show like this is overdue. And if we're keeping it real AMC had that show "Into the Badlands" which also starred an Asian male and gave him the type of alpha male characteristics and mastery as well as clearance to be paired sexually with women outside his damn race. When do black men get their turn like that in a series?
Jesus, man. Were you paying attention? Luke Cage's TV show did ANYTHING but this. The showrunner made it clear that Jessica Jones was not to even be mentioned or even thought of as a person who had a legitimate relationship with Luke. They had Luke's mentor in the barbershop laughingly brush that off as a rebound and not too long after that they listed a names of female celebrities that were supposed to represent beauty and desire, all of them happen to be black, including that ugly, fake bitch Nicki Minaj. So who did Luke get hooked up with on the show? He had a short fling with Misty Knight (black) and then he got the sloppy seconds of Daredevil when he fell into a relationship with Claire Temple. Last time I checked Temple was played by Rosario Dawson who is Afro-Latina and often identifies herself that way. That makes her no less a black woman than Zendaya or Halle Berry, her Spanish surname does not magically change her into a different race.
So Luke was stuck with black women throughout his the run of his series. And I wouldn't have had a problem like that if the show aired 15 years ago before Jessica Jones was introduced and Luke was still that dumbass, jive-talking idiot who just so happened to only date black women. But the Jessica Jones thing changed all that, helped revamp the character and for many comic readers that relationship became one of the most defining things about him. It had become CANON. But when you have a gay black male showrunner who publicly stated that the goal of the show was to elevate black women I guess that bullshit is to be expected. Hell, the Luke Cage comic was never about black women or elevating black women. It was a testosterone-driven narrative with a somewhat dumb lead who beat up on street punks and slept with some broads. But just like with the Black Panther film, The Luke Cage show was led by a black man who wanted to prioritize black ladies. Fuck that.
Considering Claire left way early in season two, one can argue that the man went without sex or romance for the entire season. In fact the closest thing to a relationship exploration you had in season two was between old ass Alfre Woodard’s Black Mariah and Theo Rossi’s Shades, a TRUE interracial couple. And isn’t that just like a gay black man to be disinterested in the sexual appetites of a heterosexual black man and devote time instead to the sexual needs of his black queen. Once more…with feeling….fuck that.
And why are you dragging the Blade movie into this? Not only was it like twenty years ago, it was also a film, not a TV series. My whole argument centered on TV shows with black male leads. If you want to get into the Blades film ask yourself if Blades ever had a true love interest? Holding the hot non-black vampire princess in his arms before she turned to dust doesn’t count. Do white male leads of comic book films go whole trilogies without even kissing a chick or having a lover? The question was rhetorical. You know the answer.
Bringing it back to TV series there was a short-lived Blade show, one that got discussed on this site an eternity ago. It was horrible. They cast a rapper with limited acting experience and no martial arts training as the titular hero. He didn’t even have leading man looks. His character also seemed secondary at times to white characters and apparently he wasn’t involved in any of the relationships that took place during the series, another fine example of Hollywood shutting the door when it comes to black male sexuality.
I don’t want to keep debating this further because this thread is devoted to a show that I’m sure is wonderful. And if you guys like it more power to you. But I couldn’t help taking a shot at reminding people that the thing that still holds back heterosexual black male characterization in Hollywood is in how the industry goes out of its way to not present him desirable or idealized and how it does not grant him sexual freedom in terms of who can be his onscreen love interests. This reality made me wonder how any of us can get so excited to see other men of color get the golden treatment that we as forever-waiting black males have yet to get.
