Here's a stereotype that might hit closer to home: is anyone else sick of Americans portraying all Australians as ignorant, backward, bogan crocodile hunters who carry huge knives and yell "CRIKEY!"?? Sure annoys the hell out of me! One of Spider-Man's villains is entirely based around this stereotype... GRRRRR!
Fortunately Outback was never portrayed that way - his racial/cultural stereotyping was done in a more positive manner like Jazz or Blaster; i.e.: portrayed as an equal rather than as an inferior.
[quote=RobzyWell actually I've been saying it in ALL my posts on the subject! It's nothing new![/quote]
Sorry, I meant "now" as in, "Now here's my next point," not as in you've only been saying that now. Stupid written text and it's lack of intonation/inflection!! Grrr! (growling with falling inflection)
The poll question asks if we think that the twins are "horrible racist robots," not if we think that their portrayal itself is racist. Just because they behave in a manner that can be perceived as racially offensive doesn't mean that the characters themselves harbour such prejudice. If anything they came off as being more homophobic when one of them said, "Go cry to your boyfriend." Other than behaving in a stereotypical kind of way I don't recall seeing any evidence that shows that the twins themselves are actually racist.Originally Posted by Robzy
This is different from say previous Transformers canon where they have viewed factions in the forms of being races and have shown prejudice toward each other, for example in Beast Wars when Rattrap says, "The only thing worse than a stinkin' Predacon is a stinkin' Decepticon." or the many number of times where Autobots and Decepticons have spoken of or about each other in such a manner. In fact, certain points of TF canon argues that the Transformers are not politically, but racially divided. For example, in G1 both Bludgeon and Grimlock argued that the 'good' and 'evil' aspects of being Autobot and Decepticon was intrinsic, and not as others like Optimus Prime, Prowl, Scorponok, Dinobot, movie-Jetfire etc. would argue, an "intensely personal choice." Grimlock once postulated that while Primus had intended on creating one race, he had inadvertantly created two. Bludgeon argued that being evil was "in our oil."
TF canon is conflicting because at times it portrays the morality as a choice but other times portays it as part of their nature. But each time canon portrays it as the latter it's like a form of subtle racism via a hidden curriculum.
It seems to be something that is built into story-telling from a long way back, such as Tolkien (whose stories are based on Old English and Norse literature), mythology from various culture and even religious texts.
I'm not saying that this excuses any of that of course. But yeah, while I can concede that the portrayal of these characters can be racist, I wouldn't agree that the characters themselves are racist, which is how I'd interpreted the poll question but I suspect you meant the former.
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