Iris West, the Strong Black Woman
The Strong Black Woman isn’t exactly like the Mammy, but they are very similar. The SBW evolved from the Mammy but not because of white people wanting to see Black women as subservient to white women; it was more because in the Black community women are expected to be mothers and workers and homemakers and anything that may be required of them and not complain about it or show weakness. They also have to be self-reliant, while everyone else is allowed to depend on them. Having had personal experience with this trope, I can tell you first hand that it’s straight bullshit. It’s dehumanising, demoralising, and extremely dangerous. It makes Black women believe that they cannot express emotion in the way that other women do without being seen as weak or not real Black women – and in a culture where racism is usually spoken about in terms of the violence visited upon men, making Black womanhood dependent on our labour is rather tiring. The “don’t need no man part” came from Black women telling men who wished to control them that they didn’t need their money, status or love in order to feel fulfilled. If you’re confused, listen to “Independent Women” by Destiny’s Child.
I briefly touched on this in earlier posts, but when fandom tells women that they cannot express emotion without being labelled as bitchy and whiny, it fosters an environment in which women don’t feel safe to, say, come forward about the fact that their boss is sexually harassing them at work. But when Black men do that to Black women, and women of other races join in while uplifting their own voices, it sends the message that the pain of Black women isn’t valid when compared to the pain of women of other races.
One of the reasons that Iris West as a Black woman, and therefore the romantic heroine on a superhero show, matters is because she often flies in the face of that archetype. She is allowed to be vulnerable and is not ridiculed for it; characters make an effort to comfort her. She is allowed to be angry and is not less desirable for it; characters make the effort to understand where she’s coming from. She is put in danger and is not expected to get herself out of it (though she often does); characters make the effort to prioritise her safety – and a Black woman still living on network television, let alone The CW, is reason enough for praise.
One of the reasons fandom “loved” Iris so much was because she internalised all her emotions and never bothered anyone with her feelings – as women are supposed to do. Obviously.
White fandom co-opted the “don’t need no man” part of the adage, because they don’t want characters of colour in a romance with white ones. While they probably think it’s coming across as wanting this Black woman to be cool and independent and kick ass, unfortunately for them, they’ve failed to hide the fact that they’re just uncomfortable with a Black woman being shown love by a white man. Her vulnerability being noticed, her safety being prioritised, her person being held up as the standard is uncomfortable for them, so they scramble for any excuse to take her away from that love story, while decorating it with faux concern for authenticity.
Iris did nothing but support the other characters, and whenever she felt pain, she soldiered through it without asking for help until she literally had a breakdown – which is true of a lot of Black women in real life. Like the Mammy, she looked after everyone else without asking for any help for herself, but what separates the SBW from the Mammy is the fact that while the Mammy (or the BBF) doesn’t actually get the chance to feel pain, the SBW feels it but doesn’t express it – and that’s the point.
One of fans’ favourite periods is when Iris didn’t tell anyone how upset she felt about things.
We saw Iris feel pain during that part of season two, but she didn’t tell anyone about it, and that’s why they “loved” her so much. It’s telling that every time Iris went to Barry with a problem, she was whining, that when she confronted him for lying to her about being The Flash, she was a bitch, that when she called off the engagement because Barry was dishonest in his reasons for proposing, she should have gotten over it – but her actively hiding her pain made her a good character. Then in the fourth season premiere, Iris was a bitch for yelling at Cisco for trying to get Barry out of the Speed Force, and then in the very next episode she was selfish for expressing that his leaving pained her. It’s because even though she herself said that Barry told her to “be strong,” her pain was threaded through both episodes, and the writers made sure you knew it. (Please note, the SBW is not actually about strength. Perhaps if Iris had consulted Bonnie Bennett, the patron saint of Getting White People Out of Their Nonsense, she would have been able tell her that the acceptable way to be a SBW isn’t through strength – it’s through silence).
I don’t think any of these words mean what he thinks they mean. In any case, “strength and independence” have also been code words for “emotionless and alone” in fandom.
When fans say that they want Iris to be independent, they don’t mean they want her to get her own storyline, although they’ve done a wonderful job of convincing everyone that they do because it’ll get her out of S.T.A.R. Labs and away from the action. They mean they want her to be alone because they’re not comfortable with her position, especially when Caitlin doesn’t get to date Barry. Because, for some reason, Iris is ruined by romance, but Caitlin won’t be if she gets Barry. Because independence for Black women means being alone, rather than being able to do things for herself, which Iris did for years before she got with Barry (fans fondly remember Iris being a barista, but not that she was one to pay for school), but Snowbarry fans spent half a season demanding that Barry save Caitlin. When they say they want her to be badass, they mean off-screen, because all the action takes place inside S.T.A.R. Labs and the show refuses to leave it. I’m also extremely suspicious of fans who seem to think that Black women who are in relationships with men who love them find it physically impossible to be strong, badass or independent, which is why when they insist that they have Black friends, I always want to ask, “are you sure?”.
Anyway, the motivation for not liking Iris here isn’t that she’s Black – Snowbarry shippers love Black people when they’re playing by the rules. It’s that she expresses anger at the white characters, and isn’t punished for it. The characters and the show explicitly and consistently prioritise her safety. While the show briefly regressed to negative stereotypes in season 2, they haven’t treated her the same way since, and Snowbarry shippers are desperate for Iris to go back there. Because, yet again, the Black woman is being centred in the narrative and being treated as whole character, while the white woman isn’t centred. I mentioned that these fans have a specific hierarchy in mind when it comes to the relationships on The Flash, and while I haven’t spelled it out in its entirety, this last section will. And it’ll also highlight one of the biggest reasons why people – or at the very least why I – say Snowbarry shippers are racist.
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Another great and meticulously well-argued article. I was waiting for the entire series to make a comment, but I just wanted to quickly note that the “much lauded” 2A block of The Flash was EP’d by a white woman so…
Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading and gaining more insight into the culture that gave birth to and continues to fuel Snowbarry and basically the AnybodyBut(black)Iris movement. Thanks.
I actually don’t feel comfortable placing the blame on that particular woman, because she was still working in conjunction with Andrew Kreisburg, who not only ranked above her, but was just ousted for sexually harassing the writing staff on The Flash.
Thank you for the compliment! There are at least a few more articles about this topic, and I hope you enjoy what I have left to say!
But wasn’t AK still helming the show even after that? When Iris was lifted out of “her place” and put into the “upset the hierarchy” place? I still blame Gabrielle Stanton and will never watch anything associated with her again. She also produced for Vampire Diaries. That’s two shows she’s been associated with that treated its black women character horribly. It’s a shame too because she used to work with Shonda Rhymes. It’s crazy to me that as soon as she was gone (which happened pretty fast), Iris’ storylines got better and they lifted her into her rightful place (to us, not the racists). I don’t think it was AK because he was still there for Season 2B when things turned around.
I agree with you on EVERYTHING else though… but Gabrielle Stanton… She might as well be part of the 53% to me.
I’m almost 100% certain that the executive who left because she felt harassed by AJK was Gabrielle Stanton, and even if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason she left was because she felt like she didn’t have any power. It’s not as if she ranked ABOVE AJK or even that she was on the same level as him, not to mention that she was the only female producer amongst a sea of men. And I don’t feel comfortable blaming her for TVD when she didn’t even make the majority of the decisions – that was all Julie Plec.
Stanton left around Christmas 2015, which means that they were likely filming the 13th or 14th episodes, and Iris started getting decent storylines as soon as the season picked up in episode 11 of season 2. It’s inaccurate to say that she’s the reason she got sidelined when she left just after showrunning for episodes where she was a pivotal part of them. My honest opinion is that AJK was happy with the newest woman that Barry got to date, but it’s not like he was ignorant to the comics. He still loved Iris and Candice – as Gabrielle, according to what she herself said – he’s just a colossal creep who deserves every piece of shit he gets in life.
So much truth tea! Where do I even start? The whole Strong Black Woman trope is literally the soundtrack to my life. I can probably count on one hand how many times I’ve seen women in my family cry or talk about their feelings. My oldest sister is seen as an oddball because she’s ‘too sensitive’. Needless to say there are women in my family currently being treated for depression and anxiety. Such a vicious cycle. I do love seeing Iris being strong and emotionally mature but as you’ve stated it is important that we see her getting to express her feelings and for them to be validated by other characters. Which is why it pissed me off when Cisco said it seemed like she didn’t want Barry back. Umm hello. She’s been with this guy for most of her life. That was an absurd thing to say.
The newfound lovers of Journalist Iris are so transparent. It’s pretty obvious what their motives are. It’s exactly as you described. They want her away from the action and most importantly, away from Barry. It’s season 4 and you can literally feel how these haters are seething about ‘what an awful character Iris has turned into’ while her actual fans are loving her character development and so is the media. How interesting!
Unpopular opinion but I don’t loathe season 2a Iris the way most IW fans do. Only because we did get to see her being an investigative journalist and have scenes with Linda Park and her mother. This is also when we learn she can’t cook (when Joe brought Wally to CCPD and asked him to dinner, he proposes Iris cook and she makes a quip about not wanting to kill the kid they just met lol). Most IW fans don’t seem to recall this and think her not being a good cook is new canon because they’ve blocked out much of 2a. I honestly do not think the EPs and writers intentionally tried to devalue her character. When you read their interviews they legit thought they were giving her an arc. They just flopped at it. Apparently they don’t know how to write for her when she’s not the active love interest. As soon as Patty was gone, you could feel the shift back to Iris. Also it seemed to me they were trying to limit her interactions with Barry to lessen the chances of people claiming she was trying to interfere in Barry’s relationship with Patty (which some did anyway). When the teaser came out featuring her going to confess to Barry about her long lost little bro, there were protests of her somehow scheming to take him away from Patty. Some seemed like they expected her to interfere earlier like she did with Linda. Unfortunately the show fell back on tired tropes and underestimated how much action takes place at STAR Labs. So her not being there made her seem irrelevant. 2b was just so much better.
We Are The Flash is my jam. Love it!
The fact that you have women in your family being treated for depression and anxiety but your sister is treated as an oddball is precisely why it was so important to watch Iris getting to let her emotions out. It’s a harmful trope for women in real-life, so as much as this show irritates me sometimes, I love that they did that with Iris. I had to take a very long time to forgive Cisco for that, because it seemed incredibly heartless considering everything she’d gone through in the past year, almost to the point where it was almost out of character. In what universe would anyone actually think that Iris didn’t want Barry back? What kind of sense does that make?
Nobody who’s screaming about Iris’ job actually wants her to be a journalist. They want her to leave so no one unworthy can interfere with their fantasy of a bunch of nerds saving the day with science and superpowers. They don’t care about her and I doubt they ever will, so they may as well save their effort and stop pretending.
I don’t loathe 2A for precisely the reasons you said. They were incredibly stretched thin with LoT and even though the moments they gave Iris weren’t frequent, they were extremely powerful. All of Iris’ scenes with her mother moved the plot forward; her scenes of journalism developed her character; her scenes with Linda strengthened their friendship. I don’t think it was that they didn’t know HOW to write her as much as what they were giving her wasn’t enough, since HOW they were writing her was fine. They just gave more focus to Barry’s love interest, who wasn’t all that well-written herself. I agree with the relationship stuff, though of course she still got blamed for that.
Glad you love it, I hope you enjoy the rest!
But Season 2A didn’t falter on giving Caitlin an abundance of screen time – more than Iris OR Patty combined. Season 2A with GS as EP was horrible and nearly disastrous for Iris. That’s also when the crossover happened with Iris getting ONE line. You can’t chalk all of that up to the action taking place at Star Labs when the show focused SO much on Caitliln. Even giving Caitlin the space to talk about and grieve Ronnie while immediately falling for Jay/Hunter/Zoom. Yes, I know that was meant to tie into a lot of backstory for 2B, but they didn’t need to focus SO much on that and even the way they did it really forced a Caitlin on top of the show hierarchy. But you’re right – I have blocked out much of Season 2A – it was just so horrible and triggering for me as a black woman I had a hard time watching it because I was just SO angry about how sidelined Iris was.
We’re going to have to agree to disagree on Gabrielle Stanton.
Those crossovers are ALWAYS written by men. ALWAYS. Men who are more concerned with the guys on the show doing cool things and the women being pretty decoration. One of those people was Marc Guggenheim. I don’t understand how you think Gabrielle Stanton swanned in and suddenly had more control over two men who had been friends with Berlanti for years, two other male producers, and Berlanti himself.
The show focused on Caitlin as a means for her to move onto Jay; even so, it was of little substance. Season 2 for Caitlin was literally the Ronnie story all over again, except this time we saw her falling in love with the guy. Caitlin was never forced to the top of the show hierarchy; Patty was. Just because her fans didn’t notice because a white girl was at the top, it doesn’t mean she was. Narratively, Caitlin’s never been the woman at the top, because the person who’s at the top is always the woman who’s most important to Barry. Maybe it’s just me, but I always rate quality over quantity, and Caitlin has literally been standing around that lab doing exposition and fixing people up for four years. Just because she got more screentime devoted to it during season 2, it doesn’t mean that her character was truly developed or pushed in any way.
I don’t mean to come off as rude, but to me, Caitlin’s “importance” has always been the myth of quality vs. quantity – whenever she gets a lot of it, people think she’s important, but when you analyse it, more often than not it’s never as good as what Iris gets.
Honestly, the only reasons I was watching 2A were Barry, Iris, Joe, Zoom, and the promise that Patty and LoT would leave so I would get my show back.
It’s not just you, Vivian. I judge based on quality over quantity as well. I just watched season 2 on DVD and there’s no way I’d ever say that Caitlin got the better storyline or focus in that season. Most of it was her standing in Star Labs and her being kidnapped by Zoom. There was nothing that equated to character development. We actually learned more about Iris outside of Barry. I personally don’t judge characters based on screen time but on the substance the characters are given. There’s no denying that they could’ve done better by Iris West’s character in 2A but I just don’t believe there’s this huge conspiracy like some of her stans do. And I’m saying this as a black woman who primarily watches this show for her.
Caitlin’s storyline in season 2 was almost insultingly empty. It was just to give her something to do and KIND OF indicate that her trauma was going to turn her into Killer Frost. And the fact that her fans didn’t notice told me that since she had the most screentime, that’s all they really care about. That’s why this hashtag is such bullshit – it’s because Iris gets more screentime than Caitlin this season. Caitlin is the EXACT same person she was four years ago, just nicer and with an alter ego. She hasn’t GONE anywhere.
Iris had an arc outside of Barry that was entirely too short, but it’s still there. I totally agree with the lack of conspiracy – knowing what I know about AJK, I firmly believe that he was just not concerned with the women on the show unless they were around Barry.
Gosh, as depressing as some of these pieces are, I’m so happy that the race-based hate for Iris is being tackled by more and more people.
I tend to try to avoid places where the hate is at its most aggressive, however after reading your thesis (lol) I’m no longer going to let these KKK anti-Iris Flash “fans” slag her off without any kind of pushback. I’m no longer going to let them sit so comfortably in their hate without calling them out on their bullshit.
Your posts have made me realise that only by calling people out on their racism will things change. When I say change, I don’t mean hearts and minds will be swayed, but they will certainly think twice about saying such heinous things about Iris publicly.
When the We Are The Flash flame-out was happening, I had a long running “debate” with a popular Flash video reactor, he’d always been mostly hateful towards Iris, but I called him out on his internalized racism (I was in Hotep Central) and his misogynoir and after that back and forth, he’s a lot less vocal about Iris’s place on the show these days. His mind wasn’t changed, but honestly I didn’t care about changing his mind, I just wanted him to stop hating on Iris. Now whenever he has something negative to say about her, he adds a disclaimer, because he knows that Iris fans are ready to go in if he’s disrespectful.
It’s not ideal, but no longer will I let Iris Haters’ wrong views go unchecked, and I have you to thank for my renewed energy.
I do try to make them funny, but you’re right, the hate can be horrible.
Anti-Iris fans are why I avoid the Flash Facebook page. I dislike Reddit on principle, but after spending time there for research for this, my resolve has strengthened.
I’m glad that I’ve given you confidence to call people out on their racism!
I tend to dislike the most popular reaction people because they tend to be the typical comic book fanboy and yes, the amount of times I’ve seen Black men engaging in the same kind of racist buffoonery they cry about when it happens to them with regard to Iris. I think you did a good thing. Because if enough people keep getting called out about it, then hopefully they’ll start to listen to what people are saying if not just to stop people from harassing them haha. That disclaimer is all yours, be proud of it!
Thank you for reading, that means a great deal <3
Wow! Your writing skill is just stellar!
I wanted to know, unless I missed it, what, if any, culpability do you think some of the actors have in the Iris hatred? Specifically, Danielle Panabaker.
From what I know, she actively supported SB in interviews and articles, and she encouraged the SB fandom for a long time. I don’t know if the producers or writers gave her permission to do this because some shows like to create shipper wars for ratings. I don’t know if her friendship with Andrew Kreisberg made her feel invulnerable to criticism for doing this also. She seems to be towing the line now that Andrew’s gone.
And she has been silent when the haters include her in negative tweets to CP and “The Flash” writers. As far as I know, Danielle has never attempted to shame them or silence them. Has she blocked them? Has she publicly stood up for Candice against these attacks? I don’t know.
It’s only since the 2017 San Diego Comic Con that DP actually dismissed SB questions and affirmed that Barry was in love with Iris. For a long time now, my intuition told me that DP and CP don’t really gel outside of the workplace. I can tell they just do what’s needed to film scenes with each other.
And I’ve known about and liked DP since “Sky High”. So, it’s not like I disliked her from the start, but I’ve come to dislike and distrust her since I saw her shenanigans in this show regarding Candice’s position as lead actress and the main love interest.
I think that, had Danielle done more to support Candice’s position as lead actress and pushed back when she saw attacks from her fans, things might have settled down more with these people. Instead, her fans take her silence to mean support for their attacks, and they defend Caitlin/DP because CP/Iris has “stolen” her “rightful” place as the lead and Barry’s true love.
I know Grant Gustin has actively blocked some haters and pushed back a bit. I give him a bit of a pass since he’s newer to this type of fame than DP, and he doesn’t strike me as a forceful personality. However, among the younger actors, Danielle Panabaker is arguably the most famous before coming to this show and should know better than to encourage support from fans that attack her co-worker.
I’ve seen Carlos, John Wesley Shipp, Jesse L. Martin, Violet Beane, Keiynan, and even Tom stand up for Candice publicly, but I can’t say I’ve seen Danielle Panabaker do that. Perhaps you have evidence that DP has done so for Candice.
Adora, I truly wouldn’t hold your breath regarding evidence that Panabaker has ever publicly stood up for Candice. During season one, she fanned those Snowbarry flames, and gave the racist shippers even more reason to forget their home training, and helped intensify their hate for Candice and Iris. I watched an interview that she did with the Afterbuzz folks from season one, and even though I wasn’t that invested in West Allen at the time, her response to questions about Snowbarry was more than enough to have me side-eyeing her.
Oh and quiet as it’s kept, her performances are constantly the weakest of them all. She can’t emote to save her life.
This is also addressed to Kendall underneath you:
So my editors and I had a long back and forth over whether we should include the actions of some of the actors in the stuff that contributed to the erasure that Candice/Iris suffered. I initially mentioned that some fans felt that Danielle was partially responsible for what was going on but that I didn’t feel comfortable making a judgement on it because it’s a controversial topic; we eventually decided to remove it because it was getting off-topic.
I still feel that way. There is a reason we decided to limit this series to what FANS did as opposed to anyone else, because it’s hard to pinpoint their motivations. With Danielle supporting Snowbarry, it COULD be her wanting it to happen, or it COULD be her not wanting to shut down something her fans were obviously enthusiastic about because she – along with the rest of the cast – works in a business where audience reaction is paramount. I do have my own opinions about that whole situation, but in my capacity as author of this series, I feel it would be irresponsible for me to put it out there when I’m trying to focus on what fans think. Besides which, from studying their fandom and attitude for a while, I can safely tell you that the SB fandom would have continued whether or not Danielle supported it, because Caitlin is just a self-insert to a lot of them. I do agree that The CW, being what it is, probably liked the ship wars. And I’m not immune to the favouritism they appeared to show towards the white women on the show.
I would like to reiterate that I feel wholly uncomfortable that people keep bringing up Danielle’s friendship with Andrew Kreisburg, especially in light of his accusations, if not because it’s become one of those fandom things where one person says one thing and then everyone repeats it. Danielle was hired because of Greg Berlanti AND Andrew Kreisburg; to my knowledge, Andrew is just the one who spoke about it more. Danielle actually worked with Greg before.
I have no idea what Danielle does with regard to the people who hate on Candice and mention her, and I don’t feel comfortable speculating. I also don’t feel comfortable speculating about personal relationships between the cast; that’s not what this is about. What they do outside of the workplace doesn’t have anything to do with their jobs.
Like I’ve said, I don’t know what Danielle’s motivations are/were, but I’m pretty confident in saying that the vast majority of her fans who engage in this behaviour wouldn’t have cared about what she said.
I think it’s admirable that members of the cast have shown public support for Candice. I, again, can’t speak to any of the cast members’ motivations, but I do know that Grant Gustin already dealt with a lot of abuse from the Glee fandom, like insults, body-shaming, death-threats etc., so I wouldn’t be surprised if he decided to simply not engage with that side of fandom. Besides, they’ve both spoken about how close they are and I think it’s pretty obvious that they’re friends and supportive of each other. With Danielle, the thing I recall is a DragonCon interview where the moderator told Candice to her face how much he hated Iris because she didn’t know the secret, and Danielle pointed out that the men were all lying to her. I don’t keep up with Danielle, so I couldn’t tell you what she’s said with regard to the racism.
I haven’t seen that Afterbuzz interview, so I can’t comment on that.
Please understand that this isn’t an attack on you. I’m not even saying that I disagree with anything you’ve said, just that I feel it would be irresponsible of me, in this position, to comment on all this stuff. If it were my own blog, it would be different. But these topics are all pretty controversial, and there is a chance that the actors and writers themselves could read this since people keep tweeting it to them.
VivianK –
I can appreciate your response and your sense of responsibility for sticking to the actions of the fans.
And I do understand that the SB fans would have continued despite what Danielle did or said. However, I still believe the onus is on Danielle to take some of the air out of the SB balloon. Yes, she works in an industry where “audience reaction is paramount”, but so does Grant, so does Carlos, Jesse, Violet, etc. And yet they stood up for Candice.
The fact is that Danielle is now shutting down SB in interviews starting in summer 2017, finally. So, something or someone must have put a stop to it.
One of the things I like about Candice is that she supports the story that is currently going on. When Barry was dating Patty, she was asked how Iris felt and she told the reporter that Iris wants Barry to be happy and loved. I’m paraphrasing, but the point is she could have made a pitch for WestAllen, but she chose to support the current storyline. CP could have alienated the WestAllen fandom a little by doing that, but she made what I deem to be the most professional choice. That wasn’t the case with Danielle, who, while Caitlin was actively in a love story with Ronnie, chose to support Snowbarry. That’s at least suspicious behavior for an acting professional to do.
I recall one tweet a year or so ago where one of the fans quoted DP as agreeing that she missed Snowbarry scenes. The fan gushed, “She’s one of us guys!”. So, yes, the fans do follow her lead and influence.
I won’t belabor the point, and thanks for your kind response. I’m just recalling an MLK Jr. quote that says, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.”
Thank you for your response!
I absolutely agree with you about the Snowbarry fans being encouraged by Danielle supporting it, and I agree that not supporting the story that your character is currently involved in comes across as unprofessional. I fortunately remember exactly the interview you were talking about, and I think I mentioned in one of the earlier articles that one of the reasons I thought Snowbarry was bigger than it was when I started watching was because Danielle herself kept talking about, whereas Candice always just went along with what Iris was doing.
I also remember the quote you were talking about, but I seem to remember the situation a little differently, as a lot of fans then pointed out what she actually said was she missed having scenes in STAR Labs, and they took it to mean Snowbarry scenes. Danielle’s actions COULD have been as innocent as knowing that her fans liked a storyline and being savvy enough to not shut it down (as innocent/not innocent as that is)…or it could be more nefarious than that. I know that they do follow her lead, but a lot of them simply ignore what the actors say. A lot of them completely ignore that Grant Gustin has never wavered from Iris being the love of Iris’ life and has disliked Snowbarry from the beginning, even though he, as you said, has blocked Snowbarry shippers and called people out for being mean to his costars. I recall one Snowbarry shipper who literally dismisses what the actors, writers and producers say because, according to her, they’re just going with what’s popular – and a LOT of the fandom behaves this way. We’ll get into it in later articles, but a lot of them simply ignore whatever they say to support their agenda.
I think the reason I’m so reluctant to talk about this is because I truly don’t KNOW what anybody’s motivations are, and I don’t like speculating on a public forum. Honestly if this were my blog you and I would already be in deep discussion and you’d probably know exactly where I stand on the matter.
What I WILL say is that no matter how you slice it, there was an interview from the beginning of the series where Danielle and a journalist talked about the hate they both got for shipping Snowbarry, while completely ignoring the racist hate that Candice got simply for doing her job. And even if I don’t feel comfortable speculating, that pretty much speaks for itself.
Danielle P just promoted the RunIrisRun episode on her instagram by posting a snap shot of a scene of that episode that had every cast member in it —- except Iris.
An episode titled Run-Iris-Run, featuring Iris as a speedster.
And DP promotes it by posting a group picture that excluded Iris.
Let that sink in.
Vivian, you’re a fantastic writer. The level of research that went into this series is admirable. But more impressive is your ability to create these lengthy pieces without having your points go off topic. Have you considered writing for a publication that pays? No offense to this website, but your writing is worth paying for.
Thank you! I wish I could say that it was purely because I was thinking about it for a long time, and I wanted to properly articulate my thoughts, but it’s mostly because I was mad and I had time haha.
I haven’t, actually. I’m truthfully not a writer at all, it’s just a hobby. But I’ll think about it, thank you!
This series has been both validating and triggering for me. But mostly validating because I’ve seen everything you’ve mentioned but not had the right words to fully break it down and fully explain what was happening. I knew it was racism and was able to explain some of it – but wow you’ve done an AMAZING job. I wish this could get passed to the EPs so they would NEVER forget how racism actually works and WHY these fans are so entitled and so sure they should have what they want and WHY it’s all based on racism. Amazing writing. I can’t stop reading.
I really should have put trigger warnings on it, haha. I’m glad I was able to articulate some thoughts for you, even though we disagree on some stuff. I think, for me, the key was making sure I knew were a specific attitude came from, because I was getting sick of people saying that “oh all the Iris fans think you’re racist when you say you hate her” as if people are that stupid.
If an EP actually admitted to reading this I would love it. I saw some people putting it in the writer’s mentions, which would definitely make a change from that pathetic hashtag. I hope you enjoy the final parts?