Kerry
Washington Throws Black Actresses under The Bus
Actress Kerry Washington, star of ABC’s hit show Scandal says
there’s a need for more LGBT roles in Hollywood.
Let me get this straight: We have a Black actress telling
media we need more Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender roles. When there are
next to no quality roles for Black women in film and television these days.
The Bed Wench is strong in this one.
Hollywood needs more Gay Lesbian, Transgender and Bisexual
roles like it needs more roles for White heterosexual males.
The truth is there have been LGBT roles in Hollywood since
its inception. The movie Gilda
Starring Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth back in the 1940s had heavy homosexual
overtones. And movies like Some Like it Hot featured cross-dressing and
homosexual undertones as well.
Back in the
1970s Mark Hamill played a gay soldier on M*A*S*H. Stretch Cunningham on All in
the Family was gay. The movie Looking for Mr. Goodbar featured a gay/bisexual
man in the final act. And I Shot Andy
Warhol is a film about Valerie Solanas, the Lesbian feminist who stalked
and harassed artist Andy Warhol.
And let’s not forget recent feature films like the
Oscar-nominated Brokeback Mountain.
And all those gay male best friends in those romantic comedies featuring White
Women and thrillers like Single White Female.
And there have been TV movies featuring like The Price of
Love which centered around a gay male prostitute serving up fresh ass in
Hollywood.
On television characters like Willow on Buffy The Vampire
Slayer and Bill Brochtrup’s PAA character on NYPD Blue were cast regulars who regularly
explored Gay and Lesbian relationships and storylines. On Roseanne, there was a
gay relationship between Roseanne’s boss and another man. Steve Carey From the
Drew Carey Show was a cross-dresser. Ellen Came out of the closet in 1997 of
her show. And Miranda From Sex and the City was a lesbian in the later seasons
of the show.
There have even been TV series featuring gay characters in
lead roles. Tony Randall’s short-lived Love
Syndney on NBC was a TV series revolving around a gay man. Not to mention
the cable series Queer as Folk.
There have been LGBT actors since the inception of Hollywood
who worked regularly. Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Raymond Burr, Caesar
Romero, Jim Nabors, Liberace, Rock Hudson, Sheila James, Robert, Reed, George
Takei and Tony Randall all worked regularly in top-rated television shows even
during the McCarthy era of the 1950s and into the 1960s. While actors like Paul
Winfield and Dick Sergeant, worked regularly in the 1970s and 1980s. Some even
worked into the 1990s.
Even today openly Gay actors like Wentworth Miller work on
hit TV shows like The Flash and no one blinks.
Kerry Washington in her statement shows how ignorant she is
regarding LGBT issues in Hollywood. There have been plenty of roles featuring
LGBT characters in Hollywood. And there have been plenty of opportunities for
LGBT actors in Hollywood. Many of the executives who work behind the scenes are
themselves LGBT and make every effort to look out for their friends and
families.
The truth is there haven’t been many quality roles for Black
women over the last 40 years. And Kerry Washington should be using her platform
to discuss the shortage of quality roles for Sistas. But if she were to speak
out about the lack of quality roles for Black actreses she’d be shown as the hypocrite
she is. Here she is playing a Bed Wench on Scandal, a show produced by Shondra
Rhimes, a Black woman who has made millions degrading the image of the Black
woman on that show and the Viola Davis vehicle, How to Get Away With Murder.
And I doubt Gays Lesbians, Transgenders and Bisexuals need a heterosexual
Black woman speaking for them. Gays like George Takei and Lesbians like Sheila
James have been representing their own issues in Congress for decades. LGBT
have been a strong economic and political force in America for the last two
decades. Thanks to the resources they’ve used to lobby Congress with, they’ve
been able to get legislation passed such as gay marriage and get their platform
heard by the President of the United States. A President who enthusiastically
advocated Gay marriage in the 2012 election.
Black actresses on the other hand have remained at the
BOTTOM. Even with the success of Scandal and Empire, the Black actress remains
the least paid and the least bankable at the box-office. So for Kerry
Washington to NOT speak for the sistas says how much she hates herself.
With Black actresses like Kerry Washington putting their feet
in their mouths it makes it that much more harder for quality projects for
Black actresses to get greenlit. When the star of a top-rated television show
tells the world that LGBT roles are more important than Black roles it shows
how FUBAR things are in Black Hollywood.
Could she have meant LGBT of color? I mean how many have we seen that are people of color? Aside form Alex on Glee, Noah's Arc and a few others.
ReplyDeleteAnd when we have seen those of color-we see negative reactions. Look at James Tyler Williams in Dear White People. Folks went nuts as his character was gay and kissed two guys.
If she is happy playing bed whores and maids-let them. It;s not worth getting upset about anymore. You are not the one that has to look young black girls in the face after you win awards for it.
Miss Washington made that statement because right about now (2015),that shit sounds good and makes the speaker appear 'tolerant' and 'progressive'....
ReplyDelete