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8 Reasons Why The 100 Kicks Ass

thequeenandherknight

The 100 is an amazing show, especially in relation to it’s representation. Here are 8 things that The 100 is doing right.

1.   Passes the Bechdel Test

  • does the story have a) more than one woman, b) who talk to each other, c) about something other than a man
  • The relationships between women is one of the highlights of this show. With the exception of Raven and Clarke on occasion, there are practically no interactions between women regarding men. Ex. Clarke & Octavia, Clarke & Lexa, Octavia & Indra, Clarke & Anya (etc.)
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2.    Passes The Pantomime Test

  • The female character can be swapped with a male character, with little to no edits, and the narrative still makes sense
  • If you use Clarke as an example, yes. Clarke is not overtly masculine, but nor does she use her femininity/sexuality to advance herself. She is not limited or treated differently because she is a woman. She is made a leader of the 100 because she is smart and brave and caring, not because of her femininity, and could therefore be replaced by a man.
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3.    Passes The Oracle Test

  • The show has a disabled character who a) is not there ‘to be fixed’; b) whose narrative does not revolve around the disability; c) does their job while having a disability, not in spite of having a disability.
  • Raven Reyes became disabled in S2 and has continued to me an amazingly strong character and awesome mechanic throughout the season.
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4.    Passes the Mako Mori Test

  • the show has: a) at least one female character; b) who gets her own narrative arc; c) that is not about supporting a man’s story.
  • This show has females with their own arc practically every episode because they all have their own skills and strengths that make them play an important role in their society.
  • Ex: Abby Griffin, Octavia Blake, Lexa, Clarke Griffin, Anya, Raven Reyes (etc.)
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5.    Passes the Vito Russo Test

  • The show has a character that is identifiably lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender a) who must not be solely or predominantly defined by their sexual orientation or gender identity b) and must be tied into the plot in such a way that their removal would have a significant effect.
  • Commander Lexa is LGBTQ (likely queer), however this is not her predominant identifying factor, she is a strong warrior and leader of a large clan. Lexa also plays a large role in the show, forming an alliance between the grounders and the sky people.
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6.    Passes Deggans Rule

  • The show has at least two non-white human characters in the main cast a) in a show that’s not about race.
  • This rule is passed by a landslide with characters like: Bellamy Blake, Wells Jaha, Marcus Kane, Thelonious Jaha, Lincoln, Indra, Anya, Monty Green, Miller (+more)
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7.    Passes the Phyrne Fisher Test

  • The show has a female character who a) has a traditionally masculine job; b) does not masculinize herself for the sake of the job; c) and is not sexualized in the narrative.
  • Raven Reyes is a mechanic, Byrne is the Chief of the Guard and Lexa is the leader of a large group of warriors.
  • Mechanics, and leaders of a military force are both traditionally positions held only by men. These women are respected for their work and there is no scandalization in regard to a woman holding these positions.
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8.    Passes the Delany (Tauriel) Test

  • The show has a woman, a) who has a job/task important to the plot of the story b) and is successful at it.
  • Raven Reyes, Abby Griffin (+more)
  • Raven is the youngest zero-gravity mechanic on the Ark in 52 years and helps her people countless times throughout the course of the series. Abby is the head of medical on the Ark, and saves people’s lives (Thelonious, Raven, Lincoln) regularly.
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spockvarietyhour wildunicornherd
wildunicornherd: “ Description: Cover of Zoo City by Lauren Beukes. Against the background of a red-purple cityscape are the golden-toned faces of Zinzi, a young black South African woman with a sloth peeking its head over her shoulder, and two guys... http://community.livejournal.com/fantasywithbite/240146.html
wildunicornherd

Description: Cover of Zoo City by Lauren Beukes. Against the background of a red-purple cityscape are the golden-toned faces of Zinzi, a young black South African woman with a sloth peeking its head over her shoulder, and two guys (supporting characters? haven’t read the book) whose faces are melded with a beaky crow and a fluffy white dog respectively.

At fantasywithbite, inverarity (who also did the aforelinked Parable of the Sower review) has a review of Lauren Beukes’ Zoo City:

Zoo City is urban fantasy that actually earns that label: it’s fantasy in the gritty, urban environment of Johannesburg, South Africa. It’s set in our world — almost. Some time in the 1990s, the Zoo Plague, or “Acquired Aposymbiotic Familiarism,” manifested worldwide. The result of some unexplained mystic phenomenon, criminals now acquire tangible evidence of their sins at the moment of their crime: animal companions who are permanently bonded to them. Along with their animals, every “Zoo” also gains a unique magical talent, so it’s not all bad. In fact, you might think getting a semi-intelligent animal companion and a magic power would be kind of cool — except that since everyone knows that an animal companion means you’ve committed some sort of serious crime, and you have a possibly shady magical talent, “Zoos” are persecuted worldwide. In some countries, it’s social prejudice (predictably, in the U.S. it acquires a certain amount of gangsta cachet), in others, they’re forced into ghettos, and some countries, like China, simply summarily execute anyone who becomes animalled.

[…] The premise by itself would make Zoo City interesting enough to check out — somewhat reminiscent of Wild Cards or some other setting where you’ve got a subclass of randomly “empowered” individuals each with a unique ability — but this book is set in South Africa, the modern, upscale South Africa of glam clubs and pop superstars and wifi cafes, but also the grim South Africa still haunted by colonialism and Apartheid, afflicted with refugee camps, AIDS, and endemic poverty.

The main character, our first-person narrator, is Zinzi December, a black South African girl who had a privileged upbringing with affluent parents and a career as a freelance journalist, but somewhere along the way she got a nasty drug habit, went in and out of rehab until her parents cut her loose, and then one fatal night, she got her brother killed, acquired a Sloth, and went to prison. Now she’s out on parole, living in a Johannesburg ghetto known as “Zoo City,” and trying to get out from under her drug debts. Her mashavi (magical talent) is finding lost things. She tries to earn a living by tracking down missing items for a fee (“No missing persons,” she insists, so of course we know the plot will revolve around her trying to track down a missing person), but she supplements her income by running 419 scams for the criminal syndicate she owes money to.

Zoo CityLauren Beukes@percy