giraffe

(adult) a real giraffe || abed nadir's #2 fan || free palestine 🇵🇸 || pfp by @yappleart

[idrewagiraffe]

hiiiii!!!! im giraffe / cosmo (whatever you originally know me as)

!! i am an adult

my sideblogs:

@frenchfriedgiraffe -> this is where i post my fanart and any art.

@giraffereblogs -> this is where i reblog other peoples art that i think is cool but doesn't fit on my fandom sideblog for whatever reason. usually cause it isn't fandom related art.

[3scythes]

On House M.D., Bias, and Fandom

Or, "You are Not Immune to Personal Bias"

After rewatching Unfaithful and starting discussion on the casual biphobia in that episode, it got me thinking about character biases and, beyond that, how similar biases affect fandom’s view of characters. So let’s talk about it.

No one can be completely unbiased, and in a well-written character this also means that characters will have their own personal biases. However, there are times where the creators’ biases bleed into the characters they are writing, and sometimes it becomes difficult to tell the difference between what’s intended as a character choice or what’s simply unintended author bias. A very simple and obvious example of this is something Helen/all-pacas has discussed at length before, being that the show’s writers/creators being Jewish heavily influenced the references to Judaism in the show, and in House’s character (despite House himself not being Jewish). However, there are more subtle examples of this that I will get into later, tying back into the original biphobia conversation that sparked this.

To begin, let’s talk about something that gets brought up often in discourse around Chase: fatphobia. In Heavy, Chase makes several fatphobic comments. Most of his bias here is clear; he’s an athletically-built, attractive man. He doesn’t experience issues with his own weight, and he’s influenced by both popular culture and the medical system to believe that to be “fat” is to be unhealthy and lazy. But there’s something else here I want to talk about that goes a bit deeper: a non-American’s biased view of Americans.

In the episode, Chase says this:

CHASE: What I haven’t seen lately is a kid eating an apple or riding a bike. You Americans can’t even compete with the rest of the world in basketball anymore, unless, of course, it’s the type you play with a remote control on a big screen TV.

There’s a commonly held idea by many people worldwide that “everything is bigger in America”, with larger portion sizes at restaurants and larger clothing sizes pointing to a country majorly affected by an obesity epidemic. Chase, as an Australian, is more likely to hold these beliefs. These are his biases.

Now to move on to the related fandom biases. There is a large portion of the House fandom that hates Chase, and a lot of that hate is rooted in his behavior in this episode. Obviously he was wrong to say the things he did, but other characters have said much worse, so why condemn Chase and not the others? The answer is fandom’s personal biases, of course! The House fandom’s demographics are more likely to be affected by fatphobia than other issues (such as racism, especially on a website that’s largely white, but that’s a topic for another day), therefore their biases affect the weight of these characters’ actions. House fans can hate Chase for being fatphobic, meanwhile disregarding every racist or other discriminatory comment from House, because they are affected more by the fatphobia than anything else.

Coming back to the biphobia issue, in Unfaithful there are a few comments that point directly to common stereotypes about bisexuality.

Example 1:

KUTNER: Or the hardship'll bring 'em closer together. She'll invite friends over for Foreman to share.

This relates to the stereotype that bisexuals are somehow more “sexual”/have more interest in sex than monosexuals, which is of course entirely untrue. Taub does counter this idea: “she’s not a nympho. She’s bisexual…”.

Example 2:

TAUB: It's just a matter of time before one of you finds the other in bed with another woman.

This perpetuates the stereotype that bisexuals are more likely to cheat (or, to cheat with someone of the opposite sex than their monogamous partner). Which, from Taub, kind of makes sense—he’s a chronic cheater, after all—but the phrasing of “with another woman” is a blatant dig at Thirteen’s bisexuality.

We can agree that this kind of rhetoric is bad, right? That these stereotypes are harmful? Great. Now, let’s talk about fandom’s perpetuation of biphobia.

The biphobic rhetoric I’m going to discuss differs from the kind of biphobia the show itself displays; while the show is a product of an era where bisexuality in characters was used often to sexualize women and/or sapphic relationships, the fandom of the modern era takes it in a completely different direction, instead participating in bi erasure in favor of seeing only same-sex relationships represented in fandom content.

The phrase I hear so often is “she should be with a woman”, and not only applied to Thirteen, a canon bisexual. But let’s talk about her first, since she is the only canon queer character in the main cast. Statements like the one I just mentioned come from a place of bias, of course: the queer members of fandom would prefer to see a “queer” relationship to a “straight” one (which, let’s be honest, is harmful language to begin with, because a m/f relationship does not imply by nature that either party has to be heterosexual, and calling it a “straight” relationship erases the identities of queer individuals within that relationship). Queer people want to see themselves represented in the media they consume, and there’s nothing wrong with that! As a queer person myself, of course I’m going to be biased in what I want to see! However, it’s the language used that creates the issue: “she should be with a woman” has much different implications than “I would like to see her with a woman”. “She should be with a woman” implies that the bisexual character should “pick a side”, and that same-sex relationships are superior.

This rhetoric extends, as I mentioned, beyond the canon bisexual character: this statement is often put onto both Cameron and Cuddy as well, women who are canonically interested in men. Instead of headcanon-ing either character as bisexual, fandom would rather disregard their relationships with men entirely and claim they should be lesbians. This rhetoric is influenced by so many various biases I couldn’t even begin to list them all, but the main two I’ve seen are: 1. sapphics who are biased against men, and 2. People who see lesbianism as a way to completely remove a female character from being in competition with a m/m ship.

Regardless, fandom’s personal biases inform their opinions on characters and ships, but the amount of overlapping biases between members of the fandom can lead to us forgetting that we are biased in the first place and instead believing popularly held opinions to be universal truth. It’s important for us to each take time to reflect on our biases and experiences, and acknowledge that each individual has their own biases that inform their opinions.

[not-lupus]

[snototter]

Reticulated giraffes (Giraffa reticulata) in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya

by Helene Hoffman

[capsulated-diagnosis]

S7. EPS 20: Changes

This episode has a gloomy tint and we all know that means misery, im waiting for hell again...

[idrewagiraffe]

i dont know how to explain it but chase in this episode looks like hes been pulled from some gritty crime drama

[sillyysquid]

Chark is life

[all-pacas]

a non-exhaustive but unordered list of things i really really like about robert "robert" chase

he is so good with kids :( he clearly loves kids, he even weirds taub out with how tirelessly he plays with the sophias, he's so protective of kids with bad parents, it's soo

when he gets frustrated and just say the MOST out of pocket things. "works for spaghetti!" "do you think tv is the work of the devil or?" and every time people turn to him and he's just. ahem. oops

the fact that he is a huge troll. him coming up with a million reasons why a patient might not be on drugs to an increasingly annoyed foreman, only to reveal he has a drug test result. him delighting in teasing cameron all thru spin. this is why even tho his sister is a retcon i'm like. yeah checks out. man has insane annoying big brother energy.

super fake idafer. makes a big stink about hating nuns, then falls over himself to comfort the patient when she's sad. hates his dad, but follows his career obsessively. tends to fall in love after one date. can't stay mad at ANYONE.

b o w l i n g c h a m p

the way he just. avoids drama. so unsubtly. like he'll leave the room. he'll ask if he's going to be fired and then walk away. he is a fake dgafer but he also truly does NOT care about the things he does not care about he is gone

he's a hugger?? he hugs people?? hugs his dad. cameron. house. 13. i think he hugs more people than anyone else on the show (don't correct me). the fact that he is so emotionally Weird about some things but so ready and willing to Engage and reach out and hug and fall in love. ughhh my boy

the way he's just. such a Guy. he is the most Guy. he likes Beer and Cars and Girls. he plays like 5 different sports. he was on the football team (not soccer/football: AFL). he probably only listens to 80s rock.

[all-pacas]

okay it kind of bugs me how none of the characters have middle names because they SHOULD, most people have middle names, so here, have some complete bullshit headcanon middle names

Gregory John House - a traditionalist like his father would probably be into using his own name as his kid's, even just as a middle name.

James Evan Wilson - the one guy whose middle name we know! yippee!

Lisa Sarah Cuddy - it's hard because a lot of very jewish names also end in /ɑ/ and sound kind of repetitive, but also given her month i know she has a super jewish middle name (i wanted to go with miriam but it just sounds clunky with her two syllable first and last names). sarah is me splitting the difference.

Eric Marshall Foreman - my vision here is he was named after a grandfather. marvin would also work. or miles.

Robert Josef Chase - i was really torn between him having either an Ultra Czech name or a much more anglicized one, since rowan doesn't exactly seem to be trying to keep up with his roots. splitting the difference: chase can spell it joseph if he feels like it.

Allison Jane Cameron - no deep reason here, jane just sounds good between her almost-rhyming first and last names.

Christopher Michael Taub - i once saw a comment on reddit saying taub can't be jewish if he's named christopher, so here's another name for him.

Lawrence Choudhary Kutner - apparently (correct me if i'm wrong), in india it is less common to use middle names. kutner was born in america, but his parents both have Very indian names and i'm willing to bet he's first generation: i can see them having given him an american middle name to go with his first, or just skipping it. in any case, it makes sense he kept his birth name even when adopted by the kutners.

Remy Abigail Hadley - troll answer but the idea of her being remy abby hadley makes me laugh so hard. what if she just has the Worst Name. remy tammy hadley. remy kayley hadley. no wonder she goes by thirteen.

Martha Meredith Masters - the other canon middle name haver!!

Chi Park - unlikely that she has a middle name, so she can keep hers as-is. i guess we could play a fun game of "how does she spell chi," as her mother's side of the family appears to be chinese filipino, but idk.

Jessica Caroline Adams - she's a WASP she needs a WASP name anyway. moving on

[3scythes]

yet another weird pov shot brought to you by house md season 1

[all-pacas]

also i do like masters but the more i think of her uh. slut shaming and accusing chase of misogyny i'm just. s7 is a weird season

[all-pacas]

like, masters in the show keeps going on about how chase hates and doesn't respect women because he sleeps around and is a stupid whore and the show is implicitly on her side; chase agrees with her; he should form connections with women! he should stop being a dumb slut! and the whole time i'm sitting here like. the man was married not even a year ago. he has spent half the show until now in a relationship. he's never cheated or been noncommittal or took his relationship lightly. "chase needs to LEARN TO RESPECT WOMEN AND VALUE CONNECTION" literally he already didddd

[idrewagiraffe]

masters is definitely a victim of season 7 writing and characterisation. she acts as a sort of voice for how we're supposed to see chase now; she calls him a whore, so obviously he is one, hes been one this whole time right? if masters had been in any other season i bet anything she never would have said any of those things

[3scythes]

my one shitty pic of camchase with baby Rachel so you all can suffer with me

[idrewagiraffe]

they go home that night and talk about having kids

[3scythes]

Is Foreman aware that he doesn’t have to do all that. He doesn’t have to look like a model first thing in the morning and pose like that. He really doesn’t.

[idrewagiraffe]

sorry WHAT is this exchange what are they trying to do here

[idrewagiraffe]

john got shot and nearly died - so now what?

im confused by the decisions behind that particular writing point. john bled out and thought he was going to die in some dingy passageway, was in a coma for over a week, and then...? what came of it? has he changed from it? has he learnt anything? aside from the odd reference they certainly breezed past the injury once he woke up.

its still early days, so maybe they'll choose to do something with that and take johns development somewhere. its clear the s&co writers are trying to make each episode more connected now, so giving john a mini arc around this would make sense.

so far we havent really seen that. will that dramatic experience give john any character development, or will they be intent on changing nothing and letting him be the silly, comic relief guy? i guess we'll have to see, but i am a bit worried

[idrewagiraffe]

so important that foreman is the one who confronts house at the end of help me and not wilson

[idrewagiraffe]

the way hes just sleeping through this argument makes me laugh. most amount of rest hes ever gotten while in houses presence

[idrewagiraffe]

arghhhhhh