She didn't perform at The Cotton Club.
"Baby Esther" AKA "Lil' Esther" did tour the world though and performed at various clubs, starting in Chicago and was arguably the highest paid child performer of her day.
Helen Kane sued Fleischer Studios for infringement of her act with the Betty Boop character. She lost that lawsuit because it had been proven that she had stolen her act and signature baby-voiced scatting from this child performer, Baby Esther.
Baby Esther however was originally imitating Florence Mills, the most famous Broadway performer of her day, and the likely originator of both the scatting and the dancing eyes, cutesy act:
Note the head shape and large eyes...
Baby Esther was called the Mini Florence Mills. So, I think the blueprint for Betty is actually Florence Mills.
Here are clippings about Esther's act and the lawsuit:
Adding a little bit more here...
A lot of history is easily obscured in the modern era, simply because we didn't have recording equipment for the people who were a part of it.
However, you can still get a feel for how famous these people were by newspaper scans like this:
THAT is a photo of Florence Mills' funeral in New York. We don't have recordings of her performances, but...You can see that her passing SHUTDOWN New York streets.
And those mourners are all colors, packed in for her.
She was a GIANT STAR.
A lot of old cartoon stars, that started out anthropomorphized, were based on minstrel performances.
Which is the reason why their eyes were often drawn big, and their forms human-animal hybrids.
Betty started out as a human-like dog. That for me is further evidence that she was based on a Black Woman as is the styling of her companion admirer....with his lower lip and bowler hat placement.
The way her earliest form is drawn as well as the gestures...
...Again, note that her teeth and the way her figure is drawn and positioned are clues.
In fact, one of the Fleischer's most famous ground-breaking cartoons Minnie The Moocher was animated with that same style common to that day, was done with a early form of rotoscoping from Cab Calloway, a technique that was subsequently perfected and still used:
So...
AGAIN...
Because I see this subject brought up a lot, when it comes to Betty Boop, and there is always either misinformation or not enough context to understand, the hows and whys given the trends in cartoons in the times.
The big trend was... minstrelsy.
Betty Boop was based on a Black woman and child.
There is another post in the responses that obscures that a bit, but I posted the receipts above here for who those *specific* performers who inspired her creation, were.
I have one more interesting piece of evidence...
Note Florence Mills' articulated hand:
Now scroll back up and take a gander at that original "poodle" version of Betty, and look at her hand...which one is articulated, and specifically how.
NGL Helen Kane actually plays her character called Betty Boop, for Paramount Pictures, in the 1920's long before Fleischer made that same Betty Boop an iconic cartoon character known for her "Boop-Oop-a-Doop"
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
Not saying whiteface parody wasn't a thing back then, because it absolutely was — and there was some mad ass talent in the 1920's
...but, Paramount Pictures owned Helen Kane and her Betty Boop — Paramount commissioned and distributed the Betty Boop cartoons that were animated by Grim Natwick. (Max Fleischer didn't do anything other than run the Fleischer Studios where Natwick did his animating, but Jews will keep taking credit for shit...)
...still the Lil' Esther/Betty Boop gets a 6/10 conspiracy theory; could be up there with "Marilyn Monroe killed JFK out of jealousy" if you ignore established timelines a little...
I've provided several but these two can't read:
From the first newsclipping, that literally says Helen lost her lawsuit because it was proven in court in 1928, that she stole her act from a child, -an act which predated hers, ...to the earliest minstrel cartoon of Betty with her left hand drawn and articulated identically to Florence Mills'.
Betty Boop was not originally based on Helen Kane.
She was based on Florence Mills.
I'll provide some more:
P.S.
Max Fleischer's grandson is co-producing the upcoming Betty Boop film, starring Quinta Brunson.
P.P.S. "Whiteface parody" isn't the proper term and was not a thing.
It's blackface minstrelsy, as cited in the book.
[Image ID: a twitter post from "the council of evil lesbians" (@\obiwormkenobi) that reads "not sure how much of twitter would be able to handle how queer people described themselves in the 90s" with 3 images of text attached to it that read as the following:
9. A God + Godess, part of everything, owned by nothing.
10. I think ... I am a female fag, who is a drag Queen, who is a mother, has a soon to be transman lover and may very well be a tranny hisself. I hate labels it's all so complicated, but I think it fits the bill today. Change is good right?"
Image 2 - "25. FTM transgendered bulldagger, gentleman stone butch dyke with fag tendencies. Or as my girlfriend says, a drag queen trapped in a man trapped in a woman's body.
26. I'm a bi-gendered boychick with balls and boobs. Call me Ken, or call me Barbie-same doll, different packaging; some assembly required; sex, clothing and accessories sold seperately; available in fine boy-tiques everywhere."
Image 3 - "39. I'm The Dyke Of Androgyny ... I get called sir more than maam, despite the sizable mammary glands protruding from my chest. The hair on my head is the shortest found on my body, a gentle societal mindfuck, if you will.
moodboard • hadestown au (ensemble) • barantos version
starring Michael Robinavitch as Hades; Heather Collins as Persephone; Dana Evans as Hermes; Baran Al-Hashimi as Orpheus; Trinity Santos as Eurydice; and Samira Mohan, Princess Dela Cruz, Perlah Alawi as The Fates.
The soul of roller skating has been rolling through Black communities for 100+ years—from “Soul Night” during segregation to JB style in Chicago, trains in NY/NJ, LA slides, and Atlanta’s Cascade. Rinks were stages for hip-hop before the big venues, safe havens in tense cities, and hubs for youth, family, and culture. Ledger Smith skated 685 miles to the March on Washington. Today, Black-owned rinks like Cascade (ATL), RollerCade (Detroit), and Rollin’ CLT (Charlotte) still carry the legacy. This isn’t a comeback. It never left.
given that sepideh mentioned that baran may be on the spectrum, i got to thinking about baran and neurodiversity in general and i really am dying to talk about acquired neurodiversity; which is a type of neurodivergence that you can get later in life.
based on the behaviors that she shows canonically, her history of (severe)seizures, medication, and ablation, the chance that she has some form of acquired neurodiversity or cognitive effects is very high. especially considering about half of epilepsy patients experience psychiatric and cognitive impairment. so i wanted to talk about some headcanons or thoughts i have based on what i know about these health issues.
she mentions having laser ablation left temporal lobe. this can cause memory problems, vision impairment or speech impairment. considering it allowed her to drive and she's able to communicate clearly in canon, i doubt she has a lot of issues with speech or vision. but i could make a case for her having memory problems. she pushes to write everything down, for charting perfectly and likes (for people) to double check things. in addition, when epilepsy happens early in childhood like with baran, risk for cognitive impairment and memory issues is even higher. given the fact that she pushed for the AI, which remembers and writes down patient details, i don't doubt she might be using it for accessibility because she has a hard time remembering patient details.
she's able to pick up on behaviors very easily, and is great at comforting people. but we also see her struggle immensely with how others perceive her and that she does put on a type of professional mask; which also aligns with what a lot of neurodivergent and disabled people do. she says people often read her as thoughtful; i could argue that with cognitive issues, she's learned to put on this professional mask and has learned the right steps to bypass these problems so that no one notices. which is also what makes it so devastating when she gets such an unexpectedly harsh reaction from robby when she does grant him the trust to know about her seizures and everything that comes with it.
while she is incredibly professional, people still doubt her. santos calls her robo-doc, robby openly distrusts her, and she is shown to occasionally have a hard time reading the room, can be a little too direct in situations where this might not be needed, and respond a little awkwardly to social cues. now, this could be because she's on the spectrum, but could very well also be cognitive effects because of the seizures and treatments she's had.
on top of that: anti seizure medications also can have effect on cognition, which can show up as neurodivergent traits even if they aren't an inherent or permanent neurodivergence because it only exists when one is taking those medications.
what i also found in one of my articles is that autism and epilepsy have a huge overlap; while she might have cognitive effects based on her seizures, treatments, and medication. the overlap between autism and epilepsy is around 10-30% based on different sources i read. which also makes it interesting to think about her having to deal with both of those things. autism and epilepsy can have overlapping presentations and are ultimately things that make your brain different; to me, baran is 10000% neurodivergent whichever way you like to look at it.
i don't really have a specific point to this, besides the fact that i find it very interesting to think and talk about, and that i hope people can also look at this side of her, or these potential explanations for her behavior, considering there has been a lot of insanely racist and ableist posts about her. she's such a complex character; we get a lot of information about her past both with msf and her seizures, and people often flatten her to something that doesn't encapsulate who she is in all her complexities and intricacies. anyway, hope you enjoyed and feel free to use this for fic writing or headcanon purposes. i'm also free to talk about this at any time bc i love medicine and baran <3
Trinity Santos who will always angle herself between others to take a hit, shoulder the blame and the disdain and the snide remarks even when they're not hers to take, especially when they're not hers to take
Not a punching bag but a boxer, who jabs back when needed (and sometimes when it isn't) but always, always puts herself in the way of the punch meant for someone else
Without asking, quietly, without thought of recompense
Because what's one more bruise when you're already covered in purple?
-
And Baran Al-Hashimi who admires the bravery and the selflessness but hates the reason. Hates the recklessness. Hates the colour.
Spends weeks and months, slowly, puts in the work, shows caring through action and another set of shoulders to carry the weight
Soothes the ache until the purples lighten, turn yellow with age, before fading entirely
Until for the first time in a decade Trinity learns she can step out of the ring
Severance is a cool show. Because, like. What if you knew nothing. No context. No idea who you are. No history. And, of course, you are scared, but you can’t leave unless you get permission from someone— the person who put you here— someone who will never listen. Someone who makes all the decisions, who says “I’m a grown-up person and you’re not.” And you’re naive and lonely, but at least there’s other people in the same boat as you. Someone, just been there slightly longer, is trying to shield you, trying to protect you, taking responsibility and taking on punishment they “can handle and grow from.”
Like. Oh yeah. I recognize this one. Someone else dresses you. Someone else feeds you. Someone else, who's just like you, but they get everything. The little toys and the waffle party. Helly is desperate and suicidal, but she still has to go to school work. You have to do work that doesn't make sense, but you'll understand eventually. The meaningless, manufactured rivalry between departments. The rumors??? “they have larvae that eat them?” “I’m livestock grown for food” “I’m a bodybuilder who has loads of girlfriends, but you don’t know them they go to a different school?” Punishment in the form of apologizing over and over, having to use all the right words, until you are believed. Endless hallways. Scary authority figures. "Are you mad at me?" Religion being the only type of media you see, until you read some shitty book that changes your life. Confusing, sudden camping trips that are supposed to fix you. Condescension. The words "innie" and "outie" are brought up multiple times as infantilizing. Of course his innie's voice is higher pitched????
I got an ask about unconscious bias and Robby's sexism that I won't post because it's way long, but I hear you, Anon, and I did have some thoughts. re: Taylor Dearden's point* about unintentional sexism and my point about the show unintentionally revealing the male EPs' unconscious bias, the question is, how is that possible when the writers' room is full of women? To which I would say: TV shows are not a democracy. They're not a commune. They are a dictatorship. Hopefully, a benevolent dictatorship, but the reality is that every woman in that room could object and it doesn't matter because Scott Gemmill can do whatever he wants. Even if the writers disagree, none of them will say so publicly because that is simply not done. It's the showrunner's show, period. (If anyone wants to learn more about how writers' rooms work, check out the Children of Tendu podcast. They talk a lot about the hierarchy.) But I'd also point out, well, women hold sexist views, too. We live under patriarchy, man. Sexism is so baked in that many people simply don't recognize it. It's 'obviously women are more nurturing' or 'of course men are better engineers.' A lot of people hold sexist beliefs and have simply never thought twice about them, women included. That's why it's called unconscious bias.
When I talk about the EPs' unconscious bias, I'm not talking about characters being sexist on screen. I'm mostly talking about bias in the storytelling framework of the show. I've said it before, but I find it telling that almost all of the women have stories related to their gender or their families and none of the men do. It's the choice of the stories themselves that reveals the problem. The male EPs in charge can choose to tell any story they want. The fact that they picked the ones they did, and that it fits a pattern, reveals a way of thinking about women and their stories. To be clear, I don't think the show or Robby are misogynistic; they don't fundamentally hate women. I think we're seeing good old-fashioned Gen X benevolent sexism. I'm gonna go into detail on the storytelling, which is long, so now I shall cut.
I want to start with a couple definitions for clarity's sake here. When I talk about plot, I mean the incidents that happen in the show. Story is how a character changes. So "Mr. Green's unknown AAA bursts and he dies" is plot. "After missing Mr. Green's AAA, Ogilvie doubts he's cut out for the ED" is story. One of the odd things about S2 is it failed to give all of its regulars season-long story arcs, which is considered poor TV writing. I think it might be a symptom of S2's shaky writing, but we'll have to see how S3 goes to make a full judgment on it.
If you look at S2, the men's stories are thus: after struggling with suicidal ideation, Robby realizes he still has things to see and people to love. After falling from grace, Langdon realizes he still has what it takes to be an ED doc. Whitaker doesn't really have a story, but if I were BSing it, I'd say it's that he comes into his own and realizes the ED is the place for him. (If you squint it's maybe that he learns to set a boundary with Langdon? But again, it's kinda BS. He doesn't have an emotional change over the season.) Abbot's not a regular, but hey, let's include him: when he realizes how much Robby is struggling, Abbot reveals his own vulnerability to save his friend's life.
What about the women's stories? After her mom's engagement, Mohan abandons her previous life plan and struggles to find a place she belongs, realizing it might not be the ED. Under relentless pressure from her parents, Javadi realizes emergency psychiatry is her passion. Mel learns that her sister is building a life that doesn't always involve her and realizes she must do the same. (Note that Mel's plot is overwhelmingly about the deposition that meant nothing, but her actual story is with her sister.) The catalysts or impediments to their stories are all family members. Quite different from the guys.
Santos is the real exception. Her story is that she confronts the superior who made her question herself and finds a new equilibrium. I would've liked the story where she struggles with self-harm only to find refuge in building a new friendship, but we can't actually say that from what we saw on screen. (All they had to do was show her putting the scalpel back! Sigh.)
I'd argue that our other returning regulars don't really have stories. Broadly, I'd say that McKay's plots deal with her acknowledging how the ED is negatively affecting her life (needs to get laid, can't cry), but she doesn't have an emotional change over the season, so it's not actually a story. Through the course of the season, she's sexually harassed in a way the show treats as cute and then is there to empathize with a dying mother and her children. Most of her material relates to female-coded things - sexual object, mothering, crying, etc. What's frustrating is it would've been so easy to give her an arc. Just show us one shot of her crying at the fireworks at the end. It would still be about a woman being all emotional, which is of course sexist in its own right, but it would've been something.
And then there's Dana. I said a while back that it felt like a final Dana scene in the finale was cut - because her story doesn't have an end, it just kind of stops; her last scene is giving the cops the rape kit, but it's not about an emotional change for her - so I was glad to have Noah confirm that at the terrible FYC panel. Whatever that scene was, I think it was a mistake to cut it because its absence left Dana without a story end. Broadly, her plotline was about taking a trainee under her wing and protecting her, which she does, but it doesn't change her emotionally. She struggled with her own mental health through the season, but that doesn't really have an end, either. I wish they had landed the mentorship story - Dana finds new purpose in being a nurse by seeing it through the eyes of a trainee - but even if they had, it's not treated as a professional mentorship story. It's the story of a mother nurturing and protecting a child. Abbot makes that explicit when he says, "You are the mama bear glue that holds this place together."
Mothers. Daughters. Sisters. Even objects of desire. That's how the show views women, broadly-speaking. Sure, men have relationships (flings, wives, Amys), but they're incidental, whereas the women's relationships are the lens through which the show sees them and the catalysts for their stories. That's what I mean when I say the male EPs' unconscious bias seeps in. I think the three old, privileged men in charge see women as relational, not as ends in themselves like men are.
Again, I wouldn't call this misogyny. It's not hatred of women. Hell, Noah made this explicit when talking about how Robby believes the women are better, so he's harder on them because he expects more. That is benevolent sexism right there.
Just to be clear, I don't think any of these stories are "wrong" or even that they shouldn't do any of them individually. I think most were written poorly, or didn't quite work, but I rather liked Javadi's. The problem is the totality. When all of your stories approach women a certain way, that shows a very limited view of what women are and can be. And it can unintentionally tap into harmful stereotypes of women, as I think it did in S2.
The big example of that is Mohan's story, which I think was bad on pretty much every axis and sexist in a harmful way. As I'm sure many know, there is an age-old stereotype that women are too emotional to hold important jobs. We see this every time a woman runs for president in the US, which is how it plays out on the grandest scale, but it's a still widely-held, harmful belief in everyday life. Historically, it's been an excuse to exclude women from certain jobs, the echoes of which still affect women today. So why The Pitt would choose to deploy this negative stereotype of women is utterly baffling to me.
To recap, Mohan's mom gets engaged and plans to go on a year-long cruise, which (inexplicably) upends Mohan's life, destabilizing her so much that she literally has a panic attack at work, the distraction of which makes her miss a diagnosis, causing a patient's entirely preventable death. To which I say...seriously? In 2026, they thought it was a good idea to show a woman panicking and getting a patient killed because of it...seriously??? Whatever the intention was, they have a responsibility as storytellers not to reinforce harmful negative stereotypes, so what the actual fuck, guys? Why was this story so important to tell that it trumps the reinforcement of what generations of professional women have fought to achieve? Yes, they gave Robby a panic attack in S1, but men don't have the same history of exclusion based on being too emotional; as soon as you give that story to a woman, it becomes a sexist stereotype because of the context. People can say it's just a story, but stories are how we understand the world, and these EPs have talked about the importance of their storytelling.
The sad thing is, if I had to guess, I'd bet it just...never occurred to them. Or if someone brought it up, they didn't think it was a big deal. And that is how unconscious bias and benevolent sexism lead to the reinforcement of harmful stereotypes that can have real effects on people's views. It's a shame and why I do think it matters.
To sum up, there are different ways to analyze sexism in a show. A lot of attention has been paid to X character treating Y character in Z way. That's certainly valid, but I think it's also important to look at it from a wider view of what stories the writers choose to tell and how those stories are approached. That's what I'm talking about when I talk about the EPs' unconscious bias creeping in.
*Just a note on the critique that Taylor has (apparently?) said she doesn't watch the show: I don't think that's relevant. She reads all the scripts, given that she has to act out the scenes, and then she's there when the show is filmed. She knows the show and her opinion is worthy of consideration.
im just so happy i live in a time period where actual meaningful biological transition is possible. even if we lose rights or the ability to exist in public, nothing can turn back the clock on that, and just by having any sort of access to that our lives are made immensely better. millions of our sisters throughout history would never have dreamed of a day where they could have what HRT does for us.
please don't lose the plot of this. if you're a trans person on HRT you're a living miracle, the dream of hundreds of millions of your ancestors. your lives are all deeply meaningful no matter what anyone says.
Cursed be the one who announced to my father:
“It’s a boy!"...
...How could he twist the course of the stars so much?
How could he have erred so in his astrology?
A lying tongue, a fool’s mouth it had given him
For he foolishly transformed justice to poison
He altered the law and transposed the lines
Oh, but had the artisan who made me created me instead – a worthy woman...
...I would say "how lucky am I"
Father in heaven
who did miracles for our ancestors with fire and water...
...Who would then transform me from a man to woman?
Were I only to have merited this being so graced by goodness...
What shall I say?
why cry or be bitter?
If my father in heaven has decreed upon me
and has maimed me with an immutable deformity
then I do not wish to remove it.
the sorrow of the impossible is a human pain that nothing will cure
and for which no comfort can be found.
So, I will bear and suffer until I die and wither in the ground.
Since I have learned from our tradition
that we bless both, the good and the bitter
I will bless in a voice hushed and weak:
blessed are you [HaShem] who has not made me a woman.
Gotta add previous tags on here, because this is gonna live rent free in my head from now on. The stars are real, constellations are not. Damn. Tags by @smoreofbabylon (if you don’t want me to put you on blast like this I’ll delete lol!)
