Tokenism - Revision history

Lquilter: cats

2010-11-11T17:24:59Z

cats

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:24, 11 November 2010
Line 23:		Line 23:

	[[Category:Groups]]		[[Category:Groups]]
	~~[[Category:Theory]]~~
	[[Category:Criticism and scholarship]]		[[Category:Criticism and scholarship]]
	[[Category:Characterization]]		[[Category:Characterization]]
	[[Category:~~Intersectionality~~]]		[[Category:Feminism and critical theory]]

	{{stub}}		{{stub}}

Lquilter: cat

2010-11-05T04:05:54Z

cat

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:05, 4 November 2010
Line 24:		Line 24:
	[[Category:Groups]]		[[Category:Groups]]
	[[Category:Theory]]		[[Category:Theory]]
	[[Category:Criticism]]		[[Category:Criticism and scholarship]]
	[[Category:Characterization]]		[[Category:Characterization]]
	[[Category:Intersectionality]]		[[Category:Intersectionality]]

	{{stub}}		{{stub}}

Lquilter: cat

2008-05-07T21:38:05Z

cat

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:38, 7 May 2008
Line 26:		Line 26:
	[[Category:Criticism]]		[[Category:Criticism]]
	[[Category:Characterization]]		[[Category:Characterization]]
	[[Category:~~Intersecting oppressions~~]]		[[Category:Intersectionality]]

	{{stub}}		{{stub}}

Lquilter: cat

2008-04-15T22:43:06Z

cat

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:43, 15 April 2008
Line 26:		Line 26:
	[[Category:Criticism]]		[[Category:Criticism]]
	[[Category:Characterization]]		[[Category:Characterization]]
			[[Category:Intersecting oppressions]]

	{{stub}}		{{stub}}

Lquilter: token team members

2007-06-13T20:21:35Z

token team members

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:21, 13 June 2007
Line 20:		Line 20:
	* "Token Black" on South Park is a parody of the token character.		* "Token Black" on South Park is a parody of the token character.
	* Ajihad in "Eragon" (Wikipedia explanation: "The author does not explain where black people came from, and Ajihad and his daughter are the only black people in the entire book. Ajihad is in about 1/6 of Eragon, and dies at the beginning of Eldest."		* Ajihad in "Eragon" (Wikipedia explanation: "The author does not explain where black people came from, and Ajihad and his daughter are the only black people in the entire book. Ajihad is in about 1/6 of Eragon, and dies at the beginning of Eldest."
			* [[Token team members]]

	[[Category:Groups]]		[[Category:Groups]]

Lquilter: notes

2007-03-21T18:09:54Z

notes

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:09, 21 March 2007
Line 3:		Line 3:
	Suggests an insincere, half-hearted, or poorly thought out attempt to make things "look" open, diverse, non-discriminatory, without actually addressing the roots of the problem, either within the group or organization itself, or within society at large.		Suggests an insincere, half-hearted, or poorly thought out attempt to make things "look" open, diverse, non-discriminatory, without actually addressing the roots of the problem, either within the group or organization itself, or within society at large.

	Within art or literature, tokenism is the practice of including a single representative of some class in the work. For instance, the "token female character" or the "token black character" in a TV show. ~~Token~~ characters demonstrate a number of problems within the larger narrative. Because the larger narrative is unrealistic in some fashion -- i.e., all white; all male; all upper class -- it is ~~some~~ kind of a fantasy world. The intrusion of a token character calls attention to that fantasy world, at the same time that it is an attempt -- typically a deliberate, conscious attempt -- to avoid criticism for the discriminatory unrealism of the work. But because the larger work is itself unrealistic, the "token" character cannot escape the anti-realism of the work -- for instance, the token character may be an inauthentic representative of their class (e.g., defined as queer but with no queer consciousness or experience of homophobia); characterized only by stereotypes; or have no real function or characterization other than their "role" (e.g., the woman is the wife; the black person is the sidekick; etc.		Within art or literature, tokenism is the practice of including a single representative of some class in the work. For instance, the "token female character" or the "token black character" in a TV show.

			==Characterization==
			Characterization of token characters demonstrate a number of problems within the larger narrative. Because the larger narrative is unrealistic in some fashion -- i.e., all white; all male; all upper class -- it is a kind of unrealistic fantasy world (but not usually the one the authors were intentionally trying to create). The intrusion of a token character calls attention to that fantasy world, at the same time that it is an attempt -- typically a deliberate, conscious attempt -- to avoid criticism for the discriminatory unrealism of the work. But because the larger work is itself unrealistic, the "token" character cannot escape the anti-realism of the work -- for instance, the token character may be an inauthentic representative of their class (e.g., defined as queer but with no queer consciousness or experience of homophobia); characterized only by stereotypes; or have no real function or characterization other than their "role" (e.g., the woman is the wife; the black person is the sidekick; etc.

	In other words, the unreality of the narrative presents a problem for authentically [[characterization\|characterizing]] people within the work. The work itself relies on the stereotype of the "default" character (as, for example, white, male, middle/upper class, competent, psychologically whole, courageous, physically strong, etc.)., and any non-"default" characteristics are inscribed or [[marked]] as such. While the problems ''show up'' most evidently in the token character, they are implicitly problems of characterization for the non-token characters as well, and demonstrate a problem in [[world-building]].		In other words, the unreality of the narrative presents a problem for authentically [[characterization\|characterizing]] people within the work. The work itself relies on the stereotype of the "default" character (as, for example, white, male, middle/upper class, competent, psychologically whole, courageous, physically strong, etc.)., and any non-"default" characteristics are inscribed or [[marked]] as such. While the problems ''show up'' most evidently in the token character, they are implicitly problems of characterization for the non-token characters as well, and demonstrate a problem in [[world-building]].

			Thus, tokenism occurs at different levels within characterization.
			* Token identity: A character might be a token representative in one aspect of their identity; in other words, a character who is critical to the narrative, who is given some ethnic, gender, or other identity; but that identity is never explored and does not seem "central" to the character.
			* Token characters: A character might be wholly a token, included only as a role or even completely not essential to the plot.

			==Plot==
			Token characters also present plot issues. For instance, a story structure that does not incorporate any consciousness of race or ethnicity dynamics, history, etc., at all, but includes a character who has a token ethnic identity, will sometimes run into problems of realism when they attempt to put the (token) character in a situation in which it is perfectly obvious to the audience that racial issues would come up. For instance, a story that took place in the US South in the 1950s, featuring a gang of kids, and one kid who is "black", will run into problems as the kids grow into adolescence. If the story does ''not'' deal with the racism that the children would encounter, especially if romantic relationships were involved, then the story is completely anti-realistic to a point that the audience couldn't really [[suspension of disbelief\|suspend their disbelief]]. On the other hand, if the story ''does'' deal with the racism, after having never treated racism as a factor in their characterizations before -- the life history of the various kids, for instance -- then doing so now will be suddenly abrupt and jarring. (Obviously this could be done as an intentional effect, to show the intrusion of race consciousness; but such works have typically treated race throughout the work in a way that was apparent to the [[audience]], although the characters were oblivious of it.) This can result in a "very special episode" kind of feel to serial works or simply a disjunctive unreal feel to any work, resulting in complaints of various sorts from the audience, who feel either cheated by the disruption to the character arc; cheated by the intrusion of reality; cheated by the realization that the work was so anti-realistic to begin with; etc.

			==Examples==
			* "Token Black" on South Park is a parody of the token character.
			* Ajihad in "Eragon" (Wikipedia explanation: "The author does not explain where black people came from, and Ajihad and his daughter are the only black people in the entire book. Ajihad is in about 1/6 of Eragon, and dies at the beginning of Eldest."

	[[Category:Groups]]		[[Category:Groups]]

Lquilter: stub

2007-03-21T17:55:58Z

stub

New page

The practice of including a limited number of members of some class or group of "others" within a group.

Suggests an insincere, half-hearted, or poorly thought out attempt to make things "look" open, diverse, non-discriminatory, without actually addressing the roots of the problem, either within the group or organization itself, or within society at large.

Within art or literature, tokenism is the practice of including a single representative of some class in the work. For instance, the "token female character" or the "token black character" in a TV show. Token characters demonstrate a number of problems within the larger narrative. Because the larger narrative is unrealistic in some fashion -- i.e., all white; all male; all upper class -- it is some kind of a fantasy world. The intrusion of a token character calls attention to that fantasy world, at the same time that it is an attempt -- typically a deliberate, conscious attempt -- to avoid criticism for the discriminatory unrealism of the work. But because the larger work is itself unrealistic, the "token" character cannot escape the anti-realism of the work -- for instance, the token character may be an inauthentic representative of their class (e.g., defined as queer but with no queer consciousness or experience of homophobia); characterized only by stereotypes; or have no real function or characterization other than their "role" (e.g., the woman is the wife; the black person is the sidekick; etc.

In other words, the unreality of the narrative presents a problem for authentically [[characterization|characterizing]] people within the work. The work itself relies on the stereotype of the "default" character (as, for example, white, male, middle/upper class, competent, psychologically whole, courageous, physically strong, etc.)., and any non-"default" characteristics are inscribed or [[marked]] as such. While the problems ''show up'' most evidently in the token character, they are implicitly problems of characterization for the non-token characters as well, and demonstrate a problem in [[world-building]].

[[Category:Groups]]
[[Category:Theory]]
[[Category:Criticism]]
[[Category:Characterization]]
{{stub}}