sev posting

Since severance rose in popularity the show became a boiling pot not only for interesting questions and theories, but for strangely unhinged fans who suddenly made everything about their workplace-whitemance, leaving everything else aside and very conveniently closing off when a pivotal moment of the show dropped, revealing the reality and the full story of a woc character.

The presence of Gemma Scout, distinctly alive and fighting back in the series, changes everything the audience knew so far and it's worth looking into why certain fans refused to empathise and turned a blind eye to her.

Why did this subversion of expectations upset them so much? Why are they bothered by Gemma having a key role in the narrative (when her character did not bother them when she was ‘dead’)? Why are they bothered by the fact that Gemma and Mark still love each other? Why do they undermine her? Why do they insist that she cannot coexist alongside the rest of cast/characters? And it all leads to the final question, why on earth would a person check my silly, harmless blog just to mock an opinion that empathises and praises Gemma?

There isn’t a neat answer of course, but things never happen in a vacuum and it’s clear there’s a pattern of internal biases and racism going on. That, paired with these fans’ constant takes (uplifting white characters while ignoring and/or denying the complexity of characters of color), paints a pretty clear picture. Not new, but why is helena sugarcoated, cutified and absolved of her predatory actions? Why have these fans given more thought to drummond (a two-dimensional villain) than to gemma who has an entire episode? It’s no coincidence. And it’s incredibly pervasive how they don’t let anything go untouched: with these people ridiculing/demonizing the actress, the writing, Gemma’s character and her relationships with other characters.

Speaking of, Gemma and Mark have been called uninteresting, uncompelling, bland, boring, ‘typical’ (whatever that means, if you think a couple separated and tortured by a megacorporation is ‘typical’ go off I guess), doomed to die, doomed to disappear, doomed to divorce, irrelevant, loveless, abusive, evil—whatever. Why do they not see their relationship as nuanced and complex, flawed but hopeful, trusting and intimate, full of traumas but also hope to build new things with one another? Why are they incapable of seeing it that way? GEE I WONDER!