IWTV Musings: "Louis the Pimp" (RANT)
The "Louis the Pimp" discourse has really gotten out of hand, and that wretched Vulture article accusing Louis of "whoring" Lestat proves it.
First off, no one's arguing that pimping isn't one of the most immoral/unethical/exploitative vocations. No one's saying Louis' a "good" pimp, or absolving him being a pimp at all--same way a white slavemaster shouldn't be called "good" just cuz he never whipped/raped any slaves. But it's the HYPOCRISY for me. Cuz if we're to "let problematic characters be problematic on The Problematic Gothic™ Show", then why is it that Louis being a pimp is treated like he's the Devil incarnate, and that that makes it ok to HATE him, over & above anyone else? 🤔 Some antis even say AMC!Louis's the most gross/WORST character in the entire TVC for being a pimp--even over book!Louis being a white slavemaster who DID have his Black slaves whipped & tortured & killed (x x)--make that make sense. 🤨🤦♂️
This fandom loves to read into context clues & reading between the lines, comparing what we hear the characters SAY & what we SEE on screen; esp. when a character is lying/sugarcoating, the show itself lets us see the juxtaposition between fantasy & fact. So we can usually/eventually tell when there's an incongruity, right? Ok then.
So why is it that everyone's convinced Louis must've had all those girls chained to a radiator covered in jizz & blood as they got tortured within an inch of their lives? 🤨 There is ZERO indication that AMC!Louis is a SADIST who takes pleasure in abusing the girls under him, OR that he ever willfully kept them in sub-humane conditions or abused them like book/film!Louis abused his slaves.
We NEVER SEE Louis physically abuse/assault even ONE (1) of his sex workers, and we're not even TOLD by anyone that it happened, to contradict him.
What AMC does SHOW & TELL is that Louis skimped on their pay, taking the biggest cut for himself. THAT, IMO, is Louis' truly predatory vampiric nature on display; and his own hypocrisy.
Louis was mad at the Alderman for exploiting his labor for unfair profit, but he also exploited his sex workers' labor for his own unfair profit.
The EVIL nature of Louis' vampirism is NOT that he's abusing people sexually/physically/verbally--he's abusing his power FINANCIALLY.
Louis' a capitalist leech sucking the money out of people; then he cries when the same thing gets done to him by those with more power over HIM. The only difference is that the Alderman's a racist who is actively CHEATING Louis out of fair compensation; meanwhile Louis' taking those girls' money to make the DPDLs rich, so Florence can keep having her banjo bands while pretending SHE doesn't know where his dirty money's coming from--patented DPDL Hypocrisy.
People keep flattening Louis down to just being a pimp--meanwhile they hate it when Lestat's flattened down to being an abuser in the Ep5 Fight; or Armand is flattened to being Claudia's murderer & lying about it. Everyone's got all the nuance in the world when we look at Lestat's tragic backstory to look at how "Massa's had so much loss in his life; Lord couldn't ask him to bear any more~!" 😭😩 But meanwhile no one GAF about Louis' tragic backstory to give him any nuance. They just act like Louis always WANTED to become a pimp, cuz he's evil. 👀
No ofc Louis just loved his job & relished having a bad name & shameful profession! 🙄 No, he never felt guilty or hated himself for being a pimp, or wished he could do something respectable with his life to make his family proud of him and not think he was a failure. He wasn't in a desperate situation ("4 months from bankruptcy," with 2 women & a mentally ill brother to pay for), in need a Get Rich Quick scheme. He became a pimp cuz he just hates women; NOT cuz he was backed into any corners and made the most of it! 🤷♂️
But ofc here come the antis talking about the Bricktop vs Alderman scene, to say: Louis hates women & disrespected Bricktop, he yelled at her for being raped, omg he's eviiiiil~! 😩 Idiots, read the room.
No, I'm serious. READ THE EFFING ROOM. Where a WHITE MAN--an ALDERMAN--is bleeding out from his skull as a BLACK prostitute stands over him with a baseball bat in the middle of a brothel in the predominately Black Red Light District, in the middle of JIM CROW's Deep South. WTF do you think Louis' bigger problem is? QUICKLY!
Bricks being raped/sodomized 🤔
The WHITE COPS being called to LYNCH ever n****r in that brothel--or god forbid all of Storyville if things escalated too bad if the Alderman had made a fuss (or needed to be hospitalized or died). 🤔
Tell me y'all aren't actually this obtuse, where you can't see this. 🤦♂️I broke down the entire Bricktop scene, to show exactly why what happened there was so dangerous, for Bricks AND Louis AND everyone working there, "We got bad trouble!"
And I REALLY don't get it, why on the one hand Louis' talked about like a dog; meanwhile every freaking fic about Louis features Bricks & Miss Lily as his BFFs!? 🤣 Make it make sense! But Louis the worst one on the show cuz he was a pimp 100yrs ago, oh right. 🙄
Miss Lily was only in 1 ep, and Bricks was in 3. But even from their limited screentime, it's both shown & told that Louis at least had a cordial dynamic with BOTH of them, despite their overall expendability by him (and the plot), since they're NOT actually his friends, duh.
Miss Lily was TOM ANDERSON'S sex worker, at the Fair Play. TOM was her pimp; Louis paid to just TALK to her as his beard, cuz he's GAY. 🌈Beyond that, Louis had ZERO responsibility to Miss Lily.
No, Louis never mentioned Lily after 1x1, cuz he just got turned into a frikkin vampire with crazy powers & 🌈 a brand new husband 🌈 to hyperfocus on! Lily WHOMST?! 🤣 But people act like despite this, Louis wasn't VISIBLY shocked when he found out she died, and not angry at Lestat for killing her?! (Why's no one mad at her literal bloody MURDERER who said he DGAF about killing her?!)
Bricks was Louis' sex worker when he was still running dingy cribs, yes. But when he got the Azalea, he promoted her to his Madam, who RAN the brothel (AMC gave Bricks' job to Louis, since IRL Black men weren't even allowed to own brothels in the 19teens--AMC made that up. Running brothels was MADAM'S work, and they worked for WHITE men, NOT Black men--cuz Jim Crow, DUH).
Oh, Louis' evil cuz he never even talks about Lily & Bricks after 1x3! 😩 Ofc not; cuz by the end of 1x3 he has CLAUDIA to hyperfocus on, duh.
YES, we can critique AMC's writing for never following up on Bricks--or even giving a line where Louis admits that he never followed up on Bricks & the girls who got kicked out of the Azalea by the police raid. But instead, people act like it's an unreasonable CRIME that vampiric transfiguration & marriage preoccupied Louis' attention from Lily dying; or that parenthood preoccupied Louis' attention from Bricks fleeing town.
If he NEVER GAF about them; he wouldn't be talking about them 100yrs later, DUH. But Louis doesn't OWE Lily & Bricks a larger place in his story than what he already gave them--the same way Lestat doesn't owe Lily & Bricks a place in HIS story either, although he knew them too. He paid a boatload for Miss Lily's sexual services (funny how Louis the Pimp is derided but never Lestat the John 🤔😒); and Lestat & Bricks were Louis' support systems at the Azalea--that LESTAT paid for. The Azalea was in LESTAT's name--Louis just paid him back a few years later (which Lestat told him not to do, since it was supposed to be a GIFT, but ofc Louis rejected it)--(funny how Louis the Pimp is derided but never Lestat the Silent Partner / Owner / Patron 🤔😒).
Like I know some folks have VERY strong opinions about the sex work industry, pimps or otherwise. I am NOT tryna minimize the abuses sex workers go through, esp. not at the hands of pimps. 🤮 I'm asking why Louis' moral failings make him SO MUCH WORSE than any other problematic character on The Problematic Show--esp., when other characters perpetrating right alongside him are given so much grace & nuance so we at least have a better understanding about WHY they did the horrible things they did, and understand their MOTIVE, before misattributing every misdeed to MALICE & malicious intent; not just the realities of flawed characters making flawed decisions. And I'm getting tired of the double standards, how Louis is raked across the coals for hypotheticals we never even saw him do, in contrast with bigger degenerates we HAVE seen do worse--not just on this show, but also the film & Anne Rice's source material.
