Odds and Ends: Talking dramas in Boston

by javabeans

girlfriday: So we went to Harvard last weekend. We should probably tell people about that.

javabeans: Yes, good idea. As we announced, we were invited by the Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Association to talk at an event in their speaker series, and they gave us the loose parameters of talking about beauty, gender, and cultural stereotypes in dramas. And I thought, sure, there’s a lot of beauty in dramas, I could talk about that.

girlfriday: We probably could’ve talked about each topic separately for the whole time, which is likely why we ran over and got kicked out of the building.

javabeans: Yes, I’m pretty sure the door did in fact hit me on the ass as it was closing behind us. That custodian really wanted to get home. But first, the talk. To me I feel like we were talking about very familiar material that we mention in bits and pieces regularly throughout Dramabeans, but also it’s because we’ve been writing our next installment of our book for ages and therefore it’s all stuff we’ve worked out on some level. Which made this kind of talk ideal. But maybe it’s bad to mention the book because, ahem, we’re behind schedule on that.

girlfriday: Ack, don’t remind me! I have such guilt about that. Granted, we’re the ones who made up said schedule, but as always, we’re behind. Don’t worry though — we’re writing it, we swear. So yes, the topics we discussed in Boston — familiar character archetypes across dramas, gender-bending hijinks, inequality and subverting cultural norms…

javabeans: Don’t forget transgressing heteronormative boundaries and reversing the age-gender power balance. Put that way it all sounds very academic and dry, but we said it all in our style, which is to take all the boring academia out of it and have fun with the drama examples. I think it was a really interesting talk, although is that like saying your own baby is pretty?

girlfriday: Maybe, but in this instance people are free to argue, whereas people can’t say your baby is ugly.

javabeans: Even if it is. All babies are ugly. Just so you know, proud baby-having parents of the world.

girlfriday: I’m not going down with that ship. All your babies are lovely! Yes, especially yours, that one with the pudgy cheeks! Anyway, I think the talk was fun because we had a really great audience. It was very interactive and informal, and people asked great questions to keep the discussion going. It always re-surprises me when we do these things, but in dramaland you never run out of “Is this normal?” questions.

javabeans: I love when our answer is “Yes, it is. I know it’s weird, but it’s totally normal. People have birth secrets ALL THE TIME and it’s just normalized.”

girlfriday: Which is what we said, because it’s true. But then of course there’s always the behaviors that are confusingly chicken-egg in dramas, like piggybacking and backhugging. I’m sure they existed pre-dramas, but they’ve taken on new meaning.

javabeans: Yes, it’s the life-imitating-art-imitating-life-imitating-art circle. Like seeing wrist-grabs as romantic because in the dramas they’re played for romance. Whereas in real life a forceful yank on the arm might elicit a much different response. Perhaps one followed with a reflexive kick to the groin.

girlfriday: It would in MY world. What’s interesting about looking at drama tropes across various shows is that the patterns are shockingly few, and the gender gap still so wide.

javabeans: I do think that it’s not solely a cultural argument that could be made to explain that (as much as it’s fun and neat to blame the patriarchy for everything, and also Confucius), because I also think laziness is a factor—as in, this narrative pattern works. Why invent a new one when I can just use it to fashion the makings of the next one?

girlfriday: Completely. Which is why we always talk about these things in chicken-egg fashion, because it’s not one-directional.

javabeans: Well, I think it’s also because to attempt to give the final answer would just be wrong. Everything affects everything else, and the world goes ’round and ’round.

girlfriday: But we also like to give pop culture credit for being as influential as it is reflective, and besides the fact that we’re interested in TV as a narrative form, there’s an immediacy to television and its reception (especially in Korea) that is endlessly fascinating.

javabeans: And there’s just so much to talk about, partly because the material just keeps coming out of dramaland. No rest for the weary and all that. At least it keeps us stocked with things to talk about, and build on for future talks. Which we’ll be sure to do the next time we speak, which ought to be later this year. But we’ll be sure to announce that when we know more.

girlfriday: Thanks to all the Boston beanies who came to see us! We had a blast.

javabeans: And to the non-Boston beanies who made it out too! It was cool seeing some familiar faces from our New York meetup. And of course, thanks to the Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Association for inviting us out. We’ll take any reason to talk to fans about dramas, apparently, seeing as how we talked until we were shooed out of the building and then talked some more outside.

girlfriday: Nothing beats meeting people who are as obsessed with dramas as you are.

 
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