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Stereotyping the Horde

Terra Nova is having a discussion today entitled Cultural Borrowing in WoW, looking at the cultural references made in relation to the Horde (Jamaicans for the Trolls, Native Americans for the Tauren) and what that means given the Horde's reputation as Evil. From the article: "I want to talk about how science fiction and fantasy often engage in this type of borrowing -- most 'new' things are just old things recoded. For instance, the Wikipedia entry on Klingons points to the Soviets, Mongolians, and Japanese Samurai. In most cases, I think this whole process of cultural encryption, mash-up, and recoding is fun -- perhaps what good art is all about. Looking particularly at WoW, though, I have to wonder sometimes..."

2 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Pay more attention by PepeGSay · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    This whole article is really just about the writer's own prejudice. That about sums it up completely.

  2. Re:Uh by Shihar · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I think you are thinking far too hard. Are Klingons are indeed dark skinned, but the Borg are pasty mother fuckers. Does this mean that the Borg are an analogy for white people working in the corporate world? Are the pale Cardasians that love the heat and are semi-reptilian stereotypes for, hell, I don't know, southern war mongering Americans or Mormons or something?

    You can kludge any stereotype you want into any Star Trek species you want because all the species tend to simply be exaggerations of humans. Most Star Trek species can be summed up with the line of thinking, "I wonder what society would look like if we were more X". All species in Star Trek essentially are stereotyped humans in that they are humans that obsess over something (be it logic, honor, order, exc.). Being built off of an extreme example of a human stereotype is going to result in some stereotypes conforming to real life stereotypes.

    I think you are trying way too hard to shove broad stereotypes into narrow little holes. Calling the Klingons stereotyped Africans is silly. I don't recall any great black African empires that have challenged the West in any substantial way and served as a substantive enemy like the way the Klingons have. Further, I don't recall many stereotypes around Africans being obsessively honorable which is THE defining trait of a Klingon. If Klingons were to be stereotypes of anything, the original Klingons were pretty clearly the USSR, and the "new" Klingons are pretty clearly influenced by Samurai far more then anything else.

    Finally, Star Trek has always been extremely progressive. We are talking about a show where of the original bridge staff of regular characters, Kirk was the only one that was an American.