WorthlessSlavicShit
Overlord
★★★★★
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2022
- Posts
- 8,785
If you walk into a bookstore and look at new releases, you will likely see at least one or two feminist retellings of Greek mythological figures. From Medusa to Clytemnestra to Penelope, we see a new boom of retellings. But it is not new. What does this new generation of reimagined classics say about the moment we are in and the limitations of trend reimagining versus how we learn these stories in an academic setting?
An American Greek here. I've been saying for years how it's odd that my Grecian history has been given the "white washing" treatment, even when we're also technically white. It's been really weird. My Greek family hailed from the Istanbul (Constantinople) area, and if you know you know, making us darker colored Greeks. Side note, Disney's Hercules was a rude awakening for my child self, thinking they "white washed" Greeks in that movie, but really we just came in different colors because... "colonialism".
I use to enjoy Lore Olympus, but stopped months back. The misogyny of the series became too much for me to enjoy anymore. But the fans of the series are also why I stopped reading it. Literally seeing comments brag "I'm glad I don't know the myth so I won't be spoiled on this comic" really hit me hard. You just scoffed off my ancestry, real history, so you could enjoy a self-insert fantasy using my culture as a background? Imagine I read Addy's story (American Girls), and be grateful I'm unaware of actual USA Slavery history so I can enjoy the book better? Context matters.
With these retellings, ignoring the actual history, is what I find damaging. I'm a feminist, I'm Greek, I'm fully aware of the way things were back in the day, but ignoring the bad for a modern happy smile story is where I see the white washing start. Like a lot of our own history here in the USA being "toned down" for retellings.
Thank you for this video, especially love how you ended it. Look forward to your next deep dive.
