Maya, and her brother, just sums up all the really awful attitudes Anglos have about Latinos in this country, and it's not just that she's a stereotype, it's that she's a pretty offensive one. She's naive, hyper-religious, and she comes bearing this plague from south of the border (which, hell, it makes total sense for a Dominican to come through Venuzela and Mexico, I mean, all Latin American countries are interchangeable, right?). She falls under the spell of this evil white guy who is going to exploit her and use her for his evil ways, including corrupting her sexually and bringing her under his thrall... I mean, man, I grew up a Latina in Texas. I know what the whole Minutemen propeganda looks like. And to be honest? A lot of it looks like this. We don't really know Maya outside of her sterotype, and I don't want to know what other trash they're going to tack on to her. I'm not willing to give her a chance. She's a pretty appalling character type for me, this dependant, mystical, dangerous Latina who is fleeing to America to find the cure for her mysterious ability/illness/whatever. I get that people want that, and that's fine, but I'm seriously afraid of what other baggage Kring is going to load on her. And I really wish he wouldn't. I really wish he would give her up, because her plot creeps the fuck out of me, and seriously, that is not the representation of my race I want to see every week.
The difference between Maya and Hiro is that while Hiro was a model minority to begin with, embued with Japanese/Asian stereotypes, he was never presented as a danger, he was put in the spotlight to be fleshed out, and he is there to take charge of his own destiny, he has a function. He had more character traits than otaku geek, and they were presented rather quickly. Hiro became more than a stereotype within a few episodes. Maya isn't presented as a main character, she has problematic and offensive elements to her character type, her whole function revolves around her interaction with Sylar and her dependence on him, and she's presented as this mysterious threat that, after a while, begins to feel like that's what's being said about all the Latinos in Heroes. Isaac was interesting, but he was a freakin' heroin addict with a penchant for accidentally killing people, which Maya seems to be perfecting, she's good at accidentally killing folk. And that's just presented as this thing she does, that's just how she is. She doesn't get developed, she's just this dangerous thing week after week. And that seems like all she's going to be. Dangerous, sexy thing that is good to hook up with Sylar and probably Mohinder (who also suffers from stereotyping and stupid writing a lot) and she doesn't have to make coherent sense because they have the stereotype of the Latina to fall back on in order to communicate what they want to communicate to the audience about her.
I'm probably not articulating this well. I've had this argument multiple times with a lot of people, and it basically comes down to the pornography definition the Supreme Court runs with: I know offensive when I see it. I've spent my whole live getting stereotypes about my race shoved down my throat. I know more of them when I'm forced to chew on them, and I'd really like to spit them out now. Heroes is full of race problems, and when they bring on new characters that are again, racially charged, stereotyped, and problematic, it begins to feel like Kring spun the wheel of diversity, picked a few highlights and just threw them in so he could get everyone to do a rendition of "We Are the World." The staff is good at writing men, and with time, they manage to break out of the stereotypes they start out in. The Petrellis are fascinating, Sylar's fascinating, I adore Mohinder despite his problems because he had a chance to at least become a person, not just the Indian PhD, Parkman is awesome, Hiro's great...it's just that most of the second season characters of color didn't get treated well by the writers, they phoned it in, and I don't really want to give any more screen time to something that's really offensive in the hopes that Maya might become less so with time.
Sorry for the tl;dr, but I've got Opinions on this one.
Re: 122
The difference between Maya and Hiro is that while Hiro was a model minority to begin with, embued with Japanese/Asian stereotypes, he was never presented as a danger, he was put in the spotlight to be fleshed out, and he is there to take charge of his own destiny, he has a function. He had more character traits than otaku geek, and they were presented rather quickly. Hiro became more than a stereotype within a few episodes. Maya isn't presented as a main character, she has problematic and offensive elements to her character type, her whole function revolves around her interaction with Sylar and her dependence on him, and she's presented as this mysterious threat that, after a while, begins to feel like that's what's being said about all the Latinos in Heroes. Isaac was interesting, but he was a freakin' heroin addict with a penchant for accidentally killing people, which Maya seems to be perfecting, she's good at accidentally killing folk. And that's just presented as this thing she does, that's just how she is. She doesn't get developed, she's just this dangerous thing week after week. And that seems like all she's going to be. Dangerous, sexy thing that is good to hook up with Sylar and probably Mohinder (who also suffers from stereotyping and stupid writing a lot) and she doesn't have to make coherent sense because they have the stereotype of the Latina to fall back on in order to communicate what they want to communicate to the audience about her.
I'm probably not articulating this well. I've had this argument multiple times with a lot of people, and it basically comes down to the pornography definition the Supreme Court runs with: I know offensive when I see it. I've spent my whole live getting stereotypes about my race shoved down my throat. I know more of them when I'm forced to chew on them, and I'd really like to spit them out now. Heroes is full of race problems, and when they bring on new characters that are again, racially charged, stereotyped, and problematic, it begins to feel like Kring spun the wheel of diversity, picked a few highlights and just threw them in so he could get everyone to do a rendition of "We Are the World." The staff is good at writing men, and with time, they manage to break out of the stereotypes they start out in. The Petrellis are fascinating, Sylar's fascinating, I adore Mohinder despite his problems because he had a chance to at least become a person, not just the Indian PhD, Parkman is awesome, Hiro's great...it's just that most of the second season characters of color didn't get treated well by the writers, they phoned it in, and I don't really want to give any more screen time to something that's really offensive in the hopes that Maya might become less so with time.
Sorry for the tl;dr, but I've got Opinions on this one.