On “Velma,” Mindy Kaling, and Whether Brown Girls Can Ever Like Ourselves on TV | Teen Vogue

Who made us feel this way? Who benefits from endless jokes about brown women having “hairy gorilla arms”?

In this op-ed, writer Sakeina Syed unpacks HBO’s new show Velma and the trend of appearance-based jokes about brown girls on TV. One of the many changes to Mystery Inc. in HBO’s adult horror-comedy reboot Velma is the titular character’s ethnicity; Velma Dinkley (voiced by Mindy Kaling ) is now South Asian. At face value, it might seem like an innocuous, or even distinctly positive change. But in tandem with the release of the first two episodes came scenes that spoke otherwise. So far, the only material Velma's newfound brown skin has brought to the series are punchlines about her appearance.

related reading

• The "Scooby Doo" psyopgarbageday.email
• on feeling small - by mathu - chai lattemathu.substack.com
• What Happens to All the Asian-American Overachievers When the Test-Taking Ends? -- New York Magazine - Nymagnymag.com
• All Alone in Their White Girl Painhiptowaste.substack.com
• The Smartest Women I Know Are All Dissociatingbuzzfeednews.com
• “You Know What I Say About Men Who F--- Asian Women?” | Vanity Fairvanityfair.com
• ocean vuong haters, I'm begging you to read a different bookmalavika.substack.com
• looksmaxxing, ozempic, and the politics of desirability: beauty and power in the lives of adolescent young womenjennysduan.substack.com
• Brené Brown, Courage Culture, and the Co-optation of Black Women's Intellectual Laborjennmjacksonphd.substack.com
• White Balance — Real Lifereallifemag.com
• why I hate "girl's girls"lindsiann.substack.com
• The Socially-Conscious Mean Girl - by eliza mclambwordsfromeliza.com