Lafayette in True Blood is beyond my favorite character because he is so flamboyant and inappropriate. I think his casting was smart because he wears such feminine clothing yet is very muscular and masculine in other ways, such as his deep voice and the fact that he works in construction. Although Lafayette is not a vampire, I think being surrounded by vampires is a statement about accepting what is normally stigmatized in society. With several promiscuous vampires in this show who are gay or bisexual, it makes swinging both ways seem to be the norm therefore making Lafayette not too othered simply because he is gay.
I also enjoy Tara because she demonstrates what the show’s creators are doing with race. They blatantly racialize her character by having her come from a broken, black family. She is also Southern and in a spiritual world that many black people are associated with, such as voodoo. Tara is somewhat of a jezebel; she snaps at everyone and is exaggerated at times. Her character, to me, encompasses a prominent black stereotype. The show therefore places those racial stereotypes out in the open for everyone to see, thus ridiculing how disgusting they are.
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