In the boxing ring, Carmen "Machu Picchu" Wade circles a seated Tamme "The Welfare Queen" Dawson, who is pretending to watch TV. Wade tells Dawson to get up and fight.
"Hell no," Dawson responds. "I'mma sit here, watch my stories, eat me some lobster, some Howard Foods caviar. All paid for by the American taxpayer."
"That's the genius of it," Sam Sylvia tells Dawson in Season 1 of "GLOW." "It's commentary on an existing stereotype."
Sylvia (played by Marc Maron) directs the fictionalized Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling in the Netflix show, which was canceled earlier this month due to financial and safety concerns related to the pandemic.
On Oct. 19, six "GLOW" actresses of color — Sunita Mani (Arthie "Beirut the Mad Bomber" Premkumar), Sydelle Noel (Cherry "Black Magic" Bang), Britney Young (Wade), Shakira Barrera (Yolanda "Junkchain" Rivas), Kia Stevens (Dawson) and Ellen Wong (Jenny "Fortune Cookie" Chey) — shared on Instagram a letter they co-wrote to "GLOW" creators earlier this year.
Those "existing stereotypes" became a problem, they said, and led to the six actresses feeling "disempowered" by their roles. Behind the scenes, they called on producers to implement specific guidelines to better represent their characters, whom they felt continued to perpetuate racist stereotypes rather than dispel them.
But change was expected with Season 4, starting with the storylines of the hit series' characters of color.
"If Netflix didn't cancel us, you guys would have seen something amazing," Barrera told The Times on Oct. 20. "You would have seen what a true ensemble, diverse show looked like."
The actress, 30, explained why the letter was necessary and discussed her Latinx identity and the importance of centering Black voices.
