Essays
i.
Typographic Appreciation of Tuca and Bertie ︎︎︎ii.
The submissive Hot Latinx in television + films ; an exploration of racial fetishization from anglo or non-latino men.Leyla Gokcek breaks down the design and typography of netflix show Tuca and Bertie.
Typographic Appreciation of Tuca and Bertie
by Leyla GokcekImagine a show where you watch animals talk about themes of trauma and friendship in an imagined world. Now add another layer of bright colors and drawings that revisit a lost time period of cartoons where messiness is the style. In the beginning of the show Bertie moves in with her boyfriend Speckle, while Tuca moves out of the apartment and lives a floor down. Taking place in New York, this show is about two friends who conquer the realities of adulthood. We continue to see the relationship between Bertie and Speckle unravel. And then we see how Tuca and Bertie accompany each other throughout their emotional endeavours in finding out who they are and they reconquer past traumatic memories. Their friendship is one that I admired throughout the plot. (For more information on the plot of the show visit Kate Abbot’s article on the Guardian)
In the first episode of Tuca and Bertie, typefaces created another layer of expression. Animated cartoon shows don’t use a lot of typographic expressions when a character is directing a thought. However, I appreciate Tuca and Bertie’s versatile hand drawn letters that represent the character’s thoughts. For example, when Tuca is first introducing Bertie’s personality (episode 1) she talks about how Bertie is a “people pleaser”. In that frame, Bertie is posing next to words saying “people pleaser”, with an added smile below. I admired the added expression the words represent when talking about the character’s personality traits.
The style of the hand drawn letters reminded me of lettering I would doodle in my old composition books. I felt a new layer of intimacy when words would pop up in a frame with a cartoon character. The intimacy I’m describing are old notebooks that would become personalized with someone else’s art style. Almost like you’ve entered someone else’s world and their art is what encompasses another expression of their personality.
Xena Brar discusses the fetishization of latinx femmes and breaks down how it is normalized in our society through media and film.
The submissive Hot Latinx in television + films ; an exploration of racial fetishization from anglo or non-latino men.
By Xena Brar
“Across all platforms of popular culture, the Latina being has always been considered exotic and spicy. This is a constant for many Latinx persons in their everyday lives, being viewed as as a spectacle on a daily basis gets tiring and upsetting. I would like to acknowledge that the first step to delving into this exploration is realizing that in an Anglo driven world, the main protagonist within many media outlets specifically films and television shows are usually Caucasian. This being said, it is important to note that we can only explore such topics as this by realizing that Latina narratives in the media only speak to the ways in which the minority exists solely for their Anglo counterparts. Latinas being portrayed in popular culture specifically television, films and pornography only enhances and embraces the concept of racial fetishization, making it seem normal to the Anglo audience hence enforcing a negative stereotypes upon the community as a whole.”
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