Kia Stevens, aka Awesome Kong, plays the role of Tammé Dawson on the Netflix series GLOW. The show was canceled due to the pandemic but efforts are underway to possibly end the series with a movie.
According to a recent Instagram post by Stevens, the show does not have any writers who are persons of color. She also stated the show has been irresponsible with how they have portrayed storylines related to racial stereotypes.
“It has been problematic to use our faces, oftentimes solely in the context of a racist storyline, and to be brief with our story development to serve the in-depth white storylines,” she wrote.
Stevens continued to mention that there are no persons of color on the show’s writing team.
“With zero persons of color in the writer’s room this season, it’s a huge oversight to be writing our narratives without anyone else to represent us besides ourselves,” she continued.
She also pointed out that a central theme of the show is performers from the original GLOW dealing with portraying characters who are racial stereotypes. She noted that the same thing is happening again with actors on the Netflix series.
Kia Stevens Statement On GLOW
“The meta-narrative of our show — actors dealing with the conflict of perpetuating stereotypes in order to have opportunity — is exactly what is happening in our real life.”
“We can no longer be quiet about the pain this has caused and the harm it has done in perpetuating the representation of people of color as sidekicks to elevate white leads.”
Stevens concludes her statement with a call for showrunners to hire an executive producer who is a person of color. They also would like the show to address how portraying racial stereotypes has impacted the performers and amplify their voices and characters in Season 4.
Stevens’ comments seem to imply some version of the show will be returning for a new season or a movie. This cannot be confirmed, however. It was also revealed recently that Taya Valkyrie was cast in season 4. At least one episode had been filmed before the pandemic shut down production. The series was always scheduled to end following the 4th season as well.
Kong returned to the wrestling world last year with AEW. She was briefly a member of Brandi Rhodes’ Nightmare family before the angle was scrapped.
Kong’s full Instagram post is below:
