Posted on 08/13/2018 2:29:22 PM PDT by Ennis85
Disney's forthcoming film The Jungle Cruise will include a prominent gay character, a first for the company. Sounds like a progressive milestone, right? Not according to the intersectional left: Jack Whitehall, the actor cast in the role, is straight—and, gasp, white—which is very problematic.
The CW fared little better in casting Ruby Rose to portray Kate Kane in its upcoming Batwoman show. The character is a Jewish lesbian; Rose is gender fluid and part of the LGBT community, but not Jewish, which isn't good enough for those who think the actor must check off all the same boxes as the character. Rose was attacked on social media and quit Twitter over the weekend.
https://twitter.com/negative_purple/status/1026896793202839553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1026896793202839553&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Freason.com%2Fblog%2F2018%2F08%2F13%2Fbatwoman-ruby-rose-disney-lesbian-gay
Both these incidents follow Scarlett Johansson's decision to quit Rub & Tug, in which the cis white actress had been slated to play a trans man. Eviscerated for taking a role that should have gone to a trans person, Johansson finally backed out of the film—a decision that GLADD hailed as a "game changer" for the trans community, even though the actress's departure means the movie might not even get made.
This feels a little like the debate over cultural appropriation all over again: many on the left, including and especially the campus left, do not believe that people should engage in rituals, or borrow from other traditions, or cook ethnic food, or wear ethnic clothing, unless they were born a member of that tribe. Similarly, an actor shouldn't portray a marginalized person unless they were oppressed in exactly the same way as the character.
But controversies over Rose, Whitehall, and Johansson also reflect the growing influence of "intersectionality," a popular lefty academic theory that came into existence in the late 1980s, and generally makes several claims: various forms of oppression—sexism, racism, anti-gay animus, economic inequality—are both distinct and interrelated; they "stack"; the sole authority on a person's oppression is that person. Thus, in intersectional thinking, we cannot and should not turn to Ruby Rose to tell the story of a Jewish lesbian, even if she's an excellent and hardworking actress who endured some of the same struggles that the character did.
Obviously, it's important to listen to the marginalized, and intersectionality has value to the extent it encourages us to open our eyes to other people's lived experiences—to listen and learn from each other. Acting, though, quite literally demands imitation: informed and respectful imitation, we hope, but imitation nonetheless. As we become more aware of the various kind of oppression that are out there—and adherents of intersectionality are always adding more of them; able-ism and size-ism are on the rise—it's going to be more and more difficult to tell complicated stories if we demand that the people involved are perfect intersectional matches. The likely demise of Rub & Tug (the film is in "limbo," but things don't look good, according to The Wrap) serves as a useful example.
I'm thus quite skeptical we should aspire to build a world where these cultural boundaries are more rigid—where the perfect is the avowed enemy of the good. I'll throw one more recent example of supposedly insensitive casting at you: there is a person who's furious about the rumor that James Bond, who has always been played by white actors and was written as white in the source material, will be played by Idris Elba, a black man, in future film installments.
"A Black James Bond would be an act of dispossession far greater than a flotilla of a million refugees," wrote this person on Twitter. "Refugees are, after all, refugees. James Bond is a symbol of British identity—indeed, the British empire—and of European masculinity writ large."
This person, of course, is alt-right leader Richard Spencer.
It would have been something to be a fly on the wall when the centenarian learned that his 12 year old great-granddaughter came out as a lesbian, but I suspect he probably wasn't registering much in the last few years.
Fans Outraged Gay Actress Ruby Rose Isn’t Gay Enough to Play Batwoman
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Moonbatwoman
Who the f*** will want to attend these movies?
Are there any sources of entertainment that haven’t gone over to the dark side?
>>the rumor that James Bond, who has always been played by white actors and was written as white in the source material, will be played by Idris Elba, a black man, in future film installments.<<
Taking lessons from Disney on how to destroy a very lucrative franchise.
stupid is as stupid does.
99.9% of the population buys movie tickets in addition to the .01% hedonists.
Nope, music, books, comics. Hell even video games have become saturated in SJW garbage.
there is a reason the comic book version of this did not sell.
Ruby Rose actually looks ethnically Jewish in that picture, but that’s obviously not enough for the intersectional crowd. I’d just wait for the movie to come out on DVD or Obamaflix.
A blackman can play Bond which is not the issue at all. Will this black Bond be played as the proper Brit? If so then watch the agony unfurl as the poor guy hears “Uncle Tom”.
White is a culture and a mindset. Race is really not a component. In fact if the left wishes to describe themselves as other than white I’m all in favor of it. In the meantime any liberty minded person regardless of shading is welcome to be white.
“More ink than a Sing Sing lifer? Check.”
lolol
In marketing, they talk about brand extension. You have to be careful not to run down the brand reputation (brand equity) when you use the established, esteemed name for products of lesser quality.
Does anyone remember the Cadillac Cimarron? They didn't even change the sheet metal from the Cavalier. That was brand extension at its worst... "badge engineering."
The same thing can happen with movie franchises. I haven't been eager to watch the latest Star War offerings. Nothing against Idris Elba, who has good screen presence, but it's shoehorning something different into an already existing slot. Might work with him, but in general, it's risky business.
>>Who the f*** will want to attend these movies?<<
The .001% who are “transsexual” and the smug virtue signalers.
Most will crash and burn.
They somehow think Black panther — a movie detested but my wife loved — means that small minorities (blacks are holding steady at 12% of the population) can appeal to wider audiences.
BP was about a black man from Africa — nothing else would make sense. (aside: Note the juxtaposition of 3rd world tribalism onto what would otherwise be a sophisticated society. It was like loincloths being de riguer in Buckingham Palace.)
Thus we have an African movie with Africans portraying them in an African setting. Makes sense and the story hung together accordingly.
That is NOT what these new PC roles are about. They are trying to glue character attributes onto known characters or archetypes and then expect people to spend their money cheering the disavowal of said audience.
She looks like she could really use a bath and a good scrubbing.
Bond. Jamal Bond.
One of the reasons I no longer watch their shows.
It's not the old days when there were only three channels.
The CW can pick up only a tiny sliver of the total TV market and still turn a profit.
I wouldn't think there'd be much of a market for season 14 of Supernatural, or season 6 of a spin-off of a teen vampire show that already lasted 8 seasons, or a dark, murder mystery version of Archie comics, but I guess they know how to turn the stuff out cheaply and there's always a small audience for it somewhere.
I get it. Michael Moore can play Jabba the Hut. But who do you look for to play Jar Jar Binks?
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