The Mary Sue: Hollywood has no idea what to do with Asian people. And, given the fact that Hollywood often serves as a reflection of contemporary culture, this is a major problem. Aside from casting us as goofy comic relief (Long Duk Dong, really) or evil mystical ninjas (come on, Daredevil season 2), they just don’t know what to do with us. The confusion and ignorance around what we bring to the table sometimes gets so bad that rather than try and find out who we actually are, they’ll overwrite us with white characters, erasing us completely from narratives that inherently belong to one culture or another (looking at you, Ghost in the Shell). Sometimes, to bridge that gap, they’ll even try to use yellowface, which (if you somehow weren’t already aware) is the practice of donning makeup and a really racist accent to look and sound Asian.
3 comments:
First off, shout-out to the Mary Sue, a historically well-written and timely feminist blog. Secondly, is this actually 2016? Because some of the contemporary examples of on-screen racism sound like they'd be much more at home in, say, the 1950's than today. However, instead of just decrying this issue, I'd like to propose a few creative solutions to these problems that plague Hollywood and Broadway alike.
For example, instead of sensitivity training and forums on privilege checking, why not force white members of creative industry to watch the film "White Chicks" with their eyes taped open on a loop for 72 hours, a la Shia LeBouf and his own movies. Then, once said white people get tired of the powerlessness to represent their own racial experiences accurately, one can liberally baby powder their faces, stuff them into Abercrombie sweatshirts, and pour Starbucks down their throats, in order to approximate the (all too kind) image that society has popularized.
Then, once the most physically demeaning experiences are over, simply replace the whole cast of "Friends" with every token black character currently present of the SyFy channel, and make People's "Most Beautiful Woman" Taraji P. Henson, instead of Jennifer Aniston. Then, make the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into historically accurate Japanese ronin, and erase all mention of the failed Dragon Ball Z movie from existence. Make every gangland movie about the Aryan Brotherhood or Hell's Angels, instead of bloods and Crips. Convert the "hot-tempered Latina" and "sassy black woman" tropes into "irate, slightly racist suburban mom who hates all service workers" and "rich white teen who wants to be black because it's "cool" but doesn't realize that said culture is actually a byproduct of systemic oppression, objectification, and other such nonsense perpetrated" by people like said rich white teen."
This is a very well written article in my opinion. It didn't seem like it was overly aggressive and I applaud the writer for that because many time when articles dealing with racism are put up, they walk the fine line of being so aggressive that I don't want to listen to them and being informative enough where it feels like a point is actually being made. I have many feelings on the whole idea of "othering" and casting other races in the place of a character that is explicitly of a certain race. First off, I am totally against casting white people to play any other race and it is certainly not okay if the original version was obviously meant to be for someone of another ethnicity. However, if the character is not defined as being a race other than white and if it doesn't necessarily matter to the storyline and the intent of the creator, it is not an issue. It's only seriously an issue when a white person is cast in that place of a clearly ethic character. I also completely agree with the article mentioning how the Western world distanced themselves from the Eastern World by slapping the label of a "mysterious, mythical" land and how that affects stereotypes even today. I mean, give me a fucking break with all the Eat, Pray, Love bull crap where you're going to a foreign, exotic land like India to "find yourself."
Here we are. Entertainment as a whole letting us down once again. I think that a huge reason many of these shows, movies, etc are cast with white people as opposed to the characters actual race (not as in a white person doing yellowface, but as just casting a white person and erasing the minority status of the character) is because many white people do not understand the social baggage that comes with being non white. As a white person, I will never ever feel what it feels like to be a non white person. I have never had to carry that baggage on my shoulders in a world that actively works against non white people. But it's the same reasoning as why you shouldn't just make a character a minority for diversities sake - a character being a different race should be a conscious choice in the story to allow that character to see the world differently. Scarlett Jo will never know what it was like to grow up in technology driven Japan in the 1980s, while another actress from Japan would already have that life experience. Emma Stone does not know what it is like to be a multi racial woman. And no matter how good these actresses are, they are taking a part of a characters development and burying it. It's like picking and choosing the perfect character - throwing away the parts you don't like and only keeping the stuff you like, and it makes for less interesting characters and story dynamics.
Post a Comment