people of color: we’re excited to see remakes of shows that have characters that look like us. it makes us feel represented and that’s great.
the whites who have 200+ shows with characters that look like them:
LGBTQIA+: it’s nice to see characters and romances like us every once in a while. it makes us feel represented and that’s great.
The CisHets™:
Women: hey it’s nice to see a movie with more than one woman where they’re not overly sexualized or a love interest! It feels really nice to be represented as more than an object for once!
Men:
Not all white people are like that.
Not all cisgender people are shit
Not all men are like that
IF YOU’RE “NOT LIKE THAT” THEN THIS DOESN’T INCLUDE YOU BUT SINCE U FELT THE NEED TO ADD THIS THEN CLEARLY IT DOES
In the delightful new rom-com Crazy Rich Asians — which consists of a principal cast entirely of Asian descent, a major feat in Hollywood — a college professor (Constance Wu) travels to her boyfriend’s old stomping grounds in Singapore to attend the most opulent wedding of her life. (And to survive the wrath of the women vying for her boyfriend’s attention. And her boyfriend’s intense mother.)
The film, an adaptation of the 2013 novel written by Kevin Kwan, is a major win for the Asian acting community, but in a new Hollywood Reporter feature, some behind-the-scenes drama nearly prevented it from being a faithful big-screen experience.
As Kevin recalled to the publication, he rejected numerous “lucrative” offers and instead optioned his film for a mere $1, forgoing a large paycheck to ensure he maintained involvement with creative and development decisions. This was, Kevin said, after one disastrous pitch strongly recommended he change the Asian heroine to a white woman, since nobody would be interested in seeing the film otherwise. (“It’s a pity you don’t have a white character,” he was told by the producer.)
i really like the advice “write marginalized characters but don’t write about marginalization unless you experience it”
absolutely i think cis people should expand their horizons and write trans characters, but they shouldn’t write stories about being trans. likewise i think allistic / NT authors should write about autistic characters! but not stories about being autistic.
represent us. absolutely. but don’t tell our stories. let us do that.
This is an excellent way of exploring/explaining that division, which is hard to express succinctly. Brilliant. 👏🏼
scarjo dropped out of rub & tug but please remember that that doesn’t make her a good person. she still auditioned for that role, she still took it, and the only reason she dropped it is because she couldn’t handle facing the consequences of her transphobic actions.
Concerning yourself with whether a celebrity you don’t know is or is not a “good person” in their hearts is a distraction from targeting discriminatory behavior that actually matters. What matters is Hollywood’s actual actions, and public outcry spearheaded by trans people resulted in a positive action here – if it was just “caving to public pressure”… good! That’s what the point of the public pressure was! Reward good behavior, punish bad behavior, and don’t waste time worrying about how celebrities really feel in their hearts.
It’s possible she’s actually learned. It’s also possible she hasn’t, but wasn’t allowed to get away with it. I don’t care which as long as she doesn’t do it again.
Exactly! The whole POINT of public pressure is to generate change – to then judge that change on the person’s purity of heart is pointless.
If the lesson here is “you fucked something up, you apologize, you don’t do it again, and your career isn’t (badly) damaged,” that’s good.
If the lesson here is “you fucked up, you apologized, you don’t do it again, but no one cares and people hate you personally forever and ever,” then there’s no point in dropping out of projects like this. Once the damage is done, they might as well continue on because people will hold it against you anyway.
You should WANT people to change. That’s the goal.
(And let’s not forget the shitty white man, Rupert Sanders, who cast her as a transman, and ALSO as an asian woman.)
Asian Canadian American Actors congratulate Sandrra [12 July 2018]
Sandra Oh, Canadian woman, becomes first Asian woman nominated for Best Actress in a Drama Series -an American award- for her performance on a British television show.
After winning her Democratic primary, Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, a Native American tribe, is running for the U.S. House in a strongly Democratic district in New Mexico. That means she may soon be the first Native American woman in Congress.
“Somebody has to be the first,” she says as she walks through the southeast neighborhood where her office is. “Native women, I mean we’ve been on the frontlines for a long, long time. Think of all the native women who have fought for treaty rights and fishing rights and all of those things.”
Haaland worked on President Obama’s 2008 campaign before chairing the state’s Democratic Party. But after thinking a woman would become president in 2016 and feeling let down, she says she decided to run for federal office. Because she says, she understands what it is to be working class in the United States.
“I identified with so much of what people go through in this district and in the state. Half of our population is Medicaid eligible,” she says. “I know what it’s like to be on food stamps. My daughter and I both are paying off our student loans. So, I just felt like I know what it’s like and we need more people who know what it’s like to struggle.”
Haaland is a single mom, went to 13 different public schools in the district where she’s on the ballot and says she understands Indian country.
“We have a president who doesn’t understand what the trust responsibility is to tribes or our history at all.” She says that’s a major reason why she’s running for Congress. “You want to have influence over people who are making decisions for one of the most vulnerable communities in our country.”
She’s one of a record number of Native American women running for office this year — a record number of women among a record number of Native American candidates. This year, Haaland says, is the year of women of color.
“This year, maybe we just all said separately, ‘It’s time for us to take the next step.’ ”
Then there’s Peggy Flanagan, a state representative in Minnesota now running for lieutenant governor. Her top campaign issues include access to child care, education and inequities affecting “children of color and Indigenous students.”
But also, she says, it’s an opportunity to educate people about Native Americans and to stop legislation that’s done to her community, rather than alongside it.
“Minneapolis is the birthplace of the American Indian movement and we have incredible history as well as infrastructure,” she says. “Oftentimes, it’s just ignorance … That we weren’t given these rights. We always had them. Educating folks on issues of sovereignty.”
There’s also Paulette Jordan, making a Democratic bid for governor in the conservative state of Idaho. She grew up on a reservation in a rural part of the state.
“We need leadership that will help defend the voices of the people and the needs of our community. There is no other option but to lead. That’s why I’m running for governor,” she says. “Balance in the voices of representation in government is wholly unique and very critical.”
wupacing 