Social justice warriors are everywhere, of course. But one area they've long been very active in is the arts. Really depressing, because art is the very definition of self expression. And you'd hope that in a truly free and open society you can be true to your artistic vision and create whatever the hell you want.
But nup. Those right-on finger-waggers are there to tell you what's acceptable and what's not. Take that Nina Simone biopic. The perpetually offended arced up because even though the character was played by a woman of colour, she wasn't, er, colourful enough!
As this article about the furore makes clear, this wasn't the only recent film casting decision to enrage the cultural commisars:
The furor over Nina is the latest in a series of Hollywood controversies over not just race but sexuality, gender and biological status. Hollywood has seen the pro-gay film Stonewall boycotted for marginalising people of colour, the transgender film The Danish Girl criticised for casting a non-transgender actor as its star, and the upcoming Marvel film Doctor Strange blasted for giving the role of an Asian male to Tilda Swinton.
A common element in many of these complaints is that the actor himself shouldn't be allowed to play a character whose political identity he doesn't share in real life. And this standard isn't just being applied to movies being made now. Classic flicks from the past are now being dissected along these brutally simplistic lines.
Take this piece about how the casting of a memorable female character in James Cameron's classic Aliens was "problematic":
Aside from Ellen Ripley herself, the most badass character in James Cameron’s action-packed sequel is Private Vasquez, the tough-as-nails Colonial Marine who is almost always holding a big gun and leading her fellow Marines into battle with the Xenomorphs. When we first meet Vasquez, she’s doing pull-ups straight out of hyper-sleep, and when we last see her, she dies one of the most heroic deaths in the entire franchise. In between, Vasquez spouts off one-liners and blasts away Xenomorphs like it’s going out of style, and it’s no secret why she became one of the most fan-favorite characters in the movie.
What most did not realize at that time, and what many still haven’t figured out, is that Vasquez, a Latino woman, was played in Aliens by Jenette Goldstein, a freckle-faced white actress. It’s a testament to Goldstein’s acting abilities, to say the very least, that most never caught on to the fact that Vasquez was not played by a Latina actress, but what’s worth discussing here is that Vasquez was, well, not played by a Latina actress. In an effort to appear less white, Goldstein was outfitted with dark contact lenses to hide her blue eyes and yes, she was even covered in full face-and-body makeup to cover her white skin.
Which makes you wonder about what the ramifications of all this social justice activism are for the craft of acting. Hell, it has make-believe at its very core! When you play a role that a writer has dreamed up you become what you are not. And the measure of your skill is how thoroughly you can convince the viewer that you are that person -- and a real, living, breathing one at that!
But now in many cases daring to do that is deemed discriminatory by the diversity police. And if these doctrinaire numpties have their way, it may even become verboten.
Gawd. What a strange world we live in. It's like being in a bloody movie ...
Hollywood is disappearing up its own politically correct butthole. Just like the MSM.
ReplyDeleteNext there will be someone bellowing for a remake of The Naked Civil Servant, because, shock horror, John Hurt is actually STRAIGHT!!!