A Controversy to Blow you Away
M. Night Shyamalan has decided to cast white actors in the main roles of the upcoming motion picture based on the TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender. The problem: Avatar featured an Asian world with Asian characters, including Aang, the titular character, and his friends Sokka and Katara.
Some people are pissed, pointing to other instances of whitewashing. There’s a letter writing campaign and a Facebook group.
Bingo anyone?
So now what? I’m tired of reading the LJ drama aroudn all of this; but here’s what I was going to post about this somewhere else:
I dig on the Airbender; it’s clever and funny. It’s not as smart as Phineas and Firb but what is on Saturday mornings? All that said, I don’t get this outrage at all.
Not a bit.
I’m not from North America, I come from a culture that is as old as any other, but I don’t “get” when people (who are predominantly not a member of my cultural group) both co-opt and defend my group. It’s my culture guys, if I want to defend it, let me handle the heavy lifting.
I can’t speak for the billions of Asians, no way, but I can speak for me and let me simply state what the outraged seem to fail to grasp, there is a vital and vibrant Asian film production market, Asians get to churn out all shades of asian movies all the time. If an Asian film maker wants to make a movie that resembles the Airbender story (let’s face it, it’s REALLY generic) with an all Thai cast (for example) then so be it.
In this case a Malay person is at the reigns (for the most part) and has cast some box office candy in the roles. This outrage really smacks of Otaku-Fanism, as if sharing your toy with the unwashed masses will somehow dilute the experience. I’m not grasping how this is Racist at all, it might be a bit desperate or money grubbing, but Racist? Please.
Me, I don’t know if I will pay to see a movie adaption of Avatar, why bother, right? The cartoons are out there for me to watch with the kids if I want. Why waste cash on what is bound to dilute the experience by virtue of not being the source material.
The last movie I saw that really expanded upon and made the source material pop was Trainspotting, so I don’t think any adaption cum money grab is going to shake any trees.
If you are REALLY outraged, vote with your feet and just avoid the damn thing.
I (for one) will be disappointed if they do recast the roles that have already been set; I’d hate to lose a job over my ethnicity, wouldn’t you? That kind of sums it up right there, in some way there are people out there so obsessed with their own ethnicity that it allows them to attempt to victimize others (en-masse) to somehow promote and protect that ethnicity. Imagine if there had already been a full cast of Asians in place and the reverse was now true? A bunch of European fans get together and form groups around demands for Caucasian actors in the roles of the title character and the blind girl (along with most of the people in the snow kingdom) then what?
In the end; the source material stands and the movie will be the movie. If you feel that strongly about the movie’s cast, by all means, feel strongly about it, but why impose your beliefs upon the general public? Avatar isn’t some cultural phenomenon like “Kung-Fu” it’s a somewhat well known Nick cartoon, the general public isn’t down with it, so it doesn’t have a cultural cache to pull from, it’s got a studio, some creative types and a need to make money. If we (as the general public) could have our dreams casts in our favourite movies Pierce Brosnan would have been bond right after Roger Moore and the Next Doctor might have been Joanna Lumley (or Rowan Atkinson) but we don’t get our dreams. Do we?
Fight on you crazy stars, it’s your right to complain about casting choices, but damn if I wish that the racism card wouldn’t be tossed around so quickly, and this is coming from a guy who actually profiles racists on his blog. I know that the last qualifier reads like “I can’t possibly be racist” which is the furthest from the truth, I totally can be racist and catch myself being so. It’s one of those human failings that we should recognise in ourselves.
The whole discussion of “I don’t see people like me on the screen” argument blows me away. Seriously. Outside of imported TV, I don’t see anyone like me on TV either, and when I do see someone like me on North American TV or Movies, they are buffoons (without fail). So What? Should I bitch about it and keep a blog of how offensive it is? OR have I learned one of the big lessons about life that some folks still need to learn, the prevailing culture of North America is a melange of cultures that end up in a stew or milieu that doesn’t actually reflect society instead it distorts society for it’s own entertainment, which the majority seems to like. Case Closed.
As for “I can’t Be Ang if Ang isn’t Asian on screen” what? How did you kill that kid’s imagination? Is it drugs? Seriously, that kid is having trouble seperating themselves from cartoons as fantasy.
Crossposted from: http://blog.nitemayr.com/2008/12/23/a-controversy-to-blow-you-away/