I really liked this and I would also like to point out that audiences can sense when you are just being performatively lazy, race-switching a character for no reason other than to signal how cool and progressive you are. Looking at you “The Little Mermaid”
By contrast, I’m an old-school Spider-Man fan and I LOVE Miles Morales, because he is a new take on Spider-Man and is fully developed in his own right. The Morales character is NOT lazy- the writers did a lot of work to flesh him and his family out- with some nods to the original and some contrasts. And ultimately that shows a level of respect for your audience that I don’t think The Little Mermaid has.
Thanks Rick! This whole debate about whether people irrationally hate race/gender-swapping should've been settled a while ago when movies like Mad Max: Fury Road and Rogue One became huge successes and are among the most beloved movies of the past 10 years.
Fury Road had all the elements that the racists and misogynists can't ever tolerate: a female lead, who essentially replaces an established and beloved male lead, a storyline about toxic masculinity, groups of bad-ass all-female warriors, etc. Same with Rogue One, which had a female lead and a very diverse cast (which were allegedly why people hated The Last Jedi).
Yet everyone loved those movies because no matter who its protagonist was or what some of the messages the movie had, the movies themselves were well-made. If you truly wanted to just have more diversity and progressive messaging in movies, you'd constantly tout those examples as inspirations to follow. Yet I never hear the pro-Last Jedi types do that, which makes it pretty obvious that what they really want is: (1) more opportunities for the mediocre or outright untalented among them because making good movies is hard, and/or (2) cultural works that are purposely hamfisted and maximally annoying in their messaging as a way to taunt their enemies.
I call (2) the Tossed Salad Principle and may write about it soon!
I think it's a symptom of learned helplessness. We're more and more aware of all the problems and shortcomings in our world, at the same time it's clearer that our social and political institutions have no intention of making more than the most perfunctory changes. We were all brought up to think that our thoughts and actions could change the world, but the actual world is far larger, more complex, and intertwined than the media we consumed. So we escape. You can't actually lead a rebellion like Katniss, but you can identify with her, and make believe that your media consumption is somehow changing reality.
Poor Evelyn, she really is thrown onto the cross for not being sunny enough! EEAAO reminded me a lot of those 90s movies about dads who went through harrowing, mind-blowing experiences just so they could learn that family was the greatest adventure of all (Robin Williams returned to Neverland! Robin Williams went to hell! Bill Cosby died!) Only--in those movies the kids were kids, maybe teens at most. Evelyn is a bad mom to a twentysomething with a serious partner and a job, well into grown territory by the standards of any decade but this one. I suppose the real problem is that neither Evelyn or Joy are professionals, and therefore somebody must be at fault for something. (Lots of millennials and younger hated the movie because Evelyn didn't apologize enough!)
As the wise Nick Smith from Metropolitan said: "The most important thing to realize about parents is that there is absolutely nothing you can do about them."
If you want to see a new film in this vein that just came out, check out Pixar’s Elemental. It’s directed by an Asian guy who said that it’s based on the immigrant experience. The relationship between the fire woman (basically like Joy) and her family (like Evelyn) and the water man (like Joy’s girlfriend) all line up. Except this time it’s animated and for kids.
This is fascinating! I didnt see any of the films mentioned here because I'm not the target audience; watching people in their mid 30s lament that their parents didnt apologize to them as kids was so humilitating to see. It struck me that if that's your primary complaint is that your mom didnt say sorry when you were 10 and wont acknowledge she did anything wrong now that you're an adult, then you dont have real problems.
I also am firmly anti representation. Black people have had a Black president, Black mayors, congress men/women, senators, city council members. Black people have been in films for over a century, won awards and have had lots and lots of success as performers throughout the 20s and 21st century. And yet. If someone didnt want Ariel to be Black, they were racist. If someone didnt want Cleopatra to be Black (young Black girls need the rep!), then they were racist. When does it end? My feeling is that Black women want to be main characters in the imaginations of white people, which currently isnt the case. And until that happens, no amount of representation is enough.
Representation is about offloading your sense of self to private corporations so that you can feel empowered by the neoliberal order. I encountered this idea that most leftists are actually neoliberal, and I think this tracks. Changing the world just means that some of the capitalists and gatekeepers get to be Black too.
I also saw The Blackening over the weekend and have given up on college educated/Twitter inspired Black art (ie Harlem, Issa Rae's entire resume).
This post was perfect! I have noticed that Asians hyper fixate on representation, but never saw anyone call this out. Probably because everyone has funneled their energy into this, esp Black people, who consume a lot of pop culture.
I really liked this and I would also like to point out that audiences can sense when you are just being performatively lazy, race-switching a character for no reason other than to signal how cool and progressive you are. Looking at you “The Little Mermaid”
By contrast, I’m an old-school Spider-Man fan and I LOVE Miles Morales, because he is a new take on Spider-Man and is fully developed in his own right. The Morales character is NOT lazy- the writers did a lot of work to flesh him and his family out- with some nods to the original and some contrasts. And ultimately that shows a level of respect for your audience that I don’t think The Little Mermaid has.
Thanks Rick! This whole debate about whether people irrationally hate race/gender-swapping should've been settled a while ago when movies like Mad Max: Fury Road and Rogue One became huge successes and are among the most beloved movies of the past 10 years.
Fury Road had all the elements that the racists and misogynists can't ever tolerate: a female lead, who essentially replaces an established and beloved male lead, a storyline about toxic masculinity, groups of bad-ass all-female warriors, etc. Same with Rogue One, which had a female lead and a very diverse cast (which were allegedly why people hated The Last Jedi).
Yet everyone loved those movies because no matter who its protagonist was or what some of the messages the movie had, the movies themselves were well-made. If you truly wanted to just have more diversity and progressive messaging in movies, you'd constantly tout those examples as inspirations to follow. Yet I never hear the pro-Last Jedi types do that, which makes it pretty obvious that what they really want is: (1) more opportunities for the mediocre or outright untalented among them because making good movies is hard, and/or (2) cultural works that are purposely hamfisted and maximally annoying in their messaging as a way to taunt their enemies.
I call (2) the Tossed Salad Principle and may write about it soon!
I think it's a symptom of learned helplessness. We're more and more aware of all the problems and shortcomings in our world, at the same time it's clearer that our social and political institutions have no intention of making more than the most perfunctory changes. We were all brought up to think that our thoughts and actions could change the world, but the actual world is far larger, more complex, and intertwined than the media we consumed. So we escape. You can't actually lead a rebellion like Katniss, but you can identify with her, and make believe that your media consumption is somehow changing reality.
Poor Evelyn, she really is thrown onto the cross for not being sunny enough! EEAAO reminded me a lot of those 90s movies about dads who went through harrowing, mind-blowing experiences just so they could learn that family was the greatest adventure of all (Robin Williams returned to Neverland! Robin Williams went to hell! Bill Cosby died!) Only--in those movies the kids were kids, maybe teens at most. Evelyn is a bad mom to a twentysomething with a serious partner and a job, well into grown territory by the standards of any decade but this one. I suppose the real problem is that neither Evelyn or Joy are professionals, and therefore somebody must be at fault for something. (Lots of millennials and younger hated the movie because Evelyn didn't apologize enough!)
As the wise Nick Smith from Metropolitan said: "The most important thing to realize about parents is that there is absolutely nothing you can do about them."
If you want to see a new film in this vein that just came out, check out Pixar’s Elemental. It’s directed by an Asian guy who said that it’s based on the immigrant experience. The relationship between the fire woman (basically like Joy) and her family (like Evelyn) and the water man (like Joy’s girlfriend) all line up. Except this time it’s animated and for kids.
Damn this is good. Especially your concluding insights - like these artists haven't read a single John Donne line, haha!
Thanks Sunny!
This is fascinating! I didnt see any of the films mentioned here because I'm not the target audience; watching people in their mid 30s lament that their parents didnt apologize to them as kids was so humilitating to see. It struck me that if that's your primary complaint is that your mom didnt say sorry when you were 10 and wont acknowledge she did anything wrong now that you're an adult, then you dont have real problems.
I also am firmly anti representation. Black people have had a Black president, Black mayors, congress men/women, senators, city council members. Black people have been in films for over a century, won awards and have had lots and lots of success as performers throughout the 20s and 21st century. And yet. If someone didnt want Ariel to be Black, they were racist. If someone didnt want Cleopatra to be Black (young Black girls need the rep!), then they were racist. When does it end? My feeling is that Black women want to be main characters in the imaginations of white people, which currently isnt the case. And until that happens, no amount of representation is enough.
Representation is about offloading your sense of self to private corporations so that you can feel empowered by the neoliberal order. I encountered this idea that most leftists are actually neoliberal, and I think this tracks. Changing the world just means that some of the capitalists and gatekeepers get to be Black too.
I also saw The Blackening over the weekend and have given up on college educated/Twitter inspired Black art (ie Harlem, Issa Rae's entire resume).
This post was perfect! I have noticed that Asians hyper fixate on representation, but never saw anyone call this out. Probably because everyone has funneled their energy into this, esp Black people, who consume a lot of pop culture.