Greetings Ladiez and Germtelmen!
'Tis I, the wonderful and amazing Titan Greybeard!
*fanfare with full band and brass section*
I am coming to you with another
article in regards to the topic of race and modern media! (Yaaay relevance!)
This will be a spiritual successor to an article I wrote on my blog (https://thoughtspillsite.wordpress.com/2016/03/21/why-daredevil-season-two-is-important-and-also-one-of-the-best-shows-of-all-time/
pluggity pluggity plug plug!) which talks about why racial representation in
modern media is important.
Why are you writing another
article on a similar topic I hear you ask?
WHY ARE YOU ASKING I DIDN'T ASK
YOU!?
*Ahem*
I am writing this article
because today the first press shot was released of Scarlett Johansson as the
female lead in the live action
adaptation of the iconic Masamune Shirow manga and anime, Ghost in the Shell.
Now, I'm not going to go into
what the show is about, 'cause you can Google that and check yourself, and that
isn't really what I want to talk about. The reason why I am writing this
article is because I find the question that this casting decision poses to
immensely interesting.
What question is that you ask?
YOU BETTER STOP ASKING ME ****
YOU M-
*Ahem*
The question this casting
decision raises is this: Can a film studio appropriate any character?
The short answer unfortunately
is: they can do whatever they want. Studios can appropriate any gosh-darn
character they want, whenever they want and **** all over them. 'Cause at the
end of the day: they own them.
Look at Superman.
Look at Optimus Prime.
I could sit here for the next
three days listing to you character after character that has had a film version
made of it that sucks big time and is nothing like the original character, but
there was nothing anyone could do about it. The two available options are:
either ignore the film (the sensible option) or do what I do and go in and see
it anyway even though you know it's gonna make your soul sad because you're a
massive idiot (the idiot option).
The reason why this situation
with GiTS (lol best acronym) is
slightly different is because in this instance, they aren't making the main
character a giant blue shell-suited muggle (looking at you Supes), but instead they
are completely changing the character's ethnicity.
To me, 'Heroic Identification' can
be used to describe when a specific racial group creates a character that they
feel they can relate to or embodies them and the way they live their lives in a
culturally significant way. These heroes are usually the pinnacle of whatever
society they have been appropriated by because they have chosen these
characters to represent them. Be it the specific characters themselves or the
stories and setting that they live in. This would include seminal works created
by an ethnicity that is specific to their culture; in this instance, anime.
For this adaptation, Johansson
is playing Major Motoko Kusanagi (I know right). The studio aren't even trying
to hide the fact they are changing the character from Asian to white, if they
are keeping the freakin' name the same. So why is this a big deal?
It's a big deal because now we
have an entire ethnic group that is down a hero.
Anime has always been an
interesting subject for me. I watch anime (lol weeb) and have done since I was
about fifteen years old. I used to run home EVERY SINGLE DAY without fail to make
sure I caught the latest episode of Dragonball Z. Then when I got older and
explored more myself, I found a whole amazing genre just waiting to be absorbed
into all four of my brains (I am an omni-mind. Duh). The appropriation of anime
by western cultures has stretched as far back as the original animes
themselves. Just by dubbing and cutting an anime, you could argue that it is no
longer "representative" of the original culture, as you are clearly
appropriating it for your own audiences. So for western-ethnicity fans of
anime, changing Kusanagi's race from Japanese to American probably doesn't make
a difference because, hey, you're getting a movie version of your favourite
show!
But the thing is, it does make a
difference.
Specifically to the people who
identify with it or who are already under-represented in modern media.
Looking at a study on the
percentages of ethnic representation by children's book publishers Lee and Low,
in Hollywood during 2013 only 4.4% were Asian and a measly 74.1% was White! I
mean, gosh now that I read that, it's no wonder they gotta make as many
characters White as possible!
So imagine now you are finally
getting a big-screen adaptation of a story and character that you feel
represents you: and they change it. When was the last time you watched a
Hollywood film that had an Asian female lead?
Without Googling.
I can think of Pacific Rim (and
she was more of a supporting actress than a lead) ...and...
...
Maybe when Pacific Rim 2 comes
out?
I know the counter argument for
this too, (because I'm psycho psychic!), is: "but amazing Titan
Greybeard, what about Chinese cinema and Japanese cinema etc. They already have
massive industries where they make their own films!"
They do. You're right.
But what about the MASSIVE
percentage of the population that is Asian that doesn't live in those
countries? That live in the West and they are bombarded with movie after movie that
have white leads? What the heck are they supposed to do?
Now, I'm not saying that all
racial changes are impossible or ridiculous. I've mentioned before in my
article on representation (https://thoughtspillsite.wordpress.com/2016/03/21/why-daredevil-season-two-is-important-and-also-one-of-the-best-shows-of-all-time/
plugzzzz) that there are plenty of instances where a character can change race
and still be true to the ideals they represent.
Idris Elba being Roland Deschain
in the Dark Tower is amazing casting. The character's story arc isn't reliant
on race (though there are definitely racial overtones in the book and it will
be interesting to see how they address them in the film) and thus it can be
changed. There was a call for the new Iron Fist to be cast an Asian dude which
I think would have made perfect sense, because as a fan of the series, I could
see how in this day and age he could definitely work as an Asian character. And
plus, you would be representing Asian people with another character that before
was white.
This is why changing the main
character's race in Ghost in the Shell
is a big deal. You aren't just making a movie here: You are completely
destroying an entire ethnicity's sense of self worth and potential to be
represented. Certain character's races are intrinsic in their worth to the
people they represent. One of my friends earlier today said to me:
"Imagine if they made Shaft white".
(Just gonna let that marinade
for a bit).
Exactly! How dumb would that
be!?
So what I'm trying to say it,
it's not that you can't change the ethnicities of certain characters.
But sometimes, studios just take
a second to think about the people they might be screwing over if they do.
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