RACEBENDING.COM: v4

Just wanted to give ye olde fliste a head's up about racebending.com, which has been revamped and streamlined for better usage.

RACEBENDING.COM

Credit for the gorgeous redesign goes to racebending.com's organizer and co-founder Marissa Lee. Her hard, dedicated work on the redesign and the site content is just amazing. And kudos to the racebending.com supporters and organizers who also added further content to the site!

Please take some time to flip through the website and learn more about discrimination in film!

EVERYTHING'S EXCITING
Google reviews for The Last Airbender as see for yourself.
From my amazing co-activist Mike - The Last Airbender: Pre-Screening

What's left? It feels like Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, and Dev Patel are hanging out in front of the camera, telling you about all the cool stuff they saw while watching the television series.

From my excellent co-organizer buddy jedifreac - Preliminary Thoughts on Race and Gender in The Last Airbender

Minna: And then there's this scene where Aang meets an "Old Man in a Temple," who is this friendly old Asian mentor stereotype who is all affectionate to him and then backstabs him! It is a twist! And then there was the scene with the East Asian masseuse. Since they cut Suki out--even after bragging about including an Asian actress to play this character--that means that the most prominently featured East Asian actress was a woman giving a foot massage. What is wrong with these people? Even after all the accusations of racefail, they throw in that unnecessary stereotype. And what was up with the "African American" village?

Ken: They weren't African American. They were African.

Minna: No...M. Night said they were African American and that he didn't have to include them, but he did, to be diverse.

From my awesome sister bossymarmalade - but we must always be polite about it

Do you think he even recognizes that he's not the hero and never will be? He's already learned from the media and society that the darker you are, the scarier you are; when will he start recognizing his face reflected back only as villain, as joke fodder, as exotic backdrop?

From Roger Ebert (his review is up as well) - Face Painting

The studios underlying assumption about marketability and acting capability of White over Asian actors is insulting, and to claim that their production is “diverse” because they cast Asians as secondary and supporting characters ignores the bigger issue at hand – the starring, main Asian characters are portrayed by White actors instead of Asian actors.

I'll clarify my stance on all of this:

- I am not happy this movie was made the way it was. I am a fan of the television series and if there was anything I would have loved, it would be an awesome Avatar: The Last Airbender movie spearheaded by an Indian-American director with actors of colour as the lead, protagonist, heroes.
- I desperately wish this movie was one I could have adored as much as I loved the series.
- I sincerely hope the best for all of the actors in this mess of a movie, particularly the kids (Ringer, Peltz and Patel).
- I place all of the blame for every bit of this film's failure - from the casting, to the discrimination, to the script, to the marketing ploys - on the shoulders of Frank Marshall, Paramount Pictures and Shyamalan.
- I had once been willing to give Shyamalan the benefit of the doubt, but since he has given me no respect, I feel inclined to return in kind.

Of course there will still be people who won't read the reviews and prefer to pay for this film and judge the movie for themselves. Here is my one last plea to boycott this film, for reasons that might have nothing to do with you but has everything to do with the story of 'the other'.

http://glockgal.dreamwidth.org/379491.html#comments - comment on DW or on LJ. S'all good!

THE WACKY COUSIN
cidercupcakes discusses an issue: 'it is not the duty of marginalized people to educate privileged people, or to fit some gold standard of "niceness" in calling them out on their privilege'

Actually, while I fully 100% support what Cider is referring to (ie the erasure of a character's canon Jewishness by replacing it with Catholicism), her post translates to another important discussion of privilege that's recently surfaced on my flist.

I am tired of people complaining that 'privilege' is a word that makes them sick or sad or angry or annoyed or bored or omg too PC!!! or hypocritical or one of a dozen dismissal tactics that concurrently dismisses real, actual people. Hey - if you really do prefer to consciously dismiss other humans, then I'm have no interest in knowing you.

I'm unlocking a previous post for the sake of this one. Privilege, and its Wacky Cousin....Intersectionality!.
- most people who rail against the concept of privilege refuse to learn the concept of intersectionality. So essentially, they're being self-righteous about half an idea. Why? Why would they do this? Possibly because it's easier to do so, since then the becomes All About Them and How Hurt They Are by people talking about privilege? It's preferable to remain ignorant and not learn, because it's just too hard to analyse yourself? I don't know.

(sadly, I'm fairly sure people who need to learn and educate themselves won't be reading any of these posts. As I said - it's easier to remain hostage to one's own unchecked privilege.)

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THE LAST AIRBENDER

Why boycott The Last Airbender? From ssj10, her reasons: These Are My Colours*


(*While racebending.com does not encourage illegal downloading, I personally feel that's your choice.)

A friend recently mentioned that they wanted to see The Last Airbender on the big screen, because its trailers looked cool and it occured to me that they're probably not the only one. Here is my suggestion.

Wanna see The Last Airbender on the big screen?

Okay. Then how about this --

1) Try not to go on opening weekend.
2) Buy a movie ticket for another movie (Karate Kid? Toy Story 3?). You are sill paying for a movie, so you are being honest to the theatre, and to yourself.
3) Encourage your friends to do the same
4) Sate your curiousity, watch TLA

That's my suggestion.

LINKS

In a brief respite for the 30 Days of Me meme, a couple worthwhile links:
halcyonjazz - On Girls

if that character were written as a boy, would you have a problem?

racebending - This Month in Asian Americans in Comics -

characters of color and actors of color are less likely to take precedence, be the main character, to be vital to the stories being told. This isn't a coincidence, it's an ongoing trend.

ETA oh wow one more. Oh WOW.

shewhohashope - In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night

White supremacy is not just for white nationalists, it's so embedded in our culture that people can't imagine seeing it unless one was looking for it.

http://glockgal.dreamwidth.org/370374.html#comments - comment on DW or on LJ. S'all good!

GENGHIS KHAN
Tell me what you imagine when you think of Genghis Khan. Let me know if it's similar to a dude clad in thick fur and leather and metal armours, maybe with a little pointy helmet? Maybe bearded and mustachio'd? Looking all leader-like, definitely, right? Sword or bow in hand? Horses nearby (or he's riding one)? Completely kickass and badass right? - eta- because he wasn't exactly badass for mass genocide Leading an army and empire across the Asian continent, right?

Oh, and of course, Mongolian. right?

Well according to Hollywood, he's John Wayne MICKEY ROURKE.


MICKEY. ROURKE. AS GENGHIS KHAN.

I CAN'T. WORDS CANNOT EVEN EXPRESS THIS EXTENT OF BLATANT WHITE-WASHING YELLOWFACE.

I am so horrified. This is 21, Dragonball Z, The Last Airbender and Extraordinary Measures rolled into one ball of MASSIVE YELLOWFACE FAIL

Go on, someone - please play devil's advocate and justify how and why Mickey Rourke should play Genghis Khan. Please? I won't rage at you, I promise. I just want to know how this can be justified in ANYONE'S MIND. please, tell me?



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THANK YOU
Thank you to the darling anon who gave me one jolly month of paid time on Dreamwidth!! Eee! Time to stuff myself full of awesome icons! \o/

http://glockgal.dreamwidth.org/367130.html#comments - comment on DW or on LJ. S'all good!