she-hulk-smash:

The importance of casting in breaking open movie stereotypes.

This is a really great article. The writer talks about a casting exercise he does with his first year film students where he brings in a big file of headshots of actors of different ages, ethnicities, body types, and experience levels. He had his students come up with quick stories for the headshots he randomly distributed to them. He wasn’t expecting the exercise to turn into a lesson on internalized racism, sexism and classism that most of the students may have been unaware that they had.

The whole article is a must read for sure, but here is an excerpt of the writer’s observations:

Namely, for white men, they have no trouble coming up with an entire history, job, role, genre, time, place, and costume. They will often identify him without prompting as “the main character.” The only exception? “He would play the gay guy.” For white women, they mostly do not come up with a job (even though it was specifically asked for), and they will identify her by her relationships. “She would play the mom/wife/love interest/best friend.” I’ve heard “She would play the slut” or “She would play the hot girl.” A lot more than once.

For nonwhite men, it can be equally depressing. “He’s in a buddy cop movie, but he’s not the main guy, he’s the partner.” “He’d play a terrorist.” “He’d play a drug dealer.” “A thug.” “A hustler.” “Homeless guy.” One Asian actor was promoted to “villain.”

For nonwhite women (grab onto something sturdy, like a big glass of strong liquor), sometimes they are “lucky” enough to be classified as the girlfriend/love interest/mom, but I have also heard things like “Well, she’d be in a romantic comedy, but as the friend, you know?” “Maid.” “Prostitute.” “Drug addict.”

I should point out that the responses are similar whether the group is all or mostly-white or extremely racially mixed, and all the groups I’ve tried this with have been about equally balanced between men and women, though individual responses vary. Women do a little better with women, and people of color do a little better with people of color, but female students sometimes forget to come up with a job for female actors and black male students sometimes tell the class that their black male actor wouldn’t be the main guy.

…So what I want to say to Hollywood industry folks is that you have so much power to change the way that people see themselves and the world, and if you would just dream a little bigger, we would follow you. While everyone likes looking at gorgeous people, there are a lot of definitions of gorgeous. The way we are represented on screen hold meaning and power and consequences for us. You can take risks and still be commercial. If Machete can pass the Bechdel Test, so can you.

Messed up, right? It’s shocking how pervasive these ideas are. We carry them out without realizing it.

This is a great article that breaks down just how overt these stereotypes are utilized in film. Audiences don’t often notice it, but race is a huge factor in the types of characters people are “allowed” to play.

Okay, so I am getting very uncomfortable with people using “ghetto” as an adjective for something they perceive as trashy or considered to be very “urban” or stereotypically “black.”

I mean, do you actually know what a ghetto is?

In 1500s Venice and subsequently other areas in Europe, they were designated areas where the authorities forced Jews to live.

The most famous ghettos were the city districts where Jews had to stay in during World War II and subjected to miserable living conditions, and many inhabitants of ghettos were systematically killed by Nazis during the Holocaust.

And now ghetto described an overcrowded area in a city, usually populated by a minority ethnic or racial group. These areas are impoverished, have disproportionally high crime rates. These ghettos were formed over hundreds of years of institutional oppression by ensuring that poor people and people of color have fewer resources and fewer options on where they can live.

“Ghetto” shouldn’t be relegated to something you disparage people for because they look or act urban. Ghetto is a tool of systematic oppression and marginalization. So you don’t need to be comparing something that you think looks messy or poor or what you perceive to be very much in-line with urban African American culture in a negative way to be “ghetto.” You want to call something ghetto? Say that gentrification is “ghetto,” say that the unbalanced school systems are “ghetto,” say that the disparities between the rich and poor are ghetto. Cause those are actual analogies to what ghettos have done and the systematically oppressive accomplishments they’ve sought to complete.

The more I delve into the pro-life/anti-choice the debate, the more I hear pro-lifers scream at me over the internet and in real life, “What if your mom had aborted you?!”

Well I just want to point out how irrelevant that question is in my case.

First and foremost, my mom wanted to get pregnant and my parents wanted to be parents. Those facts right there are important because a lot of people don’t want to do either of those things and that determines a lot of the options they do or don’t have access to. My mom spent years planning her pregnancies, wanting to acquire her PhD and guaranteeing a lucrative career before having children, and she and my dad ensured that they were in a financial and emotionally stable relationship. She spent all of that time planning before having me and my older brother so that she and my dad could provide everything they could for us. She had the support of her family and friends, she had great medical care to ensure my brother and I were perfectly healthy, she had a stable career she could go back to, which she did soon after I was born, and she knew exactly how many kids she wanted and how she wanted to raise us. I’ve been fortunate enough to grow up in a wealthy and emotionally healthy environment, with a top-notch education and more resources and support systems than I could ask for.

But unfortunately, there are a lot of people who are not as privileged and fortunate as my parents were and don’t have those options. Some don’t have the financial or emotional stability, the support of their friends and family, the stable career, and a plan like my mom did. Some people don’t have the access to the adequate contraception, education, or medical care like my mom did. Some don’t have the supportive partner who is willing to put in the time, money, and care to assist in taking care of the kids like my dad was. Some people may have had all these things at one point or another, but got pregnant at a time when they weren’t ready.

So please stop suggesting that the circumstances that surrounded my mother’s pregnancies are the same as everyone else’s circumstances. People who abort are not automatically “bad” people just as my mom was not automatically a “good” person because she decided to have me, because the circumstances surrounding those who are willing to carry a pregnancy to term and those who do not have the options or will to do so are different.

Therefore, the question of, “What if my mom aborted me?” is completely irrelevant. My mom never would have, because she had the means and options to precisely plan it out. But others do not; other people don’t have the resources as my mom did, and certainly not the timing as my mom did. It doesn’t matter why someone gets an abortion, because it should always be an option, but it should definitely be available for the people who don’t have options like my mom did.

Translation: “I’m getting intimidated by your knowledge on this subject which I wrongfully tried to debate you in, because it is clear to me that I seem foolish and uneducated in comparison to your well-thought-out point of view and your passionate demeanor, so I’m going to back away by saying that people have opinions in hopes that I can keep my dignity.”

Certainly not true for all cases, but definitely what I usually feel people are really saying.

A White Savior Film (WSF) is a movie that features a white person coming into the lives of a person or people of color (POCs) who are often low-income, troubled, and/or severely oppressed. The troubled times that the people of color are in can be a product of oppression from other white folks, or their own doing. Either way, the White Savior comes in, quickly sympathizes with the problems of the people of color, learning what needs to happen to solve their problems, and in doing so, wins their favor and becomes their hero. Here is a list of some of these films:

• Gran Torino
• Avatar (Jake Sully literally becomes the Messiah of the Na’vi)
• The Blind Side*
• Hardball
• The Ghosts of Mississippi*
• Glory Road*
• Dances With Wolves
• Finding Forrester
• The Principal*
• Music of the Heart*
• To Kill a Mockingbird (slightly on the fence with this one because the savior Atticus Finch does not save Tom Robinson from being convicted)
• Radio*
• Cool Runnings*
• Dangerous Minds* (This film was based on the true story of a Latina teacher, yet Michelle Pfiffer played the teacher, thereby turning this into a WSF)
• The Last Samurai
• Wildcats
• Freedom Writers*
• Amistad*
• Black Rain
• Sunset Park
• District 9 (Also slightly on the fence with this one since the white protagonist mainly follows the plan of the oppressed alien that stands for a POC, and he is more of an anti-hero)
• Mississippi Burning*
• The Last Airbender (the TV series composed of all Asian characters, but the film’s three main heroes were cast as white people, while everyone else was of color)
• Dune
• Glory*
• The Ron Clark Story*
• The Help
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire
• The Road to El Dorado

There are a few different kinds of WSF. The most popular kinds include the white teacher/administrator that helps the students of color realize their true potential and help them overcome their own prejudices (The Principal, Freedom Writers, Dangerous Minds, etc.), and the white sports coach leading his or her team filled with usually poor and troubled people of color to victory (Glory Road, Cool Runnings, Wildcats, Sunset Park, Hardball, etc).

The more epic, and true “savior” WSF that many sci-fi films also fit into feature a white person who is often an oppressor happening upon a culture of people of color or aliens that are POC stand-ins. The white hero eventually assimilates into their culture, and he even proves to be more skillful than them as learns the culture. He becomes their leader and savior in the battle against their enemies (Avatar, The Last Samurai, Dances With Wolves, Dune, District 9, etc.) Particularly for the “epic” WSF, the saviors are male, heterosexual, and very masculine.

So what are the problems with these films? Well, they portray people of color as too desolate, too hopeless, too overcome by their own prejudices and circumstances to help themselves, so they need someone to help them. But not just anyone, no, this helper must be a White Savior. This Savior inspires the people of color, teaches them how to be a better them, and makes their lives better when the people of color couldn’t do it themselves. These films ignore the stories of people of color helping their own communities and helping themselves.

Hollywood, and many white people, eat these WSF up because white audiences can identify wanting to be the “savior” in POC’s lives, to be the one who rescues the poor POCs from their circumstances, to be the hero in their lives. They help alleviate feelings of white guilt by projecting white people not as the oppressors, but as the heroes who can save people of color from their circumstances, and often, the oppression that whites in the past have caused. Essentially, these films capitalize on the stories of people of color, yet instead of telling the film through their eyes, they are presented as stories of the white people who help them. The people of color in these films function as catalysts for the White Savior to learn his or her lessons and reach the end of his or her own journey.

* You’ve probably noticed that many of these films are inspired by true stories. People who defend WSF often bring up the fact that several of these are “based on a true story,” however, that doesn’t necessarily mean that all WSF are valid as a group. Rather, it shows that Hollywood has a greater interest in the stories of heroic white people saving people of color than stories of people of color helping their own communities or people of color helping white people out of bad situations. WSF stories are being used to support the status quo.

Is it racist to enjoy these films? No, it’s not. You can still watch these films and like them, but they are part of a trend that chooses to ignore the perspective of people of color, and feed into the White Savior Complex that really shows what Hollywood, and unfortunately, many white people have, so choose your films well and watch them carefully.