Identity Politics Is Undermining Entertainment - A Video Essay

Quotas, colourblind-casting, snubbed source material and character-swaps - Identity politics in entertainment

[monovatherealest]

Me when I don't understand the basic premise of Wicked:

[Bucketus.Lord.of.Buckets]

My favourite thing about the pakistani feminist star wars director:

The work that made her famous was a documentary "telling the stories" of pakistani women who were abused. So journalism/documentary. She said she would pay the women to tell their stories. That is *highly* unethical for a journalist to do. Anyway. She never paid them and got all the cash and prizes. She exploited women for a documentary about exploited women, which made her famous and no one seems to care

[neilprice]

I once saw a TV movie by an African theater company where they made a version of Othello. They race swapped everyone, making Othello a white bloke and set it in an African nation and not a European one. A few sentences, character names and place names were altered slightly for the change in location, but everything else was kept as close to Shakespeare as possible. It was GOOD and as it was an experiment in changing a story from one culture to another it had merit. Randomly changing a characters race, gender, gender identity and/or s£xuality and doing nothing constructive or interesting with the change is just boring as f*ck

[Strugen.]

The Tin Man had more heart than Hollywood does now

[glitchgoblin]

Wicked is literally about a woman who's judged for her skin color

[andrewbobb]

I will disagree on one point: Karens are not defined by skin color. Karens are found in every race, color, creed, ethnicity, and gender.

[hadayimosi]

They no longer make entertainment for the masses, they make content for their like-minded peers and if you don't support their messages by paying to see it, then you are labelled as their enemy and _must_ be silenced, re:educated... or worse.
There used to be a word for that sort of mindset.

[thethrashyone]

"Don't reimagine, just imagine."

There are no other words that Hollywood needs to hear more than these four.

[tris]

how dare hollywood cast a black woman for a character who misjudges by people just because of her skin color🙄

[artapples]

As an asian I've never felt the need to have an asian in a film for any reason. I grew up as a hardcore Star Wars fan and never for one moment thought hold up where's the asian. I don't know who these films are pandering too with their diversity but from everyone I speak too (foreigners) not a single one has ever expressed or thought there should be more foreign representation in any film. In fact the opposite, I always find it jarring if I'm watching say a historical English drama based in the 17th Century and they have kings, etc who are black. It's just not correct and actually spoils the show for me. If I see historical English drama's I want to see white english people, if I see historical african dramas I want to see black people etc

[kayskaht]

Yes, as a black woman who is sick of the stupid pandering, I live for these videos!

[danielmartin]

"Develop a diversity of entertainment, not a homogenous approach to all entertainment." Perfectly stated.

[armondtanz]

Weird when you tell people this is happening and they go what are you talking about'... Then 5 minutes late they say 'bah all modern movies suck' and then you ask 'why do they suck... Its like your on a merry go round trying to tell people who just cant see it...

[ALROD]

It’s basically American sensitivities being thrown in the world as if every culture shares the same sensitivities because they got the studios.

[AngelIndarkness]

I think you skipped the part when Ariana Grande says “You’re green!” in the trailer

[markmunroe-hzrf]

This is why in my opinion good indie productions such as comics, animation and movies are on the rise.

[lolameyer]

Elphaba's story is about the racism that she faces because of her green skin.. It's also due to her green skin that she is labeled as "Wicked". Cynthia Erivo is a fantastic actress and singer. Elphaba has been played by many different races in the musical.

[theenchantedrose]

“Don’t reimagine. Just imagine.”
- That’s just beautiful.

[dietdrpepper]

There is currently a black actress playing Glinda ON broadway.

[FatNorthernBigot]

It's worse behind-the-scenes. Looking at anything written beyond say, 2016, there's a huge nosedive in terms of quality. I believe this is because "hiring on merit" is a thing of the past. ☹