Very bad snowclone New Crowner: 02/15/12: Token Deity

I prefer God Is Not A White Male since it clarifies how broad the trope is.

But a deity being a white male would count if it's someone like Venus who is normally depicted as a woman. Or Anasazi who is normally black. And that would get a lot of misuse form deities made up for the work.

I still think it's the one that best explains the spirit of the trope, which is basically "God is represented by a race or gender that goes against common preconceptions."

It isn't completely accurate, but none of the other titles thrown out have been either. For instance, "token minority deity" or something like that would work just as badly when it comes to your Venus-as-a-male example.

How is Divine Token Minority bad? It's "adjective + Token Minority" to narrow down the nature of the Token Minority character in at least one major way, just like Twofer Token Minority, which has no problems.

edited 10th Feb '12 3:58:52 AM by MarqFJA

But a "token" deity isn't a token at all. Tokenism doesn't come into play when you make important figures minorities. Similarly, a Magical Negro isn't a token minority.

I think it sounds far too much like Exactly What It Says on the Tin but isn't even close. Any non-white male will be listed. Every goddess will be listed. The trope will decay quickly.

I really do think we're looking at this from the wrong angle. This trope isn't about tokens. It's a sister trope of Black Vikings.

The funny thing about Black Vikings is that they probably actually existed.

Token in that case isn't for the divine part, but the minority part. This trope is also actual tokenism in that it tries to play the race card (or gender or whatever) for PCness.

edited 10th Feb '12 9:20:48 AM by Feather7603

There is now a single proposition rename crowner for this trope here. If you believe it is premature, feel free to tell me that since I am not so knowledgeable about how crowners work these days.

Did Morgan Freeman really get cast as God because they were trying to be PC, or because he just has the right type of acting persona to project the character type they were looking for? I'm hesitant suggest that black actors only get jobs because of tokenism.

Obviously there's no way to know for sure, but the fact is that if a movie were going to try the "God is a white guy" thing in this decade, and not play it for laughs, there would be quite a few complaints about the Unfortunate Implications.

Crowner hooked.

Well, Morgan Freeman is a good actor and good at acting God. I think that getting such a role has partially to do with his colour, though. I can't say how much of a selling argument it was, but it was probably one of several. There is a chance they would have overlooked him if he had a different colour, but they would have overlooked him if he wasn't as good.

Personally, I like Whoopi Goldberg as god.

I'm going to be honest, I wouldn't mind naming this one for Morgan Freeman at all. I know it's breaking the rule, but it's so right.

How about God Is Not One Race?

I don't really get that one. God is omni-racial?

Alternate Deity Appearance Interpretation

That could work, but what if we translated it into Latin while we're at it?

Google tells me Alternis Deitatis Aspectus Interpretatione

I don't think that works well as a name.

Sounds perfect. Leave Token Deity as a redirect, maybe get a new page image, and we're good.

Do not put the title in Dog Latin. That defeats the whole purpose of giving it a clearer name.

edited 13th Feb '12 12:37:46 AM by shimaspawn

Odd God?

Well, enough joking. I still like Divine Token Minority.

This trope isn't about a Divine Token Minority, actually. This is going to sound really pedantic,, but this isn't about Divine Token-Minority. That implies a Token Minority that happens to be Divine. This trope is a Divine being that is a minority as a token. Two completely totally slightly different things.

edited 13th Feb '12 1:08:48 AM by abk0100

This trope is a Divine being that is a Token Minority, not one that is a minority as a token (unless I am misunderstanding the meaning of the latter). Females are only a "minority" in the sense that they have, as Twofer Token Minority notes, a "long history of their being marginalized".

edited 13th Feb '12 2:54:27 AM by MarqFJA

No, it's not a Divine being that's a token minority. A token minority is a character that was only added to the story for the sake of having a minority in the story. That basically never applies to god characters. It's the minority-ness that's token, not the fact that they exist. They're a Token Minority-God, not a Token-Minority God.

This trope actually has nothing to do with Tokens or minorities. Neither of them are requirements. It's just about showing a deity in a different form than their usual portrayal.