Diversity and Representation in Media

WTF is "not Asian enough"? Are they expect her to have buck tooth and bad accent?

"Didn't look Asian enough"...that really doesn't make it any better.

Did I claim that it made it better? I clarified what she actually said: That when she had the Chinese surname, she rarely got invited and when she did, she didn't have the look which was apparently expected from an aspiring actress who used to be Chinese pop star. Which isn't exactly surprising considering that it didn't even occurred to me that she was half Asian until they changed her hair to something shorter which emphasised her eyes more, despite her character already having been revealed as half Asian at this point.

Which to me points to three things:

1. I didn't give Ao S enough credit by assuming that they tried to pass off a Anglo-American Actress as half-asian (and that I myself shouldn't just pay attention to the official name of an actress).

2. Casting Agency apparently don't pay enough attention to pictures before inviting someone for a casting if they actually have a specific look in mind, and too much attention to a name if they don't.

3. Actresses with European sounding names have a way better chance that someone looks at them than actresses with foreign sounding names.

That is what one should take away from her story. And she deserves to be applauded to for not only speaking up, but also openly criticizing the MCU for not having enough female and/or Asian characters in it overall, considering that Marvel is her employer. What one shouldn't do is to construct her words as a criticism to the show runners of Agents of Shield, because she (and all the other actors) have been nothing but complementary about how inclusive the show is.

Edited by Swanpride on Jul 17th 2018 at 7:48:13 AM

I'm rather more inclined to be wary of anything involving Marvel and Whedon on the issue of Asian representation, given the track record of both in that regard.

For one the showrunner of Agents of Shield is not Joss Whedon but JED Whedon, and he honestly deserves to be judged on HIS body of work and not on what his brother did. And two, as I already pointed out, the show has two showrunners, and the second one, who is even more overlooked than Jed Whedon (I suspect partly because she just happens to be also married to him and there is this general tendency to give credit to the male part of a married pair in a long running working relationship even if both of their names are on the end-product), happens to be an Asian-American woman. Who just happened to cast two Asian American Actresses in pretty awesome roles.

Honestly, shouldn't we cheer this fact on and point to it as a great example of how much a show can benefit from a different point of view instead of going in a "but I hate Joss Whedon" mindset?

Edited by Swanpride on Jul 17th 2018 at 8:08:10 AM

Joss is still credited as an executive producer of this show. He's still credited as its creator. Maybe he's not as directly involved in this show anymore, but his name is still there. So I don't feel like I'm wrong to assume that he's still a part of it.

And Wright was credited for Ant-man. Doesn't mean that he gets the blame or the praise for the final product.

Joss Whedon hasn't directed of written one single episode of Agents of Shield since the pilot, and we know that he was busy with other projects during its runtime. It really doesn't take long to find that out. And in this case I just posted what his involvement was or wasn't one page ago.

Edited by Swanpride on Jul 17th 2018 at 8:19:34 AM

I'm aware he wrote one episode. I still have a hard time believing he had absolutely NO say or control over anything else in the rest of the show's run.

Why, because you think neither his brother nor his sister in law can do anything without him holding their hands despite having nearly as much experience in the industry as he has? They are the primary show runners, they picked the actors, they decide on the direction of the show.

Joss Whedon just doesn't seem like the kind of guy who is willing to cede total control over something that has his name on it. Though I suppose he might make an exception for family, especially if he's got bigger things on his plate. That new show for instance with Victorian era super women.

Edited by M84 on Jul 17th 2018 at 11:40:37 PM

Remember, Whedon is the guy who is unhappy that Coulson is still alive because he feels that it undermines the gravity of his own movie.

There's a Batwoman show in the works

https://www.themarysue.com/batwoman-show-coming-your-move-live-action/

And she’s described as an out lesbian in it.

Would that mean her backstory is changed then? I remember her original backstory had her outed because of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, so I’ve always been interested in seeing how her backstory could change since that got repealed.

It hasn't even been 7 years since DADT was repealed, they probably won't have to change it.

Dumbledore and Grindelwald won't share a single scene in Fantastic Beasts 2.

LOL.

Was it the executives? Or Rowling didn't found an appropriate scene for the former's homosexuality?

Who knows?

Kind of defeats the entire purpose though of having a younger Grindelwald and Dumbledore, I would think. Even without making the relationship explicit or including it, seems odd to not have the two interact.

Incidentally, I still can't over the casting of Johnny Depp as opposed to someone who comes across as a cultured and aristocratic German. Like Daniel Bruhl. Or if somewhat older, either Christoph Waltz or Thomas Kretschmann.

Dumbledore and Grindelwald not having a scene together in this movie actually fits in line with the books/canon. I believe it was in Deathly Hollows where Dumbledore says that he couldn't face Grindelwald for many decades up until 1945 when it became clear that he had to make a stand.

Edited by clockworkboy on Jul 17th 2018 at 4:18:47 AM

Isn't the Dumbledore / Grindelward relationship (whether the film want to portray its romantic nature or not) is the main selling point of the prequels?

This genuinely saddens me. Not surprised, just sad.

Even if they don’t meet in the present of the film, you could at least slide people a flashback.

This is something I’ve accepted will be a disappointment forever, because Rowling won’t ever deliver on actual queer characters.

I suspect she's afraid to screw it up. Accidentally play an offensive stereotype, or something.

I'm pretty sure the main draw of these films is "More Harry Potter!"

I agree, a flashback would have solved this.

You know, one thing I realized with the Mandarin twist in IM 3 wasn't simply just the twist itself but the majority of the discourse around it. While there were Asian people who called it out, these weren't the voices that got the most attention. The majority of viewpoints were either people praising the twist for subversion of Yellow Peril or angry comic fans who wanted to see the Mandarin as he was originally depicted in the comics, not for the sake of representation but because of slavish devotion to the source material.

These days, the Mandarin twist is a lot easier to criticize for whitewashing due not just to Marvel's other blunders with race but how many people are waking up to the problem of whitewashing in Hollywood.