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| Rue, played by Amandla Stendberg, 7th from the left. |
A friend of mine brought to my attention a blog that was written here and then upon some further research here, about these racist comments. But what I really wanted to comment on on this blog was on how representation skews our perceptions of what we think or don't think we enjoy - whether that's race, sexual orientation, or any other "norm" that may be somewhat different (including congressmen wearing hoodies). And that is where everything started connecting. When watching the documentary The Celluloid Closet in class, we learn that we think that this idea of being gay is wrong, because the normal representation of sexual relationships is heterosexual, but what we don't realize is that what we were taught to believe as an accurate image created by Hollywood, is actually skewed. Similarly, we act in the same way when it comes to race.
Back to the movie: People said that they didn't enjoy the movie because Rue, a character that plays a significant role in the movie - not in actual screen time, but in quality - was black and they felt that *SPOILER* when she was murdered, it wasn't as sad as when they thought she was some pure innocent white girl. This is all, of course, despite the fact that she is described in the book as having dark skin and dark eyes. God forbid the director and producer of the movie actually follow the casting descriptions, or that readers actually read the book if they are going to complain about it. My question is, regardless of what she looks like, when did purity and innocence become represented by blonde white children?
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| Ah yes, that face is obviously the epitome of evil. |
"Why does rue have to black not gonna lie kinda ruined the movie",
"Why did the producer make all the good characters black"
These are all quotes print screened from Twitter. (See, again, here for more of these quotes - it will make you question why your even living in the first place). It's sad, really. Amandla Stenberg is absolutely adorable - I have no idea how you can cast anyone anymore innocent-looking than that. But these people tell you exactly how, exactly what they think it represents - have a blonde white girl play the role.
I don't even know what to say here. I am become increasingly and increasingly more irritated and disbelieving of the ignorance of society. You don't care as much about the murder of a child because she was black? Because she's not the image of purity that you were expecting? Because she wasn't the image of innocence that you thought the character should have been represented as? This is the problem with representation - society has an image of something in their head and become offended when they can't understand, in their ignorance, that that image isn't true. We think that the image of innocence is this particular idea, and so there is no room for any other form of it, even if the only difference is something as insignificant as race. Thus, we don't desire or like anything else that doesn't fit that standard, or even take a step back and consider, maybe we are the ones with the wrong perception here.
You found me!
ReplyDeleteThe single person in North America who hasn't read the book or watched the movie!
However, I can still relate to this post and wonder if I can find it even more interesting having never had my perception skewed by the book or movie. When I read those comments and hear the feedback you post, I am appalled! But then again, I have no connection with the characters besides that I know one is really good at archery.
So here I am, hearing about these mores that are completely foreign to me and I have a hard time imaging them. So let's look at it in terms of homosexuality. Movies, media, social norms, etc. encourage over and over that homosexuality is funny and Other, even wrong-- so it is difficult to accept anything else regarding this into our totality. On the other hand, what if we started to make heterosexuality just as abused and mocked, then what? Would the tabled completely turn?
I hope we can get to a point that no party needs to be mocked by their sexual orientation, however, your blog is an excellent example of representation and agency: the representations that take place, and the agents we can be to change it.
I felt that the movie established the character of Rue much better than in the book. In the book she just appears as a deus ex machina during the games, but in the film they manage to introduce her character through several simple vignettes. I agree that the way she is described in the book implies that she is African American. And even if she wasn't who cares?
ReplyDeleteI don't know how familiar you are with the Avatar cartoon series, but this reminds me of a similar issue when the film version of The Last Airbender was released. M. Night Shyamalan was attacked by both the fans and critics for casting American actors in place of roles that were intended for Asian actors since the characters on that show were of Asian descent. This time he was in the wrong for this strange decision while the fans were the voice of reason.