Whitewashing: Because White People Are Sooooo Underrepresented

Left: Ghost In The Shell (2017) [DreamWorks Pictures, Reliance Entertainment, Arad Productions, Paramount Pictures], Right: Ghost In The Shell (1995) [Bandai Visual, Manga Entertainment, Production I.G]

Throughout my life, I rarely saw any brown people in the media, much less Iranian girls. When I did see brown people on T.V., they were either minor characters, stereotypes, or both.

Recently, I discovered a film called Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. All I saw was the word Persia and immediately got excited. I did some research on the movie, and lo and behold, Jake fucking Gyllenhaal is playing the lead role. A white man portraying a Persian prince. Disappointment replaced my joy.

Thanks, Hollywood.

Whitewashing: You Should Really Stop

Whitewashing is when the film industry casts a white actor in a non-white role.

The Last Airbender (2010) [Nickelodeon Movies, Paramount Pictures]

A classic example of whitewashing is Hollywood’s adaptation of Ghost In The Shell, as they have Scarlett Johansson play the role of Motoko Kusanagi, a Japanese character. Another movie guilty of this practice is Breakfast At Tiffany’s, with Mickey Rooney doing a racist portrayal of another Japanese character, Mr. Yunioyushi. There’s Aloha, where we have Emma Stone playing the half-Chinese, half-native Hawaiian Allison Ng. The Last Airbender’s cast is mainly white, despite the show it’s based on having no white characters whatsoever. Netflix even adapted a Death Note film based on the manga, Americanised it and had Nat Wolff play Light Turner (whose actual name is Light Yagami, but they changed that, too). These are only some examples.

The issues are that not only are non-white actors not given the same opportunities as white actors, but non-white people watching these films don’t get to see themselves represented. The latter is already a problem, so to have white people play roles made for minorities makes things worse. It’s a subtle way of telling us we don’t matter.

Reverse Racism isn’t Real, Karen

On the rare occasions that we get to see a non-white actor play a white character, those actors have to deal with immense hate (cough racism cough).

Let’s take the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, for example. In the animated 1989 film, Ariel is a mermaid with white skin and red hair. In the live-action remake, however, we have our protagonist played by Halle Bailey, a black woman. While there were fans who were supportive of the casting choice, there were others who were anything but that. From crying out about Ariel being white to telling Bailey she should’ve played Tiana instead, the young actress received a lot of negativity.

Left: Halle Bailey, Right: The Little Mermaid (1989) [Walt Disney Feature Animation, Walt Disney Pictures]

Let’s discuss why this specific change isn’t a problem:

1. Ariel’s skin colour has nothing to do with the plot. Having her be black won’t change anything in the story. Besides, you do know that mermaids aren’t exclusively white, yeah?

2. The people telling Bailey to play Tiana instead are only further admitting that black people have little-to-no representation. White people have more than just Ariel; they have Aurora, Cinderella, Belle, Snow White, Rapunzel, Merida, Elsa, Anna, etc. People of colour only have a few princesses that look like them. Black people only have Tiana. A black actress playing Ariel won’t change the fact that white people always have representation and will never need to fight for it.

3. “If the roles were reversed, and a white actress played Tiana, you would say it’s racist!” That’s because it is racist, Karen. Tiana being black is significant to her story. The Princess and the Frog is about her having to work hard to reach her goals given her circumstances (which is her being a black woman in the late 1920s in New Orleans). Besides, the roles are reversed; THAT’S THE PROBLEM.

Simply put, whitewashing is erasure; the other way around is minorities’ way of giving themselves the representation they don’t have.

Parting Words From an Angry Brown Woman

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time [Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Studios]

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: It’s not forced diversity; people just exist. I can assure you; it’s not hard to find a good non-white actor. There are plenty of them waiting for opportunities you don’t give them because diversity makes you uncomfortable. Give us proper representation so that no more children of colour have to look for it themselves.

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Shireen Agharazi-Dormani

An artist with strong opinions, a fear of social interactions, and one hell of a sweet tooth. Needs at least 10 hours of sleep and lots of hugs. Handle with care: very sensitive.

Queer Coding and Queerbaiting: No Homo! Unless…

Photo by Rene Baker, Unsplash

When people like to remind me that our society is so much better than it was about 50 years ago in terms of acceptance, I remind them in return that “better” doesn’t always mean “good”. It merely implies it could’ve been worse. When it comes to the LGBTQ+ community, they can get married now (in some places), they can adopt children (in some places), and they get to see themselves represented in the media.

Sort of.

Queer Coding: For a Little Bit of Backstory

Photo by Amy Humphries, Unsplash

For those who don’t know, queer coding is when creators give a character typically queer traits, all the while never explicitly labelling them as queer. This trope, for the most part, is neutral. It’s the historical context that’s the issue.

In the early days of filmmaking, the U.S. government discouraged any form of overt sexuality, fearing the influence the media had on the public. While LGBTQ+ depictions weren’t outright banned, shining a negative light on them was fine. This is where the problem with queer coding came into play. Male villains were effeminate; female villains, devious.

We can see plenty of examples of the bad guys being portrayed this way in Disney movies. There’s Ratcliffe from Pocahontas, with his concern for fashion. Scar from The Lion King is another gay stereotype, from the limp wrist to the sway of his hips as he struts. We also have Ursula, who was inspired by the late drag queen Divine. Maleficient, with her features drawn sharp to give her a more masculine appearance to juxtapose Aurora’s femininity. Etc. Etc.

Again, queer coding is technically neutral, and plenty of queer people still like these characters (including me). The problem lies in the villainization of queerness. Although we can now have LGBTQ+ onscreen, the harmful tropes haven’t gone away. Plus, another problem arose in the process.

Queerbaiting: Progress (Except I Lied About the Progress Part)

Queerbaiting is a marketing technique where creators hint at their fictional characters being part of the LGBTQ+ community but never depict them as such. It’s similar to queer coding, only the issue is they’re trying to lure in an LGBTQ+ audience by convincing them they’re going to get the representation they’ve wanted for so long. “Fake woke shit,” as I like to call it.

An example would be J.K. Rowling. With her only announcing that Dumbledore was gay after finishing the books and never showing his sexual orientation in the Harry Potter films, Rowling’s fans were rightfully skeptical. Even when the opportunity arose to show some proper representation in the Fantastic Beasts films, they got nothing.

We also have the live-action of The Beauty and the Beast, with LeFou and his little crush on Gaston. This comic-relief of a side character was already queer-coded in the animated film, but in the live-action, he’s just a little bit gayer. Staring at Gaston longingly and… yeah, that’s it. It’s enough that the producers can lure in an LGBTQ+ audience but not too much that they’ll lose their homophobic audience.

Fake. Woke. Shit.

Queer Words from a Queer Person:

Photo by Delia Giandeini, Unsplash

I’m not saying queer villains shouldn’t exist. What I am saying is that you should do more research when it comes to creating queer characters. When coming up with characters who are from marginalized groups, you must always take into consideration historical context. Even if you didn’t mean to write a gay character that plays into negative stereotypes, it’s the impact that counts at the end of the day. When creating a straight character, no one associates their flaws with their sexual orientation because people see being straight as the default; they see it as normal, human. Queer people don’t have that luxury.

The LGBTQ+ community has claimed some of these characters as queer; we don’t hate them. However, we shouldn’t have to decide their sexuality to see ourselves onscreen. Being LGBTQ+ isn’t taboo; we deserve to exist without being viewed as inappropriate. Even if accidental, creating a queer character that plays into harmful stereotypes can negatively affect the queer audience that is already so starved of seeing themselves accurately portrayed in the media.

If you don’t see the importance of representation, it’s because you’ve always been represented.

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Shireen Agharazi-Dormani

An artist with strong opinions, a fear of social interactions, and one hell of a sweet tooth. Needs at least 10 hours of sleep and lots of hugs. Handle with care: very sensitive.