this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2024
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I mean, even all the way back in Grimm, she's described with "skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony". Like I get what you're saying, but having very, very white skin is literally(literally literally) a central detail of the character. Hence the name.
I feel like maybe the answer isn't to keep remaking European fairy tales. Maybe the focus should be on, I dunno, folk tales from anywhere else? Or, God forbid, an original story?
Counterpoint: it doesn't matter as long as the movie is good. Literally who cares, take whatever parts of whatever old story, name whoever whatever, if the movie is good then great, if it isn't, it wouldn't be because it's not a faithful adaptation of half-remembered hudnreds years old story that was in turn half-remembered adaptation of a folk horror
It's a regional story. If it was an African, or Asian, or Latin American, or American Indian story, would it be okay to make the characters European so long as the story is good?
If your answer is "Yes", then okay at least you're consistent, but a lot of people would disagree.
If your answer is "No, because white people are disproportionately represented in media", that's exactly why we should prefer making media based on other cultures and regions, rather than endlessly remaking the same European stories so Disney can protect their IP.
But many people of Asian and African descend grow up with fairytales of European origin. Some of them don't have any relationship to the local stories from the distant places their families once came from. It's not ok that they can adopt European culture but are not allowed to participate.
While you're not wrong here, the race-swapping is still weird.
I am gonna say this as respectfully as I can.
But nah, fuck all that.
Skin color is absolutely NOT a central detail to the story, or to even most stories. What Grimm wrote in the original text has no bearing on movie being released today for new audiences. No one needs to beholden to fairytales as some sort of holy text that can't be altered because they are fiction, and old fiction at that. Death of an author is a concept worth debating about living authors, not ones that died 2 centuries ago. Fictional characters are whatever we say they are. Make her black, make her trans, make her tall, make her Indianian, make her a a him as a gay man, none of it would change the core story about a poison apple and a jealous sorcerer. Disney has already altered countless details from their original text, so to get precious about skin color in a movie with witches, spells and magic kingdom is just ludicrous and highlights your flawed priorities.
So respectfully, her skin color makes zero difference to the important parts of the story and if that's a problem for you, then it's strictly a you problem.
But ... she is literally called "SnowWhite"
Next you gonna tell me Cleopatra was not African American, shitlord...
you disgust me!
... /s?
What do you mean? She was born and raised in Georgia to a mixed family.
(/s)
Would that logic apply to traditional stories from all cultures around the world?
I sounds to me like you're trying to bait a discussion on the ethics of whether people "should" change the race/orientation/gender of characters in stories. It reads more like a statement of fact to me. Humans just tend to model characters in stories on themselves, regardless of the origin of the story. There's a million examples, here's one you're probably familiar with. https://sc.edu/uofsc/posts/2020/07/conversation_white_jesus.php What role does the color of Jesus's skin play in Christianity? What role does Snow White's skin color play in the story? Why or when would it be immoral to change those details?
Yes it is a fact. It happens all the time, every culture does it. It's never really a problem. I agree.
But I'm asking if @inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world feels that way when American adaptations of Japanese stories, have a white star cast in the lead. That's all.
Are you asking this because you feel strongly about it?
Feel strongly about what? I haven't heard how widely inb4 applies this idea?
At this point I'm just curious.
About time hollywood cast liz Warren as Pocahontas.
Break that glass ceiling!