And In Other Stupid News...

You would have had to be truly blind not to have seen this coming. 

This week Disney announced that they had cast Halle Bailey (NOT Halle BERRY) as the mermaid Ariel in the live action remake of The Little Mermaid.

Queue the stupid.

For some, it seems that the fact that an African American actress has been cast as Ariel is a problem.  Not because the girl can't sing (I understand that she actually can, so that's good) or act (no idea, but let's at least wait to see the movie before judging that) the part.  Nope.  It's the colour of her skin. 

Other actors and actresses have gone through this on both sides of the equation recently.  Scarlett Johansen took flack for playing the lead in Ghost in the Shell.  Jason Momoa took some as well when he was cast as Aquaman.  There would undoubtedly be a HUGE outcry if the rumoured casting of Michael B. Jordan as Superman ever came to pass.

Too white.  Not white enough.  Sigh.

Here's the thing that makes me sad about all four of those "problematic" casting choices.  Not one of them is a character that is actually human.  The protests are about the skin colour of a character that is not actually part of the human race.  ScarJo played a robot.  Momoa played a half Atlantean.  Superman is an alien.  And Ariel?  She's a mermaid.

Yes, each of these has a "standard" interpretation of the character as conceived by artists over the years.  Ariel is cemented in our consciousness from the Disney animated film as a red-head, blue-eyed girl above the waist and a green finned fish below.  I wonder how much outcry there would have been if they'd cast a white actress with blonde hair and taken the decision not to dye her hair?  Probably a bit, but not much.  What about a purple tail instead of green?  Again, the internet might have reacted a bit but not in any really newsworthy fashion.  But a black actress playing a mermaid?  For some that's a tint too far.

Again, for clarity.  She's a fucking MERMAID.  Not human.  Not real, even.  Her tail will probably be made by a computer.  It will probably be green.  She will talk and sing underwater.  She will magically be transformed (again by computer) to a two legged girl and eventually attacked by a villain who is half woman, half octopus.  In what reality is the colour of her skin relevant?

I am a huge believer in free speech.  It is the cornerstone of a free society.  I am all for petitions like this one.  They not only give us a barometer of the level of racism in our society but remind us that people will voluntarily and blindly include themselves in stupidity. 

Now if mermaids actually existed, not casting one to play Ariel would be protest worthy.  If aliens ever land on earth, I hope that shortly after we will see one play an alien in a movie.  I also look forward to a time when we will see protests over the casting of robots as humans.  Until then, it's all just so much nonsense.