LISTEN!
Everyone tends to have a strong opinion on Political Correctness so I thought why don't we try and have a chat about that and ask what people think. Can it be a problem in comics and other creative works? I was inspired by a video by Youtuber Metaron. He was talking about the decision to put a black actor in the role of Greek mythical figure Achilles in a BBC series about the fall of Troy and questioning the reasoning for it given that being a blonde haired incarnation of the sun-god Apollo is a huge part of the character. My main issue is that the actor is as bald as an egg! At least give him a blonde wig, I don't care how silly it looks. To be fair Achilles has rarely been portrayed well on the big screen, there was Brad Pitt's petulant version in Troy and an even balder Joe Montana in Helen of Troy! Do we spoil creative works by trying to be too inclusive or not being inclusive enough?
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Wanted dead or dead: Welcome to a much cooler version of the old west… we open on a widescreen panorama shot of a dry, dusty desert scene and a lone cowboy all in black, kicking his toe in the dirt. This music is as warm as the hot desert breeze, the guitar is as hard as gunmetal.
Topics and shownotes
Featured comic:
Empress Mother Earth's Handmaiden - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2018/apr/17/featured-comic-empress-mother-earths-handmaiden/
The things that inspired the cast:
Metatron's video on the subject of Black Achilles - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZH35n7SxW8&t=0s
Troy: Fall of a City - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5103758/
Helen of Troy - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340477/
Troy - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0332452/
PLEASE TEST OUR COMMENT REPLY SYSTEM!
Comment reply notifications newspost - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2018/mar/23/test-the-comment-notifications-today/
Reply Notifications - http://next.theduckwebcomics.com/user/replies
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Emma Clare - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Emma_Clare/
Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Banes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Ozoneocean - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Featured music:
Wanted dead or dead - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Wanted_Dead_or_dead/, by MayelV, rated T.
Quackcast 371 - PC GORN MAD!!
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, April 24, 2018
Banes,
Drunk Duck,
Emma Clare,
Empress Mother Earth's Handmaiden,
featured comic,
featured theme,
Gunwallace,
Ozoneocean,
PC GORN MAD!!,
podcast,
Quackcast 371,
Tantz Aerine,
Wanted dead or dead,
Webcomics community
6 likes!
©2011 WOWIO, Inc. All Rights Reserved Mastodon
El Cid at 4:40AM, April 24, 2018
Dennis Rodman could have pulled it off.
Ozoneocean at 4:35AM, April 24, 2018
Whoever he is he needs the blonde hair.
El Cid at 4:35AM, April 24, 2018
You can spoil a creative work by being too inclusive or by being not inclusive enough. Ridley Scott's 'Black Hawk Down' was criticized -- appropriately, in my opinion -- because the black actors it used to portray the Somali militia look nothing like ethnic Somalis. The film is not inclusive enough. On the other hand, if you're doing an historical work set in a specific time and period with a distinct historical ethnic makeup, then it makes no sense to throw in a black actor just Because Inclusivity. I'm not an expert, but I'm not aware of any depictions of Achilles from around the time of Homer where he was portrayed as an ethnic Ethiopian, as they would have called him.
bravo1102 at 4:34AM, April 24, 2018
So long as they do a good job it doesn't matter. The recent BBC The Hollow Crown had black actress Sophie Okonedo as Queen Margaret who historically was French. But she was so good that it didn't matter. There is PC and there is diversity. I saw a nice production of Hamlet where King Claudius was played by a black actor and Hamlet was white. It actually added racial tension even though no one ever mentioned it. PC is when free speech is shut down often because of guilt and imagined aggression and you end up with snowflakes. Dinesh D'Souza is one guy to read about that in Illiberal Education from 1991. There is also the classic Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom. Those two books really give the best definition of what PC is as opposed to TV and radio talking heads.
Tantz_Aerine at 4:00AM, April 24, 2018
An animated duck achilles would be fine, as I assume both the acheans and the trojans would all be ducks as well, or waterfowl. A black achilles would be great if all the acheans and the trojans were also black, and troy set somewhere in africa, rather than pose as an accurate representation (and not a reimagining) of the epic tale. The problem with all these things that people oppose (including a lot of relevant professors) is that they give a distorted impression of reality where it relates to the past, to history, and the experience of people in those historic times. It's also cultural appropriation. I assume that should be offensive for all cultures, not only some of them.
Ironscarf at 3:04AM, April 24, 2018
Political correctness is just a buzz phrase someone coined, which caught on because it can be used as a stick to beat any kind of social progress they don't approve of and anyone who speaks up when they complain about said progress. A handy tool to shut down discussion. Personally I don't care whether Achilles is black, white, man, woman or duck, so long as they do a good job. Would anyone complain about an animated duck Achilles? Of course they wouldn't, but a black Achilles is somehow a step too far???