Gender Busters, but still racist.

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ThomasHobbes
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Gender Busters, but still racist.

Post by ThomasHobbes »

I've just watched Ghostbusters 2016. I understand their was a bit of furore because they decided to select an all female cast for the busters.
Despite the idiotic response I suppose you could call this progress in some way. The 'bimbo' character is now male, and the smart sciency women save the day, yada, yada, yada.
In the 1984 original the sciency males were joined by Winston Zeddemore, as the 'extra help'. This black tokenism was seen as a positive back then as it was common to offer jobs to minorities as they would not otherwise get much representation.
Some things never change, sadly. Far from evolving from this absurd tokenism the 2016 film seems to have not figured out that black people can be sciency too. The fourth buster is a subway kiosk operative Leslie Jones.
Eduk
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Re: Gender Busters, but still racist.

Post by Eduk »

TH it is much better. Leslie Jones has some of the best laughs, which I think is more telling than their characters job. Don't get me wrong, not perfect. But a big improvement?
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ThomasHobbes
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Re: Gender Busters, but still racist.

Post by ThomasHobbes »

As far as it goes I think both GB films were on a par for gags. Though Bill Murray was a hard act to follow.
My fave was Kate McKinnon (?) who played the whacky techy really well.

I jus thought that in 30 years someone might have noticed that black people can be scientists too.
Judaka
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Re: Gender Busters, but still racist.

Post by Judaka »

What an absurd way of looking at things, movies now need to consider race distribution in order to not appear racist. The black character isn't a scientist therefore the movie is saying black people can't be scientists, amazing.
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Felix
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Re: Gender Busters, but still racist.

Post by Felix »

What about the ghosts, were they multi-racial? If not, that should be corrected, we certainly don't want to offend the dead.
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Gertie
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Re: Gender Busters, but still racist.

Post by Gertie »

Judaka wrote: June 29th, 2018, 1:29 pm What an absurd way of looking at things, movies now need to consider race distribution in order to not appear racist. The black character isn't a scientist therefore the movie is saying black people can't be scientists, amazing.
Your strawman is no less simplistic than suggesting that representaion in popular culture has no effect.
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ThomasHobbes
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Re: Gender Busters, but still racist.

Post by ThomasHobbes »

Judaka wrote: June 29th, 2018, 1:29 pm What an absurd way of looking at things, movies now need to consider race distribution in order to not appear racist. The black character isn't a scientist therefore the movie is saying black people can't be scientists, amazing.
Films are deliberate constructions.
This one overtly chose to put women in key roles, and chose to use a stereotypical black woman in a menial task.
Use your nut.
Judaka
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Re: Gender Busters, but still racist.

Post by Judaka »

Strawman? Actually what I said was less extreme than OP, who said
I jus thought that in 30 years someone might have noticed that black people can be scientists too.
Where exactly did I suggest that representation in popular culture has no effect?

You actually believe it's therapeutic for race relations that race representation in casting is interpreted as explicit or implicit racism?

I believe the resolution to race issues is to minimise focus on racial differences and highlight differences that actually matter. I don't need to strawman anything, if race is not an issue then races will naturally be casted in all roles.

The problem is that clueless, narcissistic people want to offer their help in the easiest ways, bitch and moan because that's all they know how to do, since they were born with the ability.

If this were the solution, we would be lucky, since it isn't, it's just annoying.
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