Suzanne Collins herself was not only present for the casting process, but actively participated in choosing who played the characters that SHE WROTE. So if she had pictured Katniss as a POC, I HIGHLY DOUBT she would have allowed them to ask for Caucasian females when they released the audition/casting details. Not to say it wasn’t racist for them to ask for Caucasian females specifically, but that was how Suzanne and the casting directors phrased it.
To those of you who think Suzanne was pressured into it, do you honestly think Suzanne would have allowed herself to bend to that sort of pressure? She would have at least asked them to ALLOW girls of color to try out had she imagined Katniss that way. She is a strong woman who could have easily defended her choice of character’s race.
Not to mention, as I stated in the last post I wrote on the matter, she specifically said she never intended them to be bi-racial.
Also “It’s in the future and things were moved around” while it may not have the same name, District 12 IS in the Appalachian Region, the region I currently live in. We simply do NOT have a lot of POC here. Racism is still very rampant is this area and it is not uncommon to hear foul terms like “nigger” spewed often. Even if this is futuristic, I can’t imagine an excess of POC moving here and producing a whole group of biracial people (The Seam people, who again, Suzanne said she never intended for them to be biracial)
Also, while yes, it is POSSIBLE for POC to produce offspring with grey eyes, it is not common. You can argue this point and tell me I don’t know anything about genetics (when in fact I made great grades in that particular section of all my biology classes throughout high school and college) all you want but the fact of the matter is brown eyes are dominant, and MOST POC (from ANY part of the world) tend to have brown eyes. In order to have blue or grey eyes (Prim & Katniss respectively) they would both have to have both recessive genes. With just them you can argue that since their father was similar to Katniss (and therefore had recessive traits himself) that this is possible, but for the WHOLE GROUP of seam people to look similar to them and still be considered POC, it just is not at all likely. Not to mention the fact that Suzanne herself said that she had never intended them to be that way. She was there and an active participant while Gale, Haymitch, and Katniss were all cast. All of them Caucasian. She still to this day say they did a wonderful job portraying HER characters.So that is what it comes down to. Regardless of how you feel on the subject, the woman who wrote the books, and everyone who brought the books to life, imagined Katniss as Jennifer Lawrence portrayed her. The thought she was the best so they cast her in the role. A role which most of us out there seem to think she did an absolutely wonderful job with. Whether you like it or not she will continue to portray Katniss all through the series.
But hey, if you think you know better than the author herself and the casting directors, please continue with your ignorance. It really must be blissful. I’m going back to reblogging pictures of animals, beautiful women, awesome nature scenes, and user-made graphics from my respective fandoms (including the mostly white cast of THG) now. Feel free to keep whining about a cast that has already made MILLIONS with these movies. I’m sure they’re all real concerned about your opinions.
(Edited side note: The Hunger Games is NOT about the oppression of POC. If you notice, there were plenty of POC in the capitol. The Hunger Games is about the oppression of ALL people, and the rebellion that should ensue when we have our liberties taken away from us. It is, in it’s own way, a political statement about abuse of power. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE. STOP TWISTING IT INTO SOMETHING IT IS NOT. Also, yes, some of the other nameless tributes could, and possibly should have been POC, but the fact of the matter is, we have no idea why those particular people were chosen and there is nothing we can do to change the movie now that it has been made and released.)I don’t even know how to deal with this kind of bullshit in my tags anymore.
Suzanne said that they were mixed. She said that there has been ethnic mixing in the Seam and District 12. You know what she also said? She said that they can use makeup to show that ethnic mixing. That is blackface. This is not a woman to trust with racial affairs especially considering that she is white and thus privileged. [x]
Moreover, authorial intent is moot when interpreting a text. It is fucking moot. The text tells us that Katniss is a woman of color, what Collins says outside of the text to the otherwise does not matter.
Uncommon for PoC of gray eyes to exist, you say? Go to the Middle East. Go to Afghanistan and see the Pashtun people. Go to Turkey. Look at any light-skinned Latin@—or even medium to dark skinned for that matter—peoples and see how diverse their features are. The idea of PoC being solely dark-skinnned, dark-haired, dark-eyed people comes from a place of ignorance and inexperience with PoC themselves.
“The Hunger Games is NOT about the oppression of POC.” Delete your blog. Delete it now. District 11 serves as a metaphor for slavery. The people there are canonically black, canonically African American. They work in the fields. They work under merciless conditions. They are subjected to punishments of historical weight such as whipping. They are victim to police brutality. Moreover, there are unmistakable patterns of color in the books. Gale and Thresh are compared in text to each other in the first book. There’s a sense of owing respective to the Seam that the District 11 tributes also understand. Seeder who is explicitly African American is described as having the same olive skin as people of the Seam, so much so that she could fit in the Seam. Haymitch and Chaff are best friends. As a matter of fact, Haymitch introduces Katniss foremost to Chaff and Seeder in Catching Fire.
Now let’s go to District 12 itself. There’s a racial disparity there between merchants and miners. Only poverty, you say? Then why the fuck is it reinforced by physical appearance? Why the fuck do Prim and her mother look out of place in the Seam with their—get this—blonde hair and blue eyes, the whitest features that anybody could have? The racial narrative is fucking blatant. Stop trying to deny it.
You live in Appalachia and you think that no PoC would move there of their free will? You make me laugh. Since when did any of the characters in The Hunger Games have free will as to where they can move? They can’t leave their districts. They can’t travel between districts upon penalty of beng shot. The fact that District 11 and District 12 are so near each other only proves that PoC were grouped into specific districts, hence the institutional racism.
Moreover, you really may not know much aout the region in which you live because Melungeon Native Americans live in Appalachia. They have even mixed with people of European descent. From Wikipedia
[Melungeon] is a term traditionally applied to one of a number of “tri-racial isolate” groups of the Southeastern United States, mainly in the Cumberland Gap area of central Appalachia, which includes portions of East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and East Kentucky. Tri-racial describes populations thought to be of mixed European, sub-Saharan African and Native American ancestry. Although there is no consensus on how many such groups exist, estimates range as high as 200.[1][2] Melungeons were often referred to as of Portuguese or Native American origin. [x]
This ethnic mixing that is so outrageous and far-fetched to you has already occurred!
Are there PoC in the Capitol? Perhaps. Most of the Capitol residents are racially ambiguous and some explicitly white. I odn’t know where you’re getting your information from. It’s certainly not from the books. Most Capitol residents have Roman names. People in District 2 have Greek names. European culture pervades their societies and is a reference to the Capitol’s gladiatorial Hunger Games and Two’s Spartan warlike culture.
In short, people of color exist. They exist in these books. There’s an undeniable racial narrative in these books. Katniss is not ambiguous. She sure as fuck is not white. The only person who is twisting the text is youwith half-assed and superficial arguments.
And you know what’s really sad? No, the filmmakers are NOT concerned with our opinions. They never will be. Whitewashing is excruciatingly commonplace in Hollywood. It’s no big deal for them. Whenever I meet a person who has seen the film, they have no idea that Katniss and Co. were PoC. The only place where I can discuss this is on blogging websites and in fandom. We are sick and tired of your derailing bullshit and don’t need it anymore. I went into my Haymitch tag to find stuff for my fyeah. I had no fucking idea that I would have to spend so much time replying to this bullshit post.
Film/PoliSci student. 21. Bi. New York. Nerdfighter. All-around badass.
OBSESSIONS: Harry Potter, Mass Effect, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, Game of Thrones, Old Hollywood, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Once Upon A Time, Doctor Who, Sailor Moon, The Hunger Games, Star Wars, Repo! The Genetic Opera
Mass Effect RP Blog ~ The Stuff Noir Is Made Of ~ Little Snarry Things ~ Mass Effect Pick Up Lines
DISCLAIMER: This blog is feminist, pro-LGBTQ, pro-choice, anti-religion, and liberal as fuck. Fandoms and politics share a place here.
*My OTPs*
{ wear }
{ PRIDE }
You haVE OpINioN of GAme NoT liKE minE?
BaD sIdE!!!1
onlY 1 posSiBlE
consulting-corellian-time-lord:
welp. i’m perfectly happy being on the bad side of the fandom who thinks kaidan is the best.
Isn’t the bad side of the fandom the one that tags its hate because they’re fucking children?
Isn’t it funny how Kaidan haters are always the immature ones doing that?
Please.
I thought we were the good, albeit misunderstood, side of the fandom…..
We’re the side of the fandom that gets migraines from the rest of the fandom.
Amen.
welp. i’m perfectly happy being on the bad side of the fandom who thinks kaidan is the best.
Isn’t the bad side of the fandom the one that tags its hate because they’re fucking children?
Isn’t it funny how Kaidan haters are always the immature ones doing that?
Please.
Apollo’s cafe
This is adorable! Look how dreamy they look. *squeals!*
Coburn puts the “n” in cut.
- My problem is not people trying to make money off of fanfic. A.) bc that already happens, and B.) because it should be happening more.
- That is to say, fanart is a widely accepted and respectable medium other fans will pay for and to me, it is no different from writing. Both include work, talent, effort, creativity, and skill to do. Fanartists can do work as gifts for friends just as much as they can take commissions from people for money.
- A few years back Wired Magazine put out a special larger issue that I honestly wish I could re-purchase because the article in it was that good. It was an issue about Japan and how it (especially Manga and Anime) influences American culture and vice-versa. I went looking for the Article in question: Japan, Ink: Inside the Manga Industrial Complex.
Let me just pull some quotes for you:Fans and critics complain that manga — which emerged in the years after World War II as an edgy, uniquely Japanese art form — has become as homogenized and risk-averse as the limpest Hollywood blockbuster. Pervading the nation’s $4.2 billion-a-year industry is a sense that its best days have passed.
Which ought to make what’s happening here at Comic Ichi — a manga market the size of several airplane hangars that will attract some 25,000 buyers — so heartening. The place is pulsing with possibility, full of inspired creators, ravenous fans, and wads of yen changing hands. It represents a dynamic force that could reverse the industry’s decline.
There’s just one hitch, one teensy roadblock on the manga industry’s highway to rejuvenation: Nearly everybody here is breaking the law.
[…]
The violations at Super Comic City were so brazen and the scale so huge — by day’s end, some 300,000 books sold in cash transactions totaling more than $1 million — that just about any US media company would have launched a full-metal lawsuit to shut the market for good.
[…]
“The dojinshi are creating a market base, and that market base is naturally drawn to the original work,” he said. Then, gesturing to the convention floor, he added, “This is where we’re finding the next generation of authors. The publishers understand the value of not destroying that.” And as the manga weeklies falter and decline, new talent is more important than ever. Meanwhile, Takeda said, the dojinshi creators honor their part of this silent pact. They tacitly agree not to go too far — to produce work only in limited editions and to avoid selling so many copies that they risk cannibalizing the market for original works.
What this tells me is six years later in 2013, Corporate America is finally trying to figure out fan culture but blatantly has no idea what the fuck they’re doing because they’re largely clueless to the fact that it already happens, at least regarding art.
Here’s what’s wrong with how Amazon is trying to do this:
- Corporate Hollywood is trying to foster a system that ensures anything highly popular in fanfiction can be immediately adapted from the author without compensation.This sucks for two reasons: It means they can undercut Hollywood writers with unions — in favor of stealing from fans with no unions, no money, and all their copyrights already signed over to the company in question. That’s bullshit for all writers, professional or otherwise. It does not foster the next generation of writers, it just screws them over.
- As the article points out, the whole point of the remix culture with doujin is often to write scenes or scenarios that are sexual and/or would never happen between two characters otherwise. (Please, let me be amused for approximately forever that they used doujinshi that pair Roy Mustang and Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist as an example of fans fantasizing sexual relationships that don’t exist into comics.)
- Please keep in mind this is also cheap and free market research for Corporate America when you sign up.
- The manga industry as of 2007 did not attempt to control the doujinshi industry by dictated what could and couldn’t be written according to whose copyright licenses are already paid for and whose aren’t.
And let’s be honest, the quote from this article:
The official versions and the remixed versions weren’t side by side. But they were for sale perhaps 10 yards away from each other. In the same store. Think about that in a US context. You walk in to Barnes & Noble and walk out with a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — as well as an unauthorized remix of a May-December romance between Hermione Granger and Professor Minerva McGonagall. Our American IP lawyer is starting to get woozy again.
Tells you how much has changed in the last few years, because nowadays, Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series is sold in the same bookstores are Harry Potter, and Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey are often placed side-by-side If you liked this, read this…
and if you think Amazon isn’t trying to give publishers a way to make sure that the next 50 Shades is all going to be their money and profit and not yours you have another think coming.
This isn’t the read/write/remix culture I asked for, this is just a corporation trying to make money off of me for free, for something I already do, for free at my expense. And that’s some kind of bullshit.
I have so much I want to say on this topic but limited mental capacity at the moment. Pretty much all of the above rings true for me.
zuky:
Muhammad Ali on the Vietnam War Draft
The fact that this is STILL relevant should be very telling.
Immortal words…
“If I’m gonna die, I’ll die right here fighting you … You my enemy, not the Viet Cong or Chinese or Japanese … You my opposer when I want freedom, you my opposer when I want justice, you my opposer when I want equality … You want me to go somewhere and fight, but you won’t even stand up for me here at home.”
E.W. Jackson, the Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor in Virginia, on homosexuality. Jackson also believes that Planned Parenthood is worse than the KKK, and has called Obama “an evil presence” who might be a secret Muslim-Atheist (no, it’s not possible to be both; “I don’t know how this combination works,” he admits). Some on the right think he’ll doom the GOP’s odds in the state; some on the left feel the opposite. source (via shortformblog)
lol cause lgbtq advocates are the ones talking about “homosexual sex” right. no, it’s just homophobes.
The lens of homosexuality is awesome btw. Better than the lens of being a fucking waste of human life. Which is the nicest possible way I can say anything about this piece of shit without getting ranty.
my ex boyfriend who thought he would be the next great filmmaker is now a sales rep for a credit card company omfg
life is good
i’m soRRY rp friends
i entered the melee of syracusia and evil came out
Unlike most of the people I see on Tumblr, I am not still in school and have a full time job to deal with so this is the last time I’m going to bother trying to dispute those of you who seem to think you know better than the person who CREATED the character.
This dude was happily taking pictures of girls legs, feet and whatever else he pleased without their consent. So I snapped my own pic and said “enjoy the internet motherfucker’. He laughed at me. Plz share. #publicshame #newYork #subway
Kanye West is white America’s worst nightmare. Because as much as one may attempt to dismiss him — by calling him an asshole or classless or deranged or various other adjectives that fill the comment sections of literally every article about him — you still have to turn on your regularly scheduled late night comedy program and stare him in the face. You can’t avoid Kanye. He’s made very sure of that.
[…]
Kanye is not a “new slave” in the same sense as the victims of the prison industrial complex, but he is still trapped in a world that expects him to not only be complicit with the struggle of his people, but to be appreciative that he is not one of them. And on top of all that, while he gets to exist in the world of the 1%, having the money and signifiers of success still aren’t enough to make his (white) 1% peers actually even respect him.
[…]
The ideals of Public Enemy are as relevant today as they were in the 80s, but hip-hop was nowhere near as dominant and omnipresent a cultural force as it is at this moment; to compare the reach of their messages is silly. Upper-middle class white families did not have to deal with Public Enemy if they didn’t want to. Similarly with politically-minded “noise rap” artists that have been name-dropped in reviews of Kanye’s new material — it’s all well and good for Death Grips and Blackie and even Killer Mike to espouse similar messages and sounds (and honestly, the sonic qualities of “New Slaves” and “Black Skinhead” are hardly at the top of the list of why they’re important), but none of them have anywhere near the amount of visibility and influence as Kanye, even if they did hit it first.
[…]
People in current positions of comfort and stability are so willing to dismiss the transgressive thoughts of an angry black man that they will use any convenient excuse to diminish from them; if someone says something that makes you uncomfortable, why not immediately change the subject to his girlfriend’s ass or that time he yelled at a papparazzi or that time he got drunk and embarrassed a white girl? When was it exactly that Kanye shifted, in the eyes of the mainstream, from lovable polo-wearing backpacker to perpetually and unanimously An Asshole? When, precisely, did everything he said get immediately categorized as a “rant” or “controversial” regardless of the actual content? I want to say it was around the time when he said that George Bush didn’t care about black people on live tv. Hmm. Odd.
"