Musings from a black woman: Not my fantasy, either, bro.

Comedy Central

From The Half Hour: Gabe Liedman on Comedy Central:

I guess the other thing that, like, really bugs me about Game of Thrones, and, like, The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings, and just all (bleepity bloop) is like, I...I...hate the name of the genre "fantasy." Like, I think that that is very presumptuous to call it fantasy. And also, like, look, I know I've only been here for thirty years, but it does seem to me that everyone's fantasy is, like, dangerously similar. Right?

Where it's, like, every year, there's, like, a bunch of white guys who go to New Zealand, and they're just like, "Okay, dudes. Time to make a new movie or TV show about 'the fantasy,' or whatever." And then they walk into a room, and they're like, "Okay, okay. The fantasy. The fantasy we all share. Here we go. It's moving through me, okay? So I need you to type, okay? The fantasy. It's moving through me. Okay, the fantasy, here we are. 

"I'm...riding my lion into battle. I'm dressed in a full deer. Um...it's 'before.' And, everyone's house is a circle, which is super interesting. I find myself in a silent wood--no 's' on that. When, all of a sudden, behind me, I hear a twig snap. I turn to see what it is, and it's a little girl who's perfect at archery. Fantasy complete."

It's like, oh, cool. That's all? That's your fantasy? Cool. Cool fantasy.

"It's 'before.'" Hee hee! Super cool observations, Gabe Liedman. No wonder I couldn't get through The Hobbit.


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"Too brown to play an imaginary creature."

John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show
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Just to confirm that Wyatt was not making this up for funzies, here is another source for the story: Are The Hobbit's Casting Agents Racist?

I was reminded of this when I was reading yet another article about certain people conspicuously missing from Peter Jackson's latest movie: So, Where Have All the Middle-earth Ladies Run Off To?

So, let me get this straight: to participate in this fantastical world, no coloreds and no womenfolks need apply? Only white men allowed?

No, I have not seen The Hobbit, but I have seen all three interminable Lord of the Rings movies, and those had an Elijah Wood incentive. This new (unnecessarily extended) trilogy has the guy from the British Office and a wizard I enjoyed more in the X-Men movies.

These are times when I think to myself, "I can't write everything that I want see." Meaning, if I want to see more books, more television shows, more movies, more commercials, with a modicum of diversity, projects that actually acknowledge that there are people that exist in the world who consume media who aren't young, white and male, I cannot possibly write all of these projects myself. I definitely couldn't distribute them by myself. There is clearly a demand. Why is there almost no supply?

It's so frustrating.  White male people do not make up a majority of the population of the country I was born and raised in. The majority of the world population is neither white nor male. Yet heaven forbid I actually see the media produced in my home country, on my home planet be reflective of that reality.

Frowny face.


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