Look! Is it a bird? A plane? Nope. It”s just another Hollywood movie where marginalized groups are saved by the beautiful white savior.
This isn”t new with Hollywood movies in any sense. White people have always dominated the big screen. But the act of whitewashing roles and general themes of movies and TV shows has become more obvious, especially with films like “Pan,” a movie based on the classic children”s story Peter Pan, and “Stonewall,” a movie based on the events of 1969 – the Stonewall riots.
Jessy Forsmo-Shadid
The story of Peter Pan has been told for years and years. There are books, films and costumes dedicated to the story and the characters. This year”s film “Pan” follows the story of Peter Pan and his journey to Neverland.
Actors such as Hugh Jackman, Amanda Seyfried and Rooney Mara feature in this film, which will most likely bring in more viewers. But there”s a problem with the story.
Tiger Lily, a Native American character from the story of Peter Pan, is played by Rooney Mara. If you don”t know who she is, she is an actress who has starred in films such as “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “Side Effects.”
Having a familiar name will help bring in viewers for the movie, but the fact that the director shot down Native American actresses to give the part to someone who isn”t of that race is a problem.
Not only does Hollywood compromise a Native American actress” opportunities for a bigger name, but the industry has also begun to erase parts of our history and the people who have made an impact in it. The film “Stonewall” would fall into this category.
The trailer of “Stonewall” is about a white, gay, cis-gendered male named Danny who makes the journey to New York. There, he would be invited into the LGBT community. He would get to know about the social justice movement. In the trailer, it shows Danny throwing the first brick and starting what is known now as the Stonewall riots.
This is a cute story and all, but because the movie is called “Stonewall,” because it is supposed to represent a crucial historical moment, the movie should have involved more of the real story.
The Stonewall riots were actually started by Marsha P. Johnson, an African-American drag queen and Sylvia Rivera, a Latina transgender woman. Johnson was known to be the first one to fight back and throw something. In fact, there was no man named “Danny” who played a big part in this historical event.
You may think that in the grand scheme of things, it doesn”t really matter as long as some kind of story is told. But it erasing the work that Johnson and Rivera did is not fair for the LGBT community, and especially the transgender community.
It”s like having Bradley Cooper play Martin Luther King Jr. It doesn”t give credit to the community who were involved.
People of color need to have the opportunity to have their stories told right. It doesn”t matter how wonderful an actor is. Erasing the story, discounting the work done by people of color and not giving actors of color a chance to tell a story is a problem.
When will Hollywood take the time to think about other communities represented in the stories they”re attempting to tell instead of focusing on the level of revenue they could potentially rake in?
Jessy Forsmo-Shadid can be reached at [email protected]