Relativly speaking I found it was very big since I would not have even noticed the "gay couple" if I hadn't read about it.
The lack of national diversity in the Discovery cast...
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Relativly speaking I found it was very big since I would not have even noticed the "gay couple" if I hadn't read about it.
A reflection that humans migrate a lot more under a United Earth state.
The novelverse recognises that a Federation that has a Starfleet consisting of mainly North Americans representing a galactic organisation is ridiculous. Some novels are better at this than others, there is the still no in universe reason why most of the ships have Earth titles and mainly human captains, 100 years after the Federations existence.
The above would make sense if the show was called Earth Trek or North American trek, its called Star Trek about an organisation where humanity, not just those from North America, are working with aliens in political and cultural co-operation. If a tv show about fictional future humanity wants to ignore 95% of the population of Earth and call that progress then I beg to differ.
Its called Standard aka Federation Standard, maybe in universe its a combination of English, Spanish, Mandarin and Russian. One novel called it Anglish...whatever that is.
As I mentioned before, it's always been called English onscreen, and characters from the 20th century (e.g. Captain Christopher, Khan, or the frozen people from TNG: "The Neutral Zone") have recognized it as English. "Federation Standard" is a term found only in the tie-in literature. ("Anglish" was Diane Duane's term for it, perhaps to imply some future language descended from English, though it actually harkens back to the original name of the dialect spoken by the Angle tribe that settled the island of Britain way back when.)
Actors can play characters with identities they themselves don't fall into.
Right, but to be clear, I was saying it kind of implies that Lorca's background is Chinese-American. That would sort of explain the accent, IMO; It's kind of like in the Expanse how Alex Kamal -- and pretty much everyone else from Mars -- has this weird Texas accent despite the fact that most of their ancestors are Indian and Chinese. They call it the "Mariner Valley Drawl" and everyone else in the solar system thinks it's weird as fuck.
Television is visual medium. That's the ACTORS' job, not the writers. Their performance can make the character's motives believable even if the actual reasons seem more ambiguous; the rest of us see a convincing performance and our imaginations click in, trying to fill in the gaps. This is so, because TV doesn't have narration or exposition (most of the time) that would give us a glimpse into their inner monologue, so we have to guess one way or the other.
If you ever find yourself watching a TV show where you don't really care why any particular character is doing the things he does, you're probably watching Voyager.
They really shouldn’t. It’s insulting and robs an actor of that identity from a role. You wouldn’t hire a white man to play a black woman. Why should they play a trans woman ever?
Unless you're making a movie about Ancient Egypt.
On the other hand...
... you're opening up that massive can of worms, aren't you? Because if we're to accept that a trans woman's chosen gender identity is valid, then technically a man can play a transwoman just as well as a woman can play a transman. If you accept a priori that sex and/or gender are just social constructs, then you no longer have a basis to complain about someone playing role that doesn't fit their biological sex.
Don’t try to educate me about transgender issues.
You're in no need of an education, just a warning that transgender issues are basically the Red Matter of western social politics; if mishandled, the most likely outcome is a massive implosion of logic into a mass of political correctness so dense that nothing -- not even confusion -- can escape.
Yeah, since it actually affects my life I’m very aware of cis people’s uneducated opinions on whether people like me should be treated with respect or not. It’s the main reason I regret dealing with fans of a franchise that likes to pride itself on diversity but with fans who are dead against it.
Was it wrong for Patrick Steward to play gay characters? Are we now limiting good actors to very specific roles they can play? Heterosexuals actresses can only play straight women? Gay men only gay characters? A trans actor never a cis role?
Sexuality isn’t the same as gender. Should a man be cast as a woman instead of a qualified actress?
I imagine it would depend on the story you are trying to tell. Take Transparent for example, I think that is something that benefits from having a male actor in the role of a transgender character, because of that character's transitioning journey. However if you're telling the story of someone that has already transitioned then yes then having a transgender person in the role should be a priority.
As gay, non-caucasian male, I generally don't mind if gay roles are played by straight people or straight people are played by gay people. In terms of 'whitewashing' that generally only concerns me if the character's race and cultural background are integral to the character. To use an example from Marvel comics, Tilda Swinton portraying the Ancient One (portrayed as a caricature asian man in the comics) in Doctor Strange didn't worry me. What would bother me is if they decided to portray Black Panther an ostensibly black african king as a white male who was adopted by an african king.
As gay, non-caucasian male, I generally don't mind if gay roles are played by straight people or straight people are played by gay people. In terms of 'whitewashing' that generally only concerns me if the character's race and cultural background are integral to the character. To use an example from Marvel comics, Tilda Swinton portraying the Ancient One (portrayed as a caricature asian man in the comics) in Doctor Strange didn't worry me. What would bother me is if they decided to portray Black Panther an ostensibly black african king as a white male who was adopted by an african king.
If anyone has watched.. I admit I have watched this.. 'The Bold and the Beautiful' there was a story specifically where Maya is revealed to have gone through transgender surgery prior to her character being introduced to the show. However the actress playing Maya isn't a trans actress. Does that diminish the impact of the story? Truly, I'm not sure it does, but I think it DOES deny a possibility for a trans actress to have played the part. Not that a trans actress need be restricted to only playing that role but why not honour the journey. It would've given it more heart.
Duchovny played the original character back in S2 Of twin peaks, where I believe he appeared as both the ‘male’ Identifying version of the character and the ‘female’. (Dennis and Denise) when the character returned in The Return, the character was full Trans. I am not sure how many Trans actors there are now, let alone back in 92, but it limits a casting pool somewhat if there’s like 3 and they are all busy or simply not what the casting director was looking for.
Historically there are ‘Trans’ portrayals very well received, (can’t remember the TV movie, but there’s a British one based on a real life story that was an interesting story. Channel 4 of course, if my memory serves.) as well as stuff like To Wong Fu, which had big Male stars playing the Trans characters. Cloud Atlas is of course am interesting case in Trans portrayals, because the actors play echoes of the same characters who are different races and genders, and the Wachowskis themselves are Trans.
So basically, we are back to Olivier and Hoffman and apocryphal interviews and ‘it’s called acting’.
I can see how that would be offensive to some, but in this relative nascent stage of the sociological discussion (nascent because medical science has reached the point it has) and the sheer numbers involved, ‘Trans representation’ by ‘Trans Actors’ is going to be a long way off in the media, especially if you want a big Star, which most productions at some point will. This isn’t even a Scarlett Johannsen in GITS scenario (a character which some people also hold to be Trans, incidentally) with all that lack of actual knowledge in its media furore. (the film is actually pretty good, the casting is part of the story, and the setting is and always has been multi-ethnic, particularly the Hong Kong version from the animated film which the live action chose to emulate in places. I have been following GITS since it’s first translation into English, arguably earlier.) it’s something much more complex.
Ignoring the fact that it’s difficult to identify some trans individuals as such visually even now, and that by the future shown in Trek it would be outright impossible, I think that logistically the day will come when there is indeed on-screen representation of the kind people desire, but it’s easy to understand why we are not there just yet.
I am reminded of the many Indian viewers who didn’t notice the ‘black face’ in the Short Circuit films, (or white kids like me at the time) because it wasn’t a silly caricature in many ways. Though I am pretty sure they could have found an Indian actor for that if they had bothered...representation in Hollywood for certain kinds of Asian is pretty bad, and still steeped in stereotypes. What was remarkable about that, probably the last instance of ‘blackface’ in mainstream cinema I can think of, is that it was nuanced and aside from the very basic fact that there was make-up involved, wasnt particularly offensive to a large chunk of people. (I only found out about it last year, and read around it in amazement. I am still amused how many people get annoyed at Ben Kingsley playing Gandhi...the bloke is actually from India, by way of London after all.) But you choose your battles I guess, and Hollywood is a weird place. They keep casting Vancouver as every City on the planet after all.
It’s a big kettle of fish, and no-one, no-one will be happy for a long time. Or at least until we get the Trans equivalents of Ming Na Wen and Lucy Liu who basically get every ‘Chinese Female’ lead role going, with the added bonus of being photogenically popular with viewers. Think how many years that took a people that have been in the US a very very long time.
There goes any future production of Hairspray. Spielberg needs to cut Glenn Close from Hook now.
Qualified actresses and actors should be cast to play anything within their abilities.
no thats just acting. thats what actors do.
so its only an issue with trans characters? it isnt robbing of an identity for a straight person to play a homosexual? or a homosexual to play a straight person? what about any woman whos ever played peter pan?
Good call on the Peter Pan character.
i gotta say there is a snl skit in there somewhere, will farrel, jimmy fallon, playin black panther?
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