glockgal

the fanart love meme

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:49:27 GMT

credit to the original, because because because --

the ♥ fanart love ♥ meme

instructions/rules:

comment with your username and the fandoms you create fanart for.
people will comment telling you their favorite art by you, what character/pairing they think you best render visually, and other positive comments. they can also mention what they think you should create more art for, or anything else concerning what they like about your art-making.
pimp it it to your journal and/or fanartist comms.
this is a love meme. so no wank, no insults. please report any negative comments to me immediately.

SIDE NOTE TO FANARTISTS: this is open to ALL types of fanartists: illustrators, crafters, collagers, manippers, bakers, photographers, graphic makers...any one who considers themselves a fanartist!

Avatar, Halloween

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:38:33 GMT

RACEBENDING.COM - promo shirts!
Thanks to Mike and Dariane for setting this up - we have new OFFICIAL racebending.com t-shirts for sale at Blacklava! Our Zazzle store will still remain up to sell bumper stickers and postcards. But all t-shirts are now through Blacklava.

We print on American Apparel, which is a fair trade sweatshop-free organization - and comfy and cute as well! Their sizes do run small, though; so keep that in mind when you choose your size.

Thanks to BlackLava, 100% of proceeds go back to the Racebending.com and the LA Street Team. Funds are needed to maintain the web-site, purchase booth space at conventions, promotional material for distribution (fliers and flair), and further shirt printings.

Buy a shirt and support our cause!
----------------------------------

HALLOWEEN FYI
Not that I think anyone on my flist would do this, but just in case you encounter it in your Halloween travails, you shouldn't feel weird to speak out about it:

Dressing up as another race for Halloween? Not a good idea.

No, this does not render the person who chose the costume is immediately a racist; it's the idea that is racist and they should be called on it. What do I mean by 'dressing up as another race'? Here is a helpful list of some Halloween costume no-nos:

- Native American/First Nations
- Blackface (yes, it's happened before). This includes Jamaican costumes.
- Geisha girl
- China doll
- Illegal Alien

I know this can be a touchy matter and after you've had a few shots of the Halloween punch, it might be difficult to retort to the compelling arguments of "You wouldn't be mad if I wore lederhosen!" and "It's just a Halloween costume; calm down!" - but! It's worth it to try. Baby steps, my friends. Baby steps.

ETA: Yay, Stuff White People Do: suddenly get interested in non-white people whenever halloween comes around - perfect timing, oui?

ETA #2: It gets better! Disgrasian: Racist Halloween Costumes...for Pets. I don't even know. I don't.

ETA #3: ontd_political reposts Your Halloween Costume: A Bigot from source theawl.com.

ETA #4: Sociological Images (contexts.org) posts about Racist Halloween Costumes. Straight to the point.

Yuletart: What is fanart?

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:09:23 GMT

FANART MUSING
It's interesting to see the sign-ups at yuletart as well as the questions us Mods get from participants and potential participants. Questions that are unique to a fanart fest, I think. Like -

- is my type of art acceptable for this fest?
- can I mail my art to my gift-receiver after the fest?
- I don't consider myself a fanartist; can I still participate?

It's really neat, I mean. Do fanfic fests get questions like these? I can't imagine someone being unsure if what they write can be construed as fanfic. Do fanfic participants ever want to submit like poem epics or....?

It's just another example of how in fandom the two fanwork biggies are Fanfics and Fanart - but the fanart umbrella stretches wide and is very nebulous.

In yuletart a lot of discussion was needed for us to define what constitutes as acceptable fanart for the fest. We made the decision to not allow photo-manipulations, graphics, template 3Dmodel pose-art or vidding*; but we do accept:

- drawn art (traditional or digital)
- animation
- crafts (knitting, sculpting, foodart and more!)
- cosplay

and our very VERY murky area:
- photographs taken by the artist (must create style/story)
- collages/paintovers (where the collage is manual and/or is used to create a style/story)
- 3D modeling/texturing/rigging/rendering

I mean! Lookit all of those choices of fanart! This is why I find yuletart such an exciting and creative fest. But sometimes a bit harrowing for the Mods, heh. We have had to make judgment-calls not just about whether someone's art is acceptable content-wise, but also whether it fits into our definition of 'art' without the situation getting wanky.

Anyway. I think we've covered all our bases in the FAQ. Here's hoping we won't have to make such a judgment call this year! The sign-ups are still going wonderfully strong - keep 'em coming!

* I've seen vidding being used under the category of fanart; but do vidders consider themselves a separate category? Or do vidders refer to themselves as 'a fanartist'?

fandom, race, moar fandom

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:08:39 GMT

SPOILER ALERT
I'm not really planning on watching any shows this Fall until they are released on DVD next summer (or in Merlin's case, dl), but for the sake of those who do, I still think this is a good reminder to everyone, just in case (cause we tend to forget things in lieu of excitement) -

spoiler cuts. they are of the good

For real - it can save a lot of WTFOMFGIH8U*DEFRENZ* to do a very simple <lj-cut text="SPOILER for blah blah"> on communities and yes! Even on your own journal. Cause yeah I know: omg it's your journal you can do whatcha want; but guess what? OTHER PEOPLE READ YOUR PUBLIC POSTS. That's, uh. That's how LJ works.
---------------------------

I'M JUST GONNA LEAVE THIS HERE
Speaks for itself, so.

Open Letter to Eric Kripke by Alaya Dawn Johnson.
and
Note: the opinions of a privileged white fan by zillahseye

Oh by the way - race and race issues in fandom? It's not wank. Just in case anyone felt it was, it's not. Capslock debates over what constitutes spoiler-alerts = wank. Insults over Bale!Batman vs Keaton!Batman = wank. Thousand-thread ship wars = wank. My colour or culture or presence in fandom does not equate to casual masturbation, thanks.

Say no to unfamiliar surveys. Disney pwns Marvel. Facebook fall.

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:24:22 GMT

FANDOM SURVEY
Via notrafficlights:
If you were thinking of filling out that Fan Fiction Survey, make sure to read this first before giving away precious information about your ficcish habits.

-----
DISNEY=dom MARVEL=sub
In other news, Disney Corporation buys Marvel Company. The jokes about a Mickey Mouse/Wolverine team-up have begun as well as people crying about Marvel becoming 'family friendly'...I think the bigger WTFDKJFHKDJF is that one of the four largest mega~~lomaniac~~ media corporations has now bought over a comicbook industry Big Fish. That's not very family friendly to me. It's all business, folks.

(On the bright side, Tom mentioned that hopefully they'll release Disney's stable of EXTREMELY TALENTED artists onto Marvel to revamp their 2D animation style. Because a Marvel animation to rival that of Warner Bros' DCComics' [now ex-]artist Bruce Timm? That'd be kinda win.)

-----
FACEBOOK FAILURE
One last thing - Facebook starting to wane? I've shut down most of my profile and only really use mine to:

a) Rant about things like Stopping Child Torture, Racebending and (more frivolously) yapping about movies.
b) Planning parties/get togethers/meet-ups with RL friends.

The latter is invaluable because I'm pretty sure Vancouver has the highest population of Facebook accounts. (And spas for dogs...just so you know what kind of city I live in). So eh. Sure, New York City might think Facebook is leaving; but Lotusland, we ain't gonna let it die!

OMG...Kingdom Hearts + Marvel? NO STREET FIGHTER STYLE, I DEMAND FULL-ON ACTION-ADVENTURE STORY LINE WITH SORA, DONALD DUCK AND JEAN GREY, KTHNX. *headspinz*

Wordpress.com vs Child torture victims

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:09:08 GMT

Wordpress.com vs Child Torture Victims
Yeah, I can't believe I had to write that out either. Seems WordPress.com in all its corporate neutrality has taken to taunting a survivor or child torture by arbitrarily giving and taking away her right to speak out...then blaming her for not following Wordpress.com's ToS. So classy and mature, innit?

waywardradish needs help. First, Wordpress.com has cow-towed to the whims of the so-called therapists, who murdered children in a grotesque process called Attachment Therapy. Now Wordpress.com is treating a survivor - who's only goal is to contact other survivors and mete justice on their torturers - like nothing more than an animal. Like I said - CLASSY AND MATURE, WORDPRESS.COM.

She needs your help, and here are some ways you can do it.
1.) Read as much of her blog, before it's shut down completely again. Educate yourself.
2.) Write a brief email to wordpress.com (tosreports@wordpress.com) to protest the censoring of child survivors. To make things even easier, here's some here's some template copy:

I strongly protest your continued interference with the Wordpress.com journal childtorture.wordpress.com. It is a vital and invaluable resource for holding therapy survivors. The documentation it presents includes firsthand experiences, eyewitness accounts, and news, medical, and legal documents available to the public.

In suspending and/or removing this journal you are doing both the community and your own public image a severe disservice.

Holding therapy is abusive and lethal and aimed at children, who have no voice. Please give abuse survivors back their voice.

This is quick and easy and WORTH IT.
3.) Further info on how you can help.
4.) Please repost or link to this. The textbox is all my post, so you can C&P and edit at will.

Wordpress.com vs Child Torture Victims
Yeah, I can't believe I had to write that out either. Seems WordPress.com in all its corporate neutrality has taken to <a href="http://waywardradish.livejournal.com/47519.html?style=mine">taunting</a> a survivor or child torture by arbitrarily giving and taking away her right to speak out...then blaming her for not following Wordpress.com's ToS. So classy and mature, innit?

<lj user="waywardradish"> needs help. First, Wordpress.com has cow-towed to the whims of the so-called therapists, who murdered children in a grotesque process called <a href="http://childtorture.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/darkness-visible/">Attachment Therapy</a>. Now Wordpress.com is treating a survivor - who's only goal is to contact other survivors and mete justice on their torturers - like nothing more than an animal. Like I said - CLASSY AND MATURE, WORDPRESS.COM.

She needs your help, and here are some ways you can do it.
1.) <a href="http://childtorture.wordpress.com/">Read as much of her blog</a>, before it's shut down completely again. Educate yourself.
2.) Write a brief email to wordpress (tosreports@wordpress.com) to protest the censoring of child survivors. To make things even easier, here's some <lj-cut text="text copy-paste"> here's some template copy: <blockquote>I strongly protest your continued interference with the Wordpress.com journal childtorture.wordpress.com. It is a vital and invaluable resource for holding therapy survivors. The documentation it presents includes firsthand experiences, eyewitness accounts, and news, medical, and legal documents available to the public.

In suspending and/or removing this journal you are doing both the community and your own public image a severe disservice.

Holding therapy is abusive and lethal and aimed at children, who have no voice. Please give abuse survivors back their voice.</blockquote></lj-cut> This is quick and easy and WORTH IT.
3.) <a href="http://childtorture.wordpress.com/what-you-can-do-to-help/">Further info</a> on how you can help.

ETA: http://stopchildtorture.org/

diaf, WP.com.

Star Trek Reboot Fanart Meme

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:15:33 GMT

YOU TOTALLY KNOW IT, THAT'S RIGHT.

NOW YOU MUST DO IT. IF YOU AREN'T ALREADY. HERE BE TEH BLANK

AVATAR UPDATE AND PLEAD

Fri, 22 May 2009 17:57:53 GMT

Amid the heady fannish joy, I'm taking a moment to be srs bsnz.

THE LAST AIRBENDER UPDATE AND URGENT PLEA
So USA Today released photos of both Noah Ringer (Aang) and Dev Patel (Zuko) from the movie.

USA Today caption: The Good Guy:Noah Ringer, 12, already had the look of Aang.

USA Today caption: The bad guy: Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel plays Zuko

What, no 'Patel already has the look of Zuko, because all Asians look the same and he's a bad guy anyway, so who cares' comment, Scott Bowles??

Aside from the painfully shoddy production value of these publicity photos, the fail of this is multiple. It's being discussed HERE.

<The racebending.com peeps are urging fans and advocates to contact USAToday/Scott Bowles with emails regarding this 'article'. The details:

"Send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification."
They prefer articles with 250 words or less. Jumping off ideas:

* The wording of using the "look of Aang"
* Good guy/bad guy coding in the article
* No mention of racefail casting practices
* The production's missteps, including culturally ignorant statements made by the cast and crew

Please, if you have the time, send something in. They can ignore one or two letters, but if two hundred people write them then they may feel like they need to print something. Please don't assume that other people will read this post and write in! And finally, please also ask others to write in as well!

Please please please! And thank you, so so very much. ILU all.
--------------

NICKELODEON PRE-VIS: what they actually intended
There has also been a pre-vis video released that showed how Nickelodeon intended the characters to look and it's pretty telling. It's all in 3D with some hastily assembled models and effects - the usual pre-vis teaser pitch.

Screencaps from the video (it keeps being removed from YouTube) have been posted on racebending.com. What strikes me most is Katara. Clearly her 3D version - even with its lack of modeling finesse - is NOT WHITE. The purposely used a darker skin colour and Inuit features.

Here, you don't even need to visit the site if you don't want to, check it out here:

Katara. She's played by a white actor.

Aang. He's played by a white actor.

Zuko. He's being played by a brown actor.

Now it's just a bunch of the same arguments over and over from commenters on the USA Today article, who have done absolutely know research into this movie, bu think they know everything about it and how people are cast and what colourblind means to them. Good times!

Props to the people commenting over at the IJ Scans_Daily, though. Yay!

Wed, 06 May 2009 03:20:19 GMT

AVATAR/ZAZZLE/VIACOM UPDATE

FOFL ZAZZLE HAS PUT THE ORIGINALLY REMOVED RACEBENDING PRODUCTS BACK FOR SALE.

The story since last time you joined this hoohah:
- Zazzle removes products from the racebending store, claiming it's copyright infringement
- I inquire clarification
- They tell me Viacom claims intellectual property
- I'm like wtf and post on my LJ
- SO MANY PEOPLE GIVE ME AMAZING ADVICE, including the kickass people from otw_news and jedifreac. the hero to my sidekick.
- BoingBoing.net does a write up about it.
- Zazzle tells me that the products were removed because Viacom does routine searches on Zazzle to remove IP
- I put up MORE products, some saying 'CENSORED BY V1ACOM'
- One of those products gets removed, claiming again 'intellectual property'.
- I file a DMCA counternotification from Zazzle
- scrollgirl, bless her, emails Viacom and asks them for an explanation.
- VIACOM REPLIES IMMEDIATELY (!!!) saying:

We didn’t take anything down from Glockgal’s Zazzle store. Zazzle did it without our request or our knowledge. When we eventually heard about what they had done, we asked them to restore the merchandise as quickly as possible.

- Zazzle products...back for sale. Including all of the keywords.

Most hilarious part? Try doing a keyword search for 'airbender' on Zazzle. Other than a couple more obscure products which had never been removed, my products are the ONLY ONES THAT SHOW UP.
(this is subject to change, if the Zazzle or Viacom peeps read this journal. Hiya! *waves*)

This has been one incredibly surreal event in my life. The blending of fannish and real life...crimeny. Good god, a big thank you so EVERYONE who helped and gave advice and told me not to just shrug and accept this.

heh

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:31:36 GMT

AVATAR: ZAZZLE/VIACOM FAIL
Wow. OH WOW. All but one of the products on my racebending.com Zazzle store has been removed because "it contained content in violation of Viacom's intellectual property rights". This means not just images (all of which were drawn by me), but also WORDS.

Apparently a t-shirt saying 'Aang can stay Asian and still save the world' is a copyright violation, ~~but images and words taken directly from the cartoon are just fine.~~ Deleted as well, right after I made this post. Well...okay then. O.o

Anyway, this just means I get to make more Zazzle products and be more circumspect AND publicise on my Zazzle store that my products were removed by Viacom's orders. Awesome...?

The images in question:

ETA 1 - Zazzle's response to my request for a DMCA notice.

Thank you for your email.

Your products were removed during a routine sweep of our site for Viacom properties. You may review our product policies here: http://zazzle.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/143. If you'd like to purchase officially-licensed merchandise from Viacom's various properties, you may do so here: http://www.zazzle.com/brands.

If you'd like to continue using content from Avatar: The Last Airbender, you will need to obtain permission from Viacom. If you are able to obtain permission, we'd be more than happy to produce your products for you.

Zazzle galleries are public and users may contribute content freely. Although we make every effort to ensure that the marketplace are kept free of copyrighted or otherwise inappropriate content, sometimes certain inappropriate products may become available for purchase. We rely on the efforts of our users to bring inappropriate products to our attention by using the “Report violation” link that is located on every product page. This will notify our Content Management Team to review any potentially infringing products.

Best Regards,
Erik
Content Management Team
Zazzle.com, Inc.

So I did a search for 'avatar the last airbender' and 'airbender' and found a total of two items (mine and someone else's) t-shirts. So now I'm thinking Viacom has removed EVERYONE'S products that used the search 'airbender'...not just racebending's products?

Hmmm.

ETA 2 - All's well in Zazzle/Viacom HappyLand. The racebending store now has all its products back up. Read about how it happened HERE
---------------

AVATAR: TAKE THE QUICK SURVEY!
I urge you all to fill out this quick survey over at the racebending community. Or if you're feeling lazy, you can fill it out here and I'll pass on the message:. Copy and paste in comments:
AGE
GENDER
ETHNICITY
REASON (THREE SENTENCES ONLY)

Thank you!
---------------

AVATAR: YOUTUBE CHANNEL!
Yeah baby! Racebending.com now has a YouTube Channel! It's specifically geared towards making boycotting videos for the movie, but we're also looking for creative and insightful videos regarding the protest.

More info is HERE on making your own boycott video to add to the channel (you have the freedom to be creative, but polite). If you have a video about Avatar that you'd like us to add to our Favourites, please contact boycott@racebending.com.

And, if you have a webcam or a video recorder, make your own video! I'm considering buying a webcam just for this purpose! And then maybe later for....sexy purposes.*

I KID, I KID. I AM VERY SRS BZNS ;D

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 06:42:56 GMT

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER
Updates! Lots of very very cool happenings:

MANAA and Paramount Pictures: Round 3?
Paramount Pictures finally responds to MANAA's letter. Claims their desire for ethnic diversity. Signed personally by 'The Producers'. MANAA replies, seeing right through 'The Producers' pretense and derailing.

We urge everyone who is protesting the casting to CONTACT MANAA via email, phone calls etc. They want to know that people are invested in this. Please help by showing them you care about diversity!
-----------------

Margaret Cho
Eee she posts about The Last Airbender on her blog! SQUEEEE!!!
-----------------

NYC Boycott Fan Meetup
This looks so cool. I hope some people can make it so I can live vicariously through you. :D
When: 5:30pm (sharp) to around 6:30pm Friday, April 24th, 2009
Where: Outside Starbucks, on the corner, connecting to the East Bank bank between the Canal Street (6) line and the Canal Street (J,M,Z) line.

There's a Facebook event for it HERE.
----------------

Much love to everyone who's still going strong! I'm right there with you. <3
racebending.com

(ps - my RL has been a little hectic lately, so comments have been disabled. But feel free to contact me if you need to).

unlocked, to promote discussion

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:37:36 GMT

BINDI?
DISCLAIMER: I'm using 'Wolverine and the X-Men' as an example. I'm not offended by the cartoon, I just laugh at the story/characterization of the X-Men. My personal opinion, which doesn't affect this discussion and doesn't judge your enjoyment of the cartoon. (in short: I like tons of stuff others laugh at; but I know you don't judge me for it. ;D)

I've watched a few modern-day cartoons (most recently the laughable Wolverine and the X-Men) and noticed a vaguely delightful increase in speaking, Asian-varieties of NPCs*. In particular, Indian women (generally depicted as scientists, teachers, doctors). And generally they:

a) wear a bindi**
b) have an Indian accent

**
WTF THAT PHOTO OF THAT SMUG GIRL SPORTING HER DECORATIVE BINDI ON THE WIKI PAGE. I love that picture. When bindis are decorative, the best way to depict that is to show a white girl wearing one. Because showing an Indian girl in a fancy bindi means she's still wearing it for religious reasons, right? Only white people can appropriate cultural clothes/accessories to make them actually stylish and fashionable, right? Whatta joke.

So like, okay. It's a cartoon, right? Cartoons need to simplify, stylise and provide easy indicators so children can immediately understand that a character is heroic or evil or a boy or a girl. So a brown character, she could essentially be any variation of brown-skinned races in the world - until the creators slap on a bindi and give her an Indian accent.

Is it necessary? Can we have a speaking!brown character without providing cultural indicators? What I mean is:

can a child watching the cartoon comprehend that the character is a certain race without the cultural indicator?
for a child, can it be a subtle, subconscious form of Othering?
and, is it really necessary for the child to comprehend the culture of the character if it's not particularly necessary to the story?

Most of the speaking!NPCs are just that - NPCs. They forward plot and no complex characterization. Interestingly, - most of the cartoons I watch being American cartoons - this cultural indicating/branding applies to white NPCs, as long as they're outside of America. In Wolverine and the XMen for example, scenes/people of Germany where hilariously situated in some olde tyme burg and the NPCs all dressed like peasants from 1896. And...I'm pretty sure they carried torches (not flashlights - actual fire).

Last question - if I win the lottery, should I commit myself to the research and investigation of race and racial shortcuts in cartoons? Because now I really really want to. And if I enlist you guys to help, I'll totally give you $5 (Canadian).

PS - 'NPC' means 'non-player character'. If you didn't already know that, your nerd-level has just dropped by 5 points. XD

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:19:57 GMT

AVATAR - SIGN THE PETITION, O PLS.
Oh my lovely flist - if you haven't seen the racebending.com website yet, there is now a petition to sign! This petition will be printed out and hand-delivered to Paramount Pictures, MANAA and EWP, so it's not just a useless petition of uselessness. It can make a difference and it can bolster the cause.

The production made a choice. That choice sent a clear message:
"Children of Color: You are not good enough to play the hero, even if that hero shares your ethnicity."

More info about the petition, including the letter to Paramount in full.

Or, if you know you already rally against The Last Airbender casting, head on over and
SIGN THE PETITION

ETA: if you want to use this image, feel free to hotlink. In this one case, I really don't mind people using my bandwidth, yay! \o/

Just as important - TELL PEOPLE ABOUT THIS PETITION! If each of you can get at least five people to sign this petition, it will make SUCH an incredible difference and you will totally deserve good karma, brownie points, a pat on the back and all the candy in the world! ♥ ♥ ♥

Thank you!
----------------------------

(isn't the new site gorgeous? Check out the pretty Press Release, squeeee! Our lovely web designer opal_skies is to thank. *love*)

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:59:09 GMT

AVATAR: MORE CASTING!FAIL
So remember how there were rumours floating around that the nations would be cast according to their lead actors? So in essense:

Air Nomads (heroes, victims of genocide): white people
Water Tribe (heroes, oppressed, canonically dark-skinned): white people
Earth Nation (good/bad, repressed): anything 'exotically Asian'
Fire Nation (evil, genocidal tyrants): brown people

Remember that? Yeah well it's all true. Aasif Mandvi, Shaun Toub and Cliff Curtis have joined the cast of M. Night Shyamalan's THE LAST AIRBENDER.

As much as I love - LOVE these guys, what's paining me so much is this:

some fans of colour saying "Well, Fire Nation ain't all that bad! There's...this one character and...oh this other one character." Yes, sure. And they only way they can be good is when WHITE PEOPLE TELL THEM THEY CAN BE GOOD. Give the brown character a cookie for turning on his entire evil nation!!

some fans of colour are saying "Yay, it's so good to see brown representation! I'm so proud!" It's sad that PoC are reduced to saying "Well...at least...they're...visible!"

fans saying racebending and aang-aint-white are 'fanwanks'. This is just wretched.

And remember: in the cartoon, THE WATER TRIBE WAS THE DARK-SKINNED NATION. AND THE HEROES. NOW THEY ARE ALL WHITE. Once again, Hollywood is showing adults and children that White is Right. What a great adage to believe in in the year 2009.

-------
AIRBENDER: WHITE WASHED WATER TRIBE
This is killing me. Filming has begun in Greenland. What do you think about that photo? What do you think when you see that village? Hey, take a look at the people who live in Greenland!

I'd give you one clue: It's not white people.

I'm still trying to get over the fact that they've kept everything Siberian Yupik/Inuit based, except the people. They are blatantly whitewashing and they don't care. I CAN'T. I CAN'T WRAP MY HEAD AROUND THIS.
--------

Still in its rough stages, but it's functional!

twilight [greater than] avatar

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 01:42:47 GMT

TWILIGHT > AVATAR
Cree Actor in Talks for Lead Role in Twilight's 'New Moon' - I MEAN. COME ON. If Twilight can make the goddamned effort, WHY DOES THE LAST AIRBENDER HAVE TO FAIL US ON SO MANY (read: three) LEVELS?? IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE AN ASIAN-BASED WORLD, WTF WTF WTF.

I don't want to discuss Twilight's actors/plot/characters/fanbase on my journal, but feel free to join me in my joy that there's a Native American actor in a lead role, because Summit actually took the time to FIND ONE. And conversely, share in my dismay that The Last Airbender casting directors obviously can't make that effort.

Did you see this, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy? What can you say now? Do you even care?

Well, obviously they don't, because there have already been sightings of our two white-washed heroes (and our one dark-washed anti-hero) entering pre-production phase with M. Night Shyamalan in Philadelphia. Inuit-based characters? No way, there are no Inuit actors. So let's just make the ENTIRE NATION WHITE.

Fantastic.

AVATAR: It's a white, white hero's world.

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:42:03 GMT

AVATAR: AIR AND WATER = WHITE
There was a small but successful protest in Flushing, New York which has all been recorded here. The most disturbing discovery being that, according to what the auditioning actors told our protesters (quoth sidepocket_pro):

The casting director inside said that they are casting around the race of the actors they have chosen, so this is how the tribes will break down:
- Water Tribe = White People
- Fire Nation = Indian People
- Earth Nation = "Asian" People
Which if rumors are correct, the final puzzle piece is:
- Air Nation = White People

And this is what it means:

The two nations that contribute the three main heroes of the film are now (conveniently) white.

Even when people disagreed about Aang's race, most people agreed that yes, Sokka and Katara are definitely darker-skinned characters and look to be Inuit-based. The Water Tribe was - on whole - the darkest-skinned characters in the show, and they were the heroes Their nation has been completely white-washed.

Oh! But guess who the dark-skinned ACTORS get to now play in the movie? THAT'S RIGHT, THEY ARE NOW THE VILLAINOUS NATION.

This Asian-based fantasy world is now composed of: generic!Asian (periphery roles), South East Asian (villains) and two nations of generic!white (heroes). ONCE AGAIN, WHITE IS THE DEFAULT "RACE" FOR FANTASY CHARACTERS

--------------------------------

THE WASHINGTON POST has written an article about the casting of The Last Airbender! (OH! If you keep getting the login screen, read the article HERE.) And I am loving this Casting Director Ricketts more and more with every gem that drops from her mouth:

"There's been some talk that we're casting authentic Asians as a response to the backlash, which is totally wrong because our world is multi-ethnic and the 'Avatar' world will be multi-ethnic.'"

O RLY, MS RICKETTS?? Then why is the Inuit-based nation now white? ANYONE WITH EYES could tell that the Water Tribe was not white, even Jackson "I need a tan!" Rathbone. So is the Water tribe now gonna be Nordic? Or Icelandic? Or vampiric? The paler they are, the better the hero, amirite?

Anyway, bless the Washington Post, they did a bang up job of reporting. The best (saddest?) bit is on the last page with the quintet of hopeful actors and DeeDee Ricketts' 'helpful' advice.
--------------------------------

Let me get a few things clear, since there are a lot of people who have a thousand different opinions about what and who aang_aint_white is:

1) People who are protesting this do not hate white people. People who are protesting this do not have a political agenda. People from all spectrums of politics and race support this cause.

2) AAW is not composed of a handful of disgruntled nerdy white fans who scream racism but sekritly just want some other pet actor to play the roles. We are not all-white and the only thing that concerns us about this casting is white-washing, yellowface and discrimination.

3) AAW isn't composed of disgruntled Asians with nothing better to do than pick on honest-working white actors and innocent!sweet!Hollywood. We are not all-Asian and we are concerned about the systemic racial bias in Hollywood that has been going on for decades. If we don't speak up, this will continue.

kthnx!

The East West Players - IXNAY

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:41:04 GMT

THE EAST WEST PLAYERS

The East West Players have sent an letter to Paramount Picture to voice their concern over the white-washing of the cast of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The letter is in pdf format and can be read from here.

But who are the East West Players? Many of them lent their voice acting talent to The Last Airbender animated series, in a variety of guest roles. Two members were full-time voices on the show:

-- Dante Basco - who voiced Prince Zuko (now cast as Dev Patel in the movie)
-- the late Makoto "Mako" Iwamatsu - who voiced Uncle Iroh to Prince Zuko

Mako was a determined long-time activist and voice for Asian American actors when they ~~had~~ have no voice in Hollywood. He was one of the founding members of the East West Players, and was determined to ensure that Asian American actors and filmmakers received rights, representation and recognition in the film industry. He fought discrimination and stereotype in film all of his life.

What would he have thought about The Last Airbender casting of the main characters? It's an unhappy thing to wonder.

Anyway.

The East West Players is an Asian American theater troupe based in Los Angeles, created to fight the discrimination minority actors face while working in Hollywood and increase opportunities for Asian American artistic talent. EWP's latest play, IXNAY stars Avatar's own Dante Basco! IXNAY is directed by Tim Dang (voice of Yon Rha, "The Southern Raiders") and currently playing in the David Henry Hwang Theater in Los Angeles through March 15th.

So if you live in southern California and are in the mood to see a play, please go check it out! And do tell me what you think. It sounds so cool. ♥!

avatar protest

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:41:33 GMT

AVATAR: PROTEST IN NEW YORK AND VIRGINIA
Reminder: The Last Airbender has put out a call for PoC as background roles.

aang_aint_white has the dates, times and locations on both HERE.

There's also now a Facebook event for the Flushing, NY protest, started up by sidepocket_pro who plans to attend. GO HERE If you live close/in Flushing, please consider joining in the protest!

Here's a really swell flyer from the FB event for people to print and distribute. Print/download them from here and here.

From a rather unfunny article in the Washington Post:

The producers are looking for actors of Mongolian, Cambodian or Laotian heritage, which suggests the filmmaker is responding to previous criticism from "Avatar" fans about the cast looking a little too Caucasian.

Responding? Responding how? By making sure everyone with non-speaking roles gets to be Asian, while the white actors save the world? Oh! Oh how GRACIOUS of them. Yeah, that's exactly what we want, thanks so much. *bows, bows, wags head, bows*

Honestly, I would have been less aggravated if they just cast everyone as white actors/extras and have done with it. But this is just insulting. This kind of response only serves to rub in my face just how much they believe only white actors in lead roles will bring in the $$$$$. I JUST. GYAH.

If you live nearby either Flushing or Arlington but you can't attend, please consider printing out the flyers over the weekend and posting them in public areas or leaving a pile of them in a public area? THANK YOU I LOVE YOU FOR IT!

<3 <3 <3

avatar: protest

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:22:56 GMT

AVATAR: PROTEST IN NEW YORK AND VIRGINIA
Once again, The Last Airbender has put out a call for PoC in the background only. No Asians allowed as the three lead roles! Only in the background, non-speaking roles, people. Don't worry, the white people will save you from impending doom, that's how it's done.

aang_aint_white has the details on both HERE.

There's also now a Facebook event for the Flushing, NY protest, started up by sidepocket_pro who plans to attend. GO HERE If you live close/in Flushing, please consider joining in the protest!

Here's a really swell flyer from the FB event for people to print and distribute. Print/download them from here and here.

Quoted from AAW:

Paramount is trying to put a bandaid on this problem by casting Asian actors in minor, background roles, in a world that will still be saved by three white heroes. Now is the time to tell them that that isn't good enough.

Also, please remember The Language of Casting:
-- Caucasian, or other ethnicity for LEAD ROLES
-- Near and Far Eastern, Middle Eastern, Asian, Mediterranean and Latino. etc and now Chinese, Thai, Mongolian, Vietnamese etc for BACKGROUND AND EXTRAS.

Tell me again that this movie isn't fucking white-washed when it comes to the heroes? Tell me again how this movie is just OOOHHH FANTASY (AKA WHITE) and not Asian-based/diverse? Tell me again that I'm a bad fan for being angry at their blatant racism?

Damn it all. I am so angry all over again.

avatar: azn or pasty?

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:40:10 GMT

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER - LULZ
Man, I haven't done a Google search for 'aang-aint-white' in a long time, and yet it never fails to be full of fail.

I finally found a commenter who thinks racism is over (see comment 10). I feel like I should win a prize or something! I mean, I've joked about that whole "But we elected Obama! We're post-racism!" tripe, but I never thought I'd actually see it. Not only are we post-racial, but WW2 Japanese internment camps were fear-based (not racist!) and lynchings don't happen any more.

HAAHAHAH WHY ARE PEOPLE SO --. Anyway. I won't say what.

Even better, I also found the most confused reaction to Aang-Aint-White ever. I mean, is he for a diverse cast? Or is he against it? Or does he only approve of it if people agree with him and hate 'tangential liberals'? This is why Canadians get a bad rap - because they get angry about stuff, but then they flip-flop on points and therefore make NO POINT. The best part of this is that he's under the impression that the creator of aang_aint_white is...oh where's the quote, it's so gold...ah:

Except the chick who started the "Aang ain't white" movement on Youtube is white. The vast majority of people who I've seen up in arms about this are white. I've seen extremely little asian interest in this at all; because really most asians don't give a fuck about Avatar. Its fan-rage, and most of the fans of Avatar are pasty white kids.

So...is he saying that only Asian people should be angry about this? Or just white people who AREN'T fans of the show? Or....?

AHAHAHAHAAHAHAH WHY ARE PEOPLE SO ---. Right. Not gonna say it.

Now I'm gonna Google 'Avatar whitewash' and see what I can find! Wheeee.....?
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-- Oh and to clarify, I've been using the royal 'We' in the past few Avatar-related posts. Not out of pretentiousness; I literally mean 'we' as in the core-group from AAW. It's truly been a group effort (massive stress on effort) and so I feel like I should be inclusive. :D Rah rah rah!

-- Over on racebending, there's an interesting discussion on Inuit Culture in the Last Airbender Movie. I figure some of you might wanna join in! I plan to as well, once I get my thoughts formulated, hehe.

-- And later, more on the East West Players, their group members and their upcoming production!

avatar: support

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:33:05 GMT

AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER: SUPPORT
Remember how right at the beginnng I offered to donate to MANAA if protest letters were mailed to Paramount Pictures? Well, in light of MANAA's letter to Paramount Pictures as well as all the enthusiasm and action that us regular people have been taking, I finally made the donation.

YAY!!!

Oh Caramell Dansen. ILU.

An excerpt from MANAA's letter:

The Asian American community, and the movie-going public at large, is used to seeing Asian men depicted as villains and rarely get the opportunity to see Asian heroes they can get behind and cheer for. This is also an historic opportunity to give Asian American actors a chance to shine in a big-budget film franchise which would bolster their careers for future projects. You will get deserved credit for launching those careers and can break down barriers by understanding that the audience that loved the television series is ready (and expects) to see Asian Americans playing those characters on the big screen.

You can read the letter in full here, and their ongoing blog on this and other issues can be read here. We're thrilled that the MANAA has decided to become involved in this issue, and we look forward to seeing where that involvement may lead.

MANAA deserves a lot of love for taking on this cause, so if you have the time, be sure to drop them an email, thanking them for their ongoing efforts to communicate with Paramount Pictures: manaaletters@yahoo.com or letters@manaa.org

If you'd like to find out more ways to help out in stopping yellowface and white-washing in The Last Airbender, check out my previous blog post. We need your help more than ever!

avatar: advocacy

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:48:59 GMT

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER - ADVOCACY!
I'm not even sure where I should begin. It's been a while!

Really the main things to do at the moment is to read aang_aint_white's latest updates, specifically news on the East West Players and MANAA making contact with Paramount Pictures.

We have organizations on our side, people who can't be ignored by Paramount. This is...incredible. THANK YOU to all of the AAW group for making this happen, especially Teh_Boulder. XD ♥
------------------------------

THE TIME IS NOW!
However, even though we have some big guns on our side, the issue is not yet closed. We can't leave it in the hands of the few. Hollywood only listens to the many. Filming is supposed to start in mid-March. This means that once filming begins, it will be too late to try and force changes. We must increase our efforts right now!

We need your help desperately to make this final push. You do not have to be Asian or a PoC to help. Anyone who believes that white-washing is wrong can rally and help us! So, what can you do?

One: Letter-writing
SEND MORE LETTERS to Paramount Pictures.

Two: Media
Contact anyone you know in your local media or in general media to alert them to this story. You can inform them of MANAA and EWP's efforts and letters to Paramount. MANAA's letter to Paramount is on their website and their blog. With the permission of EWP, their letter has been published online in a PDF file. Highlights:

...how can the casting of homogeneously Caucasian actors as three out of the top four leads possibly be consistent with a story whose overarching message is diversity and harmony between different cultures?

...Even if the filmmakers are blind to these concerns, they ought to be responsive to marketplace realities. There are millions of fans of Nickelodeon's AVATAR and they are drawn to the series' Asian themes. They are not likely to accept either a "whitewashing" of the story or an unrealistic portrayal of white actors trying to look ethnic and/or leading distinctly ethnic civilizations.

Three: Media Again
Did I mention contacting the media? It's worth mentioning it again. Online newssites and popular blogs like SciFi Wire, io9, Entertainment Weekly, the San Francisco Chronicle, Angry Asian Man etc need to know about the latest news! For a list of people we can update check out the left-hand links bar on aang_aint_white. The more people write in, the more likely they will be to write an article on the issue.

There's also been suggestions of contacting well-known You Tube vidders/vloggers as well. If anyone can help out with that, it would be awesome! I'm not too familiar with the world of vlog.

Four: Word of Mouth!
TELL YOUR FRIENDS. I can't stress this one enough. Word of Mouth is so incredibly important - so if you can, I am begging you to make an LJ post about this, or bring up discussion on a fan forum, or mention it to some pals over a dinner. Anything that'll get people curious and possibly supportive.

Five: Racebending
If you are looking for constant (and fun!) updates on Avatar, please join racebending because it is awesome and energetic and has a lot of good info. It's an off-shoot of Aang-Aint-White, and therefore concentrates more on what's happening in the news rather than the letter-writing campaign.
---------------

More detailed news tomorrow!

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 01:30:21 GMT

AVATAR: PROTEST IN PHILLY!
OMG people, I am so excited about the protest in Philly regarding the Feb 7th casting call which asks for extras who are:

Near and Far Eastern, Middle Eastern, Asian, Mediterranean and Latino.

Keep in mind that the casting call for the LEAD CHARACTERS was:

Caucasian, or any other ethnicity.

-- A wonderful explanation on The Language of Casting by the amazing vejiicakes

--Happy news: the Organization of Chinese Americans plan to attend the protest as well!! HOMG YAYE. For updates and to plan with others, check out AAW's Entry or the group on Facebook

-----------------------------------
AVATAR: DEV PATEL as ZUKO
I am really pleased that we have dealt with this surprise!recast that Paramount has tossed at us and we have remained unified. High five to all of us! As always, aang_aint_white says it best - A Step in the Right Direction...But We Have a Long Way to Go! For any thoughts that people may have about Zuko being an anti-hero and therefore not cast as 'brown evil guy' against 'good white people', consider this (quoth jedifreac):

"He becomes a hero, then, by rejecting his brown daddy and his brown daddy's invading horde, after the white heroes teach him the error of his ways? This is going to be so awkward."

Because exactly. EXACTLY.

Also, there's a great article written at The Kosmopolitan Online examining Hollywood Whitewash in the Era of Change. Great stuff!

----------------------------------
LULZ? OR, OH GOD WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?
Off the topic of Avatar casting, but still interesting to note that the market audience The Last Airbender is targeting, they look up to this:

I mean, not that I expect much - if anything - useful or constructive from Miley Cyrus, but did she have to go and be downright destructive?? Unbelievable how many reasons why people are defending her actions. Don't read the comments in the Gather.com article. Just, don't.

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:20:15 GMT

Well jeez louise - Jesse McCartney out (of the movie, not the closet) and Dev Patel in to play Zuko the Fire Nation prince.

I want to be happy and sit back and celebrate a little. No, really I WANT to. It's generally not in my nature to have such constant and consistent outrage. I wanna be like "Oh wow, a (very bizarre sort of) concession; nothing more for me to do here, look! I can finally shut up and stop bothering 'colourblind' (non-flist) people with my outrage!"

Yeah. I'm not shutting up. I'm still outraged.

There are sooooo many reasons why and as usual, jedifreac says it so much better than me:

Before you say, "No matter what we do, the fans will still complain, they are impossible to please" can I posit that it's REALLY hard for people to be pleased about flagrant discrimination? And that we probably shouldn't be?

Goddamn. The more I think about Jesse and his "scheduling conflict" the more pissed off I get at Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Films for pulling a fast one without acknowledging our protest.

Can you imagine - a TANNED Rathbone dressed all-fully Inuit next to an ACTUALLY BROWN Patel? I just. I. THE MIND BOGGLES. HOW DOES THIS MAKE ANY SENSE.

---------------------------------

Ironically, I finally did watch Slumdog Millionaire this weekend with the folks.

Slumdog Millionaire
No truly, I did enjoy it! It was filmed beautifully, I liked the characters and the way the story was told/progressed and the way it portrayed a certain reality of India - which is a major reason why I find it hard to watch much modern Bollywood flicks: they're usually all entertainment and zero substance.

It was a little surreal to watch it, especially because throughout the movie I kept remembering that it was a phenomenal success (in the non-East Asian world) and nominated for ten Oscars and all that. I kept wondering why? Why was it so successful? But I realized: the general plot tropes (brothers: one bad, one good, gangsters and The Girl) to be pretty standard movie-fare. This plot could be transplanted anywhere - New York, Cairo, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro...story was not dependent on the colour of the cast.

Avatar casting aside - I feel that Slumdog Millionaire is what the fabled 'colourblind casting' would look like. A generic plot, supplanted in City-with-Slums-and-Criminal-Underground-and-Corrupt-Police (ie ANY CITY!!!) So it was good - it was refreshing to watch what is essentially a Hollywood-style film, with Indian actors.

And how does it tie in to Avatar casting?
a) Dev Patel, ahahha! Okay okay.
b) The Last Airbender plot is indeed mired heavily in Asian influences. In this case, the story IS racially dependent.
c) Slumdog clearly shows that all-non white casts can be beloved by white audiences!
d) Casting Dev Patel isn't a concession, it's a token.

Aw man. Does this mean we need to come up with new slogans? ;D

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:13:39 GMT

A HISTORY ON YELLOWFACE

Yellow (and brown)-face: A History in Pictures by vejiicakes.
- This is interesting and educational! Film buffs, history nerds and social Americana geeks - ENJOY. I certainly did. Our memories are selective, I understand. And now, here's a great at way to answer the question 'What's the big deal? It's just one movie'.

Yellowface by Gene Yang.
- Seriously, just go look at the blog if only to see that drawing of Aang in yellowface. It is. It. I just. It so perfectly sums up all my frustrations and horror when people think skin colour is just about getting a tan. WIN ALL ROUND!
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Also, the people involved in the making of The Last Airbender are consistently proving themselves to be so moronic, (see also Jesse McCartney and Jackson Rathbone) I feel like I don't even need to argue anymore. They're showing their regard/interest in cultural respect quite well --

"It doesn't mean you're at a disadvantage if you didn't come in a big African thing. But guys, even if you came with a scarf today, put it over your head so you'll look like a Ukrainian villager or whatever."

*LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY*
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Thanks to everyone who's purchased stuff at the Aang-Aint-White store! Remember, you can always print the stuff out to use on your own and for FREE.