Vlog Every Day in August, whoo!
Los Angeles!
A year and a half ago, it was announced that Sony and Marvel had gotten into an agreement
so that Spider-Man could finally join the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I did a video
about that, which I'll link to in the doobly-do.
Basically it was that Spider-Man doesn't have to be a white guy and, in fact, I thought
it made more sense if he weren't one.
Here it is August 2016 and there are rumors?
Has it been confirmed?
That Zendaya will be playing Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
And my response to this is: Delight!
I'm so happy about this possibility, it's gonna be awesome!
But there's been a lot of backlash on the internet and I want to speak to that backlash.
Back in February 2015, I talked about how the aspects of Peter Parker as Spider-Man
that mattered had nothing to do with the color of his skin.
Ah, and so now, I could, potentially, argue that the characteristics of Mary Jane that
matter have nothing to do with the color of her skin.
But if I were to make that argument?
I would be saying that the premise of the backlash on the internet is valid.
That there is something of substance to people saying that Mary Jane Watson should not be
Zendaya for x, y, and z reasons.
I would say to you that because she's a made-up character, there are only a few reasons why
you would want her to be specifically the white, redheaded character from the comics.
And I wrote down some bullet points for myself, so I wouldn't forget.
The first reason why you might be upset that Mary Jane in the movie would not be white
with scarlet red hair is: You don't realize that Mary Jane Watson isn't real.
I...
If you have some sort of mental illness that makes it difficult for you to understand what
is real and what is not, then I feel bad for you.
I'm very sorry!
But that still doesn't change the fact: she's not real.
Second possibility: Your demand for MJ to have red hair is actually disguising your
racist distaste for anyone who is not white.
I mean.
Check yourself.
Is that what's going on?
Reason 2B: Your demand for MJ to have white skin is a not very disguised sign of your
racist distaste for anybody who's not white.
Again, check yourself.
Is it that you want Mary Jane to be white?
Or is it that you want everybody to be white?
And the last reason that I could think of for you to protest this so hard?
Is that you are so used to having an unequal representation in your favor, as a white person,
that anyone who looks at all different from you getting any representation feels like
it's an attack on you.
It's not.
It's making one character in a very white franchise not white.
And if that upsets you so much, think about why that is.
Is it because you've had so much representation of white people that that's what you're used
to?
And any change against that freaks you out?
Makes you feel uncomfortable?
Makes it seem like all of a sudden, you are not the centered audience for this story?
Maybe you shouldn't be!
Maybe you've got a million other representations in media that are for you.
And this one character in this one product, showing one part of a story, doesn't have
to be about you.
And I would say, "It's time for us to have fewer people representing white people in
media and more representations of other types of people in media."
It's time.
If we get to a point where every single movie is majority or exclusively not white people?
Then, you'll have been put into a disadvantageous position and I'll expect you to protest.
It'll be very reasonable.
But until that time?
As long as people who look like you make up the vast majority of films?
You can just choose not to go if you like, and the rest of us will enjoy it.
So, as I said, I specifically wasn't going to try to justify MJ's potential non-whiteness
in Zendaya to any of the flipping out fanboys, because their flipping out is inherently
unreasonable.
Zendaya is a fun and excellent actor who looks like she could portray a model who has confidence.
She's a great Mary Jane Watson character.
Why would I have to defend that?
Tell me in the comments your thoughts on WHY people are so upset about a potential not-white
Mary Jane Watson.
Are you one of those people?
Feel free to give me your reasons.
Perhaps I missed something.
Or tell me anything that matters to you, because I want to know what matters to you.
And we've come to the end of my video, thank you so much for making it this far.
Here at the end is where I always say:
Tomorrow
will be even better!
Hopefully not for racists.