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Machiavellian 2 days ago
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bdbdbd said:
Machiavellian said:

The thing is you seem to single DEI as being just about race but clearly its not about just race. What you are doing is only thinking that race is the only criteria or the only sol reason why the person is being picked but there is no company that just goes and pick based on that one item.  That is the narrative used so the status quo can continue to discriminate at will. 

How do you know that the diversity of the actor isn't important to the role.  Meaning what skill are you talking about when choosing the actor.  If you have two actors and the role doesn't care what race they are, what skill determines one actor over the other.  If its the main actor and you have Denzel Washington and Tom Cruise, who do you pick.  Each actor skill set is different and they both bring something different to the role.  Could Tom Cruise play "The Equalizer" just like Denzel Washington.  Yes, but clearly each actor brings something totally different to how the role would be acted.

As far as your whole, you should watch movies made by the race or gender that wants to see representation, that doesn't really fly when you are out to make money.  See, if you want to make money and do not do things that target a group that may feel not represented by your product then guess what, you will not get their money.  Your whole premise on that point ignores why in entertainment, they look for more diversity and its not because they are looking to meet a quota, they are looking to make money.  So yes, if a group feel that an industry isn't properly representing them, they lose that group and thus lose that money because the biggest movers of anything within the US is money.

As to your Star Wars Rey comparisons to Rogue one

Lets take another comparisons where a role that was played by a man was swapped by a woman which is Day of the Jackal.  So the original film as well as the book had a white male as the agent looking for the assassin while the new series has a black woman.  The show is getting pretty good reviews and the actress is getting a lot of praise for her depiction of the role.  Could it be that its not about the gender but the actor and the script/direction.

At the end of it all, it really seems that people who care if character was swapped with another gender or race is more fearful about not being the default for a role more than anything else.  If all roles that were not sterotypical to either gender or race were played by straight white males, we probably would never hear anything from that crowd.  Your whole point seems to scream, "Stay in your lane". 

I believe I pointed out the gender swap as a DEI policy. It's pretty hard to have "gay representation wit gay actors" in movies and such, because your sexual orientation isn't anyone's business.

Yes, you seem to understand the problems with DEI, which is not providing the audience what they want. In the 90's nobody was interested who played who, as long as they did a good job. Today it's really hard to say who's a DEI hire and who's not, the only way to judge is whether The role qas good or not. If you had some African playing a role in the 80's, you knew that guy was good, today If you don''t have any Africans or women playing a lead role, the actors in all likeliness are chosen because they were the best available.

Cruise and Washington are bad examples, because they made their merits before the modern policies took place. They could draw in audience 20.years ago and they can do it today. Who'd be playing Maverick if Top Gun were made today? Would Maverick be the OP pilot? 

The thing is you really do not know if a gender swap is a DEI policy since most people just throw the word DEI anytime the Gender or race is different.  Just like the term woke, its a word used first with no evidence but instead as a label to use when insecurity over the swap effects the person using it.  Just like with the show I mentioned, people did complain about the black actress and they did use DEI as their term.  For people who did not care they never thought to use or even consider DEI.  Most who watch the show have no clue about the movie or the book so they never cared.

As to a person being gay.  If that person is gay playing a straight white male and that person sexual orientation is known, would there be people using woke, or DEI or any other term of displeasure.

Actually I consider DEI like I consider woke.  Just another tool in an arsenal of tools to use when anything goes outside of the status quo.  Whether it race, gender, sexuality, age.  People who are fearful of these things look for a reason to resist them being out in the public.  They rather have it like the old days when gay people kept their mouths shut, when black people played pimps and hoes and woman looked for nothing more than having children and getting married.

I use Cruise and Washington because I assure you if one played a role and the other was swapped for it later, you would get the same people crying about DEI, woke or whatever not because they are good actors but because they are from different races.  As stated, you only have to go to a number of forums to see this very example no matter the skill set of the person.