Random Thoughts 2: Arbitrary Speculations

[Lohrenswald]

I like watermelon, but I'd give it up in a heartbeat to save the planet

 

[Broken_Erika]

Yeah, I agree with all this. But I just don't feel like the entire prosperity of the modern world is dependent on being able to get fruit out of season.

If we can't get Fruit out of season, who will run our governments?

 

[Ryika]

That whole controversy about Jessica Price, the woman who was fired from ArenaNet after she was overly rude to a guy who wanted to give her honest feedback, is so astonishing. The way most of the mainstream gaming media is rallying behind her just because she's a female game developer is just hilarious to watch, and the way that they ignore the things she said and try to paint her as the victim of a harassment campaign when its only her own idiocy that has, rightfully, led to her firing just shows you where the biases lie.

It is truly astonishing to me that on literally every mainstream social media hub people are generally of the opinion that she messed up - sometimes stating that the firing itself was too harsh, which I'm somewhat inclined to agree with - while in almost all articles on gaming media sites it is the exact opposite.

 

[cardgame]

Same problem as Synsensa's. You're just assuming that globalization means progress - ie, assuming what you want to actually make a case for.

It's hard to make much of an argument since globalization is so, well, global. Recursive loops and all that jazz.

I haven't seen any particularly strong economic arguments for why international trade should be so beneficial and so necessary. The theory of comparative advantage is flawed in several important ways for example. And no one has been able to explain why it's more efficient in terms of resources, actually efficient in an economic sense, to ship things all around the world than to keep production and consumption mostly localized in the same place.

That we can agree on. A bit tangentially, IIRC, like half a dozen of those bigger-than-aircraft-carrier barges create more pollution than 200 million residential human beings doing regular trash-creating and non-recycling stuff. Industry is everything, where pollution is concerned, no amount of individual citizens going green will make a single bit of real difference until we alter our general economic policy.

 

[Ferocitus]

...where pollution is concerned, no amount of individual citizens going green will make a single bit of real difference until we alter our general economic policy.

Yep.
It is still cheaper (in the short run) to take scampi caught in the North Sea to
Newcastle, load it onto a refrigerated ship, take it to Thailand to be cleaned
and shelled, then return it on another refrigerated ship back to Newcastle where
it is sold in the local chippies.

 

[Ryika]

So due to social media backlash, Scarlett Johansson gave up her role as a trans man in an upcoming movie. That's sad, a movie that could have been a tool to further normalize the existence of transgender individuals, will now have to find a new lead. Getting a well-known star is now going to be hard, given that there are almost no well-known trans actors. So likely, the movie will be much less visible to mainstream audiences, who are exactly the ones who should see the film if we want to change people's minds by normalizing things.

I think it would have been much better if Scarlett had just identified as a man during the shooting the movie.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

So due to social media backlash, Scarlett Johansson gave up her role as a trans man in an upcoming movie. That's sad, a movie that could have been a tool to further normalize the existence of transgender individuals, will now have to find a new lead. Getting a well-known star is now going to be hard, given that there are almost no well-known trans actors. So likely, the movie will be much less visible to mainstream audiences, who are exactly the ones who should see the film if we want to change people's minds by normalizing things.

I think it would have been much better if Scarlett had just identified as a man during the shooting the movie.

I don't see what the big deal is. Felicity Huffman did it in TransAmerica and darn near won an Oscar for it. (She was robbed by the academy because Reese Witherspoon sang in Walk the Line - a rather lackluster performance at best. And we all know how the academy likes singing.)

 

[Takhisis]

So Scarlett Johansson cannot act as a transgender man (female-to-male) but only a few years ago Beau Bridges got nominated for an Emmy for playing a transgender woman (male-to-female). What's the rationale? S.J. is too pretty to want to be a man?

 

[Ryika]

Well, the argument from actual trans people in Hollywood seems to be that trans actors have it especially hard in Hollywood as there are few roles for them, and that the role could be played by a trans actor, and that Johansson is "blocking" that spot from them. (Here's an article where some trans actors talk about it) I would say, that's a valid argument, but I do think it's a bit... well... "selfish", given that Scarlett Johansson would certainly draw in more people than any trans actor could, thus, it would be giving up a lot of reach just for one actor to get a job.

The argument that was going around on twitter however, was mostly that no "cis" actor should ever be allowed to portrait a "trans" character because <reasons that are never explained>. That, I think, is just dumb and goes directly against the very idea of what acting is. It was a similar social media "outrage mob" when Scarlett starred in Ghost in the Shell, where people were angry that she played a Character that is Japanese in the original manga. I read through a lot of stuff back then, trying to get an overview of what people use as the justification for being angry, but it seems to me that those people simply do not understand why they're arguing for what they're arguing for, they just feel that there's a problem, and that's already enough to justify their dog-piling.

 

[Takhisis]

the argument from actual trans people in Hollywood seems to be that trans actors have it especially hard in Hollywood as there are few roles for them, and that the role could be played by a trans actor, and that Johansson is "blocking" that spot from them

Mmmmkay, but then the problem is with the system, in which trans men aren't counted as real men, rather than with Scarlett Johansson herself. As Lemon said recently, this is the era of outrage.

 

[Traitorfish]

What baffles me about all this is, it's such evidently bad casting regarding of the politics.

It's not clear that Dante Gill actually identified as a man. They may have done so today, but there's not really any of knowing that. People on the internet have a bad habit of assuming whichever framing makes them personally feel the wokest, the actual experience of the person in question be damned. But if they weren't a man, they were a very butch lesbian. Johanson is neither, and not clearly equipped to play either.

 

[Cutlass]

What baffles me about all this is, it's such evidently bad casting regarding of the politics.

It's not clear that Dante Gill actually identified as a man. They may have done so today, but there's not really any of knowing that. People on the internet have a bad habit of assuming whichever framing makes them personally feel the wokest, the actual experience of the person in question be damned. But if they weren't a man, they were a very butch lesbian. Johanson is neither, and not clearly equipped to play either.

Casting is mostly about who's most bankable at the box office.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Casting is mostly about who executives assume would be the most bankable at the box office. The people making such decisions don't have a great track record of predicting such things. They don't often hold the audiences in high regard, often assuming that the populace is more bigoted than they really are.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Personally. I think the essence of acting is to to be able to assume any character (obviously within certain limits. It must be believable) I mean what's next? Are the aliens in Star Wars and Star Trek now to be played only by extra-terrestrials? Are we going to have mob violence over this now?

DId you know that not all of the women playing lesbians on the TV are real lesbians. Horror of horrors! Am I supposed to be offended or something? I'm not. Surprise! Where's my outrage? Oh goodness, that's right, I'm a a mature grown up and don't have any in that regard. I'll save my concern and outrage for the things that really matter, like the destruction of our society, poverty, animal cruelty, to name a few. The problem with social media is that every idiot has a soapbox and an axe to grind, or they are "politically aware" students with too much time on their hands. Whatever happened to studying at university? That's what I did. I was so busy trying to get good grades, I couldn't care less if Scarlett Johansson played a trans man. I had more important things to worry about. Like maybe having a job after college? Duh?

[/rant]

 

[cardgame]

actor plays a character who is different from their real life persona, film at 11.

This is beyond a non-issue.

 

[Synobun]

Personally. I think the essence of acting is to to be able to assume any character (obviously within certain limits. It must be believable) I mean what's next? Are the aliens in Star Wars and Star Trek now to be played only by extra-terrestrials? Are we going to have mob violence over this now?

Trans people are slightly more real than twi'leks and klingons.

 

[Takhisis]

Not in the entertainment industry.

 

[Synobun]

Not in the entertainment industry.

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls072599514/

 

[Takhisis]

I meant it in a slightly less literal way than that, Synsensa-san. In the entertainment industry, trans people are simply another product.

And on another vein, neither you nor Dr. Lemon get the right to compare Star Wars to excrement.

 

[Broken_Erika]

And on another vein, neither you nor Dr. Lemon get the right to compare Star Wars to excrement.

Slurm?