I myself am a big fantasy fan. I watch series such as ‘Game of Thrones’ and fantasy movies such as Harry Potter , Narnia and The Lord of the Rings. I am also a huge Disney fan. I can sing the lyrics of many songs and even repeat the lines from the characters. Based on these interests the new The Little Mermaid teaser trailer came on my TikTok feed. The first thing you of course notice: she is black. So what?! That’s what we should tell the internet. There are a lot of positive and excited reactions. Unfortunately, many fantasy fans are also making mean and racist comments about the upcoming live-action Disney movie. Today I will discuss the behavior of fantasy fans on the internet concerning race and racism.
“Really, people — we’re doing this again?”
The reason why I wanted to write this blog is because of this video. Trevor Noah makes a good point about the upcoming movie in a funny way, and I think he makes a solid point at the end:
“I hope this scandal doesn’t overshadow the rest of the movie. ‘The Little Mermaid’ is a beautiful story about a young woman changing her core identity to please a man. Let’s not forget about that, people.“
He might be joking about it, but it’s true. We say nothing about the fact that Ariel changes for a man?! But she can’t be black? Representation in the film and serie industry is already an important part. It’s not only about ethnicity, but also about gender, and so on. We shouldn’t be making a problem about these things right?
Whiteness in the fantasy genre
Online behavior of fantasy fans is shaped by the history of fantasy as a genre (Young, 2014). For most of the 20th century, and beginning of the 21st century the fantasy genre was dominated by white (mostly male) writers and readers. Young (2014) talks about the whiteness of the consumers but also of the authors who create fantasy worlds. She also looks at the intersection between fantasy fan identity and whiteness. She uses the fan community, Westeros.org, a big fan site of Game of Thrones as an example. I am not going into details, but you can read it here if you like. A big downside of the online world is that it’s hard to retrieve a racist comment to a person, because people often use fake usernames. That makes it really hard to point out people’s mean comments and online behaviour.
“Are you telling me that black people can’t be fake too?!”
Also Whoopi Goldberg spoke about the new hit series The Rings of Power and House of Dragons. She is stating that critics said that the series are “too woke” and that it “isn’t close to the source material.” Dragons aren’t real, mermaids aren’t real, but that’s okay? But a rich and black man of high ranks with white dreadlocks is a step too far? (talking about House of Dragons here)This doesn’t make any sense. People who have problems with a black Hobbit “GET A JOB!” if I may quote Whoopi Goldberg. I can’t explain in words how this makes me feel, but in this video they explain it in a very clear and funny way and I totally agree. You should definitely watch it. We should focus on as much representivity and diversity in the fantasy world and not care so much about if a mermaid is Latina, Asian or rainbow coloured. It’s fantasy, it’s fake! So please people, focus on other important matters such as the climate. You can watch the whole video from The View below.
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?” like Freddie Mercury would say. Westeros, Hogwarts or Narnia are just imaginary worlds. The fantasy genre are things that don’t exist in real life and are things we would like to see in the real (perfect) world. I wish that I could swim with mermaids. I wish I could ride a dragon. I don’t care which skin color they have and neither should others. Diversity and representing everyone in the movie and series business should stay an important agenda point. Movie and series makers should notice that it’s embeded in history and that it can be changed. I am excited for the new Little Mermaid movie. Below you can find the videos and articles I used. I hope you liked this blog 🙂
References, links & videos
- Helen Young (2014). Race in online fantasy fandom: whiteness on Westeros.org, Continuum, 28:5, 737-747, DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2014.941331
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-wPm99PF9U
- https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/whoopi-goldberg-racist-rings-of-power-house-of-the-dragon-fans-1235361828/
- https://variety.com/2022/film/news/trevor-noah-racists-black-ariel-the-little-mermaid-1235374905/
- https://www.tiktok.com/@thedailyshow/video/7140756872696565034 is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7140756872696565034&refer=embed&referer_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigmedia.lucdh.nl%2F&referer_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigmedia.lucdh.nl%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php&referer_video_id=7143999396827680046
- https://www.tiktok.com/@thedailyshow/video/7143999396827680046?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1
- https://twitter.com/i/status/1567213733746712577
- https://www.tiktok.com/@zaneholmestiktok/video/7142768525059542273?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1
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