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Critics Upset 'Little Women' Is Too White
Townhall ^ | December 27, 2019 | Cortney O'Brien

Posted on 12/30/2019 3:19:27 PM PST by EdnaMode

There are those who think Hallmark is "fascist propaganda," and there are others who think director Greta Gerwig's latest take on "Little Women" is "too white."

"It’s time that classics that are constantly remade to better incorporate diversity,” Teen Vogue contributor Natalie de Vera Obedos writes in her new piece, "'Little Women,' Laurie, and the Argument for Racebent Casting."

[snip]

Obedos takes issue with the casting of four white actresses as the well-known sisters, Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy, played by Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Eliza Scanlen, and Florence Pugh. But Obedos's main quarrel is with the male lead, Theodore “Laurie” Laurence, who is portrayed by white actor Timothée Chalamet. The casting of Chalamet, Obedoes argues, is a lost opportunity to display Laurie's true identity.

While many are excited to see Timothée bring this character to life, his iteration and many of the previous films have failed to properly contextualize Laurie during this time period. In the original novel, Laurie is described as a young man with “Curly black hair, brown skin,” and “big black eyes” (Alcott 42) — he is canonically half-Italian. It is through Laurie that Little Women offered Greta a very unique opportunity that she could have taken: Laurie could have easily been played by someone non-white. Obedos shares a few excerpts from Alcott's original novel to explain that Laurie is actually half Italian, and by casting a white actor the film did not have a chance to explore the challenges and prejudices he faced at the time.

"The added diversity of casting the character with someone non-white would have added a richness and context that has been lost on the character by contemporary audiences," Obedos explains.

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: antiwhiteracism; culturalmarxism; deadwhitepeople; gretagerwig; hollywood; littlewomen; louisamayalcott; nataliedeveraobedos; racism; revisionisthistory
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These people won't be satisfied until only non-white actors are allowed to be hired for acting roles.
1 posted on 12/30/2019 3:19:27 PM PST by EdnaMode
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To: EdnaMode

She should start a basketball or football team

Could even start a soccer team in South America...


2 posted on 12/30/2019 3:22:42 PM PST by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB0ndRzaz2o)
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To: EdnaMode

Someone, with ‘smartest person in the room’ literary status, needs to tell the race snowflakes that the party is over and to STFU.


3 posted on 12/30/2019 3:22:49 PM PST by dljordan
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To: EdnaMode

Well...a lot of these movies do happen to be directed by ‘woke’ elitist (white) liberals. I haven’t seen the film, but I haven’t appreciated a lot of modern spins on classics...So there is a suffocating nature to them that even I observe. They don’t feel as universal and timeless as say...”It’s a Wonderful Life”

And I do think it unfortunate that more substantive films aren’t set in different milieus. I think most portrayals of icons like MLK Jr. have been mediocre and uncomplex at best..and there are lots of stories about historic African-American figures which have yet to be told on screen and whose lives wouldn’t be able to fit neatly into a woke secular-progressive agenda.

I would also appreciate more ancient/Biblical epics with mediterranean/middle eastern/israeli actors, etc...


4 posted on 12/30/2019 3:25:13 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: EdnaMode

Well...a lot of these movies do happen to be directed by ‘woke’ elitist (white) liberals. I haven’t seen the film, but I haven’t appreciated a lot of modern spins on classics...So there is a suffocating nature to them that even I observe. They don’t feel as universal and timeless as say...”It’s a Wonderful Life”

And I do think it unfortunate that more substantive films aren’t set in different milieus. I think most portrayals of icons like MLK Jr. have been mediocre and uncomplex at best..and there are lots of stories about historic African-American figures which have yet to be told on screen and whose lives wouldn’t be able to fit neatly into a woke secular-progressive agenda.

I would also appreciate more ancient/Biblical epics with mediterranean/middle eastern/israeli actors, etc...


5 posted on 12/30/2019 3:25:13 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: EdnaMode

The NBA is too black.
Nigeria is too black.
Uganda is too black.
Burkina Faso is too black.
Ghana is too black.
Namibia is too black.
Gabon is too black.
Congo is too black.
Tanzania is too black.
Somalia is too black.
Botswana is too black.
Zimbabwe is too black.

Why don’t we ever hear about this?


6 posted on 12/30/2019 3:26:27 PM PST by rfreedom4u (The root word of vigilante is vigilant!)
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To: EdnaMode

Why stop there? All of the women should be transgender blacks. They should reveal their genitals at the end of the movie just to prove it. And the guy should be a homosexual Peruvian who gets in a lip lock with a random homo Japanese baseball player, because (don’t you know?) all Japanese baseball players are homos.


7 posted on 12/30/2019 3:29:39 PM PST by BlueStateRightist (Government is best which governs least.)
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To: EdnaMode

Time to remake “The Color Purple.”


8 posted on 12/30/2019 3:29:46 PM PST by MV=PY (The Magic Question: Who's paying for it?)
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To: EdnaMode

Little Women published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869 , yep needs more color ,D’oh


9 posted on 12/30/2019 3:30:01 PM PST by butlerweave
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To: MV=PY

Time to remake “The Color Purple.”

The Color White ?


10 posted on 12/30/2019 3:30:55 PM PST by butlerweave
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To: EdnaMode

I’m fascinated that Bob Odenkirk is in “Little Women”. It just doesn’t seem to fit.

In any case, I’m torn between seeing the movie and not. It’s been my favorite book since I was nine years old. I hate what Hollywood does to literature. My sister took her nine-year-old granddaughter to see it, and they liked it.

They complain that this is too white. They complain about Tom Sawyer with Injun Joe and Jim, who’s black. Are they EVER happy?


11 posted on 12/30/2019 3:32:43 PM PST by MayflowerMadam
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To: EdnaMode
Talented black actors get tons of roles, and are highly successful. Samuel Jackson, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Eddie Murphy, Michael B. Jordan, Morgan Freeman, Cuba Gooding Jr., Wesley Snipes, Forest Whitaker, etc., and that's just a partial list of the males. These are some of my favorite actors. This is ridiculous.
12 posted on 12/30/2019 3:34:51 PM PST by neverevergiveup
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To: butlerweave

The portrayers of the members of the family should be each an obviously different race or ethnicity.Perhaps Beth should be Guatemalan and speak Mayan.


13 posted on 12/30/2019 3:35:49 PM PST by arthurus (h,p")
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To: EdnaMode

Remake: Little non-binary genderqueer trans Femmes!


14 posted on 12/30/2019 3:36:12 PM PST by PGR88
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To: EdnaMode

In Deep Blue Sea 2 they went super heavy into Diversity and forgot to write a script


15 posted on 12/30/2019 3:36:19 PM PST by butlerweave
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To: EdnaMode

This article brings to mind the scene in “True Romance” where Christopher Walker has a rather unpleasant conversation with Dennis Hopper - just before Walken shoots Hopper in the face. Someone should ask the writer if a Sicilian is non white enough. Still technically Caucasian and looks as described like Laurie in the book


16 posted on 12/30/2019 3:38:40 PM PST by atc23
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

‘I would also appreciate more ancient/Biblical epics with mediterranean/middle east’rn/israeli actors, etc...’

what, you didn’t like blue eyed Robert Powell or Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus...?


17 posted on 12/30/2019 3:42:11 PM PST by IrishBrigade
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To: EdnaMode

Isnt that “appropriating”white culture?


18 posted on 12/30/2019 3:42:54 PM PST by A_Former_Democrat (Guns up . . . We cominÂ’ PS: Eric The Blower Ciaramella. PASS IT ON)
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To: EdnaMode
It's a historical piece. The critics are racist.
19 posted on 12/30/2019 3:43:59 PM PST by Vision (Obama corrupted, sought to weaken and fundamentally change America; he didn't plan on being stopped.)
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To: rfreedom4u

Aren’t there plenty of black movies and TV shows these days? She doesn’t think any of those are too black?


20 posted on 12/30/2019 3:45:28 PM PST by GnuThere
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