Posted on 07/09/2026 6:27:40 AM PDT by texas booster
Emily Jashinsky is joined by Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and author of the forthcoming book, “The Counterrevolution: The Fall and Rise of Donald Trump and the MAGA Movement,”
to discuss the controversy surrounding Christopher Nolan's upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey, focusing on comments by Lupita Nyong'o about telling the story from a female perspective and broader debates over casting and representation.
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Wait...
‘It” was in a mildly amusing teen “coming-of -age” comedy Juno. “It” had the lead role - Juno. “It” had a minor female role in Trailer Park Boys.
Helen of Troy, Michigan.
What is behind these type movies is the effort to move the standard of beauty away from beautiful Caucasian females to a more non-white standard. By traditional Caucasian female beauty standards, the female playing Helen of Troy is not beautiful at all. One could go to any Podunk Junction hamlet in the United States and find black females much prettier than her.
When it comes to fiction, there are some liberties I'm ok with and others that I'm not. The Odyssey is a decidedly Greek story and a foundational document of western/European literature, and retellings need to reflect that. OTOH, take for example, "The Equalizer." Edward Woodward built the character in the '80s TV show. When Denzel Washington was cast in the role I had no issues with it. The race of the lead was not a defining characteristic of the role so much as the intellect, cunning and masculinity.
I know Stephen King is a first class jerk, but for years I followed his dark tower/gunslinger books, so when I heard it was being made into a movie, it definitely piqued my interest, then it was announced that Idris Elba was cast as the lead, Roland Deschain. Elba is a fine actor, perhaps one of the best currently working, but over the course of decades, King built the intensity of the character by referencing his, "piercing blue eyes." Further, while I wouldn't refer to King's books as culturally definitive in the way Homer's were, they do build the lead character's lineage loosely on a quasi-Arthurian mythology in a semi-parallel universe, so if you're going to develop a character by invoking, or build out from something that does have deep civilizational roots, the race-swapping becomes gratuitously ignorant, if not outright reckless.
That’s what I didn’t understand. Nyong’o is not unattractive, but there are so many truly beautiful Black women they could have chosen who would have made more sense in the role.
That is, if they were going to mess around like this in the first place...
Not sure where you got Moana as a white Nortic woman. Moana in the cartoon was voiced by Auliʻi Cravalho, who is not Nordic. She is of Chinese, Native Hawaiian, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, and Irish descent.
Moana is about a Polynesian girl. It takes place in Polynesia. Polynesia is in the South Pacific.
Moana is played by Catherine Laga’ala in the live action version. Catherine is of Polynesian descent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auli%CA%BBi_Cravalho
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moana_(2016_film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesia
Moana - live action 2026
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/moana-reviews-rough-dwayne-johnson-140240193.html
You cannot be this dense.
I literally was arguing from comparing opposites.
Hollywierd race swaps stories that are culturally anchored in white people, i.e. Europe ancestry with non-white people.
Moana is culturally not white, so my point was why is Hollywierd not replacing her with a white person.
You, by trying to point out it only makes sense to use a Polynesian girl to play a Polynesian literally makes my point for using culturally accurate actors in stories culturally relevant. I agree she should be Polynesian, just like Snow White needs to be white European and The Little Mermaid needed to be Dutch-white.
Are you really this obtuse?
If we have to stretch our imaginations that far, why not just make it an audio podcast?
Will any Whites ever be shown to live in Wakanda in those Black Panther movies? You know, inventing all that cool tech they have?
The Illiad centers on a Greek woman. It takes place in Greece. Greece is in Europe.
Get it?
We read a then-new and excellent English translation of “The Odyssey” in our first-term Humanities class at MIT.
The central character of the epic is a man. That cannot be changed. A feminist version of “The Odyssey” is no longer “The Odyssey”! Feminist critiques of “The Odyssey” are legitimate, I suppose. But one has to stick to the original, via an excellent English translation of the Greek.
Many of these current commenters on “The Odyssey” would have flunked freshman Humanities at MIT. Since these classes were often taught by Harvard affiliates, they would have flunked it at Harvard, too. Maybe they would do better in 2026, but maybe not.
My comment was about Moana and not the Illiad. I was responding to the comment about Moana being a white woman.
Skwor asked why is Moana protrayed as a Polynesian girl instead of a white Nordic woman. Moana is a Polynesian girl. Apparently Skwor did not watch or read about both Moana versions.
So you still don’t get it.
Everybody agrees that portraying Moana as a Norwegian isn’t right.
But somehow, some people think it’s OK to portray Helen of Troy as a sub-Saharan African.
Now do you get it?
If they had cast the young Beyonce as Helen of Troy, I might be able to buy it. But Lupita Nyongo?
The reason these race swaps only go one way is that the overwhelming abundance of classic characters for actors to play are almost entirely white European. To give black actors a crack at starring roles you pretty much have to do the race swap thing. The female white European also sets the world standard for what a beautiful woman is. That’s why the first thing a black man does when he becomes rich is get a white girlfriend or trophy wife.
Hey, I don’t make the rules but facts are facts.
Sub-Saharan Africa has a mythology! Make some films on that! The Glitterati constantly tell us stories are what matter.
Ok, then Hollyweird Writing\Director\Producing Geniuses should easily be able to show us their genius and make a compelling film!
Why is it not right?
Thank you, Captain Contrarian.
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