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the-desolated-quill · 7 years

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Iron Whitey, Doctor Yellowface And The Two Faced Critics Of Downtown Bollocksville - Quill's Scribbles

So... Didn’t see that one coming.

The upcoming Marvel Netflix TV show Iron Fist has received quite a pummelling from critics in early reviews. Most of the criticism centres around how slow and boring it apparently is, but others focus on the show’s controversial casting of Finn Jones in the title role and the ripple effects caused by it.

The Verge says that the show fails in a number of ways in regards to diversity, representation and appropriation, saying it’s hard to decouple the character’s whiteness from his elevated position.

Filmink.com says that the casting of an Asian American actor in the role would have helped to give the show its own identity.

Uproxx describes Finn Jones as being miscast, coming across as ‘a befuddled surfer who wandered into the middle of a kung fu movie’.

Nerdist.com describes Iron Fist as illuminating where the industry still flounders regarding racial stereotypes and representation in media.

Variety questions why Marvel didn’t cast an actor of Asian descent in the role and accuses the show of cultural appropriation.

IGN.com remarks upon the controversy of the rich white guy finding enlightenment in the mysterious Far East trope.

At the moment I’m typing this, Iron Fist has a rating on Rotten Tomatoes (and this is true) of 0%.

Yep. Iron Fist looks set to be the worst thing ever to come out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But on the plus side, it means the DCEU fandom can finally drop the Marvel Bias bullshit. See guys! The critics do say mean shit about Marvel! Are we finally ready to face reality and accept the fact that the critics talk shit about DC because they just don’t like your movies?

Now look. I’m not here to gloat. In fact kind of the opposite. A few people have been wondering why I haven’t been giving Iron Fist a hard time like I have been with Doctor Strange (which I’ve described numerous times as being objectively more racist than its source material). Well the reason is because Iron Fist hasn’t actually done anything wrong as far as I can see at this moment in time.

With Doctor Strange, Marvel whitewashed a prominent Asian character and stripped the story of its Asian culture and influences before blatantly lying to our faces to justify their shitty behaviour, painting themselves as the unfortunate victims of political correctness in a pathetic attempt to cover their own arses. They essentially took an already racist comic book, made it even more racist and then effectively told us to eat shit and deal with it. What have Iron Fist done that we know of? They’ve cast a white actor as a white character. Now yes it would have been great if they cast an Asian actor in the role and I was very disappointed like everyone else, but at the end of the day, it’s their choice. They’re not in any way obliged to racebend a character. If they want to cast a white actor as a white character, they have every right to do that. The burden is now on them to make sure the show doesn't fall into the same traps as the comics did (the mighty whitey trope and Asian stereotyping). These reviews aren’t exactly filling me with confidence, but as ever I will reserve judgement until I’ve seen it for myself.

I’m not here to comment on whether Iron Fist deserves the negative reception its received. It could be a racist piece of shit for all I know. What I am here to talk about is the hypocrisy of the people criticising it. See if Iron Fist does turn out to be racist, it would be more down to ignorance rather than malice. The show has at least made an effort to cast Asian actors as Asian characters and has retained some of its Asian influences. The showrunner has also stated on the record that he’s aware of the problems with the comics and will do his best to correct them in the show. They’re clearly making a conscious effort not to offend people. What these reviews merely demonstrate is that pride cometh before a fall. The writers and showrunner thought they could do an Iron Fist TV series with a white lead that wasn’t racist and they apparently failed in spectacular fashion. The response should be less moral outrage and more of an indignant ‘I told you so’.

Basically what I’m saying is if you’re morally outraged by Iron Fist, you should be doubly outraged by Doctor Strange, whose crimes are demonstrably worse. At least the makers of Iron Fist were upfront about their intentions. At least they tried to respect the Asian community with their promises of avoiding the white saviour trope (whether they succeeded or not is another matter altogether). At least they didn’t whitewash any Asian characters or homogenise the culture they’re representing. In the MCU setup, Iron Fist is merely the problem child. Doctor Strange is the true villain that deserves our bile and hatred. The people who made Doctor Strange knew what they were doing was wrong, and yet they did it anyway.

So, based on a hunch, I decided to look into what those websites I listed above said about Doctor Strange. Because if they’re fuming about Iron Fist so much and thought that was racially insensitive, they should be set to explode by what Doctor Strange did, right? Well...

The Verge remains consistent, describing the casting of Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One as cultural whitewashing. The criticism for Iron Fist seems far harsher however.

Filmink.com doesn’t even mention the whitewashing and describes the film as exciting, entertaining, goofy and fun.

The Doctor Strange review on Uproxx doesn’t mention the whitewashing neither (nor even anything of substance), but there is another article talking about how dislikable Doctor Strange is as a character and that gives a passing mention to the whitewashing of the Ancient One and the mighty whitey trope.

Nerdist.com mentions the whitewashing, but doesn’t in any way condemn it. Instead praising Tilda Swinton for her performance and giving the filmmakers a figurative slap on the wrist for being naughty boys.

Variety heavily praises Tilda Swinton’s performance, dismissing the whitewashing controversy saying that they wish Swinton was the lead character.

IGN.com also dismisses the controversy saying that Swinton has a unique and ethereal presence, playing a serene and oh so powerful character.

Funny how they’re willing to label Iron Fist as racially insensitive as one of the reasons why they don’t like it, but with something like Doctor Strange, a film they either loved or were mildly indifferent to, they’re suddenly willing to turn a blind eye to its undeniable racism as though that suddenly isn’t relevant to the discussion. Talk about inconsistent.

I guess what I’m building up to is this. If you’re one of those critics who’s bashing Iron Fist for being racist and appropriating another culture and yet described the casting of a white woman as the Ancient One as being ‘subversive’ and ‘a massive step forward for female representation in films’, you can officially go and fuck yourselves. Same goes to all those people saying they’re going to boycott Iron Fist and yet for some reason had no problem paying money to watch Doctor Yellowface. Yeah, you can go fuck yourselves too. Who would have thought visual effects were all that’s needed to buy your loyalty (because that’s all I ever see praised about Doctor Strange. The visual effects. Not the story or the characters. Just the visual effects. It’s basically the cinematic equivalent of dangling your keys in front of a toddler’s face). I’m surprised you can even show your face here. If you’re mouthing off about Iron Fist (which could very well be deserved from what I’ve heard) and yet remained silent when Doctor Strange came along with its racism so obvious it might as well have had a big neon sign over it saying ‘Fuck You Asians’, go sit in the corner and don’t come back until you’ve grown some backbone, you hypocritical arsewipe.

...

Yeah. I don’t know how to end this, so... Go away.

#iron fist #anti doctor strange #marvel cinematic universe #quill's scribbles

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