Humanism

[Kara Connor]

What does “Oh yeah! Laverne Cox” mean?

[Unseen]

To be totally consistent and ethically pure, should Director David Lynch have looked for a severely deformed person to play the role of the “elephant man” in the movie Elephant Man?

[Kara Connor]

If you want to completely miss the point, yes. You seem to be having great difficulty with recognizing the importance of representation, and how relevant life experience can enhance an actor’s performance and the input they can give.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Kara Connor.

[Noel]

Laverne Cox: She played the part of a female inmate in Orange is the New Black. She also played the part of the inmate when she was a he and was a firemen. So Laverne Cox got to play the parts of a LGBQT transexual as a female and a male. which is great!

You see I remember Laverne Cox when she was living at a welfare hotel on 28th street and Madison Ave in NYC. I remember that when she walked down the block everyone stared and the kids that worked the mail room at one of the office buildings would shout and hit her with their cat calls. On more than one occasion I asked them to stop the nonsense but they always would go back to jeering and trying to put her down the very next day. When I saw she was on the show I was very happy for her. I was even happier when I showed the kids in the mail room one of the episodes she starred in and got to look at the look on their faces. Hopefully they learned something.

I think we’ve come a long way from the ostracizing of gay men and women. We still have a long way to go. You see back in 1977 the idea of a transexual starring in an Emmy winning show was down right crazy. Let alone a transexual winning an Emmy.

[Davis]

Kara, I have no problem with a hetero guy playing a gay role and I personally don’t know anyone else who does either. I only hear this kind of anger from an online part of the LGTB+ “community”. I often am amazed by how eagerly they present their arguments as representative of the “community as a whole”. I agree that it would be wonderful if LGTB+ actors were cast in any roles, especially LGTB+ roles. Assuming they are the right actor for the job. But it is totally another thing to shame a studio or an actor for being cast in a LGTB+ character. It basically overlooks a thousand considerations that go into the film and casting, absurdly mocks the cherished role of an actor to “act” and it also puts limits on a specific group of people because of their sexuality, something most LGTB+ have been fighting for generations. Yes, LGTB+ actors in LGTB+ rioles…great. All forms of incentives for studios to cast their roles with LGTB+ actors, great. Help, encouragement, activism and all sort of arguments, yes. Shaming an actor or studio for allowing someone of one sexuality play a role is…destructive bullshit.

[Davis]

Should Director David Lynch have looked for a severely deformed person to play the role of the “elephant man”

LOL. I can only imagine once Earth makes contact with aliens, the outrage they will feel when humans use “animation and special effects or humans in costumes” as opposed to actual alien actors. I would imagine the alien “community” would express strong concern over this. Slight problem, their transparent skin and extremely high and sputtering voices are really hard to capture on even the most sophisticated cameras and microphones. Should we just put subtitles underneath what they say, or do a voice over per some “universal translator”. I’m not sure which would be decried more.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

I wonder if Hollywood would ever make a movie about this case in Egypt? Would they dare cast a non-Muslim as the presiding judge in the court?

[Unseen]

Davis wrote:

Should Director David Lynch have looked for a severely deformed person to play the role of the “elephant man”

LOL. I can only imagine once Earth makes contact with aliens, the outrage they will feel when humans use “animation and special effects or humans in costumes” as opposed to actual alien actors. I would imagine the alien “community” would express strong concern over this. Slight problem, their transparent skin and extremely high and sputtering voices are really hard to capture on even the most sophisticated cameras and microphones. Should we just put subtitles underneath what they say, or do a voice over per some “universal translator”. I’m not sure which would be decried more.

Forgive a tangent, but I watch a lot of Netflix movies originating outside the English-speaking world, and it is amusing that so often in these movies when two people, e.g., a German and a Greek, find that neither knows the other’s language, the next question is “Do you speak English?” English truly has become the international language, which is hilarious because it’s such a hard-to-learn mess of inconsistencies, contradictions, and idioms.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Unseen.

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