#tell me a better actress for inej there is none

[gibbigabba]

Study of the Wraith

[bvnga-aprikot]

hey guys, i know this isn't WMMAP-related content whatsoever, but this came up on my timeline and i think it needs to be talked about.

i don't know if anyone else had talked about this but please read the article first because i think it'll help you understand what i'm talking about. with that said, i just want to say something to netflix and leigh bardugo: what the actual fuck?

if you don't know what shadow and bone is, it's a series on netflix based on two popular YA series' from the grishaverse (first one being the shadow and bone trilogy, and the second being the six of crows duo-logy) by leigh bardugo, who by the way is a part of the show's production. and as you can see, it got into a lot of trouble after it came out that the stunt double for one of it's characters, and i mean IT'S POC CHARACTER, turned out to be a white person.

with all this stuff going around with netflix from the ATLA incident where the writers of the original show left the production due to "creative differences" to netflix not casting a plus-sized actress for, again, one of the characters for shadow and bone, none of this should be surprising.

but that doesn't mean it should be brushed under the rug. there are so many talented people out there who could do stunts that are POC and better fit to be stunt doubles for Amita Suman, the actress who plays Inej Ghafa, said POC character. and yet netflix decided to use a WHITE PERSON, who not only put on a brown bodysuit to give the illusion that it was Inej, but also did BROWNFACE. you're telling me that there weren't any POC stunt actors they could've used?

and this didn't just occurred for Amita Suman, another actor on the show Jessie Mei Li who plays Alina Starkov also had a white stunt double as well! just goes to show how despite the diverse casting for this show, netflix doesn't even care for their POC actors. and what's more disappointing is that everyone had praised this show for it's diverse characters having an actual narrative in the story. so to see this being exposed only showed that netflix's shady behaviour hasn't even changed in the slightest.

and as the article says:

"Unfortunately, Hollywood has a history of whitewashing in stunts, and it's so commonplace that it even has a name: “Painting down." One Twitter user even pointed out that “wigging” is also commonplace — when male stunt performers stand in for women in shows or movies. And the continued use of brown- and blackface isn't just a problem in the stunt world — just last February, an extra who landed a minor role on HBO's Lovecraft Country posted a TikTok where she explained that she was covered in makeup significantly darker than her actual skin tone to play a part. HBO later apologized."

as someone who not only watched shadow and bone but also loved it, it's so disappointing that something like this happened during the making of this show. hollywood has been such a racist industry full of whitewashing and so much more. so if you see this post, spread the word. let netflix and leigh bardugo know that what they did was wrong. let other people who are big fans of this series be aware of this too! at this point, i've lost all hope for netflix and if they could to better, since they have a history of doing this to other shows (*cough cough* the winx club adaption *cough cough*).

thank you for reading this, and i hope you learn something from this.

[raisindeatre]

i'm sorry, i don't want to be rude or insensitive so feel free not to reply but - isn't it a good thing that they cast a half-Chinese actress as Alina? would you rather they had kept her white?

Hello anon, and thanks for the question. Before anything else I just want to say, as always, that this is just my opinion - other people may feel differently, and it’s not my place to judge. But since you asked - I think I would have! Like I genuinely think I would rather have watched a show with White Alina than to sit through so much blatant and horrific racial abuse hurled at the main character!

Diversity is so, so important, and I’m happy that the show’s decision to make her half-Shu Han meant that people like Jessie Mei Li were given opportunities that might otherwise have been denied them. But I just feel like the power of including diversity is undercut when you feel the need to include completely unnecessary racism along with it. I cannot stress enough that NONE of the racism voiced in the show was in the books. And, like, we didn’t need any of it! I’ve read the interviews and the meta where people argue that Alina before the start of the series felt misunderstood, isolated, and like she never belonged anywhere - and so that making her biracial was a way of really rooting those issues in the character. But canon!Alina, before she was made half-Shu Han, already felt all those ways. There was no need to add a racial aspect to that. And so I think what we really need to ask is: did the showrunners really intend to highlight the loneliness and isolation in a main character by making her biracial,  or did they just want a vehicle for their anti-(East) Asian racism? (I’m a little more hesitant to speak on the subject of anti-South Asian racism, since I don’t feel qualified, but @bhatoora points out a similar instance when the Inferni calls Inej “Suli filth!” - a scene which really felt like being hit in the face. I just find it incredibly telling that of all the insults to level at Inej in that moment (murderer, thief, kidnapper - take your pick!) it’s the race-based insult that this Inferni really chose to say with her whole chest. And like, someone wrote this scene into the script. Somebody directed it. Somebody approved it to be broadcast worldwide).

What I think is incredibly important to point out is that the narrative of Alina’s journey to becoming a more powerful Grisha and person, in general, is strongly rooted in the idea of her accepting herself as she is - but this journey to self-acceptance is NEVER directed towards her own Shu heritage. If anything, she actively disavows it any chance she gets - “I don’t actually speak Shu Han”; “I’m Ravkan, not Shu Han”. Like, girl. You are, though! You’re half-Shu Han! There is never a scene where she is shown to be anything other than actively self-hating when it comes to that part of her. 

And I really do understand the canonical context (what with Ravka and Shu Han being at war). I get it - I’d argue I understand it better than any white American that tries to point this out to me. My grandmother is Chinese, in a country where historically the Chinese and the ethnic Malays have been at each other’s throats (see the extremely bloody 1969 racial riots of Malaysia). I understand feeling conflicted and ashamed about your heritage. But I just don’t understand how portraying a biracial character who HATES the part of her that is not coded white, the part that is coded Asian, is supposed to make me feel anything other than nauseated. I fail to see anything about it that is supposed to make me feel empowered. 

TLDR; Diversity is important, yes. But when you feel the need to include racism -and not just include it, but actively write it in - the moment you cast a WOC as your main character, the dangerous message it sends is that diversity cannot exist without racism. That they go hand-in-hand. That people of colour fundamentally cannot exist in a world, even a fucking fantasy world, that doesn’t hate them. And that notion really just makes me want to walk into the ocean and just keep walking, anon!!! Anyway. White people really, really need to do better, or failing that, they need to just shut up and sit down.

Thank you for sending this in, and I hope this answered your question. If you or anyone else wants to know more, though, I strongly urge you to look elsewhere on the Internet. I know people better and more eloquent than I am have chosen to write about this, and honestly I’m too tired to discuss this any further.