Veruca has something to say about Hunger Games

[verucasalt123]

Well, not so much about Hunger Games, but about some of the reaction out there to some casting decisions.




Right. So. I saw this movie. I thought it was good. There were some key scenes from the book that I felt should have been included, but you can't get everything in there, I guess. I was also disappointed that the "Hunger" aspect was not really addressed at all. The District 12 tributes were stuffing their faces the whole time in the book, because they'd been starving their whole lives, and that was totally glossed over in the movie.

But that's not why I'm bitching. It was brought to my attention today that many people sent out tweets expressing their anger over Rue and Thresh being played by black actors. Things like "I'm not so sad about Rue dying now that I know she was black" and "Since when is Rue a nigger?". Yeah. Seriously. I'm not making that up.

First of all, COME THE FUCK ON. How people say that kind of shit and live with themselves, obviously, is a mystery to me. Though I was mightily entertained by the fact that many of those tweets were laden with spelling and grammatical errors.

Which leads me to my second point. Reading comprehension skills. These are people who clearly read the book and fell in love with this character, this sweet young little girl who captured so many hearts in the story. But they clearly skipped over the part where the author described both tributes from District 11 as having BROWN SKIN. Not tan, or olive, or dark. BROWN. I don't know about y'all, but I think describing someone as having brown skin would make it fairly clear that the author is talking about a black person (or African American or whatever term you want to use).



To sum up, people are stupid, and Veruca Salt demands that they either stop being stupid or just shut up and get her another pony.

Comments

[mandatorily.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU FOR THIS! What the ever loving fuckery? Ever heard of reading comprehension people? I don't just imagine a character out of my head -- I go on the descriptions and word clues of the author, since, you know, THEY'RE THE ONES WHO KNOW WHAT THE CHARACTERS ARE LIKE AND ALL.

Ugh, people.

Also? Jealous! Still haven't seen it!

[verucasalt123.livejournal.com]

Go! See it!

[blackrabbit42.livejournal.com]

I completely agree. But I have to shakily raise my hand and admit that I don't remember picturing Rue as a "person of color" (someone help us white girls out here... what exactly is the term that is least offensive nowadays?) I think that culturally, we tend to envision characters in "our own image" unless there are good descriptors to indicate otherwise. (I'm sure they were there, but I didn't pick up on them).

Interestingly, I recently read a romance novel in which for some reason, I pictured the MMC as being black, and no one else I who read it saw him that way. The pic on the cover only shows his legs in jeans and shoes, so I don't know where I got that image.

And yes, people are stupid, I can't believe we live in this day and age and people still act that way. Disgusting.

[verucasalt123.livejournal.com]

Here are some quotes from the book:

"a twelve-year-old girl from District 11. She has dark brown skin and eyes"

"The boy tribute from District 11, Thresh, has the same dark skin as Rue, but the resemblance stops there."

Wait, you mean black people don't all look the same? SHOCKING REVELATION.

[verucasalt123.livejournal.com]

Oh, and to make things perfectly clear, I have a ton of female friends that I spend time with, but only three of them are not Whitey McWhiteypants like me. One is from Jamaica and does NOT tolerate being referred to as African-American. One has thought of herself and her family as 'black' all her life and doesn't particularly care for the term African-American. I have not discussed the topic of labels with my other black friend, but once when she was recounting a story and she whispered the word 'black', I just told her that being black wasn't something to be whispered like you grandmother always mouths or whispers things like 'cancer' or 'divorced'. But I guess no one's grandmom is quite as fabulous as mine. When my cousin Stefanie, her niece, announced that she was pregnant with the baby of her Harvard-educated, successful boyfriend who happened to be black, all my grandmother had to say was "Don't people bother getting married before they have babies??

[wallmakerrelict.livejournal.com]

Ugh, there is not enough profanity in the world to describe my feelings about those kinds of people.

There were also a lot of people criticizing Cinna's casting, saying that he was supposed to be white. Those who actually read the book would like to point out that no, he's described as being handsome and wearing gold eyeliner. That's it.

And then someone, no joke, told me that Cinna couldn't be black because if he was then Katniss wouldn't have described him as handsome. I just... I can't with these people. How do you even respond to that if not with an entire page filled with nothing but "FUCK YOU!"

[verucasalt123.livejournal.com]

He was also described as having short dark hair, but other than that and the eyeliner, there wasn't any specific description.

Oh, and yeah, Lenny Kravitz couldn't possibly be handsome. That's just silly (insert eyeroll here)

[blackrabbit42.livejournal.com]

You are all going to laugh your pants off at this one, but I couldn't hep but picture Cinna as Simon Powell the whole time I was reading it!!!

I think I must have some sort of character picturing deficiency

Hunger Games

[lacy215.livejournal.com]

You are so right. I haven't read the books yet and I fell in love with Rue and sobbed when she died. People who talk the way you quoted them are ignorant and should just be ignored. Maybe they'll go away. I can't believe that in 2012 people still don't take people on a one-on-one basis.

It was a wonderful movie and I can't wait to see it again.

Re: Hunger Games

[verucasalt123.livejournal.com]

I went on opening night, and during that scene the only thing you could hear was a theater full of 13 year old girls sobbing and blowing their noses. Very emotional.

Re: Hunger Games

[lacy215.livejournal.com]

I'm 50 something and was sobbing. I pretty much started crying at the beginning of the movie and never stopped. It's my new go-to movie for when I'm in one of those moods where you just need a good cry.