I’m sure the flood of shorts, t-shirts, bathing suits and all the rest is hitting your local Disney Store as we speak. But that doesn’t properly monetize Halloween the next big holiday coming up.
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They still could have sold the Moana dresses as long as they left the skin out of it.
ETA: and indeed they still do.
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I agree. It’s all about intent.
Also, Polynesian men do tend to be muscled with bellies. As a big muscled, big bellied guy, I like seeing depictions of people similar to me in movies and it would be a shame if they had “skinny washed” the movie.
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Meh, there’s at least as much hew and cry over how offended everyone is. For my part, I don’t feel actual offense should be the threshold of being sensitive to the history of cultural appropriation. It’s odd that people seem to think the complaints Disney got were all apoplectic white social justice knights. Why couldn’t it have been POC sending polite complaints asking them to withdraw the costume?
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It was actually people of Polynesian descent who voiced offense. Though in fairness there were also people of Polynesian descent who didn’t see a problem with it.
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I’m… not really sure I’m keen on the idea that “the races should keep to their own, black skinned characters are for black people, white skinned characters are for white people”, which seems to be the most likely case you’re making here.
The alternative, arguing that it’s okay for black people to pretend to be white people (because black people aspiring to take on the attributes of white people is good), but it is unacceptable for white people to pretend to be black people (because white people aspiring to take on the attributes of black people is bad) seems even worse.
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I didn’t see a Moana costume. I only saw a Maui one. He only wears a necklace and grass skirt.
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LOL, you haven’t read it anywhere, and you’re tight with the PI community, right? So you’ve got a really good handle on the thoughts and feelings that are going around about this?
It’s all over Facebook, and to be honest the reactions are extremely mixed. But you don’t think it’s a little offensive to say that Pacific Islanders can’t form an opinion without being told what to think by white people?
Anyway, here are a couple of samples to demonstrate the range of opinions held by Polynesian folks about this issue:
From this:
So this is COMPLETELY racist. You can literally buy and put on brown skin with PI tattoos on it and a grass skirt for $44.95. I’m sooooo tired of folks being excited about this movie and saying “it’s just a cartoon,” and mocking other PI folks for being critical or upset about Disney’s representation of Maui. THIS IS WHY!
The Pacific Islander cultural practitioners and artists who worked on this film - y’all knew this was gonna happen, but you collected that fat paycheck anyway…
To this:
Really? People are seriously mad about the Maui costume? The costume is supposed to reference Maui the character from the new Disney movie Moana and people are seriously angered and offended by that? How bout those people chill tf out
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It’s mostly when white people assume the skin color of a non-white character where things get messy due to the long and ugly history of “blackface.” White girl wearing Princess Tiana dress = probably fine. White girl covering her face with brown shoe polish or wearing dark stockings on her arms and legs to look more like a black person = not OK.
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The Moana costume’s still for sale:
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I agree based on that still. Maybe there’s a different angle or other characters, but that character looks like what we in my high school wrestling team called, “a wall.”
ETA: Or to use a recently learned Canuckian word: Skookum.
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History matters though. There’s a big difference between someone like me, a white American, dressing up as character like Storm, who very much represents empowerment of black Africans against colonialist exploitation, and Nick Fury, who’s been both white and black, but who at his core is just a bad-ass American doing everything he can to stabilize an increasingly chaotic world.
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Hey, this is the new Disney movie! The one where the main character had to be renamed for Italy and South America, because “Moana” was the most famous pornstar ever, in those countries! I’d never have thought they could be culturally insensitive, uh-uh…
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So like Mulan and Pocahontas, there is enough clothing there to sell just the clothing as a costume.
The unique problem here is this character is basically naked.
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If you think the only people who are offended by this kind of thing are white people then I think the problem here has to be that you’re deliberately choosing to ignore the voices of Pacific Islanders, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Hispanic people, Native Americans, and other groups.
From over here, it looks suspiciously like you’re offended by white people having a problem with racism, and are labeling having a problem with racism virtue signaling, though maybe you’re just expressing things in a confusing way. From over here, decrying opposition to racism as virtue signaling is a thing I see certain white people do as a kind of virtue signaling.
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Fair enough. But their representative sample of three people of Polynesian descent isn’t what tipped their scales though. Kelly Davis Naea seems to object more to the tattoo.
Quite.
Although we humans have been culturally appropriating from other cultures since the dawn of time. It’s what we do. It’s how cultures are grown.
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Well, he’s a demigod, so they wanted to make him huge. And from watching him move, the guy’s not obese, he’s a solid hunk of muscle. I definitely don’t see the issue.
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I think so. In this case, maybe it really is the best option to just not make a costume of the near-naked tattooed guy.
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No, calling racism where it doesn’t exist is virtue signalling.[quote=“nemomen, post:37, topic:85931”]
it looks suspiciously like you’re offended
[/quote]
I don’t think I’ve ever been offended in my life. I choose not to drink from that poisoned chalice.
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In Hawaii, no one would give that costume a second thought. Also, in the old times being fat was a sign of power and wealth, Skinny people were poor, ali’i were fat because they could afford food. Source: Hawaiiana classes in the hawaiian public school system.
in response to pacifica below since the time limit for responses is past: No not everyone its hyperbole.
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