the Doctor is: in

February 25, 2013

cyd-and-that:
aboutbeautyandbrutality:
amoebas-like-cake-too:
dftbrhi:
jellyfishverse:
irresistible-revolution:
Timely reminder that Jennifer Lawrence catapulted to fame on the backs of Brown girls who could’ve played Katniss because LOL it’s just a tan and some bronzer
friendly reminder that she also catapulted to fame on the backs of people with mental illnesses and disorders in some wack ass sensationalised joke of a movie whose screenplay is by a transmisogynistic rapist
edited “abuser” to “rapist”
Friendly reminder that in the Hunger Games books, Katniss is clearly described as white, so to preserve the author’s vision, they kinda had to pic someone like Jennifer Lawrence
Friendly reminder that you need to reread the books, above commenter.
…What Hunger Games did you read in which Katniss was white?
… yeah, I want to know that too.
She was described as having olive skin at the least. Which means she could be white, but she could be any other race too, really. It’s just racist to assume that she is white based on “olive skin”. And Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t have olive skin.

I assumed she was was not a WoC because of :
a. the descriptions of her mother and sister (pale-skinned and blonde, which I don’t think, in the case of Primrose, could happen if her father was a MoC [that color likely being Native American as it is, considering the region, which leads me to Point B in a moment], but I’m obviously not a genetics expert, so I’m probably wrong,

b. The Seam is geographically located in the Appalachians. So, if you’re looking for PoC in that area, I feel Native American descendants would be the only one really sticking out? That doesn’t come out right, I don’t think, but my point with this is that Katniss’s dad could totally have had Native American blood in him. I could believe that. But “olive” skin tones? Cover a whole lot of range. It’s generally used ot refer to people of Mediterranean descent, like Italians or Greeks, but could be used to refer to people of Native American descent, and is often considered a slight natural tan or golden tones. So yeah, I think Katniss as portrayed in the film was a lot paler than she was ever meant to be. But unless you want to include Greek and Italian folk in your PoC list, which judging by the majority of what I have seen, most of you don’t, then by your rules, she’s probably not a WoC.
(I would also like to note that my roommate is from Pennsylvania, which is that region, and she’s descended from Pennsylvania Dutch [read: German] and Italians. Girl’s got some pretty olive-toned skin. It’s gorgeous. I’ve met a bunch of her family and you know what? Some of them were pale and blonde. They’re rocking a cool mixture of pale and olive-toned. I’m not really sure what my point is anymore except that geographically, it’s the same region, and those genetic odds of Primrose and Katniss occurred within her family.)

So. That was my reasoning for seeing Katniss as white, I guess, by your terms. She is not supposed to be as pale as she comes across, but unless you’re willing to reconsider your rules or chart or whatever of white versus PoC, olive-toned can mean, and often does mean, white.

Some people have taken this a step further and gotten very angry and adapted the argument that Katniss, Gale, etc. represent the racial majority of the whole of The Seam, which has been relegated to mining and coal and back-breaking, dirty work, and that that is just a way of oppressing the PoC within her writing.
…but that’s what Appalachia is known for: coal mining. It was a huge industry and is their big natural resource. And that area has always suffered from poverty, despite this giant resource in their backyard. So District 12 is comprised of what the geographical location is actually comprised of.

Here is what is most troubling to me about this giant backlash over “olive-skinned” Katniss not being played by a WoC and how the depiction of these olive-skinned people in grueling work in the coal mines is racist: you have completely blown right over the fact that the people of District 11, the cotton-growing, orchard-picking, wheat-harvesting, starving, beat-down to the ground, harshest working conditions in which terrifying violence is inflicted upon the workers if they disobey, are without doubt PoC, most likely black, as they were (accurately) depicted in the movies. In the books, true, only Rue and Thresh and Chaff are actually written down as such. But in the movies, they are overwhelmingly a black district. District 11 oozes Deep South, racial oppression, good ol’ days of slavery.

So instead of flipping your shit over whether “olive”, the most bullshit, always confusing skin descriptor which actually means golden tint or varying-from-pale-to-dark-shades-of-tan makes Katniss a PoC that could never pass for white, why don’t you raise hell over the utter actually-fucking-racist bullshit that is presented to you in the form of District 11? Why am I flooded with this fucking nitpicking waffling over one goddamn character when there is a concretely evidenced, vastly more troubling problem in District 11? Why aren’t you all angry?

(via let-the-spectrum-in)

11:40pm | URL: https://tmblr.co/ZQcHuvf17EUN

(Notes: 1,980)