Reblogged from Dennis R. Upkins:

Reblogged from Dennis R. Upkins:

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So this past week a group of us have gotten together to celebrate the birthday of one Triple J.

But don't take my word for it. You can read why others think he's a pretty special guy here, here, here, and here.

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“Some motherfuckers always trying to ice skate uphill.” –Blade

It never fails that some people try to comment here without reading a damn thing about who and what Ars Marginal is for then get mad or confused when their comments get treated with the derision they deserve.

To reduce the confusion and decrease the likelihood of conversational eyesores, I’ve updated the comments policy.

So, before you comment (each and every time), it would behoove you to check out this thing here (which is, conveniently enough, called, “BEFORE YOU COMMENT”) before you show your whole entire ass.

Reblogged from Dennis R. Upkins:

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So last week, I was reviewing the solicits for upcoming comics and saw this gem above:

An all female X-Men team being led by none other than the First Lady of Marvel, Storm. And note said all female team consists of not one, not two but three women of color.

Then I read about the upcoming Mighty Avengers which features a predominantly black roster and saw these beautiful renderings here:

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10 Reasons why Elementary Is Far Superior to BBC’s Sherlock:

10) The Magical Speshul White Guy Actually Gets Called Out On His BS

Unlike BBC’s Sherlock who’s consistently a dick to everyone and gets a pass because he’s white and “speshul”, Elementary’s Sherlock, who while is also a dick, actually has gets called out on his antics and there are repercussions for said antics. And true to the original text, Elementary’s Sherlock actually respects human beings even if they aren’t on his level.

9) Elementary Featured Multiple Asians In An Episode Without Epic Racefail

If you saw Season 1 Ep 2 of BBC’s Sherlock, you know exactly the fuckery that I’m referencing.

8) Elementary features a superior Irene Adler/Moriarty

I would explain how but that would be spoilers.

7) The setting takes place in a realistic setting

Unlock BBC’s Sherlock that takes place in a very whitewashed London, Elementary takes place in a diverse New York where POCs can be seen everywhere in the background, as police officers, as execs being interviewed for cases, as recurring characters, in all socio-economic classes from all walks of like.

6) No heterosexist/homophobic jokes

Unlike Writer/Exec Producer Steve Moffatt who makes so many homophobic jokes in Sherlock that making a drinking game out of it could lead to alcohol poisoning, the writers of Elementary keep their comedy a tad more sophisticated and a tad less offensive. Because as an LGBTQ, I just love having my orientation mocked every time I watch a TV show.

5) The writers of Elementary actually know how to write women (of color)

Let’s keep it 100, Irene Adler notwithstanding, BBC’s Sherlock is not a fine example of multifaceted female characters. Dr. Joan Watson is no sidekick and consistently proves herself to be Sherlock’s equal time and time again. And how many shows American or British can say that about their heroines of color?

4) 50 Percent of the Elementary cast is comprised of people of color.

Jon Michael Hill as Det. Marcus Bell (which I love the nod to Joseph Bell, and given to the black guy no less) and Dr. Joan Watson. Both of whom get screentime and stations and agency. More than that, recurring characters are also POCs, OH EM EFFIN GEE, IT’S LIKE THE NAACP UP IN THIS MOTHERFUCKER.

3) A Trans Mrs. Hudson

Elementary not only puts a new spin on an iconic character but she’s also formidable muse and fierce in her own right. And said trans character is played by talented trans actress, Candis Cayne.

2) Frequent shirtless scenes featuring one Johnny Lee Miller

Let’s keep it 100 people, as far as sexy Sherlocks go, Miller’s got it. Case in point:

AND THE NUMBER ONE REASON WHY ELEMENTARY IS SUPERIOR TO BBC’S SHERLOCK

 1) LUCY LIU

Elementary features Lucy Liu as Dr. Joan Watson. That’s right Elementary has Charlie’s Angel, O Ren Ishii herself.  For her inclusion alone, Elementary wins and your argument is invalid.

Keep your White Kahn-Artists and your hobbits, Lucy Liu trumps all.

And I for one cannot wait for season 2 of Elementary this fall.

So let’s discuss movies. Movies previously seen and movies under consideration by yours truly. For the unfamiliar, I should probably explain my criteria for consuming media to provide proper context.

And now for our featured presentations:

So yours truly recently had the honor of having a guest post over at Fangs of Fantasy. You should check it out. It’s an awesome website, run by some most excellent folks and well, the post is kinda cool too. So yeah.

And now our featured presentation.

Warning: Spoilers for Star Trek!  (Which is ironic, if you read the links below.)

For the two people who don’t know, the new Star Trek movie cast very very white Benedict Cumberbatch as the iconic Star Trek villain Khan, a role that was made iconic by Ricardo Montalbán, a man of color.

As would be expected, a lot of people are complaining vociferously about the whitewashing, including me.  (And the other racism in the movie, and the sexism . . .)  As well we should!  But whitewashing isn’t new; Hollywood does it all the damn time.

Where Star Trek Into Darkness is unique is that the powers that be attached their whitewashing to a plot point they explicitly coded as SUPER SEKRIT.  This didn’t strike me until it was pointed out to me, but now I can’t stop thinking about it.

Racebending sums it up thusly:

Add to this the secrecy prior to release around Cumberbatch’s role in the film, and what seems like a casting move that would typically be defended by cries of ‘best actor for the job, not racism’ becomes something more cunning, more malicious. Yes, the obfuscation creates intrigue around and interest in the role, but it also prevents advocacy groups like Racebending.com from building campaigns to protest the whitewashing. [...] They don’t want their racist practices to be called out, pointed at, and exposed before their movies are released—Airbender proved that these protests create enough bad feeling to affect their bottom line. [...] This time, for Star Trek: Into Darkness, their hiding and opaque practices has managed to silence media watchdogs until the movie’s premiere.

User Greywash on Dreamwidth goes even further:

And this is why I am so angry. The filmmakers, either deliberately or accidentally (SPOILER: I COMPLETELY 100% THINK IT WAS DELIBERATE) manipulated a social custom of their fanbase to limit the amount of potentially revenue-reducing communication that would occur between fans. They have put me in the revolting position of having to put something that I know that a nonzero number of people reading this would consider to merit boycotting this movie in its entirety behind a cut.  The makers of Star Trek have not only done something tactless, insensitive, and racist, they have made it hard to talk about, they have made it hard for people to find out about, and they have made it easy for people who would not give them money for it to give them money for it, unknowingly, unwittingly, and unwillingly.

And in the comments to Greywash’s article, there’s a fantastic comparison to Iron Man 3 and how those producers handled the publicity regarding people’s fears of racism in The Mandarin.  I won’t say more or quote because if you haven’t seen Iron Man 3 yet you should see it unspoiled, but follow the link if you’ve already seen it!

The one good thing that seems to have come out of the SUPER SEKRITNESS of Cumberbatch playing Khan is that John Cho was able to give the proverbial finger to the casting.  If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the video (also embedded below).  Skip to 1:48. The stars are being asked in a pre-release promo who their favorite ST villain is, and several of them are shown saying, “Benedict Cumberbatch in this upcoming movie!  It’s going to be awesome!”  What does John Cho say?

“Ricardo Montalbán as Khan.  He was badass.  And a man of color, I might add.”

And the rest of the cast, who all know he’s CURRENTLY BEING WHITEWASHED IN THE UPCOMING MOVIE, laugh nervously.  (FUCK YEAH JOHN CHO.)  It’s a small retaliation, but I wonder if the powers that be knew they’d be allowing their cast to shoot them in the foot when they insisted on the secrecy.  (And if they fire John Cho for this, I will never give the reboot franchise another dime.)

What do you all think?  Did the producers hammer on the unnecessary secrecy intentionally to avoid bad pre-release publicity?  Is there any way to deal with it if/when producers pull similar shenanigans in the future?