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@bkryer @Medievalist I’m as bored as everybody else is watching white dudes do white dude shit. But it is more boring and a bit depressing to think "It’s great to see -- insert demographic group -- represented in cinema, hunting ducks, committing securities fraud, saving the savages! Ah, parity."

@Medievalist I keep trying to make the point that it is not variability in the production of art I am bent to contain, but the prescription of it.

@dominikhoecht Maybe. And why not? My point is: the reason we didn’t have Sophie’s List and Schindler’s Choice is because of the necessities of the historical context.

As @pratik mentioned way back up at the top, ask, is the superficial attribute (race, or gender or what have you) somehow integral to the character in the context of the story? If it is, then okay, maybe talk about what it is we need preserve about that character.

But if the attribute does nothing for the story—is only familiar—well don’t flip your cookies when it changes, cuz it will change. Right? I mean, Emperors New Groove is too good to just have the animated Peruvian version. Right?

@bkryer And are we forgetting that there are a lot of white male artists whose main preoccupation has been saying "fuck you" to other white males, normally up the class chain? No, we’re not forgetting that.

@dominikhoecht I think you’re original point was that some casting in modern film production seems to be contrived for some other end, rather than elevating the art. I couldn’t agree more.

I’m kind of tired of every series (can you not tell your story in 90-120 minutes? Really, every time?) with this demographic bento box covering the melanin palette, because Space Mining just happens to attract that sort of crowd.

My teen age friend group was a microcosm of the most recent census, but naturally, not because central casting thought it would improve our chances for college.

@Miraz Well, sure, they have the incentive if not the obligation, at least for the sort of collaborative commercial works we're talking about. But white men have always been a single segment of a much broader population, as is every other group we want to put in an attribute box, so I’m not sure what you are saying with that.

@Medievalist I’m not interested in telling any artist what they should or should not depict. I’m troubled by those who would.

@Miraz Yes, it is a bit vague and just sort of declared w/o much back up...I’m hiding stuff in the phrase "for today’s sake"...hmm...

I guess a better way to get at what I think is causing confusion here is to answer the question: does art have some sort of moral obligation to the viewer? I don’t think it does, or should. So when I’m told thank god finally ghostbusters are getting the representation they deserve, I’m skeptical.

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