J.K. Rowling Photo: VCG
The hashtag “how serious is the involution in Hollywood due to political correctness” began trending on Chinese social media on Monday. British writer J. K. Rowling’s recent suffering, Disney’s live action Snow White, the gay superhero in Marvel films… The batch of operations for political correctness in Hollywood has been satirized by many Chinese netizens, and if Hollywood continues down this road, it will dig its own grave and destroy its reputation one day.
The newest “joke” for most Chinese netizens came after Rowling did not appear for celebrations at the 20th anniversary of the film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Yes, this is ironic: a writer who created the great IP was expelled by those who adapted her work. But HBO Max still insisted on not inviting the writer out of fear of being criticized for not obeying the rule of “political correctness.”
Another series of changes that made most Chinese netizens’ jaws drop is that the live action adaptations of Disney’s classic works The Little Mermaid and Snow White have changed the protagonists from “white” to “black” and “Latino mixedrace.” The more interesting part is that Gal Gadot, the bewitching woman who is in line with the beauty of white people, is going to play the evil queen in Snow White. Don’t you think the picture might be really weird?
These castings do not fall in line with people’s impressions of these classic characters. If Disney really wants to change these characters because of political correctness, it is better to create more diversified characters rather than altering these classic characters without any secondary creation.
How much are DC Comics and Marvel Studios willing to bet on political correctness? They keep changing their characters by introducing more minority groups.
The recently released Eternals shows Marvel Studio’s first gay superhero kiss. However, this brave attempt did not help Marvel win big at the box office at the worldwide film market. Many countries have banned the release of Eternals.
They made the decision not to achieve a better performance both in reputation and market, but mainly due to political correctness.
Look at the 2020’s Oscars, even many filmmakers and media from the West started to mock the Academy Awards as becoming too “political correct.”
New York Post wrote the article “political correctness at 2020 Oscars exposes Hollywood’s hypocrisy.”
The Los Angeles Times reported on some of the new criteria for the best picture Oscar for 2024. One of the criteria filmmakers can meet is that: “At least one of the lead actors or significant supporting actors is from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group.”
Political correctness is the current trend in Hollywood. And though some filmmakers have noticed this, they have not been able to make much change.
BBC once interviewed the well-known US actor, comedian and film producer Mel Brooks who said “We have become stupidly politically correct.”
If Hollywood continues involuting like this, movies will not look better, the box office will not be higher, and actors will not access to as many roles.
In 2018, Scarlett Johansson had to exit the trans film Rub and Tug amid a backlash from trans group and activists.
English actor Eddie Redmayne said in an interview that he felt regret for playing Danish transgender artist Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl, saying “it was a mistake.”
This shows that Hollywood’s political correctness is often just lip service and did not actually give more opportunities to more transgender actors, but just like a “cheap charity” to minority groups.
Global Times
