Lit Ignorance is Bias: The Diversity Manifesto

While it might be a little on the strict side, it does seem to be having the desired effect of increasing awareness of the issue.

 

Just want to say that they took up the problems with the Bechdel test on the news when they introduced it and it is not any of our large "national" cinema groups that has begun to use it (jet?) and it is just there to increasing awareness of the issue not to say that the non-A films are bad

 

I still don't buy this. People say that our world is colorblind, too, but "saying" it doesn't make it so. It's still a fundamental issue where authors need to show and not tell. It is completely "unrealistic" that people with darker skin in universe haven't noticed this disparity when readers out of universe have. That doesn't mean that it must be a salient plot point. I'm just saying Luke Skywalker hasn't admitted very many humans with dark skin in his Jedi Academy. And Jacen and Jaina have no friends darker than a paper bag.

 

The problem with the Bechdel test is that it is constructed with an inherent bias towards certain plot structures - particularly large ensemble casts - and towards having the protagonist be female.

The latter is particularly important since a movie with a female protagonist will almost certainly pass the Bechdel test (unless all conversation in said film is about men) but it doesn't mean that movie will be featuring strong depictions of women. I believe most if not all of the Twilight films pass the test, and those are practically anti-feminist movies.

Many movies are structures in such a fashion that almost all of the conversations consist of the protagonist talking to someone or otherwise characters simply declaiming things into the air - the Captain America movie is a good example, sure it could have had more female characters but the dialogue in that film consists almost entirely of Cap talking to other people and on the villain side the Red Skull doing the same thing. Increasing the number of female background characters would not have made the movie pass the test. Heck even something like Agents of SHIELD probably has episodes that don't pass the test, even though it has a 50/50 gender split in the main cast, simply because the plotline does not necessarily call for those people to talk to each other in any given episode.

So I dislike this ratings system, because it is a 'teach to test' approach to social progress. Assuming it becomes popular you will see changes made to films to include brief conversations between two women so they garner an 'A' rating rather than make more substantial changes.

The universe as a whole contains almost as many persons of color as it does white people so I'm not sure what it is unrealistic for people in-universe to have noticed.

Yes for some reason in a certain historical time and place there seems to have been an anomaly where white persons predominated for a time for some as yet unexplained reason. The franchise is gradually correcting itself over time.

And what people say about the real world versus what people say about fantasy worlds are not the same thing. There are plenty of nonsense things about the Star Wars universe that have been declared to be true by fiat - the size of the Death Star II for one, and we have to live with those.

There is no active evidence of racial prejudice by any Human character to another Human character anywhere in any Star Wars product I am aware exists. Taking a disparity in appearance rates by certain ethnic groups that is traceable primarily to the composition of the Original Trilogy and holding it over the franchise effectively forever is not reasonable.

 

Casting call for Star Wars Episode VII. The first role, for a woman character, is open to all ethnicities. The second role for the man doesn’t specify, which in Hollywood implicitly communicates to casting directors, agents, and actors that they want a white actor.​

 

You sure this is for SW? Sounds like it could be for one of those Disney Musicals

 

Fun little diversity tidbit: Marvel is launching a new Ms. Marvel series, starring a teenage Muslim girl. I don't have anything resembling a encyclopedic knowledge of super heroes, but this is at least the first mainstream Muslim super hero that I can think of.

 

Depends what's considered "mainstream" when it comes to comics. Marvel's had a few, with the members of their Iraqi superhero team Desert Sword presumably among them. Dust from X-Men comes to mind, as well. On DC's side, their newest human Green Lantern, Simon Baz, is Muslim, as is Nightrunner, Iron Butterfly, Amon and Adriana Tomaz prior to (and possibly after) getting their Egyptian god-based powers, and Naif al-Sheikh. Damian "Ibn al-Xu'ffasch" Wayne, as the son of Talia al Ghul is likely, though I don't remember if it was ever canonically confirmed.

Regardless, Kamala Khan seems like an interesting character, and a step in the overall right direction for comic protagonists.

 

Ah, seems there's quite a bit more than I realized. I should have at least remembered Simon Baz.

 

Look based on the facts in Star Wars you either have to assume a correlation between pale skin and force sensitivity or you have to assume Luke Skywalker is a racist when looking at the NJO. Also lol I would add Ben to the list of no friends darker then a paper bag but that would be pointless because he has no friends.

 

Do they actually describe the skin colour of all the human students in JA? If not which once is it that get a description?

 

While the NJO Jedi Council may be entirely white, which is certainly awkward, it does not force anyone to assume anything. It's not a sample size of any significance!

The NJO High council contains/contained the following Humans: Luke Skywalker, Kenth Hamner, Kyp Durron, Corran Horn, Mara Jade Skywalker, Kyle Katarn, Octa Ramis, Jaina Solo Fel, Kam Solusar, and Tionne Solusar. That's ten people, just ten. Out of those eight are absolutely white - a case could be made for Octa Ramis as mixed race (her existing images are low resolution), and for Tionne as just odd, possibly even having some Near-Human ancestry. Regardless, it's ten people.

The entire NJO, as a whole, of all species, is only ~200 individuals, and that includes a large number of characters from Legacy.

A case can be made for racism in Star Wars in the Original Trilogy. Outside of that specific context - and of products that primarily derive their characters from the OT that case doesn't function.

 

The same can be said about the US Supreme Court and the US Presidency. 9 at a time or 44 out of a history of a country of millions is not a "statistically significant sample size." But these real life entities, and the NJO Jedi Council, are NOT derived from "random" sampling.

 

The Bechdel test isn't, afaik, intended to be useful for judging the feminist merits of any single work; the fact that Red Sonja hits all three points says pretty much everything that needs to be said about its utility for that purpose. What is revealing is the proportion of works that fail it, regardless of the particulars of why each fails.

Next up, Karen Traviss retcons midichlorian count to be tied to the genes for skin color, so that she can prove the Jedi are basically Nazis.

 

No, that would be just about every other Star Wars author writing Jedi over the past twenty years.

 

On a related note, Thor 2 passes the Bechdel, which just goes to show that Kat Dennings should be in everything.

 

Diversity Score: one million.

 

When did E.T. seize control of the Empire?

 

Also look just because a the absolute number is small does not mean an office like the presidency tells you nothing based on that fact that all presidents except one are white dudes and all presidents are males. Now what it tells you is tricky but it means something so yes the fact that Luke's NJO council is basically all white dudes is kinda relevant especially when u compare it against the OJO that had 1 White Dude on it, 2 if you want to count Anakin but really he was a Palpatine plant and did not have the rank of master.

 

Can you name me one human Jedi in the NJO that has been confirmed to have a skin color other than white?

 

Tionne, I think?

 

Negatory. Possible, not confirmed.

 

There is just one: Markre Medjev.

 

Something good came from Fate of the Jedi? I'd say stranger things have happened, but...