"Tolkien is turning in his grave" sad wealthy troll Elon Musk tweeted
It's been little over a decade since Fox News slammed President Obama's "hip hop BBQ" (which... was literally just his birthday celebration) for "not creating employment," and for a brief time, I was confident conservatives would never surpass this level of idiocy. They're now arguing that the "woke" casting of nonwhite elves and dwarves in a fictional, fantastical realm is **checks notes** historically wrong this weekend in the Year of our Lord 2022.
Rings of Power, an Amazon Prime prequel series that takes place before the events of J. In contrast to the LotR movies of the 2000s, R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings has cast a few of nonwhite performers. And, predictably, a slew of online trolls and right-wing media figures are outraged that the new show contradicts the ostensibly all-white realm of Middle Earth.
On Sunday, CNN published an opinion piece titled "When 'wokeness' comes to Middle-earth: Why some say diverse casting ruins the new 'Lord of the Rings' series." "Wokeness," of course, is synonymous with "Black and Asian people." As of Tuesday, Rings of Power's audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes stands at 38% due to review-bombing. Amazon went so far as to pause the show's audience ratings on its site for 72 hours on Saturday in an attempt to combat similar review-bombing.
There are countless social media tweets condemning the show for its lack of diversity, all of which are hilariously offended by non-snow-white elves, but one tweet in particular equating the show to Black Panther being cast as a white guy will probably stick with me the longest. Yes, these are clearly the same things: a superhero whose identity is built in representing a marginalized ethnic group being cast as a white actor is the same as people of color being allowed to live fictionally in a fantasy universe that never excluded them in the first place.
To be clear, there's no basis for any of this outrage—literature Tolkien's never explicitly designated anyone as white; Middle Earth may have been influenced by European Medieval periods, but that's hardly mutually incompatible with the (again, FICTIONAL) presence of Black people. In a world with sorcerers, dragons, and genuine elves and dwarfs, black and Asian characters hardly seem "unrealistic"—unless you simply don't want them to exist, because that contradicts your idea that this show was intended for white people solely.
Men's rights advocates are also joining the struggle, with a particular Tesla CEO spearheading the charge.
Almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both. Only Galadriel is brave, smart and nice.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 5, 2022
Cool!! Just wait till Mr. Musk learns how fictitious women have been written for years, living primarily as semi-sentient pairs of breasts in the fantasy and superhero genres until very recently—only to be viciously review-bombed.
Musk's criticism of Rings of Power may appear innocuous on the surface, but it is part of a larger trend of conservative men who are horrified by the alleged deterioration of conventional manhood. Back in April, noted insurgency-fleer Sen. Josh Hawley was announced as the keynote speaker for a Christian men's conference next year, after this year's was rife with monster trucks, fire, implied dick-measuring, and other hyper-masculine displays; Hawley is in the midst of penning an entire book about the "crisis of masculinity"—and, no, the crisis in question has nothing to do with prevalent gender-based
Conservatives and right-wing provocateurs have devolved into pathetic little caricatures bickering and squabbling online about Black people living in a world of wizards, hobbits, magic, a gigantic detached eye conveying a sorcerer's evil spirit, and allegedly misandrist writing. Outrage and white terror over casting nonwhite individuals in supposedly white worlds isn't new—trolls have always existed to shrug off any ludicrous narrative arc, only to dissolve into a puddle of white tears over casting nonwhite performers or giving screen time to female superheroes. Racist and sexist outrage is having a MomentTM right now, thanks to Rings of Power, HBO's House of the Dragon (a new Game of Thrones prequel series that also casts people of color in a fantasy land supposedly based on European Medieval times), and even Marvel's She-Hulk, which follows a female version of the Hulk.
We can't stop laughing at how every time women express their dissatisfaction with abortion rights and other "social" issues, we're chastised for not focusing on the true issue of inflation—has anyone asked Elon Musk or CNN what elves have to do with rising gas costs yet? In any case, as fantasy literature increasingly depict worlds with people of color, may I also recommend creating realms with less violence against women and patriarchal oppression?
#Elf #BlackElf #LOTR #RingsOfPower #ElonMusk
SOURCE: jezebel
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