#you know. i'm just gonna say it. movies about gay asians directed by gay asians Hit Different.

[canonicallyanxious]

put on Front Cover (2015) on Netflix because it was an hour and a half and it looked cute and not something i had to think a lot about which i've been wanting a lot recently. was NOT emotionally prepared to deal with an incisive commentary hitting way too fucking close to home about the queer asian experience and the nuances and complexity of navigating the different aspects of your culture and identity that can so often be so alienatingly at odds with each other. i thought it was a sweet and moving and relatable film up until the last five minutes that fucking drop kicked me in the fucking heart made me absolutely unhinged and scratching up the walls. jesus fucking christ.

(spoilers for the ending below the cut)

like i think there will probably be people who watch this movie and feel somehow cheated by the end, when it comes to gay romances people seem to struggle when there are endings where the mains don't end up together (cough the half of it) but i just. i just. how could this have ended any other way. It's been clear from the beginning that Ryan and Ning live in such different worlds. and i think to force one of them to inhabit the other world would have been a disservice to the characters and their values honestly. honestly the deep compassion at the core of this movie's writing to show how different people can choose different ways of achieving self-fulfillment and that they are all worthy of respect and dignity. the growth Ryan went through to find a way to both honor what Ning asked of him and be true to himself and his own values. i'm going to be thinking about that fucking press conference for a WEEK the TEARS in Ning's eyes the weight of what Ryan gave up i will NEVER BE OVER IT.

also can i just say Ryan's relationship with his parents really got to me too i'm skdjfnsdkjfsdnfs THAT CONVERSATION BETWEEN NING AND RYAN'S MOM.......... I CAN'T EXPRESS HOW HARD THAT ONE HIT ME IN THE FUCKING GUT OKAY I JUST..........................

[luna-rainbow]

You know what bothers me the most about Disney's performatism?

Is that it gives people the excuse to settle for scraps, like how can Disney be anything other than fully supportive of minorities when they have Black Panther, and Captain America is now black, and we have a female Thor, and another Captain America who is a woman and other characters like female Loki and pins in gay characters to prove that they are gay and a million of other invisible things?

And I'm like that's the problem it's perfomative they didn't make this because they believe that in any way making these characters part of minorities bring something new to the table, new experience, new ideas is just to say that Disney's is supportive.

So at the end of the day is just that, scraps that we are supposed to be thrilled about because is a step in the right direction.

And we know that is not a step in the right direction because at the first sign of trouble they back pedal really fast out of their support. (And I'm not even gonna mention the fact that they support political views against that exactly.)

I'm just really tired of the scraps and being treated like s**t because I want more than the bare minimum. Because I want true and genuine love and commitment to the character and their stories and pain.

Sorry to dump this on your inbox I was just frustrated this morning.

Thanks for the rant!

I can't speak for how the African and African-American community feel about their representation in the MCU. The only thing I'd say is that Black characters have been glaringly absent from cameos and mentions (except to get killed off within 5 minutes of appearing in DSMOM) - Wakanda only played a major part in TFATWS where the main character was Black. Sam in particular has gotten nothing (AFAIK), whereas Steve appeared in Thor and Spiderman in between his own movies and the Avengers. It almost feels like they've put whatever show or movie out, felt like they've done their bit for rep, and then went on to pretend that part of the story never happened.

I feel like there's also a huge range in quality of what's coming out. From what I've heard, Wakanda Forever did a good job of letting each of the women have major roles and inner lives and conflicts. Personally I felt the major female characters in Black Widow, WandaVision and Hawkeye were also well-done, getting a right mix of moral conflict, emotional complexity and distinctive personalities.

Even in these three though, the complexity of the women ends up being undercut by some of the more disturbing moral messages coming through. Wanda inhabits the tired trope of (powerful) femininity being portrayed as mystical and unpredictable, whose downfall are her emotions and her (bizarre) attachment to her children. The way Black Widow and Hawkeye handled the reconciliation between male perpetrators (Clint and Alexei), and female victims (Maya and Nat/Yelena respectively) also leaves a lot to be desired.

Then, there are the other "women" in the MCU who are written by dudebros for dudebros and basically act like a dudebro in a female body. They are unkind, vindictive, sarcastic, and often amoral; they sexualise and demean other people for jokes.

In terms of minority representation...the only one I can speak for is Shang Chi, and for me, it was missing heart. Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist values are deeply embedded in East Asian culture, and anything (especially involving a character that lived through the feudal ages) that neglects those values just feels like a superficial imitation using only Oriental imagery with none of the culture behind it. It's really no better than appropriation (yes yes I know most of the creators are Asian descent but that doesn't justify it). That's one of the main problems of the MCU. It is so afraid to give any weight to how faith and culture shape people's worldviews. Steve and Bucky's respective faiths are never mentioned. Sam's father in the comics was a pastor and was the core of Sam's beliefs and optimism, but they've changed it to a small business owner. The Maximoffs have their Romani backgrounds erased, and now they're even trying to erase Jewishness from Magneto's story. I have seen both complimentary and critical meta about the portrayal of Jewishness and Egyptian culture in Moon Knight. I haven't really paid attention to Ms Marvel so I'm not sure how people have found that.

What worries me is that the MCU is taking all these truly diverse characters and experiences, only to water them down to some milquetoast Hollywood movie that capitalises on the ethnic exoticness without actually trying to truly understand or represent the culture that gave rise to it.