Please Don't Mess This Up: Live-Action 'Mulan' Sparks Preemptive Anti-Whitewashing Petition
"Whitewashing implies that people of color cannot be heroes."
After Rooney Mara played Tiger Lily and Christian Bale starred as Moses in Exodus: Gods and Kings, the world's movie-going audience has more than caught on that Hollywood DGAF about casting white actors as characters of color. But this time, in advance of the live-action version of Mulan, 90,000 people aren't about to let Hollywood do a hatchet job on another beloved Disney classic.
According to Variety, although Sony plans to shoot the remake in China with a Chinese partner and a yet-to-be-announced "mostly Chinese" cast, an online petition pledging to "take a stand against whitewashing" has already begun circulating, with 92K signatures and counting.
"Whitewashing implies that people of color cannot be heroes (although they may at times be villains or supporting characters), leaving it far more difficult for countless children around the world to see themselves in the stories they love and think that they too can make a difference," wrote Natalie Molnar, who set up the petition last year when rumors of the film first began to swirl. "It perpetuates a standard of beauty and goodness wherein whites are considered the ideal and norm despite that not only are Americans diverse, but the entire world is."
Right on. Your move, Sony.
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Chelsea Peng is a writer and editor who was formerly the assistant editor at Marie Claire. She's also worked for The Strategist and Refinery29, and is a graduate of Northwestern University. On her tombstone, she would like a GIF of herself that's better than the one that already exists on the Internet and a free fro-yo machine. Besides frozen dairy products, she's into pirates, carbs, Balzac, and snacking so hard she has to go lie down.
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