there’s one bit in the original Beauty and the Beast that’s bugged me ever since I saw it as a kid? It’s when Mrs Potts is sending Chip to bed and she says “hop into the cupboard with your brothers and sisters” and there are? lots of other Chip-like cups in there?
possible conclusions to be drawn from this:
mrs potts has over 20 children but only actually cares about one of them
there were tons of children in the castle when it was cursed and none of them bar Chip had parents or guardians
the cursed servants, going mad with the isolation, have taken to drawing faces on the actually inanimate objects and treating them like children
The cast and crew of La La Land really went on stage to accept Best Picture and talked about how their movie was diverse even though everybody on that stage was white and one dude was black only to have the Best Picture award snatched by Moonlight, a movie that is ACTUALLY diverse and very well deserving and making the cast and crew of La La Land looking stupid as fuck. 2017 really is the year where it gives back
Moonlight had all black people, La La Land had all white people.
Neither of them are diverse.
no. Moonlight is diverse; La La Land is not.
you cannot compare an all white cast (plus one black man, John Legend, as the character selling out/diluting jazz–a musical form/style/culture innovated by black people–with pop music influences so Ryan Gosling’s character can clutch his pearls) in a Hollywood movie nominated for an Academy Award to a film with an all black cast nominated for the same award. you just can’t. films with predominately/entirely white casts have historically dominated the Oscars; the fact that three excellent black-focused and black-led films (Moonlight, Fences, and Hidden Figures) were nominated and took home awards IN THE SAME YEAR is of huge significance.
not only that, but don’t overlook that Moonlight features a gay black man, a bisexual black man, and an Afro-Cuban man as characters in leading roles. (Mahershali Ali is also Muslim–he’s the first Muslim actor to win an Academy Award, ever.) also, as a film set in Liberty City/Miami, many of the characters are also of Caribbean descent. identity is intersectional: Moonlight told a story about a gay, poor, black boy dealing with toxic masculinity, the crack epidemic, and homophobia that ended hopefully and happily; La La Land was yet another masturbatory, white savior-y, trite film about white people in Hollywood.
telling compassionate, nuanced, nourishing, and intimate black stories or stories about black people in a white-dominated field diversifies the box office and award shows alike, and–MOST IMPORTANTLY–gives tons of people without representation a mirror to look into.
Moonlight was incredibly more “diverse” than La La Land. there’s no comparison.
THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, Episode 1.21: “The Boss Isn’t Coming to Dinner”
RIP Mary Tyler Moore. ❤️ The Mary Tyler Moore Show is one of my grandma’s faves and I’m so glad to have grown up watching it on DVD with her. Mary Richards showed all of us granddaughters it was ok to be strong, single and opinionated.
