KAT: Hello there ladies and gentlemen, princesses and princes, woodland creatures and dwarfs and all those who fall somewhere in between. Today, if you haven’t already guessed, Evan and I will be discussing Disney films and gender roles.
EVAN: I’ve been reading blogger extraordinaire the Unshaved Mouse review each installment in the Disney animated canon beginning with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and believe you me there is a lot for us to go through-
KAT: Speaking of Snow White, I also unexpectedly came across the Disney film in my literary theory class. In their essay “The Madwoman in the Attic” Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar use Snow White as an example of the angel/ monster dichotomy imposed on women. Snow White is quite literally the personification of purity, meanwhile the only powerful woman in the film (the Queen) is purely evil.
That being said, I feel like gender roles in Disney films have evolved considerably since then.
What kind of gender issues was the Unshaved Mouse bringing up on his blog post about the character? Continue reading →
GORDON: Ladies and gentlemen, last week, I kinda volunteered a discussion topic which Kat has graciously decided to roll with. Today, we’re going to be talking about feminism- where we stand now, and with an increasing number of people claiming that feminism’s work is done- what we’d like to see next on the agenda.
KAT: So perhaps we should start be establishing what the first three waves of feminism have accomplished.
You are probably all familiar with the fact that the first wave fought for (and won) the right for the vote.
So this news came out while I was still at camp, so I’m definitely a little behind the times. Ubisoft revealed at E3 in early June that another game in the Assassin’s Creed series would be joining Assassin’s Creed III when it launched this October 30th. The following is a trailer for that game:
The AC franchise has always been ahead of its time in terms of racial representation. Altaïr ibn La’Ahad, a Syrian assassin, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, an Italian, and Ratohnhaké:ton [Conor Kenway], English/Mohawk are the stars of the first, second, and third games respectively. Each game has given slavish devotion to historical accuracy, but each has also starred a male protagonist. Until now.
Aveline de Grandpré is an African/French assassin, the only black female video game character I can think of besides Rochelle of Left 4 Dead 2, and from what I can tell a complete and total badass. This is a huge step on Ubisoft’s part, and I’m both impressed and proud that they’ve made this choice. Especially when the reception was so expected.
Clicking on the image to the left will bring up comments on the video I posted. Choice comments are:
Yup, [I know] AC isnt so realistic, but a women?
okay a female is reasonable but seriously y does she have to be black! wtf
looks like i’m not alone on this lol. so many people think i’m racist or something lol
It may seem like this is only to be expected from the video game community, often [and accurately] thought to be both extremely racist and sexist. It was only earlier this year that fans of the book series The Hunger Games took to the internet to express their disgust that Rue, a character in the novel, was portrayed by a black actress in the film.
The image on the right is one of many incredibly offensive tweets about the casting. Jezebel reported on the phenomenon early this year, but it seems that it’s not the only Hunger Games related news that the site has to write about this year.
While the role of Panem-ian heartthrob Finick Odair has already been given to Sam Claflin, months earlier a campaign was started to give it to biracial actor Jesse Williams. This was, again, met with some pretty intense criticism. From racists. Unfortunately a lot of the negative/ignorant comments on this messageboard have been deleted, though Jezebel’s write-up on the situation can be read here. The campaign tumblr is still out there, though it now also discusses racial casting, which I definitely don’t have a problem with.
Suffice to say, the world still has a ways to go before we, in North America, anyway, can simply start accepting that not everyone out there is white, and therefore not everyone who appears in art, either electronic or literary, is either. These comments I posted may just be an example of the “loud minority,” but if female or nonwhite protagonists are really a big deal, maybe we should be loud as well.
I think Aveline de Grandpré is an amazing addition to an already stellar video game series. I think it is fantastic that she’s black and that she is a woman, and I think that you should too.
Culture War Reporters 
People Are Upset About Aveline de Grandpré [What Else Is New?]
So this news came out while I was still at camp, so I’m definitely a little behind the times. Ubisoft revealed at E3 in early June that another game in the Assassin’s Creed series would be joining Assassin’s Creed III when it launched this October 30th. The following is a trailer for that game:
The AC franchise has always been ahead of its time in terms of racial representation. Altaïr ibn La’Ahad, a Syrian assassin, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, an Italian, and Ratohnhaké:ton [Conor Kenway], English/Mohawk are the stars of the first, second, and third games respectively. Each game has given slavish devotion to historical accuracy, but each has also starred a male protagonist. Until now.
Aveline de Grandpré is an African/French assassin, the only black female video game character I can think of besides Rochelle of Left 4 Dead 2, and from what I can tell a complete and total badass. This is a huge step on Ubisoft’s part, and I’m both impressed and proud that they’ve made this choice. Especially when the reception was so expected.
It may seem like this is only to be expected from the video game community, often [and accurately] thought to be both extremely racist and sexist. It was only earlier this year that fans of the book series The Hunger Games took to the internet to express their disgust that Rue, a character in the novel, was portrayed by a black actress in the film.
While the role of Panem-ian heartthrob Finick Odair has already been given to Sam Claflin, months earlier a campaign was started to give it to biracial actor Jesse Williams. This was, again, met with some pretty intense criticism. From racists. Unfortunately a lot of the negative/ignorant comments on this messageboard have been deleted, though Jezebel’s write-up on the situation can be read here. The campaign tumblr is still out there, though it now also discusses racial casting, which I definitely don’t have a problem with.
Suffice to say, the world still has a ways to go before we, in North America, anyway, can simply start accepting that not everyone out there is white, and therefore not everyone who appears in art, either electronic or literary, is either. These comments I posted may just be an example of the “loud minority,” but if female or nonwhite protagonists are really a big deal, maybe we should be loud as well.
I think Aveline de Grandpré is an amazing addition to an already stellar video game series. I think it is fantastic that she’s black and that she is a woman, and I think that you should too.
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Posted in internet, literature, race, video games
Tagged Altaïr ibn La'Ahad, Assassin's Creed III, Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, Aveline de Grandpré, biracial, black, comments, Conor Kenway, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, female, Finick Odair, Jesse Williams, Jezebel, Left 4 Dead 2, literature, nonwhite, race, racism, racists, Ratohnhaké:ton, representation, Rochelle, Rue, Sam Claflin, sexism, sexist, The Hunger Games, Ubisoft, video games