Tumblr is super big on the “I didn’t say it was good, I said I liked it” but really need to discover the value in its opposite of “I didn’t say it was bad, I said I hated it”.
You can acknowledge that something is good, great, a masterpiece even, and just straight-up not enjoy it.
(via artaline)
“Let’s make games and media about other mythologies and pantheons other than Norse or Greco-Roman” is a take I really, really get, but the unfortunate reality is that most Western media conglomerates are pretty culturally white, and can you imagine the appropriation shitshow that would result from them portraying indigenous mythologies instead of the two pantheons that people can at least somewhat ascribe to Western European tradition? Ancient Egyptian seems the next most “safe” due to cultural penetration and time remove, and even that sparks discourse when it’s done. Honestly I’m surprised that Disney even mostly got away with Moana, and that hardly went without critique. I think the execs that don’t want bad press are well aware of this and are afraid to wade in.
I mean the obvious answer is for them to just hire people who can boast more claim to the tradition in question, but unfortunately it doesn’t tend to work that way en masse, and also, even if they did do that, there would be a continent who would complain anyway. Own narratives are frequently called out as bad rep, usually by people who don’t know the provenance (but sometimes even when they do!), and it’d be even worse with a big corporate name from the west attached.
Anyway buy foreign art I guess, but under current trends the big multi-billion God of War equivalent about African tradition is unlikely to come soon, I guess. Kind of an unfortunate side effect of the representation and appropriation discourse that makes certain kinds of narrative more scarce.
(A possible exception to all this might be, for instance, Japanese spiritual tradition, as there are plenty of Japanese media products that do well in the West. But this proves the point, because for instance I can think of examples of video games and films that feature oni, etc, whereas I can’t for the less widespread or internationally exposed traditions that I describe).
Maybe I’m wrong, maybe just signposting cultural consultants would get Western corps further than they realise. But either way I think the roadblock is the uncertainty.
But don’t get me wrong, media execs should take more of those risks regardless. But I just think so far the generally do not. Greek and Norse Gods are seen as much safer I feel.
“Let’s make games and media about other mythologies and pantheons other than Norse or Greco-Roman” is a take I really, really get, but the unfortunate reality is that most Western media conglomerates are pretty culturally white, and can you imagine the appropriation shitshow that would result from them portraying indigenous mythologies instead of the two pantheons that people can at least somewhat ascribe to Western European tradition? Ancient Egyptian seems the next most “safe” due to cultural penetration and time remove, and even that sparks discourse when it’s done. Honestly I’m surprised that Disney even mostly got away with Moana, and that hardly went without critique. I think the execs that don’t want bad press are well aware of this and are afraid to wade in.
I mean the obvious answer is for them to just hire people who can boast more claim to the tradition in question, but unfortunately it doesn’t tend to work that way en masse, and also, even if they did do that, there would be a continent who would complain anyway. Own narratives are frequently called out as bad rep, usually by people who don’t know the provenance (but sometimes even when they do!), and it’d be even worse with a big corporate name from the west attached.
Anyway buy foreign art I guess, but under current trends the big multi-billion God of War equivalent about African tradition is unlikely to come soon, I guess. Kind of an unfortunate side effect of the representation and appropriation discourse that makes certain kinds of narrative more scarce.
(A possible exception to all this might be, for instance, Japanese spiritual tradition, as there are plenty of Japanese media products that do well in the West. But this proves the point, because for instance I can think of examples of video games and films that feature oni, etc, whereas I can’t for the less widespread or internationally exposed traditions that I describe).
