Dear Feminists/Gay Rights/ Diversity activists.
Enough already. I am all for equality. I believe that woman should have the same pay rates and rights as men do. I believe that homosexuality should not be a reason to be denied services or marriage rights. I believe in embracing different cultures and making judgments based on a persons character rather than their dermis. So don't get me wrong. I'm all for what you are lobbying for. I get it. I do. Really.
But here is what I need from you. Stop messing with my movies/TV shows/Plays/Musicals/Comic Books ect.
Little Orphan Annie was written as a red headed white girl. In the great depression there were plenty of kids in poverty and kids in orphanages of every race, but that story was written about a little white girl. There is nothing wrong or offensive in that. The recent remake, with the time update and the racial changes and all of that....seriously, why? There was nothing wrong with the original script. Leave it alone.
Roadhouse is one of my favorite movies. Ghostbusters is right up there too. They do not need to be remade with women stars. Leave them alone. Rhonda Rousey is not going to make Roadhouse better. The all girl Ghostbusters cast is not going to be better than the original. So leave it be.
I have nothing against strong female leads. I have nothing against people of different races staring in movies. What I am against is the bastardization of the original source materials. If the role is written for a white male, cast a white male. If it is written for an Indian woman, cast an Indian woman, if it is written for a transgender male that is bisexual and adores chuck berry, then cast someone that suits that role! If an actor is not comfortable playing a transgender bisexual then they shouldn't be up for the role in the first place.
Case in Point: James Bond- this character is British white male. Therefore he should be played by a British white male (or if not British at least a white guy that can do the accent) He should not be Scots (Sorry Sean Connery, you're great and all, but I would not have cast you if you couldn't change your accent) he should not be Russian or American, he should not be black or Indian or Asian ( Idris Elba is seriously talented, I would love to see him more leading roles, just not this one). He should be cast in same way that he was written.
There is an enormous amount of untapped, great new literature out there right now. Our culture is changing, embracing the diversity of our world (albeit slower than most people think it should be) so just let it change. You can't change the actuality of history, even if you rewrite the textbooks and remake all the movies, things still happened as they did. We still lived in the world we lived in and erasing that from entertainment, from books, from movies, is just trying to wipe it out. Not every movie has to be perfect, not every piece of entertainment has to be making a huge feminist statement. And so much of our culture is beautiful art that shows how we were at the time the films were made, what we valued and what we celebrated.
So what I am saying, is just move forward. Open up the untapped fountain of female super heroes (seriously, there are so many, there is really no need to genderbend the guys) Turn books written with gay protagonists into blockbuster hits, write original TV with straight, gay, white, black, Asian, whatever people in it and move on.
Just leave what has been done alone. Seriously. Please. I'm begging you.
Sincerely,
Me.
