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[Derwind]

https://m.mic.com/articles/154448/disney-releases-maui-costume-which-lets-kids-pretend-to-be-polynesian#.vRQWnOEpF

Not overly surprised by Disney's tasteless merchandising but still pretty gross to think they would allow this to pass.

The Walt Disney Company's online store is selling a brown-skinned full-body costume of Maui, the great hero of Polynesian folklore, under the apparent impression racial identity is appropriate to turn into a costume.

The $44.95-$49.95 full-body set features a mock leaf skirt and rope necklace, but is mostly composed of mock brown skin with tattoos:

"Your little one will set off on adventures in this Maui Costume featuring the demigod's signature tattoos, rope necklace and island-style skirt," reads the costume's description. "Plus, padded arms and legs for mighty stature!"

The costume is merchandising for Moana, an upcoming Disney film featuring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as the titular demigod and Auli'i Cravalho as Moana, an islander attempting to save her people from a monster.

Writer Mikki Kendall was among those who found the costume to be tasteless, joking it allowed children to "Wear another culture's skin!"

"The problems with blackface, yellowface and brownface run deep — throughout history, popular culture mocked and dehumanized people of color using harmful stereotypes and exaggerated, cartoon-y costumes," MTV's Katherine Speller wrote in 2015. "These racist images managed to make it into stage shows, movies and even children's cartoons."

The Disney company did not immediately return a request for comment.

Movie trailer...

Spoiler

Lock thread if old...

 

[excelsiorlef]

Gross

 

[the_batman]

looks cool to me desu

 

[Ninja Scooter]

does it come with a WWE contract?

 

[Bad_Boy]

not really sure what to get upset about. its not exactly a costume of a culture. its a costume of a specific character from a culture. those exact tattoos are specific to that character, no?

how is this different from any cosplay?

sorry if im being ignorant, but... this seems like a wierd grey area to me.

 

[ClayKavalier]

The reason for the bodysuit is to incorporate the character's tattoos. Using the character's skin color make more financial sense than trying to accommodate the skin tones of everyone who might wear it.

Granted I wouldn't be caught dead in it and I'd be embarrassed for anyone I saw in it.

 

[LiK]

if you think about it, it looks like someone skinned a man...

 

[Ferrio]

not really sure what to get upset about. its not exactly a costume of a culture. its a costume of a specific character from a culture. those exact tattoos are specific to that character, no?

how is this different from any cosplay?

sorry if im being ignorant, but... this seems like a wierd grey area to me.

Find me a cosplay where someone paints themselves dark to match a skin tone and doesn't get shit for it.

 

[Surface of Me]

The reason for the bodysuit is to incorporate the character's tattoos. Using the character's skin color make more financial sense than trying to accommodate the skin tones of everyone who might wear it.

Granted I wouldn't be caught dead in it and I'd be embarrassed for anyone I saw in it.

I mean I assume it is for children, not adults.

 

[excelsiorlef]

The reason for the bodysuit is to incorporate the character's tattoos. Using the character's skin color make more financial sense than trying to accommodate the skin tones of everyone who might wear it.

Granted I wouldn't be caught dead in it and I'd be embarrassed for anyone I saw in it.

Clear material done

 

[cloud_sleep]

It puts the costume in the basket.

 

[Psychoward]

I think it's more for the tattoos?


edit: oh I guess it could be clear yeah

 

[Transhuman]

Clear material done

They just need to use that clear cotton.

 

[AlteredBeast]

No reason for outrage here,like basically all outrage on the Internet. Kids aren't getting their shit tattooed, would you rather the costume reflect average white skin tone, since that is who will be wearing most of these costumes? You don't see how that would be worse?

 

[Gilby]

Find me a cosplay where someone paints themselves dark and doesn't get shit for it.

Would it really have been better to make the background colour white-skinned? Wouldn't that be worse?

No reason for outrage here,like basically all outrage on the Internet. Kids aren't getting their shit tattooed, would you rather the costume reflect average white skin tone, since that is so will be starting most of these costumes? You don't see how that would be worse?

Gat Dangit! Beaten!

 

[BreezyLimbo]

Why dont....why dont rhey just have those stick on tattoos then...yknow....giant versions...if theyre gonna go full on skin suit, they might as well have huge patches of the tattoos..

 

[Ferrio]

Would it really have been better to make the background colour white-skinned? Wouldn't that be worse?

Honestly I think they were fucked from the beggining if they thought they could of successfully pulled this costume off without spending a lot of $$. Marketing should of just let this one go.

 

[Regiruler]

Why dont....why dont rhey just have those stick on tattoos then...yknow....giant versions...if theyre gonna go full on skin suit, they might as well have huge patches of the tattoos..

Less durable, maybe?

How do those stick on anyway.

 

[Leona Lewis]

Looks fine to me. But the disembodied bodysuit is pretty creepy, agreed.

 

[ryutaro's mama]

Yeah...

 

[ClayKavalier]

Clear material done

Yeah, I thought about this too, pretty silly if that's an option not to just do that. Of course than the muscles and stuff may have looked dumb.

Edit: yeah, after looking at it again I don't see how they'd pull off the padded muscles with clear material.

Either way, it's obvious it's a costume for a specific character that includes the skin parts so you can wear his tattoos, it's not "Here's a generic brown-person costume." Seems harmless to me, even if it is ill-considered from a PR standpoint.

 

[echoshifting]

Honestly I think they were fucked from the beggining if they thought they could of successfully pulled this costume off without spending a lot of $$. Marketing should of just let this one go.

Yeah I don't really see why this was worth pursuing in the first place

edit: heyyyyy waitaminit
I see what you did

 

[milanbaros]

I don't see it as a big problem to be honest. Little girls and boys want to be like the character they saw on film.

 

[Salamando]

Less durable, maybe?

How do those stick on anyway.

If they go with stick-on tattoos, you wouldn't get the insulated muscle suit either. Where I'm from, it'd be insane to walk around Halloween night in just a loincloth.

 

[ClayKavalier]

Why dont....why dont rhey just have those stick on tattoos then...yknow....giant versions...if theyre gonna go full on skin suit, they might as well have huge patches of the tattoos..

Probably because... it sounds like a... pain in the ass... to spend an hour applying tattoos to your kid... especially if you have to do it multiple times for school, Halloween itself, family get-togethers, etc.

 

[FortuneFaded]

Clear material done

But wouldn't there still be complaints of cultural appropriation, like someone wearing a Native American outfit as a costume.

 

[Ferrio]

Yeah I don't really see why this was worth pursuing in the first place

edit: heyyyyy waitaminit
I see what you did

Lol I actually didn't mean that, I really hate that movie.

 

[AlteredBeast]

Looks fine to me. But the disembodied bodysuit is pretty creepy, agreed.

Yeesh, why use a brown, potentially Maori or Tongan descent girl for this picture? Were there really no white girls with blonde hair to do my outrage some justice? Injustice, i say! The Cultural Appropriation boogeyman is going to get you!

 

[Kthulhu]

What were they thinking? I know they're not trying to be racist, but still.

 

[Shaanyboi]

It's a costume of a specific character, not a broad representation of a culture. Whatever kid is going to be wearing this is going to say they're going as Maui.

Clear material done

Yeah kids, just run around in your underwear. Unless you want to wear something underneath, which just would put the tattoos all over your clothes.

 

[EulaCapra]

Well okay then.

Be sure to make your disgust and outrage known by yelling at the smiling kids dressing up as Maui on Halloween.

 

[PandaShake]

Looks fine to me.

 

[sephi22]

does it come with a WWE contract?

Dying

 

[Bad_Boy]

Find me a cosplay where someone paints themselves dark and doesn't get shit for it.

maybe im just being ignorant, i dont see how else to produce a costume for kids of this character without an elaborate removable tattoo kit or body paint. which would be a mess.

if the character were blue i would expect a blue suit. now if kids start painting their faces and hands brown to match the skin suit, i can see the problem.

being melanin rich myself i think it's cool brown characters are becoming known in children movies.

 

[YoungFa]

Im okay with that. Lets us remember their people before the ocean swallows them all.

 

[Horse Detective]

ahahaha they painted it brown

hahahahah jesus

 

[ScaryShark]

Disney did an awesome thing and made a movie about a different culture, with minorities voiced by minorities so there definitely has to be something that can get some headlines/clicks so we've landed on a child's Halloween costume of a demigod. You do you Internet journalist.

 

[Nowise10]

Absolutely disgusting. Disney is fucking gross and pathetic.

 

[Matt]

Other than simply not making a costume for this character, there really doesn't seem to be a good way of addressing this issue.

And if they didn't make a costume for him, well then they would have been called out for that.

Difficult issue all around.

 

[Clydefrog]

would there have been outrage if it was not colored brown? I don't fucking get it

 

[Odrion]

Oh sweet so that's what Roadhog was wearing.

 

[Bad_Boy]

Absolutely disgusting. Disney is fucking gross and pathetic.

on the other end, i think disney should be praised for giving brown characters a spotlight.

fuck me right?

how are we gonna combat racism with every kid only seeing blonde white skinned princesses.

 

[Moonkid]

Should have left this one on the drawing board tbh.

Oh sweet so that's what Roadhog was wearing.

😂😂

 

[Leona Lewis]

Absolutely disgusting. Disney is fucking gross and pathetic.

So pathetic, bankrolling and promoting a big-budget movie starring a Polynesian lead character as a Disney Princess.

 

[KarmaCow]

on the other end, i think disney should be praised for giving brown characters a spotlight.

fuck me right?

how are we gonna combat racism with every kid only seeing blonde white skinned princesses.

I agree that we don't need to throw the baby out with the bathwater but that works both ways. It's good that they're embracing diversity with their characters but come on, this a faux skin suit. I doubt this was a mandate from Disney HQ itself but rather some marketing people who fucked up. It's good that this is called out.

 

[Orbis]

would there have been outrage if it was not colored brown? I don't fucking get it

If it was light coloured skin that would definitely be perceived as worse, as the character isn't white.

I'm not sure what they could've done here, I don't see how a costume is any worse than a figurine, which also inevitably would feature a skin tone.

 

[Haribi]

This ridiculious outrage culture gets worse every day. Every day there is new thread on GAF where people get upset over the stupidest things. Like, do you guys go on the Internet specifically to look for things to be outraged over?

 

[SynthFetish]

This is a tough one. It's a neat character and it's awesome Disney is doing more to show the diversity of our connected world.
Black face is bad, really bad. But this costume seems to make sense and does not seem mean spirited or ignorant.
I can understand people being upset, but this also seems to be the only way a kid would be able to do this costume is with a suit. Otherwise half naked kids with body paint would be running around in October, which seems worse.


Also, I think skin suit costumes are creepy and cool at the same time.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

ahahaha they painted it brown

hahahahah jesus

At the Marriott Ko'Olina Resort, there's a poster in the lobby for the Cultural Polynesian Heritage Museum.

It's a Polynesian warrior holding a spear with their tongue out, next to a white kid doing the same thing.

The white kid has a T-shirt that reads 'GOD BLESS AMERICA'.

It's real weird.

 

[PdotMichael]

There are two points

1. There aren't just little suburban little white girls and boys who could wear such a costume.
2. This outfit doesn't really have much caricature character outside of being a costume for children.