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Disney pulls Maui costume

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Vice

Member
I know. I was just wondering about white kids wearing a black character's costume

Kids wear costumes based on characters of a different race all the time. You just don't see many black kids dipped in flower to be Captain America or too many white kids in blackface as the Falcon.
 

Cagey

Banned
In the end, a smart decision from a corporation to respond to a few silly, incorrect, misguided complaints, since there's little lost in soldiering on... but nothing gained for having done so.
 
This is a weird one to me. I mean, we avoid black and yellow face for historical reasons, because it highlights a time when, at best, perfectly capable minority actors were denied roles, and at worst were an outright mockery at their expense. But there is no loaded historical context with this costume, and nothing about it is mocking anybody (at least as far as I'm aware of), so it's just a costume where kids get to pretend they're a character they like for a day. Not to mention the practical obstacles of giving kids tattoos and muscles without giving the suit some flavor of skin color.
 

Makai

Member
This is really annoying. We got almost no popular characters outside of like Tito from Rocket Power, At least the film is still getting released.
 
I wonder if people mad that this is pulled will be mad about the offensive costumes that will happen this year.


Or will they say "it's just Halloween bro".
 

Alienfan

Member
Honestly, none. That fact people participate in a day that mocks different cultures and religions/beliefs is gross.

Oh come on, Halloween's meaning has changed dramatically in the last decade +. It's a celebration of horror, fictional characters and candy.
 

AlteredBeast

Fork 'em, Sparky!
In the end, a smart decision from a corporation to respond to a few silly, incorrect, misguided complaints, since there's little lost in soldiering on... but nothing gained for having done so.

A modicum of respect from me. Now, they return to getting none. If we truly want to get ahead as culture, we need to ignore frsnkly bullshit like this. Not silence critics, but ignore out for what they are: an extremely small group of people who see everything as the enemy.you will never please them, so trying only negatively affects every regular as person not part of outrage culture.
 

-Gozer-

Member
Maybe it should've been a plastic smock with a picture of the character on it instead.

ba54814a7295e047e5ee8c5c8a66ab5a.jpg
 

Cagey

Banned
A modicum of respect from me. Now, they return to getting none. If we truly want to get ahead as culture, we need to ignore frsnkly bullshit like this. Not silence critics, but ignore out for what they are: an extremely small group of people who see everything as the enemy.you will never please them, so trying only negatively affects every regular as person not part of outrage culture.

Sure... but the drop of bad PR in the ocean of media coverage from a couple silly complaints weighs more than the rounding error profits and your respect for them hypothetically not pulling the costume. Both weights are very, very small though.

Either way, it's a tempest in a teapot from both sides.
 
I fail to see how this is racist, I imagine kids who want this love the character, that's why they want to dress up as him. I don't see how that's a negative thing.
 

Brewmont

Banned
I wonder if people mad that this is pulled will be mad about the offensive costumes that will happen this year.


Or will they say "it's just Halloween bro".
Nah, I get mad about actual mocking and culturally insensitive costumes too, just not ones that are of a specific character that is not mocking in any way.
 

AlteredBeast

Fork 'em, Sparky!
Sure... but the drop of bad PR in the ocean of media coverage from a couple silly complaints weighs more than the rounding error profits and your respect for them hypothetically not pulling the costume. Both weights are very, very small though.

Either way, it's a tempest in a teapot from both sides.

Good points, I agree with what you are saying. I just hate that this is the world we are moving towards. Intolerance on the right, and faux outrage on the left. In a world line that, few people want to remain neutral.
 
None of y'all read the really short article I see. The last thread was all about blaming white folk for speaking for Polynesians.... want to know who Disney listened to?

Many Pacific Islanders took offense at the costume, denouncing it as “Polyface” and ultimately prompting Disney to remove the item from its stores.


So hi folks maybe instead of yelling about SJWs you could read the article....
 
That's a shame. I feel like tantrums like the ones surrounding this costume are just gonna cause these big companies/studios to not wanna bother with ethnic/diverse projects all together. Hope the Outrage-Brigade is happy.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
It's ironic. The same progressive movement that pushed for cultural diversity is the same progressivism that just squashed this costume.
 
No fun allowed.

Ridiculous, disappointing turn of events.

Something something pea sea culture

Looks like we'll be getting nothing by white doe eyed princesses from here on out. Great job Internet!

And a vocal minority ruins it for everyone.

This is why we cant have nice things.

These people always existed it's just now they have a platform to spew their nonsense

That'll teach the kids to be accepting and inclusive to other cultures.


This sums up how I feel about kids not being allowed to like, admire and pretend to be someone who just happens to be from another culture.
It was outrage for the sake of outrage that won the day.
 
It's a nice dramatic phrase to go throwing around, but can you actually explain how? Because it really, really isn't

If you're a white guy dressing up as a Polynesian, or any other race, then it's racist. Which is a shame because Disney's done a good job on the movie otherwise hiring Polynesian actors and doing research on the culture and all that. Honestly, do you know what blackface is?
 

AlteredBeast

Fork 'em, Sparky!
If you're a white guy dressing up as a Polynesian, or any other race, then it's racist. Which is a shame because Disney's done a good job on the movie otherwise hiring Polynesian actors and doing research on the culture and all that. Honestly, do you know what blackface is?

Damn those racist 10 year olds who want to mock these cartoon characters by dressing up as them! Racistsssssss! I bet they buy black-eyed peas, too... And eat them!
 

Zukuu

Banned
Let's hope Disney's higher ups don't draw the wrong conclusions from it and steer away from expanding their movies based on different cultures. Tho, who can really fault them, when you can just play it safe and prevent any shit storm by using time-tested white characters or animals.
 

mdubs

Banned
Wow I bet polynesian kids are totally stoked to have the one costume representing their ethnicity removed

If you're a white guy dressing up as a Polynesian, or any other race, then it's racist. Which is a shame because Disney's done a good job on the movie otherwise hiring Polynesian actors and doing research on the culture and all that.

I wonder if putting an ethnicity warning on these types of costumes would be a solution. There are certainly some Maui kids who would want to dress up - so if Disney could put a warning or label on the box advising about the nature of the costume and who it is intended for, that would prevent an inadvertent racism while letting Maui kids have a strong character they can dress up as for Halloween. Perhaps the leading stores that sell costumes (Walmart etc.) could train their clerks to make sure the costume warning labels are followed strictly, and potentially refuse sale in some cases. This system could be extended to other costumes.
 
It's a nice dramatic phrase to go throwing around, but can you actually explain how? Because it really, really isn't

See, here's the problem - many of you are straight up speaking for the people who this impacts. Like, screaming "OUTRAGE CULTURE" or "IT'S BLACKFACE" need to start presenting some real arguments instead of doing the same shit people do for many other cultures - putting words in their mouths.

Here's the first article I got from a few seconds of googling.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/disney-maui-costume-brownface_us_57e0c4cde4b08cb14097b892

I don't agree with everything said, but I do like the larger point at play in terms of commodifying cultures. And challenging Disney is how we got better representations of cultures, albeit slow. On the flipside, Disney did their homework in some regards, so they aren't entirely ignorant.

So either this topic can be about definitions applied by people who aren't even in the culture, or people can start sourcing stuff and taking the time to learn why this may or may not negativity impact the culture.

I mean, if you guys can spend time pretending to give a shit, surely you can spend time to inform yourselves of the opinions from people who are marginalized. I probably won't return to drop my personal say until I've sussed out enough opinions and actually done some homework myself.

Just a thought!
 
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