The little Mermaid starring Halle Bailey is set to be released on May 26, 2023. The trailer for the movie was released recently, but the movie, or rather the actress playing Ariel, has received a ridiculous amount of hate for her role.
Representation has been a very important goal for media of all kinds in modern times, and with it, the evolution of what has happened should also be reviewed and updated to match the times. Let it be a feminist angle for Camilla Cabello Cinderella or diversify Ariel into The Little Mermaid.
What the audience responded to, they shouldn’t be categorized as fans, but rather as people who added fuel to their ignorant behavior towards an actor and his craft.
The racism hidden in these superfans
In media platforms that can give rise to more inclusiveness and diversity, it is only fair that childhood fairy tales also grow with this progress. After the announcement of the casting of Halle Bailey in the role of Ariel in The little Mermaid, the actress was dumped with a boatload of negativity and hate.
What at first seemed like a disagreement with the casting choice quickly turned into people against how her version, the live-action version of Ariel wouldn’t be played by a white character. They said the casting was not precise. The term “lore accuracy” has become a way for these “fans” to find trouble with a person of color in a role originally played by a white person.
See also: ‘Thank you for creating such a breathtaking film’
Halle Bailey herself has been the victim of a great deal of racism, however, the actions taken by the public following the release of the trailer would exceed any conceivable limit of disrespect for the actress and a person of color in general.
Artificial intelligence covering Halle Bailey
After the release of the latest trailer for the film, some fans went to great lengths to get an AI to modify the trailer in several ways. The AI literally whitewashed the clip. Halle Bailey’s Ariel no longer holds her face. As talented as she is, this AI chose to create a new version of the trailer with Ariel as a white person, indeed Bailey’s face has been brightened by the AI.
Some of these people argue that people of color can’t have red hair when they don’t want to check the facts and want something to back up their arguments and support their biases. Nor does the accuracy factor of the lore play a part in their arguments because in the original story of Ariel, written by the Brothers Grimm, the mermaid was far darker than a children’s classic would even have contemplated. recognize it.
See also: ‘The black community needs to show up for this movie’: Fans defend Halle Bailey’s The Little Mermaid as racist trolls call it offensive slurs after official movie preview
Halle Bailey is not alone in this speech
Halle Bailey is not the first actress to face such criticism masking racism. When the casting for Titans was announced, Anna Diop faced a lot of hate regarding her portrayal of Starfire as a dark-skinned character. Zendaya was also the victim of all the backlash after her announcement as GM in the MCU Spider Man.
sand man, a series that recently aired on Netflix got a lot of hate as the creators cast Kirby Howell-Baptiste to play Death, a role originally portrayed as a very pale woman. The show continued to receive examples of how they drifted from lore, with hers not the only role to see a change in appearance and race. This didn’t make sense, however, because Neil Gaiman himself, the writer and creator of the character and the series, was personally involved in making it and making those decisions himself.
The point that needs to be clarified is that Halle Bailey is a talented actress with a brilliant voice. The director of the film is Rob Marshall, who has created a bunch of famous films with musical aspects. We, like many of her supporters, think Bailey is a great fit for the character and it only builds the anticipation of seeing her in the role.
See also: ‘I love Storm… That would just be cool’: Little Mermaid star Halle Bailey wants to show racists the bird, expresses interest in playing Storm of the X-Men in future MCU films
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