And can you imagine anyone but a white person naming their kid Katniss?

[seriousfic]

What are her siblings' names? Skyler and Apple?

So pictures have come out of Jennifer Laurence as the main character in The Hunger Games film, in which she, ya know, actually looks the part. And the author said the character was white, so, end of debate, right?

Cue the cries of blackface (yes, really) and the patronizing "Oh, you think just because the character spends all her time outdoors, she somehow magically developed some sort of tan?" And, you know... yes. That is how that works.

Anyway, it all goes back to Book!Katniss being supposedly biracial and Movie!Katniss not being so (I wonder... and I don't know if there's any way to say this in a non-horrible way, so... if a purely African-American actress were cast to play Katniss, would there be controversy because the character has Caucasian ancestry? Because honestly, that wank sounds a lot more fun. "I'm not a racist, but Katniss needs to be whiter.").

The argument is that Movie!Katniss is supposed to be biracial, but since she's being played by a white actress with a tan, they're using blackface to... I don't know, call more attention to an issue that could've easily been dropped and that most people found ambiguous? Okay, fuck the Gordian Knot... she has parents, this Katniss, right? So, if both of them are white, then she's not intended to be biracial and it's just a tan. If one of them is played by a PoC, then Katniss should be played by a biracial actress and you're free to feel guilty for watching the movie anyway. There. We solved the case!

Comments

[rap541.livejournal.com]

I never really saw Book!Katnis as biracial.

She has dark hair and grey eyes and lives in the appalachian coal mining part of the US. That sounds Scotch/Irish/Italian to me. Which is about right for the coal miner look

And I think the "biracial" comes from the idea that Katniss's mom is one of the blonde blue eyed townies, while her dad was one of the darker haired and darker skinned coal miners - however the "darker skin" of someone of Italian descent compared to a Nordic type isn't deemed biracial.

[morwen_peredhil]

I've just been rolling my eyes from a safe distance about this kerfuffle, because when I read the books, it seemed pretty clear to me that Book!Katniss was an olive-skinned and/or tanned white girl with dark hair and light eyes (it's not as if that coloring is rare IRL).

FFS, the author has confirmed it, people! Just because you really, really wanted something to be true doesn't mean it ever was. Feh!

[milleniumrex.livejournal.com]

So, wait, this is a character who has been confirmed by Word of God as caucasian but tan, but people are angry that she's portrayed by a caucasian actress who they gave a tan?

Okay, then, internet.

[fembuck.livejournal.com]

As a PoC I can't role my eyes enough at this 'debate'.

People who are complaining about this are idiots. The author has said that the character is a white girl with a tan, and the text itself supports that.

If people want to speculate that Katniss has some mixed blood because of the historic racial population of area that makes up District 12 and the fact that she uses a bow and arrow really well, okay, fine. That's a nice mental pursuit, but it's just personal speculation.

Whether or not you think Collins SHOULD have made Katniss mixed isn't the point. Collins didn't make Katniss mixed, so to say casting directors who follow the canonical description of the character are racists for following the text and the authors own statements is not only stupid, it's incredibly arrogant and self-important.

Hollywood makes really dubious casting decisions all of the time (The Last Airbender, 21, etc.) that people really should question and take issue with, but this just isn't one of them.

I honestly can't help but think that people who are still calling 'black-face' at this point just like to stir up shit.

[dragonbat2006.livejournal.com]

Her sister is Primrose. Prim for short. No other siblings.

[colonel-green.livejournal.com]

The "olive" skin descriptor always suggested Italian to me (or maybe Greek/Spanish).