What We Lose When We Eliminate Controversial Content

[Thomas Shey]

This thread is making me very uncomfortable. There is a long history of western scholars drawing a line through the Mediterranean in order to elevate the importance of ancient greece and selectively claim it for (white) "European" identity and dismiss the importance of geographically African or middle eastern civilizations, often attributing the achievements of the latter to the the former. The aim was to retroactively apply a notion of race to suggest that important developments in philosophy, arts, or technology were the sole inheritance of white Europeans. Combined with race science this led to claims that white Europeans were more suitable to rule over other cultures. Those were the stakes of suggesting that pharaohs were a blonde-haired ruling class, for example

At least in my case, I'm not suggesting the Ptolemic pharaohs were in any particular fashion superior (some of them weren't bad, some appear to have been pretty terrible) but just to not that a lot of people's sense of the pharaohs is colored by Cleopatra VII and they'll tend to project that on the imagery they use. Whether any images we have of her actually resembles her that much is, of course, debatable.

 

[Thomas Shey]

And later when after (western) Rome fell, many European kingdoms claimed, or tried to claim, being the inheritor of Rome. Not to mention the huge influence Rome had, including the spread of Christianity and still being the seat of power of the pope.

Yes. When I was younger, having the origin of "Czar" and "Kaiser" brought to my attention was quite the eye-opener.

 

[mythago]

No, and I wasn't really suggesting that we do. All I'll say is that safe is way over rated. Kids like scary, they like transgressive. Safe? Not so much. T

The companies profiting handsomely from sales of My Neighbor Totoro and Sesame Street merchandise would beg to differ with this. So would any parent who's had to calm down a child waking up with screaming night terrors at 2 a.m. the third time running because Uncle Mike was babysitting and thought it would be cool to let the nibling watch a horror movie.

"Controversy" in gaming as code for "edgy and retrograde" is way overrated.

 

[Hussar]

We can waffle on and on about the history of Egypt but, at the end of the day, does anyone think that image of a blond pharaoh is a good or even ambivalent thing?

 

[Thomas Shey]

We can waffle on and on about the history of Egypt but, at the end of the day, does anyone think that image of a blond pharaoh is a good or even ambivalent thing?

I think its suboptimal, but if you wanted to say "ambivelent" I wouldn't necessarily argue with you. I do think a bigger company has more ability to be fussy about artwork than a smaller one, though.

 

[MichaelSomething]

As long as you're consistent. If you're cool with Scarlet Johansson playing The Major in "Ghost in the Shell", you have to be cool with Hallie Berry playing "The Little Mermaid".

We can waffle on and on about the history of Egypt but, at the end of the day, does anyone think that image of a blond pharaoh is a good or even ambivalent thing?

 

[Hex08]

As long as you're consistent. If you're cool with Scarlet Johansson playing The Major in "Ghost in the Shell", you have to be cool with Hallie Berry playing "The Little Mermaid".

If Mamoru Oshii was fine with Scarlett Johanson's casting I guess I don't have an issue with it either.

Ghost in the Shell’s Anime Director Mamoru Oshii Dismisses Whitewashing Claim

Mamoru Oshii says he has no problem with who plays the anime character because she’s a cyborg with no fixed form.

www.vulture.com

 

[Kaodi]

I thought The Aeneid was written by Virgil.

 

[bloodtide]

Games and the books they run on are protected by the First Amendment in the US.

Note that the 1st amendment only effects the government. And just like the government did with Facebook and YouTube all they need to is "ask"(tell) the companies what to do and the companies say "ok".

 

[Sepulchrave II]

I thought The Aeneid was written by Virgil.

It was. Ovid composes a letter from Dido to Aeneas in the Heroides, although I don't think he mentions her hair colour. In the opera Dido and Aeneas I do seem to recall Dido wearing a blonde wig when she's in disguise, although I might be misremembering. Lots of classical authors seem to use hair (its colour, lushness, the lack of it etc.) as a literary device.