Fury over Black Hermione Granger

[MechaPilot]

Gender identity is one of the deepest identities of most humans. Integrity requires most characters to be true to their gender identity.

Transgendered humans exist because they cant deny or escape their gender identity.

Gender is absolutely integral to a character.

I am aware of gender vs gender identity, the importance of gender identity to a person, and the difficulties when they don't match up, but don't throw up gender identity as a smokescreen: in most literature and films gender and gender identity match up.

 

[Yaarel]

I am aware of gender vs gender identity, the importance of gender identity to a person, and the difficulties when they don't match up, but don't throw up gender identity as a smokescreen: in most literature and films gender and gender identity match up.

My point is, gender, orientation, and ethnicity are integral to a character. You cant change them without changing the character.

If a Harry Potter story had Hermione undergo a (magical) sex-reassignment, to become a man, it would be a significant departure from the Harry Potter story.

At best, it would require extensive retcon. But really, most audiences would probably find it implausible.

Likewise, if Hermione became a different ethnicity, it would be implausible.

 

[MechaPilot]

My point is, gender, orientation, and ethnicity are integral to a character. You cant change them without changing the character.

If the ONLY thing you change is a character's race, gender, or orientation, meaning all of that character's definitive life experiences remain the same, then there is no substantial change in the character. If I were black but still had all of the same life experiences that made me the woman I am today, I would not be a different person: I would just have a different skin tone.

Likewise, if Hermione became a different ethnicity, it would be implausible.

Different from what? According to the author, the source material does not define her race.

 

[Cor Azer]

Gender identity is one of the deepest identities of most humans. Integrity requires most characters to be true to their gender identity.

Transgendered humans exist because they cant deny or escape their gender identity.

Gender is absolutely integral to a character.

Transgender.

Not transgendered.

You wouldn't say a "whited" human or a an "Americaned" human, so you don't say "transgendered" human.

 

[Yaarel]

If the ONLY thing you change is a character's race, gender, or orientation, meaning all of that character's definitive life experiences remain the same, then there is no substantial change in the character. If I were black but still had all of the same life experiences that made me the woman I am today, I would not be a different person: I would just have a different skin tone.

‘Ethnicity’ is a better term. While it can include biological descent, it moreso refers to the heritage of cultural identity. The term ‘race’ is inaccurate and problematic.

Whether explicit or implied, the ethnicity of Hermione, according to the canon, is British. Arguably, she is specifically English - in contradistinction to Scot, Irish, or Welsh.

 

[Cor Azer]

My point is, gender, orientation, and ethnicity are integral to a character. You cant change them without changing the character.

If a Harry Potter story had Hermione undergo a (magical) sex-reassignment, to become a man, it would be a significant departure from the Harry Potter story.

At best, it would require extensive retcon. But really, most audiences would probably find it implausible.

Likewise, if Hermione became a different ethnicity, it would be implausible.

If changed in the middle of an adaptation (or entries in a series of adaptations)? Yes, it's potentially implausible (although, you know... magic).

If changed between completely separate adaptations? Not implausible at all.

The play is an adaptation/continuation of the books, requiring no consideration of continuity established or discarded by the films.

So, not a retcon at all, since there was no continuity established in that regard for the books.

 

[Yaarel]

Being Human is a favorite tv show. I watched both the British version of it and the American reinvention of it. Even switching UK and US cultural identities, makes them completely different characters. They are different stories, that happen in different universes.

Ethnicity is integral to a character identity.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Look at almost any historical movie... Uh... Ever. The whitewashing is atrocious.

Two noteworthy/recent examples - Exodus (w/ Christian Bale etal as Egyptians; granted removing other ethnicities for white actors, rather than removing black people) and Stonewall (which almost completely removed the black transwomen involved in the riots for a gay white cismale).

It only gets worse the farther back you look. Charlie Chan and Asian villains in film noir movies routinely played by whites. John Wayne as Genghis Kahn. Liz Taylor as Cleopatra. Bruce Lee was supposed to play the lead in Kung Fu, but the character was rewritten for Carradine.

I had hoped that era was over, but then came Troy & Exodus.

See also Johnny Depp as Tonto, Benedict Cummerbatch as Kahn Noonien Singh and others.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/28/entertainment/gods-of-egypt-cast-apology-feat/

http://www.projectcasting.com/news/alohas-director-apologizes-for-white-washing-the-cast/

 

[MechaPilot]

‘Ethnicity’ is a better term. While it can include biological descent, it moreso refers to the heritage of cultural identity. The term ‘race’ is inaccurate and problematic.

Whether explicit or implied, the ethnicity of Hermione, according to the canon, is British. Arguably, she is specifically English - in contradistinction to Scot, Irish, or Welsh.

Okay, but there are black brits for whom the U.K. has been their homeland for generations now and who are culturally British. I've seen them before; they've come through my drive through. It's always notable because here in the states you don't expect someone who looks african-american to speak with a British accent.

 

[Yaarel]

Transgender.

Not transgendered.

You wouldn't say a "whited" human or a an "Americaned" human, so you don't say "transgendered" human.

Heh, but I do say ‘gendered’ language. And sexually ‘oriented’.