Crass, I know, and it's not the best lede I could've come up with. But then again, the things I'm about to talk about are also kind of crude, and so it doesn't hurt to go ahead and lower the level of discourse right from the start.
It was brought to my attention via my friend Kelly Shibari that there is a XXX parody that features a Caucasian actor portraying an Asian-American character from the sci-fi zombie show The Walking Dead.
So what, you may say. People have played against heritage before. What's the big deal?
Well, the big deal is that the actor was painted in what can best be described as, "Yellowface."
Oh, no. Just...no.
Now, this is apparently controversial, and there are some in the industry that do not think that this is a big deal. "Oh, it's a porn parody." "It's not offensive." "It's porn, not social commentary." "It's not offensive. Get over it."
Let's pump the brakes right there. Because I know for a fact that if a white actor was painted in blackface, this whole thing would've blown up into a huge national story that would already paint an industry that is often under attack in a harsher negative light.
The thing is, there is a whole lot of discrimination and offensive things within the industry as it sits today. This "yellowface" situation is just another example of one of the problems of the industry: If you don't look a certain way, you are going to get labeled, shoved to the side or outright lampooned and ignored.
Just go to your local adult video store online or in person. Hop on twitter and follow some performers or sites related to the porn industry. The term "Nigga" is thrown around loosely. "Tranny." "Pig/piggy/fat pig/porker" for BBWs. "Feed her/Fuck her."
It's a struggle, and a couple of these I'll address in separate posts, because I don't want to go too much further afield.
Suffice to say, I think that some of it comes down to sheer laziness. Okay, so there might not be that many East Asian males, or East Asian-American males in porn. That doesn't mean that there can't be ANYBODY of East Asian descent found?
(Granted, my ignorance of the source show shines through here, but why not just write around the character? Don't include them. Make some kind of a joke about why they aren't included if they are essential to the overall plot of the source show, or just leave them out and don't mention them. Odds are, people might not care if the character is included or not.)
I think that the worst thing you can do, even in a parody film of a silly show, is to lampoon a minority character. It only serves to offend people and marginalize what you are trying to achieve. Which might sound silly when talking about a film that people are (supposedly) going to be masturbating to, but why open yourself up to unnecessary criticism from people like me, who wouldn't have even given this film a second glance?
To me, there is no defense for what this company did. It's not funny. It's offensive. It's lazy from a creative perspective. It's just wrong. And to imply or state that those who are offended just don't get it is as equally lazy and insensitive.
If there is anyone who does not get it in this scenario, it is those who made the intial poor decision.
