Are "The Hobbit" Casting Directors....Racist!?!?!

Article originally appeared on Jezebel.com

AH! It's the 'R' word! The word that is quickly becoming about as meaningless as 'love' in our ever-evolving shit storm of a society. So here's the controversy; the casting team for the upcoming film "The Hobbit" rejected a woman as a hobbit extra. The reason? Her skin was not the color of all the other hobbits they had cast, i.e she was darker than her short brethren. Discriminatory? In the pure sense of the word, yes. Racist? Come on. The idea that somehow, the individuals who contribute to casting decisions are actively pursuing a racist, presumably white-supremacist, agenda, is not only absurd and insulting, but actually degrades true instances of racism. Someone being denied a job that does not inherently depend on their outward appearance because of race? That's serious, and seriously wrong. But the decision to create a homogeneous image of a particular, fantastical species? A species that only exists in one specific area and where going more than a few miles afield is nearly unheard of? Find an actual issue to bitch about, please.

Another argument that this mess-of-an-article attempts to make is that all evil characters in LOTR are dark and all good characters are white.

Not like is a seriously evil wizard named Saroman the White or anything...

And as for the charge that this is dark/white thing in relation to groups, I'll just leave this incredibly awesome comment here:

From VictorScope: "Wrong. Nowhere does Tolkien claim that the Easterlings (or any other human society) are innately evil. In fact, he strongly suggests the exact opposite when he describes Sam finding the body of a dead Easterling after meeting Faramir.

It was Sam's first view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace.

Clearly, the narrow-minded perspective of a racist xenophobe. (But whatever.)"

I'm gonna go read me some Tolkien now...

Stay Beautiful,

IK

Mean Girls

So I'll admit to not knowing exactly how to start this blog post. I'm mostly light-hearted and jovial on this blog and I'm definitely not trying to give the impression that I'm going to be changing the tone in general. But instead of posting this on my more ranty private blog, i really want to create a sort of public forum to discuss something thats been on my mind lately. Which, if you couldn't tell from the title, has to do with the joy of being a teenage girl in high school.

So, I think that being in high school could quite possibly be the most taxing and difficult experiences I've gone through in my life, and I've dealt with some real shit. I don't know what it is, but I've never experienced such animosity in any other situation. And what i can't figure out, is if this mentality of blatant hate and animosity is biological, or something society has taught us. With all the technology at our disposal, there are many more ways to inflict pain on others, without having to have the bravery to do so in person. We get to hide with our cowardice behind the internet, cell phones and potential anonymity.

And i want to make it clear that i am in no way eschewing any culpability on my part on occasion. I have been as much a part of this as anyone, but I was lucky enough to realize fairly early on that there was something wrong about the way we attack one another. Perhaps it is my own mentality, or my own personal struggles, but i find the attacks on another's body type, looks or personality to be cruel, immature and frankly, sad.

But what i want to talk about is WHY these things happen. Why are we the generation of mean girls? Why are girls committing suicide or checking into mental facilities to escape their existences filled with bullying and animosity? Why do we attack other girls to build ourselves up? Why are body snarking, ho-calling and attacks on personalities so prevalent amongst us? Why are we allowing these predetermined standards of society to erode our sense of self and justice? Why does calling someone out on how much they weigh, or what size pants they wear make you feel better? Where is YOUR self-esteem? Where is YOUR confidence? Are we really so lacking in morality that we see nothing wrong with these attacks against others?

These are just questions that i want answers too. I want to know WHY. And if you can shed any light, please do so.

Stay Beautiful,

IK

p.s. If you want another view, visit Maile's blog, where she goes after a specific aspect of this problem.

OMG JESSE MCCARTNEY YOU GUYZZ!!!!!

So premptive apology: i've turned into a Jesse McCartney loving zombie. I can't help myself. it's just....disastrous. So here's the song that converted me...



Also, he's an actor. And not a shit one! I KNOW, right? Anyway, considering that i spent WAY too much of lsat night vomiting (yay antibiotics!) i spent all day today on my bed watching crap. And the only non-crap i managed to view was this movie called "Keith". Remember "A Walk To Remember"? It reminds me alot of that. It had the same tear-jerk factor. But the guy was basically an asshole. And not apologetic about it. And sometimes, i really like when people who are absolute dicks just own it.

Stay Beautiful,

IK