When news broke a few days ago that the role of Mary Jane Watson in 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming” will be played by Zendaya, a black actress, various news outlets shone a spotlight on racially-charged criticism of the move by traditionalists who complain Hollywood is needlessly tinkering with the races and genders of traditional comic-book heroes as a sop to political correctness.
But while Zendaya’s casting as Peter Parker’s love interest has produced a fair amount of racist blowback from anonymous fanboys on the internet, at least one African-American pundit is slamming the move as tokenism on the part of Hollywood, complaining that “Spider-Man” remains a “white-boy fantasy adventure … in which the lead remains a straight white male no matter what.”
Hiram College professor Jason Johnson made that charge in an article Tuesday at TheRoot.com, a website devoted to news and commentary of interest to the African-American community.
“This kind of casting also reinforces the equally problematic ’Your princess is in another castle’ attitude among white men, which trickles down to men and women of color who are consuming these films,” complained Mr. Johnson, the website’s political editor. “A black woman can be a damsel in distress so long as a white man is validating her beauty and value as someone worth saving. Not an Asian man. Not a black man. Not a Latino man. And not another woman (we’ll get to the LGBT topic in a moment).”
“Straight white men are still the ultimate arbiters of value in these films,” Mr. Johnson added. “The plot is always ’White male nerd is ignored, abused or mistreated, saves the day, gets the girl: now with BLACK GIRLS!!!’™ Gay leads, women-of-color leads and men-of-color leads need not apply.”
“Zendaya’s casting is yet another sign that makers of Hollywood sci-fi fantasy action films will ’race-bend’ a character (change a character’s race from what it was in a book, film or cartoon), slap themselves on the back for being progressive and expect black fans to be satisfied, while pretty much maintaining the status quo,” Mr. Johnson argued. “Race bending is fine so long as it’s for girlfriends and sidekicks, but the movies are still white-boy fantasy adventures in which the lead remains a straight white male no matter what. And that unfortunate fact can’t be separated from the choice to cast Zendaya as Mary Jane.”
On Aug. 19, when the casting decision was not yet official but Zendaya’s casting was rumored, director James Gunn took to Facebook to blast critics who insisted Mary Jane must be white.
“I do not believe a character is the color of his or her skin,” wrote Mr. Gunn, drawing up for comparison the casting of a young black actor to play Johnny Storm in 2015’s “Fantastic Four.”
“When Michael B. Jordan was cast as Johnny Storm, I didn’t understand the uproar. The primary characteristic of Johnny was not, to me, that he was white, or that he had blonde hair, but that he was a fiery, funny, big-mouthed braggart of a hero. I was happy that he was going to be played by one of the finest and most charming young actors out there,” wrote Mr. Gunn, who went on to explain how Zendaya would be a good casting choice, given the essence of the Mary Jane character.
“For me, what makes MJ MJ is her alpha female playfulness, and if the actress captures that, then she’ll work,” wrote Mr. Gunn.
For his part, Spider-Man creator Stan Lee, who is not involved closely in the production of the forthcoming picture, is happy with the casting decision, the Toronto Sun reported on Tuesday.
“The colour of their skin doesn’t matter, their religion doesn’t matter,” the Sun quoted Mr. Lee as saying. “All that matters is that this the right person for the role.”
“If she is as good an actress as I hear she is, I think it’ll be absolutely wonderful.”
“Spider-Man: Homecoming” is set for a July 7 release next year, according to the Internet Movie Database.
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