Only Mixing to Match

circa
There's a troubling culture of replacement circulating through our media. I think there's nothing wrong with it, per se, except that it shows a great lack of courage.

For example: the new 007 replacement for James Bond is a black woman. That's exciting news, since it should breathe new life into the franchise. And, breathing new life is the problem. There's no real risk taken by trying to tout a 'woke' attitude with your franchise when you're really only doing it to look 'woke.' James Bond is already a hugely successful franchise, worldwide, so they not only have nothing to lose by replacing the race and gender of their namesake character, they also have nothing to lose because anyone who cries out against it looks like (and likely is) a xenophobe, a sexist, a racist, or all of the above. This vindicates the action from the studio if it acts like it's being martyred for being fair and progressive. In either case, it requires little courage to do this, because it carries with it very little risk.

If creative outlets wanted to be truly progressive, they should be willing to take the risk of introducing a completely new character who embodies groups who are not well represented by popular culture instead of taking the path of least resistance and simply replacing already successful characters with minority groups, and doing so without being disingenuous by only choosing identities which test well in the market.

So, if you're reading this and belong to a major creative outlet, here's a character you can use: a redheaded man who's pretty tall but out of shape, is an excellent writer, and has above average athleticism. If you can pull that off and create a new franchise, then you'll have earned my respect. 

I'll just have to sign the life-rights before you do anything.

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