Crazy Rich Open Doors

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#1

Originally published at: Crazy Rich Open Doors -

#153: Sometimes a big win for diversity turns into an excuse that leads to less diversity in media. We look at examples of this, inspired by Crazy Rich Asians, the first big-budget American Hollywood film with a mostly Asian cast in 25 years.

Questions? Comments? Discuss this episode on the GT Forum.

Notes:

00:00:00 - Intro / Announcements

00:06:15 - Crazy Rich Open Doors

00:39:04 - Forum ad

00:39:38 - Media Matters

00:49:52 - Geek Therapy

00:59:35 - Wrap-Up

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Find us at www.GeekTherapy.com | @GeekTherapy | Lara: @GeekTherapist | Lauren: @CHICKENDINOSAUR | Ali: @AliMattu | Josué: @JosueACardona

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#2

I would also like to add the show Xiaolin Showdown. This show showed and represented multiple races and ethnicities coming together and learning to live and work together. While they may have played into their own specific stereotypes, I.e Omi as the oblivious monk, Kimi as the tech savvy Asian. It was a show that pointed out that while they were all different their skill sets could be used to overcome obstacles the others may not have known how to overcome. I think it’s amazing to see the rise in diversity in blockbuster films and tv shows like Fresh Off the Boat. Also Josué don’t worry I do not like horror movies at all so you’re definitely not alone on this one.

#3

Thinking about representation reminds me of an event relatively recently in Heroes of the Storm. For the past 2 years they’ve had a Summer Event called where they have summer themed skins like Tychus has his gatling gun turned into a gatling super soaker, his grenade is a water balloon and he’s in board shorts. I usually don’t care much for those skins, funny as they are. But this year the “Suns Out, Guns Out” event was replaced by Nexomania. A lot of characters had Luchador themed skins, Sonya was La Pantera, Diablo was, well he was El Diablo and Garrosh was El Jefe and Lunara was La Parca. There were a few more but these were all the “main” skins for the event. Alongside it, they released a new announcer called El Guapo. Announcers are kind of like in Dota where they replace the voice over for the general game, announcing double kills and the like. El Guapo is actually voiced by Arturo “El Rudo” Rivera, who was a real Lucha Libre announcer so he really nailed the entire delivery. I was super excited by this because I couldn’t think of a single other game I’d played that ever had a Hispanic event in the game. And I just plain love lucha libre stuff, Hawlucha is still my favorite Gen 6 pokémon.

But much like what Josué said, after the sort of initial excitement wore down, I was a bit sad that there’s not more hispanic representation in video games that isn’t just Luchador stuff. I like it and all but I’d like to see stuff that isn’t just Mexican themed and not just lucha themed. I can’t even really think of too many characters that are hispanic in video games in the first place. Funnily, the only one I can really remember is Dominic “Dom” Santiago from Gears of War. I was surprised that he had any real characterization in the games and that he had a real arc sort of culminating in Gears 2 with his basically lobotimized wife.

Even so, I was still happy to see Nexomania happen at all and I hope that more companies and games continue to celebrate other cultures as well in their own events much like many do for Chinese New Years.

#4

A couple hours after we recorded I was reading Ms. Marvel and realized that there’s more disabled representation than we thought. Still not enough, but some. Bruno has a cool exoskeleton to help him walk around. He’s a pretty consistent character in the book, too.

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#5

While listening to this podcast, I was thinking about a representation of Asian Adoptees in media. They had one a while ago in DCs Th Ray.

#6

I really liked that limited run of The Ray! Asian adoptees is a very specific group of people! I can’t think of anymore Asian adoptees but since then, in DC Comics there has been a Chinese Super-Man and an entire Justice League of China! Marvel has prominently featured Amadeus Cho. Superman is the classic adoptee and in a way so are Batman and Spider-Man, although they are basically raised by family. In a way, some of the younger X-Men are raised at the Xavier School.

@LeiBenoit you’ve given me a lot to think about!