The problem itself is not that Zoe Saldana was cast in the part. It is the fact that there are so many other talented women who could have been cast in her stead. Zoe Saldana’s casting is indicative of a larger problem within our society’s preferential standards for lighters skinned girls—That is the problem. Yes, all of our struggles are real regardless of the tonal intensity of our skin. However, there is always a clear bias towards lighter girls. There is a level of fetishism involved in the admiration of “white-looking.” Perhaps a better casting choice would have been to cast multiple women to each play different parts of her life and utilize these physical differentiations to create a dialogue about the role of shade plays in power relationships of race. That would have been a better ode to “Four Women.”
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 12:30:01 +0000