I was watching a show on Netflix and I was really interested. I went to the Netflix profile to see if they would do a second season since the show was a success. It turns out that in the comments, several right-wingers called the show woke. I watched it and didn’t see anything woke in the series. The protagonists are black, but what’s the problem with that? Maybe that’s why they said it was woke? The show is new and original with new and original characters. Isn’t that what they wanted? It’s confusing for me, because if they’re going to complain anyway, why are they asking for changes?
I actually never cared about the actor skin when watching a movie or show. There was a show called “Merlin” and Guinevere was black and the question of why is she black never actually popped in my mind.
On the other hand
when reading, things like a black king rulling in Europe during the middle ages would break immersion a bit because my brain would be constantly telling me “this doesn’t make sense”.
I can’t explain it.
Makes perfect sense. Actors are selected from a population you live in. If you did a production of Shakespeare in Uganda most actors will have black skin, if you do it in Ireland most actors will have white skin. That’s part of what acting means - representing a character that’s not you.
Reading historical fiction is different - first it’s historical so it has to follow what really happened. And we know what those people look like. Second it’s written so you have to imagine characters. Imagination has to follow certain patterns or stereotypes you already know about the historical period.