This week brought us news of one of the more interesting sounding major release projects to come out of Hollywood for a while (considering most production is shutting down and new releases are canceled indefinitely). The director and star of the Wonder Woman franchise would be reuniting in between Wonder Woman 1984 and the planned third film to make a modern retelling of Cleopatra.
Naturally, Woke Twitter did not handled the news well that a light complexioned Israeli actress would be playing the role of an Egyptian Queen.
Twitter was quick to fire back at the obvious flaw in this line of thought. Historically speaking, Cleopatra wasn’t Egyptian or Arabian. She was Greek.
Naturally the criticism hasn’t stopped with discussions of her skin color. Her Israeli heritage has also been dragged into the spotlight of discussion as though casting an Israeli actress in the the role of a princess of a middle-eastern nation functions as some form of colonialist oppression.
As spiked writes:
Accusations of cultural appropriation or ‘insensitive’ casting decisions are often underpinned by an ugly essentialism these days – by the idea that cultures cannot mix or that actors cannot portray people whose background isn’t precisely like their own. But in the case of Gadot the criticism has been particularly nasty, largely because she is Israeli. Some felt that the choice of an Israeli actor to play an Egyptian queen was extremely offensive. One blue-ticker complained that a ‘zionist’ had been chosen for the role. Another said: ‘Your country steals Arab land and you’re stealing their movie roles.’ This is not the first time Gadot’s Israeli heritage has been used to attack her. In 2017, Wonder Woman was banned in Lebanon, Tunisia and Algeria because she is, apparently, a ‘champion zionist’. Those raging against Gadot aren’t fighting bigotry and ignorance – they’re revealing their own.
One would think Woke Twitter wouldn’t be so quick to attack their own favorite female superhero but this is their MO at this point. They already chewed out J.K. Rowling for the past year over her supposed “transphobia” despite her being one of the most progressive people in the world. As always, this is a good reminder that you will never be woke enough to please the crowd.
Cultural Revue 