Posted by figleaf
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Wed, 2010-03-24 10:17
Via Jonathan Chait at The New Republic
Disney is demanding that actresses auditioning for “Pirates of the Caribbean 4” must not have breast implants.
Others can discuss the merits of a casting call that reads a bit too much like a particularly stringent Weight-Height-Proportional clause in a Craigslist personals ad. I’m just going to point out that when I first read the headline I assumed it was yet another silly middle-school level proposal cooked up by Republicans to obstruct amend the HRC reconciliation bill.
As you may have heard it was a reasonable error on my part.
Yes. They can’t have fake
Submitted by ozymandias (not verified) on Wed, 2010-03-24 11:31.Yes. They can’t have fake breasts, because the Pirates series is known /so much/ for its historical accuracy. What with the ghost pirates and the cannibals in the Caribbean and the people with tentacle faces and all.
I expect they also required bad teeth, smallpox-pockmarked skin, and unwashed hair, since those would also be period-appropriate.
Yeah, and also if they want
Submitted by Nightfall (not verified) on Wed, 2010-03-24 18:09.Yeah, and also if they want to be period-appropriate, 99% of their pirates have to be men, and 99% of the women have to cross-dress and act like stereotypical men. Any other women have to either be prostitutes or wives of high-ranking people on board (both rare). Native american wives are acceptable and somewhat more common if they’ve made a permanent base in the Caribbean, though those generally wouldn’t be aboard ship during raids. And of course, they’ve all got to be white, with maybe a few very rare african, middle eastern, or native american exceptions. Oh, and they must all be well-tanned and most of them must be unshaven too. Did I mention that a majority of them should also speak with a Spanish or Portuguese accent assuming they could speak English at all? Lol. I could go on.
While I haven’t actually seen the movies, what I know about them seems more like comic-book fantasy than anything remotely realistic. And everyone knows that women in comic-book fantasy type works, regardless of the era it’s set in, tend to be visually depicted in ways that make them look as if they have breast implants – and this trend started before breast implants even existed! So if anything they should be encouraging that. Double lol.
ok, so we want to have a
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2010-03-24 23:20.ok, so we want to have a culture where doing surgical things to one’s body isn’t a minimal requirement for being seen as beautiful. Disney, sinful and guilty in issues as it is, is making a step in promoting this. Our answer? “Oh noes, that’s somehow antifeminist and they aren’t period-appropiate anyway”. What the hell?
What if they were beginning to cast fatter people to the roles of heroes to make higher BMIs more accepted? “Oh noes, saying that they want a [the most PC word for fat ever] actress to the role is fascist against skinnier women, it sounds like a Craigslist personal ad, and anyway, who are they to decide what kind of actresses they want to select for a movie they make? That’s what I call unfair! They should just, like, give the job for the first to ask or decide based on the first letter of the names of participants”.
seriously, “And everyone knows that women in comic-book fantasy type works, regardless of the era it’s set in, tend to be visually depicted in ways that make them look as if they have breast implants – and this trend started before breast implants even existed! So if anything they should be encouraging that.” -> I think the imperative for not making breast implants seen as absolutely necessary in REAL LIFE is higher than the urge to make it as comicbook-historically accurately sexist as the genre would require (and why couldn’t a genre change)?
I’m pretty anti-plastic
Submitted by chingona (not verified) on Thu, 2010-03-25 07:43.I’m pretty anti-plastic surgery, but it’s ludicrous to think that Disney’s goal here is to promote positive body image. Do you really think they’ll be casting women with A cups? The ad is incredibly specific about the body type they want, and while it’s a perfectly lovely body type, it’s not one that defies conventional beauty norms. No, it’s that now that we can surgically modify our bodies, there is status in having that same look “naturally.” Just like exercise and diet expectations got significantly more stringent as corsets went out – we’re supposed to have big breasts and tiny waists “naturally.”
Or maybe there’s some practical, logistic issue related to trying to squeeze breasts with implants into those period costumes. Maybe you need a certain amount of give in the tissue. That’s about as generous as I’ll be with them.
Here’s the description, for
Submitted by chingona (not verified) on Thu, 2010-03-25 07:49.Here’s the description, for those who didn’t click through:
The filmmakers sent out a casting call last week seeking “beautiful female fit models. Must be 5ft7in-5ft8in, size 4 or 6, no bigger or smaller. Age 18-25. Must have a lean dancer body. Must have real breasts. Do not submit if you have implants.”
If they’re well-done implants
Submitted by Holly Pervocracy (not verified) on Thu, 2010-03-25 13:56.If they’re well-done implants and it’s not a nude or bikini audition, I don’t know how Disney could even TELL. Short of some very extreme porn-star implants, I’d think that period clothing would make implants indistinguishable from large real breasts—both to a casting director and to the audience.
Personally, I’m holding out
Submitted by Sungold (not verified) on Thu, 2010-03-25 22:16.Personally, I’m holding out for a boatload of galloping consumption and stage three syphilis among the actors. But hey, that’s just me. I realize that a few people in the audience won’t be historians of medicine, or historians of anything beyond Johnny Depp … But just imagine the 3-D possibilities of sputum!
Ditto, too, on all of Nightfall’s and Ozymandias’ casting criteria.
I think the ultimate historical period piece would take its cues from Norbert Elias, especially where bathing is concerned. Maybe the audience could be provided with a scratch-n-sniff experience? Oh, the places we’ll go!
Why I still adore ReCaptcha: “what congests” – it sooo knew i was gonna show up with the TB.
It is probably a liability
Submitted by fiveofnine (not verified) on Sun, 2010-03-28 07:02.It is probably a liability issue. There may be some action which could damaged the implants.