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Hi, my name is K

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Mataōtama Strohl my pronouns are

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they them. And this week, I

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wanted to talk about why

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accurate representation is

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important.

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I have an article on Medium

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titled Moana is trash, and it's

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getting a lot of traction. I

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received a lot of positive

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feedback to it. But I also

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received a lot of questions and

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comments. The comment that led me to this

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episode today was by a person

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named Richard twist. And they

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said, I thought that this was a

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valuable read. And it was

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interesting to see someone

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consider the ethics of

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appropriating representation

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itself for the wrong reasons.

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I'm not sure I understand the

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relevance of the voice actors

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background, though, could you

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clarify? I haven't seen the

0:46

movie. So I'm unsure if it's

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biographical of someone who

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actually existed, or whether

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that would make a difference in

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your view.

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So this is a long winded I want

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to say way of asking, is

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accurate representation.

1:02

Important? Is it important at

1:06

all? And I actually answer this

1:06

person's question in Milan is

1:10

trash by saying that the people

1:10

have monos time. And that's the

1:15

thing with Disney they try they

1:15

distance where they're getting

1:19

their material from by trying to

1:19

make it like, Oh, this is not a

1:24

real thing. This is a magical

1:24

land. But these are real people

1:27

that actually existed. So

1:27

they're trying to get the best

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of both worlds by being

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ambiguous as to whether or not

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this is an accurate portrayal of

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the people of those times or a

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mystical land, which is why they

1:38

throw Maui in there was actually

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a god in an actual living

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religion, which I also talked

1:45

about in the article. The voice actor for Moana it is

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someone who, who is Native

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Hawaiian, but it's also White.

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And we see this happen in a lot

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of different ways in media, they

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will only have somebody in that

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role if they are also white, if

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they have connections to white

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ancestry. Somewhere

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an amazing Instagram page on

2:11

colorism called the darkest hue.

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I referenced that page so much a

2:16

lot in a lot of my articles. But

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this question made me think of a

2:21

post that she made on on the

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representation of Black love in

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all media, a lighter skinned

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Black woman being used to

2:30

represent all Black boys. When

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we don't accurately represent

2:34

people, people begin to believe

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this is what these people should

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look like. They should have

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Eurocentric features, they

2:44

should not have features that

2:48

are those of Africans that when

2:48

in fact they are Black. That is

2:53

the same with the voice actor of

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Moana being white. She the voice

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actor will be touted to

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represent this film, the voice

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actor will be interviewed Moana

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will not be interviewed who is a

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darker skin tone than the voice

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actor. She Lee Crump Bessho will

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represent what Pacific Islanders

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look like what Polynesian people

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look like she represents like

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she's very tied to that movie.

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So when she goes into

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interviews, people will say, Oh,

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this is what a Pacific Islander

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looks like, Oh, this is what

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someone a descendant of the

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people portrayed in this film

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will look like, oh, white

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person. Accurate representation

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is important because although

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this person is hinting at the

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fact that oh, this is a magical

3:44

land, so people are going to

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take it as such. There are a lot of people in my

3:50

comments of this article, who

3:53

said, I really thought that this

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was accurate representation for

3:57

these people and, and anyone who

3:57

may see themselves in this film.

4:04

Again, Disney does this so much

4:04

with a lot of their films. There

4:08

are a lot of comments on there

4:08

saying they've done this with

4:10

other films. But or another

4:10

article called ambiguity is

4:15

always intentional and exists

4:15

when specificity is absent, or

4:19

doesn't exist. So then you're

4:19

intentional in making something

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ambiguous by being intentional

4:24

with not having with not being

4:29

specific in what you're

4:29

portraying, or representing in

4:32

this film, which is what they

4:32

really wanted to do with.

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In summation accurate

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representation is important

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because without accurate

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representation, our history, our

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culture, and our livelihood, are

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misconstrued and taken as true.

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Hope this helps