Can I just say that even if Dune 'stole' things from arabic culture and whitewashed it, you can still enjoy the film that really is more suited to our times and that include a ton of people of color? What I'm saying is: THE BOOK IS THE BOOK and the film is the film. You can still enjoy it
one thing i learned as a sociology major was that we all should never forget that about the actual period a certain work was published or created. whitewashing, which is a really fucking bad thing, was common at the time the book was published. being excited for a modern adaptation of a film does not inherently mean that one person personally supports whitewashing. i am glad that modern media has been growing to be more inclusive and diverse. we shouldn’t stop at what we are trying to achieve now.
criticizing a piece of media is vital to the progress of our culture and i really am glad people are calling out big companies about whitewashing and ‘stealing’ concepts from other cultures. personally, i didn’t know about Dune until everyone was talking about it because of the latest adaption. i was excited to see it because, hey, i liked the style of the director, the actors and actresses, and it seemed like a gorgeous production. i didn’t know the history behind it so i was glad that someone pointed it out to me so that i could read about it.
i won’t be boycotting this film and i’m still excited to see it, but i will be critical of how they address these concepts because of what i learned about. i think teaching people about the history of a certain piece of work is important, but policing them as to how they respond is kinda too aggressive. it’s removing one’s freedom to choose. it’s like people telling you to stop watching or reading period dramas like p&p and little women because women weren’t treated as equals in the society before and they basically had no freedom to do what women can now. my mantra is to enjoy what i like but still be critical, be vocal if i do see something wrong, and listen intently to others’ opinions (but not necessarily follow them) if they find something wrong in the things we like.
