# How "woke" are movies really? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 8, 2022, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-woke-are-movies-really/965849 "2022-06-08T00:11:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-woke-are-movies-really/965849/81 "2022-06-10T20:48:56Z")
[![](https://i.gifer.com/9kRS.gif) ](https://i.gifer.com/9kRS.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-woke-are-movies-really/965849/82 "2022-06-10T21:31:09Z")
You’re a bit late with this argument. Television and especially commercials are full of people without perfect bodies, actors who look much more like the average person on the street. This is absolutely the Golden Age for ordinary looking people on screen. To my knowledge, nothing approaching this level of ordinariness has ever existed on screens at any time since movies were invented. Nor do I see any evidence that they are primarily being laughed at. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-woke-are-movies-really/965849/83 "2022-06-10T21:39:54Z")
The Endless vary according to culture. Death was only White in the comics because the primary audience of the comics in the nineties were White Americans. Thirty years later, the audience has changed–and indeed, if you go back and look at the old comics, Death may no longer look like a White girl to you in those comics, either. Her appearance depends on whether _you’ve_ changed. These racist criticisms of casting are always the same: “I don’t normally criticize race in casting, here are some decisions I didn’t criticize and that proves racism doesn’t motivate me here, but here are my racist reasons for criticizing _this_ decision.” Yawn. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-woke-are-movies-really/965849/84 "2022-06-10T21:46:59Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Television and especially commercials are full of people without perfect bodies, actors who look much more like the average person on the street. This is absolutely the Golden Age for ordinary looking people on screen. If you say so. My experience certainly does not match yours. I haven’t seen anyone who looks like [this](https://www.hcso.org/justice-center-services/inmate-search/inmate-detail/?id=1745054) or even [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFTBLQZ-Cis) actually cast in a role. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Nor do I see any evidence that they are primarily being laughed at. Did you actually watch the Late Show intro that I linked to? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-woke-are-movies-really/965849/85 "2022-06-10T22:01:16Z")
Do you understand the difference between “primarily” and one counterexample? As for your images, how about Googling Kate on _This is Us_? And here’s an article, [Critic’s Notebook: TV’s Fat Women Are No Longer a Joke](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/shrill-work-progress-euphoria-tvs-fat-women-are-no-longer-a-joke-1271431/), that has so many examples it doesn’t even need Kate. . ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2023, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-woke-are-movies-really/965849/86 "2023-10-07T20:53:51Z")
If I were in charge, I would have everyone who whined about “woke movies” watch 1954’s Salt of the Earth. It might make their heads explode. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-woke-are-movies-really/965849.md?page=4)