Rufus Hound in panto

[Hdhdjejdj]

I saw on twitter that Rufus Hound has been attacked on twitter because of his part as Abanazar in Aladdin. He says that he applied eyeliner for the promotional poster in order to portray the fact he is the baddie, and that’s traditional in panto. He has been accused of ‘yellow face’ which he denies. What’s interesting is that there is no mention of the dames in the panto and one of the most vocal people ‘calling him out’ on twitter is himself a drag queen.

FFS this makes my brain hurt.

Christ almighty

So it’s unacceptable cultural appropriation to dress up as, and mock, the Chinese, but hunky dory to dress up as, and mock, women. Yet again, women don’t count.

How is Abanazar Chinese? Aladdin is a story from Arabian Nights

Aladdin is one of the most high profile early cases of cultural appropriation. It's a Syrian tale set in the exotic Orient by someone who didn't know much about Chinese culture, which is why it's got a Sultan and a Grand Vizir and all the names are Arabic.

Ah I didn't know that, but now I think about it Widow Twanky is a not the most Arabic of sounding names...

I think Rufus Hound has said that the character is Arabic.

Aladdin is one of the maddest most mixed up culturally appropriative stories around. But I'd say it's just terrifically English !

Cross-dressing is traditional in pantomime - Principal Boy played by a woman and Dame played by a man. The former is much less common now though.

The person who said this makes her head hurt is right.

It's theatrical dress , its a costume. If rainbow dick monkey can stand in today's woke world so can panto costumes. Blame the library they started this....

It's probably not correct to say that Dames were played by men when we have no conclusive information on their gender identities. I cannot recall a single actor who played a Dame declaring their gender identity. For all we know, all Dames have been women.

@Hdhdjejdj

I saw on twitter that Rufus Hound has been attacked on twitter because of his part as Abanazar in Aladdin. He says that he applied eyeliner for the promotional poster in order to portray the fact he is the baddie, and that’s traditional in panto. He has been accused of ‘yellow face’ which he denies. What’s interesting is that there is no mention of the dames in the panto and one of the most vocal people ‘calling him out’ on twitter is himself a drag queen.

Not really surprising, as a lot of people out in RL don't see panto as mocking women, including me. It's only on MN I've ever come across this attitude.

@Hdhdjejdj

I think Rufus Hound has said that the character is Arabic.

....Oh No He Isn't!

t's a Syrian tale set in the exotic Orient by someone who didn't know much about Chinese culture, which is why it's got a Sultan and a Grand Vizir and all the names are Arabic.

So can we blame the Syrians for cultural appropriation? Or is that racist?

I remember the transfer of Miss Saigon to Broadway when Johnathan Pryce was blackballed when American Equity said a half-French, half-Indochinese man had to be played by an Asian-American.

And then there's Fagin in "Oliver!" who in all Broadway productions is not Jewish. Dear me no. Wherever did you get that idea?

@Quaggars I don’t find dames offensive either. What’s interesting is how Rufus Hound is being criticised/cancelled/called out on twitter and the loudest of these voices is a drag queen.

"Problematic eyeliner" according to one concerned Twitterer

Jaysmith71 😂

I think a lot of people outside of UK don't understand panto, which to be fair is pretty bizarre and plus its Twitter. So you take something silly, lighthearted and meaningless entertainment and turn it into something deliberately offensive and not just literal but actual violence.

I'm about to give a talk on pantomime & the dame, and what I'm going to argue is that yes, the Dame has long been seen as a cuddly English eccentricity. But, when you think about the social/ cultural politics of the Dame, she's really not an innocent fun character - she emerges at about the time Queen Victoria started visibly ageing, getting very stout, and in mourning for Albert. Pantomime Dames were perhaps a kind of knee-jerk reaction to being ruled over by such a woman. By a woman, period!

Pantomime exists in that gap between what is 'proper' or appropriate, and what is outrageous, offensive and inappropriate. It is deliberately naughty in all sorts of ways. This sense of Misrule goes back to pre-Christian religious festivals of mid-Winter. The Janus face, facing both backwards & forwards; the depths of mid-winter meaning that spring is on its way; and the brief moment of turning authority upside down - the child rules, (in Christian mythology, a baby is born as King of the world), and so on ...

[quote Hdhdjejdj]@Quaggars I don’t find dames offensive either. What’s interesting is how Rufus Hound is being criticised/cancelled/called out on twitter and the loudest of these voices is a drag queen.[/quote]
Tell me someone is highlighting the hypocrisy?

@KaycePollard Fascinating.
I think one person has picked up on the hypocrisy.

@Babdoc

So it’s unacceptable cultural appropriation to dress up as, and mock, the Chinese, but hunky dory to dress up as, and mock, women. Yet again, women don’t count.

Have you read David Baddiel's book "Jews don't Count"? It's a very interesting read. I think someone should write a similar book called 'Women don't Count". Many of the (completely justified) points Baddiel makes about attitudes towards Jews could also be said to apply to women.

@RoyalCorgi

t's a Syrian tale set in the exotic Orient by someone who didn't know much about Chinese culture, which is why it's got a Sultan and a Grand Vizir and all the names are Arabic.

So can we blame the Syrians for cultural appropriation? Or is that racist?

This is where the concept of cultural appropriation gets you. It's also where the idea that actors acting as people other than themselves is some sort of appropriation gets you.

Culture doesn't work that way, ideas don't work that way, and acting doesn't work that way.