Episode 71: Casting Gender and Race

State of the Theory

This is Episode 71 of the State of the Theory Podcast. Politics. Power. Popular Culture. And other stuff, probably. In this series, we’re like super nerdy philosophical DJs: mashing up Serious Academic Questions with the most topical news and trends in pop culture. Each week, we’ll tackle a new topic and collide it with ‘critical theory’ (we’re pretty loose with our definitions, though, so expect the unexpected). Our aim is to destroy the stuff we know, explore the stuff we don’t and unsettle everything we think we know about the world. We take the obvious, the commonsensical, the certain, and then we rip it all to shreds. We are your theory doctors and we are always on call. In this episode, recorded on 5 July, we talk about the recent controversy arising from the decision to cast Halle Bailey (a black actor) in the role of Ariel in Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. We use this story to explore the role of race and gender in the politics of casting. We refer to this twitter thread about the diversity in the ways in which mermaids have been represented through history: https://twitter.com/erik_kaars/status/1146690062182232065 Our theme music is "The Face of God" by The Agrarians (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Agrarians/The_Jovial_Shepherd/The_Face_of_God) State of the Theory is brought to you by Hannah Fitzpatrick (@drhfitz) and Anindya Raychaudhuri (@DrAnindyaR) Find us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/stateofthetheorypodcast) or Tweet us @TheoryDoctors