A New Zealand member of parliament who is of Polynesian descent is livid with Disney’s portrayal of the demi-god Maui in its upcoming movie Moana. The MP claims the characterization perpetuates a negative stereotype of Pacific islanders.
Jenny Salesa took to Facebook to argue her point the best way she could in 2016, in meme form.
Essentially Salesa, a member of the Labor party. is battling the body-shaming of Polynesians by body-shaming this one cartoon Polynesian dude, who is ironically voiced by The Rock. Is half pig, half hippo what she calls all obese people? Harsh!
But not everybody agrees with the overweight label. Some think that this Polynesian mythical hero is actually has a barrel-chested strongman bod. Like if you look at participants in The World’s Strongest Man competition, not all of them are built like a body builder. They have thicker, more functional bodies.
Samoan comic box artist Michel Mulipola had his own take. Essentially the thick body type is meant as a character representation of a braggart sidekick.
My lua sene on the Maui design for the Moana Disney film. Now you know and knowing is half the battle #WeAreMaui pic.twitter.com/T6T2ykGe57
— Michel Mulipola (@bloodysamoan) June 23, 2016
But these subtle distinctions aren’t enough to placate the SJWs of social media. Of course.
https://twitter.com/JuviaPun/status/742050753506746368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
This new outcry over Maui creates a whole new paradigm for body-type political correctness. Let’s see if we can figure out all the rules.
There needs to be more diverse body-types in movies that better reflect reality. (There’s too many Barbie dolls!) Unless those new body types are too real and happen to offend someone, in which case the idealized body option is better. And be extra careful with formerly colonized countries with current obesity epidemics, except America of course.
What’s crazy about the whole controversy is that the movie was written by a Polynesian, voiced by Polynesians and scored by a Polynesian (along with Lin-Manuel Miranda) and you’d think that one of these people would know if the depictions of Polynesian people in the movie were racist. The whole film is a celebration of Polynesian culture, their legends, their amazing seaworthiness and exploratory spirit. This group that’s often ignored by Hollywood is finally getting a huge blockbuster movie and of course the internet only cares about a character being overweight who isn’t even fat.
Follow me on Twitter @William__Hicks.
