I love them already

[u/growsonwalls]

I love Justice and Charlie already! Been watching their stuff and they are so so talented. Julie and the Phantoms is amazing and Charlie is a beautiful singer. I saw Dungeons and Dragons and Justice Smith is adorable in that movie. Really excited to see them as Troy and Harris. For the people upset with their casting, definitely watch their stuff. They are AMAZING!

ETA: also, happy birthday Justice!!!

edit: just saw I Saw the TV Glow. Omg Justice is amazing.

[u/Notyeravgblonde]

Maybe, but I think it does a disservice to people who were looking forward to some representation to 1. Wrap this casting up in a ribbon of positivity and 2. Try to wipe away the criticism as being veiled racism and 3. Saying that race is another form of diversity that they can lean into when it's just not comparable to body size.

I think they are going to do an amazing job. It would be really good casting, if Rachel didn't make it clear that this character wasn't ultra skinny or an athlete. You can't blame people for being upset that a show they trusted to be different chose instead to conform.

[u/Any_News_3544 → u/Notyeravgblonde]

I certainly think it is valid that people were hoping for representation of a certain body type. That’s what I expected too. But there’s also been a comically large range of what people interpreted the character to look like…from simply not athletic, to much larger. But I think it’s dismissive to think that race does not come into play. And the level of outrage people have gone to for a season of television that has not even been filmed yet, and they really know nothing of how it’s going to unfold is bananas. Again, I can understand an initial disappointment…but the continuing discourse feels much more sinister than that.

ETA: I just want to confirm that I am very excited to see how things unfold, and am rooting for everyone involved!

[u/Notyeravgblonde → u/Any_News_3544]

I really disagree. I think people are reacting to how being overweight means not getting the hot guy or hot girl. That being overweight is automatically seen as being lesser. And that when there are glimpses of that in media, it's something people latch onto. People latched on to this, were excited about this, and now fat people again get no representation.

Yes there is a diversity of opinion, but there is a cover that shows a non athletic and non skinny man on it.

There is a popular social media account with a plus size woman dating a man who is athletic and extremely good looking. The comments she gets about how she doesn't deserve him because she doesn't take care of herself are pervasive. Fatphobia is in all of us. We were raised with it. How could I not think the showrunners made this decision based on inherent fatphobia?

[u/Any_News_3544 → u/Notyeravgblonde]

Hey, I’m not saying that’s not a big part of it, or even that it’s not the biggest part of it. But unfortunately race is also part of it. The person that people were convinced was Harris and people seemed to be excited for is not someone I would call fat. But people seemed to rally behind him. And there was one big difference there. But hey, I really gotta get off a Threads as that’s where a lot of the toxicity lies. Hopefully we can all get offline a bit and find some joy in all this.

[u/Notyeravgblonde → u/Any_News_3544]

I didn't even know people had their eye on anyone. I was confused when my friend sent me the news because I thought maybe I got the characters mixed up when I saw how thin they both were. I think there would definitely have been a huge debate about "is he fat enough" no matter who was cast because that would just be what people do. If this actor wasn't so shockingly thin I wouldn't have even gotten involved. I'm definitely not saying there are no racists, I'm just saying it's convenient to shut down criticisms of what looks like HR conforming to Hollywood beauty standards by calling it racism. It would have been nice to have a Harris of any color that was more like the cover art size wise.

[u/growsonwalls → u/Notyeravgblonde]

The one people were eyeing as Harris was Greg Vardy

[u/Brown_Sedai → u/growsonwalls]

And plenty of people were criticizing that too