Anonymous asked: The thing with Martin Freeman calling Lucy Liu ugly was a badly executed, bombed attempt at an "it's funny because it's not at all true" -joke. I cringed so hard when I watched the interview, because obviously he's going to get quoted on it. Sorry I haven't got a link to it, but I'm sure you can google it relatively easily. Cheers.

Yeah here’s the thing about that. I have watched it link and I’ve been mulling it over and it just really bothers me and I’ve been trying to distance myself from it before saying why its wrong. The thing is I tried approaching it from the view that Martin Freeman “just doesn’t give a fuck” because that’s the kind of rude commentary that he does. Someone replied saying he was being sarcastic and I don’t think its just sarcasm. Here’s why:

lets look at the stats here, Lucy Liu despite being a hard worker and great actress (beautiful too) hasn’t been tied to great big movie franchises since Kill Bill and Charlie’s Angels over a decade ago. Racism still affects her, this is what people said when she was cast as Watson.

Her casting in that role wasn’t without controversy, though. While the producers were very committed to exploring the Holmes/Watson dynamic as a friendship, with her race reflective of larger racial diversity in New York, fans were explosively angry about the decision to put Liu in the role. Considerable racial hatred was dredged up by people lobbying against her casting. Liu’s response when asked about it kind of encapsulated the many reasons why I love her: If I didn’t try anything different, I’d still be doing a Calgon ad. You have to be a pioneer, which means doing things that are not scheduled and different. When you do stuff, it’s not always to please other people–it’s to please yourself. For me, the more individual you make something, the more universal it can be. You have to be a pioneer.

Martin Freeman is more popular than ever in literally one of the biggest franchises (The Hobbit). Also he’s a man and doesn’t have to depend on his looks and even though he’s not handsome it doesn’t keep him from being cast in romantic comedies (What’s your number?)

When people make a habit of referring to women as ugly as an animals it just makes them a misogynist.

I had a link don’t know where it went where they were talking about Freeman’s career where he gets to play literary characters. And its true he’s been Arthur Dent, Dr. Watson, and now Bilbo Baggins. These are great characters, iconic really and Lucy being a woman of color doesn’t have those options open to her. How many iconic literary characters are a) female b) women of color (this isn’t to say it a role can’t be given to a woc but it doesn’t happen very often for woc).

Freeman has critical acclaim (having won BAFTA’s) and continues to make fun of her as if “they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel” and even though this is more of a sore point for me (because they didn’t start out in life with the same opportunities you know) its just not FUCKING FAIR because she doesn’t get awesome roles that are considered for awards. Its not that she isn’t good its that no one will cast her in those roles. This one to me is the most damning because he’s coming from a place of critical authority and experience where she’s written off for just her looks.

Basically they seem to be on equal footing (I even looked up how much they were worth one said Lucy was worth $8mil and Martin worth $10 mil was the lowest guess). But they aren’t despite how hard she works. So yeah it would be one thing if these types of comments were aimed at someone who is clearly better off than him but it isn’t he’s aimed these comments at someone who is by social class, gender and race oppressed. It literally comes down to intersectionality and how even if Freeman doesn’t mean those things he also doesn’t care that’s how everyone treats women like her who try to break barriers. Sherlock is constantly referred to as the “superior” interpretation even though they’re loyal to a racist, misogynistic, dated canon. And Elementary is dismissed critically for actually trying to update the canon become more modern and politically correct, and even just growing Sherlock’s character.

The reason lots of white people don’t like poc bringing up racism is because they hate being accused of racism. And so when we level it we have to be ready to “prove” the racism. We’re expected to shut up and take the abuses that are doled out institutionally and personally. But the thing is when people don’t consider their privilege before making “sarcastic” remarks they end up just sounding like all the other “real” racists who actually do mean it. And here’s a protip for those who’d rather not be considered sexists: referring to a woman as ugly as an animal automatically makes you sound like a douche. Be funny find something original to say.

And fans don’t have to excuse the sexist remarks made by their favorite actors by excusing it as sarcasm.