Whitewashing Doctor Strange

So last week I wrote an Article on the topic of Whitewashing involved with Mulan, a Disney Film, well what a coincidence it was that Doctor Strange released in theaters the same day my Article got Published. What is Whitewashing you may ask. Whitewashing, in this context, is when a non-white character is magically turned white by Hollywood to become more ‘Ideal,’ or just to help White people cope with the idea that they ‘still hold the power.’  Well what is wrong with Doctor Strange? Sure it did well in the Box Office, however many fans raised an eyebrow and were upset when they found out that one of the most powerful characters were in fact Whitewashed. Who? Well Doctor Strange’s mentor, Ancient One, who in the original comic series was an Asian male.  How was Ancient One portrayed in the film? Well he was played by Katherine Matilda “Tilda” Swinton, a British Actress.  Just the fact that a white actress played an Asian character made many fans upset, Many people are even calling Swinton’s role in Doctor Strange “Another example of Hollywood’s racially insensitive casting” but what did the President of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige have to say to Justify this casting? Well according to an interview featured in HitFix, he said, “We’re never afraid to change… I think if you look at some of the early incarnations of the Ancient One in the comics, they are what we would consider today to be quite, sort of, stereotypical. They don’t hold up to what would work today. Also, within the storyline of the comics, and our movie, ‘the Ancient One’ is a title that many people have had. We hit very early on on, What if the Ancient One was a woman? What if the title had been passed and the current Ancient One is a woman? Oh, that’s an interesting idea. [Clicks fingers.] Tilda Swinton! Whoah! And it just hit.” So in summary, Marvel made the Ancient One a women so it would remove the stereotypes, However wouldn’t this lead to Appropriation?  A white woman teaches a White man secrets of Tibetan Culture… how is that even possible? Marvel is basically covering up one stereotype with another stereotype, a White Woman being much more powerful than an Asian man, or worse, a person of any other race or gender. If they wanted to end the stereotype of an Asian old man, they might as well cast an Asian Woman to play the part because it takes place in Tibet… It’s just sad how they added Swinton to make it “a hit,” because they are basically saying that they prefer numbers and offending a culture, over actually casting an Asian actor or actress, and using the sad Justification of “change,” but then again it’s not really change, it’s just going back to where Hollywood was back in the dark ages, where only white people were considered the heroes in movies.