'Ghost In The Shell' tried to start a meme. People made it into a glorious attack on whitewashing.
Amidst a consistent outpouring of protest from those who have had it up to HERE with movies that whitewash characters of color—and also with crappy anime adaptations—the marketing campaign for Ghost in the Shell is going full steam ahead. With fewer than three weeks to go until the film hits theaters, a new attempt to pull fans in has been launched: the #IAmMajor hashtag, named after Scarlett Johansson’s character.
The hashtag invites fans, or at least those with an internet connection, to upload a picture of themselves, and caption it with some kind of empowering statement, starting with “I Am.”
Oh you poor, precious fools.
The meme-maker does offer suggestions for users, like “I am fearless,” “I am resisting,” and “I am a full-time student working two jobs” (yes that’s a real one!), but the internet had some ideas of its own.
Naturally, folks took this as an opportunity to drag the hell out of the movie, its marketing stunt, its casting of Johansson, the general whitewashing of the characters, and its apparent debasing of the original storyline. Twitter user @ValerieComplex led the charge with some pretty brilliant takes on the prompt.
From there, things really took off:
@ValerieComplex pic.twitter.com/1V4KQBRj9z
— 墓神 (@DG_Yagami) March 12, 2017
@ValerieComplex pic.twitter.com/1qAJBsSEbW
— KaMara Brown (@keepitkreativ) March 12, 2017