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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 12, 2022

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Just as a point of clarification, it's Halle Bailey who's playing Ariel in The Little Mermaid, not Halle Berry. The latter is 56; casting her to play a character who's canonically 16, and whose teenage naivety and rebelliousness are her main personality traits, would provoke a whole different culture war fracas. (Bailey is 22, and 22 playing 16 isn't unusual by Hollywood standards.)

Haha, whoops! It did cross my mind that Halle Berry is a little old to play Ariel, though I didn't realize Berry was quite over 50, and I figured that, y'know, black people age very very gracefully. And like maybe mermaids in this universe stay young and naive longer or something.

Edit: Also, CGI magic is real, that's another thought that crossed my mind, despite the fact that upon reflection, it'd be ridiculous for Disney not to cast someone who's actually young.

Edit: Also, CGI magic is real, that's another thought that crossed my mind, despite the fact that upon reflection, it'd be ridiculous for Disney not to cast someone who's actually young.

Very magical. But we are told to beware of those who wield magic for evil ends. They must be banished.

That flub made me realize that Halle Berry would have been a much better Tinkerbell than Julia Roberts.