I really don't get it. I have no idea what the actor's nationality is, but he looks Asian - and Superman shouldn't.
Same issue with the kid now playing the Flash in the movies (I gather he's Jewish, but he looks Asian too). Barry Allen is blond.
The difference between looking White and looking Asian is really thin. Asians, Europeans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans have similar skin tones. White, Red, and Yellow are just reductive ways to describe the skin tones. The only noticeable average difference is epicanthic folds in the eyelids. But eye shape isn't 100% in any group. Some Asians have western eyes and some Europeans have eastern eyes.
Superman was created by two Jewish guys. Superman was always supposed to be an idealized Jew with a name like Kal-EL. Israel is in Western Asia. The only solid trait for Superman is he has black hair and is muscular.
Also, the Huns invaded Europe a thousand years ago so there is some eastern genes spread throughout Europe. Not everyone from Europe is a Scandinavian looking viking. The Romans controlled North Africa and Coastal Southern Europe, and thought the Vikings were "Savages". They did manage to colonize the British Isles.
Europe is right next to Asia. Europe is also right next to Africa. The only things that stopped the world from being totally homogenized were: The Sahara Desert, The Ural Mountains, The Himalayan mountains. Had these hindrances not existed people could have traveled more and mixed more. Race is a construct.
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Race is not a construct. As we currently use the term, it is a set of genetic traits. When you say "Superman was always supposed to be an idealized Jew with a name like Kal-EL," you're very far off. First of all, the character was named "Kal-L" at the time. Siegel and Shuster were secular Jews who were not especially conscious of their identities as Jews. I have no idea what you think an "idealized Jew" looked like to the world of 1939, but in general the characterizations in Nazi propaganda were pretty much the popular conception of Jews at the time, even in America.
"The only solid trait for Superman is he has black hair and is muscular." Hardly. Not to pick on Asians in particular, but by way of example, your description fits Bolo Yeung. Bolo does not look like Superman.
If anything, Superman has always been depicted in comics with "generic white guy" ordinary features, topped with curly black hair. Reeve was pretty close to the ideal. Reeves was.... okay. Cain just didn't look the part. He looked like an Asian (or part Asian) college jock. I never watched the show, so I can't speak to his depiction. But he did not look the part.
"I have no idea what you think an "idealized Jew" looked like to the world of 1939, but in general the characterizations in Nazi propaganda were pretty much the popular conception of Jews at the time, even in America."
Superman pissed the Nazis off so much that Nazi propaganda publicly denounced Superman.
https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/superman.htm
https://www.thedailybeast.com/superman-is-jewish-the-hebrew-roots-of-americas-greatest-superhero
Idealized Jewish man is something like a Zohan. Tall, dark, and handsome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdGB1rnPcR0
https://imgur.com/QtxVLfr
https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/UnBxzRpFtosKWcP6BRT
"Hardly. Not to pick on Asians in particular, but by way of example, your description fits Bolo Yeung. Bolo does not look like Superman."
You misinterpreted what I said. What I mean is that among most iterations of Superman that is a commonality. He's usually Tall, muscular, and has black hair. The traits George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, John James Newton, Gerard Christopher, Dean Cain, Tom Welling, Brandon Routh, Henry Cavill, and Tyler Hoechlin all have in common is they were muscular and had black hair as Superman. Though the caveat is when they colorize George Reeves his hair is more brown. Also, Bolo Yeung as Superman. I would watch that.
All classification systems are constructs, so yes race is a construct. Human beings have 3 billion base pairs of DNA. What is on the superficial outside is not very useful for classification. Let me give an example: Say I have 20 black jars and 20 white jars. If I were tasked to classify them by the outside color I would have failed, because as it turns out 10 jars have honey inside of them, 15 have vinegar, and 15 have salt. The only way to know what is on the inside of them is to look inside. You can't make an assumption about the contents based on the color. Some white dudes have sickle cell anemia.
The difference between looking white and looking Asian is really distinct. East Asian faces look very distinct from Caucasian faces. Superman was never intended to be a Jew, regardless of the ethnicity or religion of his creators. He's an alien whose appearance, from the days of the original comics, has always been that of a large, muscular, average American white guy of western or northern European ancestry.
"Race is a construct" is one of the most ignorant catchphrases of modern times. Race is a biological reality, based in genetics. Denying that race exists is a woke construct.
You just don't understand how genes work.
Genes exist and then people put labels on types of looks.
There are identical people who are unrelated. There have been people that met their doppelganger, did a DNA test, and found they weren't even closely related. Their genes just made people who are on outward appearance very similar looking.
The Huns came over to Europe and banged a bunch of people there, so there is a a continuum of people that might look a little Asian. Sometimes it skips a generation. So, that's always going to be thing.
The classification of Asian people vs Whites was non-existent before Carol Lineas invented the system in 1758. The reason is people had been mixing for centuries. Asians like whites live on the same latitudes and super continent and very on the equator by melanin in the same way.
Middle Eastern People are just dark white people, just like Vietnamese people are dark Koreans. They live on different latitudes and have different adaptations for vitamin d management. Carol Lineas decided to classify people by White, Yellow, Brown, Red, and Black. Melanin comes in two main types Eumelanin which is a dark brown color, and Pheomelanin which is a reddish orange color. Skin color will be dependent on how high or low those two pigments are.
If looking Asian and looking Caucasian is so distinct? WTF is Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Lawrence, Bjork? Why does every Latino and Jewish person just look like a white person when they bleach their hair?
The fact is these are constructs, you haven't really thought about it. I got news for you not all the guys with white beard wearing a red jacket are no all Santa Clause.
Do you even know what an epicanthic fold is?
Race is a construct. If some aliens came down from space we'd all look the same to them. Weird bald chimps.
Dean Cain = Asian looking? I don't agree
shareWell he does look somewhat Asian, which is appropriate since he is part Japanese. His real last name is Tanaka.
shareWow, I had never known that.
shareI remember reading about his ethnicity a handful of years ago and being a little surprised myself. But then I looked at a picture of him and he DID clearly have Asian features.
I never noticed it as a kid when watching the show. In retrospect, I'm a little surprised they cast a guy who was part Japanese to play Superman.
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Because he's an alien.
As much as I hate race-swapping, Dean Cain looks white enough, and enough like Superman, to fit the role. A completely white guy with blond hair would've been way more unsuitable.
According to Wiki:
"He is of Welsh, Irish, French Canadian, and Japanese descent. His biological father was part-Japanese and his mother was white."
So he has more Euro blood than Asian blood anyway.
Asian? I always thought he looked Latino. El Hombre de Acero!
share