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> This is how Lewis D. Wheeler, a Boston-based white male actor The fact that this framing is so normalized to just be thrown out in a mostly technical article
by anm89 6y ago
> This is how Lewis D. Wheeler, a Boston-based white male actor
The fact that this framing is so normalized to just be thrown out in a mostly technical article with no other explanation is insidious and insane. There's video of the guy right above. It's very clear what his skin color and gender are. And it's totally off topic.
At a minimum if you are going to do this, it should be done for every single person mentioned consistently. Why don't we get Nixon's gender and race or Francesca Panetta and Halsey Burgund genders and races? And of course when you have the choice between doing this consistently for everyone or not for anyone it becomes clear that it would be way over the top if done consistently and in reality is inappropriate in all cases.
It gets into Noam Chomsky's manufacturing consent arguments in my mind. Everything is a meaningful editorial decision. This IS a political statement. By including this you are implying it would have been undescriptive and impproper not to include whereas the opposite is the case.
And yes, I know it's off topic but I think it is important to call out nonsense when you see it lest it be normalized. If you want your article to be discussed instead of prompting a culture war, then don't bait a culture war.
- ghaff 6y ago1. The writer often does not know what other media is going to be edited into the article, especially if it also runs in print. 2. Much of the article talks about what factors are important and what aren't for a "deep fake actor." Skin color and gender seem absolutely relevant. (I don't necessarily disagree it could have been mentioned in other places as well.)
- anm89 6y agoRegarding point 2. That's totally valid if they come out and say why it matters. But they totally fail to connect those dots making it unclear if they are making that point or not.
- ghaff 6y agoFurther down it says: >For the visuals, Canny AI specializes in video dialogue replacement, which uses an actor’s mouth movements to manipulate someone else’s mouth in existing footage. The actor, in other words, serves as a puppeteer, never to be seen in the final product. The person’s appearance, gender, age, and ethnicity don’t really matter. So I could argue it either way. If the gender and ethnicity didn't matter in the Nixon case, the writer/editor should probably have indicated that on the first mention. (On the other hand, they also wanted someone who sounded a bit like Nixon which would tend to lead you to a white male.)
- watersb 6y agoLots of my friends went into pro acting. In that field, your body type is extremely important.
- anm89 6y agoSure, but the article doesn't make that point. They just dump it there as if it's obvious why it needs to be said and then move on.
- jnwatson 6y agoWhile I think it could have been structured better, I interpreted it as the baseline against which the later instance of the subject and actor being different races is contrasted.