Comments on: My FB doppelganger…my…self?

By: Ela

Ela — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:43:09 +0000

“The meme’s meant to be light-hearted and ephemeral – I get that.”

Was the author feeling “light hearted” after catching onto this game? How much weight do intentions carry in discrimination?

If you are of a certain type – white, slim, of average height, symmetrically faced, harboring few sizable visible birth marks on your skin, with fully functional limbs and neurosystems – then perhaps you easily participated in this game. More telling, the only “second thoughts” you would be having are “Yes! Now everyone will see the true similarity between me and Helen Hunt (or me and Rick Springfield).” This wonderful post showed how a large part of the population was dissed by this light hearted game. Thank you for your writing.

I’m reminded of a Bloom County cartoon where Oliver points out that the pale shade of Band-Aid is labeled as flesh colored – although that color of flesh is worn by a minority of humans. I believe that the manufacturers changed their labels soon after…

By: shilip

shilip — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:17:34 +0000

is the doppleganger a free app

By: RG

RG — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:01:56 +0000

I was told I resembled Rajnikanth and Devanand at different times in life. Now I look like what you’ll get if you put DeNiro, Federer and Ben Kingsley in a magic bullet.

By: somegal

somegal — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:29:47 +0000

yeah, you wish.

By: Raja

Raja — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:32:09 +0000

Wow..Anna… you got me thinkin. as a South Indian man who often gets mistaken for a myriad of ethnicities (none of which are ever South Asian!) I do remember having this moment of FB trauma when i didn’t know who to post as my doppelganger. Should I post a picture of a well known African American actor whom people think i look like and incur the wrath of my family that say i’m “trying to be Black”? do I put up the Gajini image of Amir Khan since he’s the only SA actor i can think of that sports a shaved head like me? Or do I post an image of President Obama, whom my extended family loves to envoke during family gatherings with “well hello! I didn’t know Obama was going to be here…” Getting to uncomfortable with so much introspection at work, i quickly put it on the back burner and conveniently forgot about this topic…until i read your post. Now i’m still processing my own ability to “forget” to think of some famous person’s image to post as my profile pic while looking at my (often white) friends’ updated images. don’t know if I make any sense but thank you for you thought-provoking post….

By: radhika

radhika — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:40:36 +0000

for the record, i got kirsten dunst and annasophia robb. i didn’t get any indian celebrities, interestingly enough, and i also michelle tratchenberg a few times. were there others that didn’t get any indian celebrities as doppelgangers (deep political race discussion aside)?

By: kohl eyed gazer

kohl eyed gazer — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:52:27 +0000

Diversity is a relative thing. Most people in the world have black hair and eyes, including about a billion people in China. I suggest targeting the Chinese film industry for greater celebrity diversity. Desis, with our our varying skin colors and hair form, our wide, expressive, and occasionally oddly colored eyes, our noble, individualistic noses, our womanly curves or manly shapes (depending on gender), are way more diverse than the Chinese. I’m just sure of it and I’m sure they’ll agree, too, that we browns are more interesting and beguiling to look at than they themselves. When i was in Shanghai I noticed an alarming propensity to blond-i-fy their mannikins and perhaps their doppelgangers, probably just to get more attention, like the Japanese anime. We can help them find more appropriate objects of desire and aspiration. Sonal Chauhan beats any of those all-of-a-kind !@#@s any day. “Race” is illusion?” somebody said? Then wtf are we doing here, all “brown” and all, griping about the lack of diversity in that home of the blonde bombshell, Hollywood? How about more Africans and Chinese in Bollywood? Race may be a social construct depending on circumstances, but it is something we take quite seriously when we’re looking for bone marrow donors on sepiamutiny, or finding a deeply appropriate doppleganger.

Seriously. Desis in America need to make films–write them, direct them, produce them. And why Hollywood? The Hollywood aesthetics reflect those of the white Americans, and European Jews who invented it and still do most of the creating almost 100 years later. Maybe it’s just their thing and we’ll end up doing something altogether different? I don’t doubt that with our headstart in the Indian industry (not just Bollywood), desis will make a mark in the American film industry eventually and the names of Sonal and Aish will be widely available on cheap souvenirs in tacky gift shops all over America, right next to Tammy, Beyonce, and Britney.

By: Manisha

Manisha — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:38:49 +0000

Any Akshay Kumar look-a-likes here? Akshay Kumar ten years ago that is.

By: LinZi

LinZi — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:27:12 +0000

"Frankly. I think its depressing that we have such little diversity in Hollywood. Its rather boring to see the same skinny, blonde, white faces over and over again, and frustrating to see actresses who are pretty and don't fit that mold starting to shift that way(Lindsey Lohan for example). The most aggravating part of it all is that the same actresses of color get cast over and over and over again. If they need an Asian woman, they get Lucy Liu, if they need a black woman Gabriel Union or Queen Latifa. Its so rare to see fresh new faces that aren't pasty white and just plain boring."

I agree with you, but I also think that is changing. Just take a look at some of the most popular t.v. shows these days: Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes. Some of my favorite characters are played by Sandra Oh (A Korean-Canadian), Chandra Wilson (an African American without the skinny fake Hollywood body), Naveen Andrews (Anglo-Indian, very attractive), Daniel Dae Kim (born in Korea and raised in the U.S.), Sendhil Ramamurthy (I think you all know who he is), Masi Oka, etc etc.

Other shows like Bones have actors if various mixed racial background- Michaela Conlin (Chinese/Irish descent), Tamara Taylor (African-American/White descent). Both of these ladies are amazingly beautiful and unqiue compared to most of Hollywood.

By: Cassandra

Cassandra — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:10:47 +0000

This is the primary reason why I didn’t participate in the meme. When I first heard of it, I just thought, “Great, another way for black people to be left out.” Underrepresentation in Hollywood, etc., which is connected to all sorts of racist practices…And, no one really looks like me. I have an older sister, and no one in Hollywood really looks like her either, but her college friends will just be like, “OMG, Gabrielle Union! You look exactly alike!” And, um, they really don’t. I feel like in those situations, it’s “they all look alike!!!11″ working there.