Apparently, if you call out a movie that is part of a beloved franchise for being problematic, people respond to your criticism by freaking the hell out, to put it bluntly.

Thus was my experience last Friday, when I made a post detailing my opinions about Marvel’s upcoming Doctor Strange on Facebook. Just for kicks, I left it on “public” privacy, and within the hour, I was getting roasted by strangers from the ether of the Internet.

Looking at the history of Doctor Strange, both the movie and original story from the comics fall under the umbrella of a common trope referred to as orientalism, in my opinion.

Vocab word of the day: orientalism, meaning the romanticizing/fetishizing of Eastern/Asian cultures.

From what I’ve read and understood to be the tale of Stephen Strange, after tragedy strikes in the form of a car accident leaving Strange, a renowned surgeon, with permanently damaged hands, he heads out “East” to find the Ancient One, who resides in a palace in Tibet. Following their encounter is the Ancient One teaching Strange how to do…mystic stuff that helps protect the world, I guess.

Let’s take this apart. Cinematically speaking, controversy first arose when the character of the Ancient One, who has traditionally been a Tibetan man named Yao, was casted as Tilda Swinton, a white woman. Why did Marvel do this? Well, at least there’s somewhat of a reason for this: Marvel feared China’s censorship policies raining on Doctor Strange’s parade if they included Tibet. So the white Ancient One is relocated to Nepal.

In doing research on this topic, I came across a more detailed account from the director’s perspective about this issue. Scott Derrickson felt he had to choose between two different stereotypes in creating this movie adaptation: the mysterious, Eastern Asian man who taught white heroes the art of mysticism and spirituality, or (after deciding the Ancient One would be female) the Asian Dragon Lady, who is no-nonsense and all-powerful. This led to the ultimate decision of dropping the Asianness of the Ancient One’s character altogether in an effort to appease the most people possible. Of course, there’s no pleasing everyone.

These problems with Asian stereotypes first arose from the original Doctor Strange comics themselves, which first hit shelves back in 1963—you know, a solid two years before America passed its Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that put an end to the ridiculous immigration quotas barring most Asians from moving here. Using my APUSH skills (as well as common sense), it’s easy to tell that Doctor Strange was written in a time before Asians were thought of as equal to the White Man. Additionally, it was written in an environment that featured little to no Asian people, because of American laws excluding them from immigration. Because there were hardly any living, breathing Asians around, orientalism was everywhere. Americans were interested in the “quirky” things in Asian cultures, like the mysticism present in Stephen Strange’s story. Because of this, white storytellers “borrowed” Asian ideas to use for their white characters to make them more interesting and powerful.

So, at its core, the story of Doctor Strange is a racist one, which brings us back to his origin story. He travels to Tibet to learn how to channel mystic powers that will aid him in protecting the world. This is a very specific kind of orientalism: the white hero guided by the Asian mentor so that the white hero can save the day, because, apparently, we can’t just have the Asian mentors be the heroes.

Which leads me to my Facebook post, that garnered a fair amount of comments before I ultimately changed the privacy setting. I can handle people leaving their garbage on my posts, but I’d rather some of the people I’m friends with on Facebook be exposed to that. (Imagine my grandma reading white supremacist comments left on my post; I’m not about to expose her to how cancerous Facebook users can be. It’s basically as bad as Tumblr.)

“Whites have been using guns and machismo to solve problems for yay [sic] long. Now that doesn’t work anymore. So they’re using Asian Magic. (Since, you know. Asia controls the rest of the world),” read a now deleted comment. (Again, exposing my grandma to potential members of the KKK? Hell no, I’m deleting this crap from my page.) As if this part of the comment wasn’t strange and suggestive enough on its own, Mr. Benjamin Tyree III continued on to say, “You should be glad that Asian folklore is being used to help a White man’s journey to help him become a better man…..”

Wow. Just, wow. Who sent you, Mr. Tyree? How did I earn the honor of receiving this literally racist BS on my Facebook page? I feel accomplished and important.

Sarcasm aside, this is some straight-up racist propaganda if I’ve ever seen any. “Asian folklore is being used to help a White man’s journey to help him become a better man”…? I don’t even know what to say to that; my jaw has yet to rise up from where it fell on the floor in disbelief. Despite popular belief, I’d argue Asian Americans would rather white characters better themselves through “white” methods than just using Asian methods that lead to the Asian supporting characters being nothing more than just a side note. Even better, imagine an ASIAN hero, using ASIAN methods, SAVING THE DAY. WOW, THAT IS SO UNBELIEVABLE! AN ASIAN SUPERHERO!

I digress.

Thank you, Mr. Tyree, for teaching everyone the definition of cultural appropriation. You’ve led by example.

As you can probably tell, the Doctor Strange controversy is a complicated one. Did Marvel make the correct decision? I’d still argue no, because I don’t know why we need to surrender ourselves to the mercy of China’s censorship laws, considering: 1. We don’t live in China, 2. This isn't a Chinese movie, and 3. China was never Marvel’s main demographic in comics (if they were, this whole Doctor Strange controversy would be very different). From what I can tell, this was a decision made hugely from a business standpoint, which I understand, but I still find pretty lame, because now it’s assigned a monetary value to Asian representation. Apparently, our representation is worth less than the projected $84 million Doctor Strange was supposed to make in opening weekend.

Again, I’m a huge Marvel fan. This isn’t an exaggeration in the slightest; I live and breathe the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I’ve been throwing my money at Marvel since Captain America: The Winter Soldier back in 2014. I love Marvel’s movies and characters. And I acknowledge that Doctor Strange is probably going to be really freaking good, if it’s anything like the trailers have made it out to be. Which is why I’m so sad.

I’m an Asian American college student majoring in screenwriting. I’m trying to find my place in this huge, impacted industry. And a part of that means being the change I want to see in the world (which is a very cliché value I was taught from day one of attending Catholic school). I want better Asian representation. I want accurate casting. I don’t think business should dictate everything; I think Marvel could have come up with a solution that would have appeased more people and included more than one token Asian character in their story so heavily steeped in orientalism. (I can assure you non-Asians that are lives and cultures aren’t as mysterious and entrancing as orientalist stories make them out to be; my life, in particular, is fairly boring in comparison to the life of the Ancient One.)

I will not be seeing Doctor Strange in theaters; I can’t bring myself to monetarily support the decisions Marvel made in the process of creating this movie. However, I do not condemn those who choose to see the movie, either. That is your choice, and, for most of you, you probably aren’t Asian and/or film students, so this isn’t as personal for you. But it’s time for me to follow Peggy Carter’s advice, from Captain America: Civil War; when the world tells me I’m wrong, that I need to move, I stubbornly plant myself like a tree in the ground, and tell them, “No, you move.”