Casting Director Says "The Witcher's" Yennefer Was Cast To "Challenge" Beauty Standards—What Did They Mean By This?

Casting director Sophie Holland has caused some confusion after revealing why Anya Chalotra was cast as the sorceress Yennefer in Netflix's The Witcher. According to Holland, she vouched for Chalotra when it came to securing the role of Yennefer – because they needed to "challenge" people's idea of beauty standards.

"Lauren Schmidt Hissrich is the showrunner, and we work so well together, and she's so open to conversations," Holland explains. "In the book, [Yennefer] is described as the most beautiful woman in the world. This was a few years ago, and I'd like to think things have changed. But when you think about people's unconscious bias – especially in the fantasy world, it felt like these worlds were predominantly white. And I remember saying, 'I feel like we need to challenge what people think of as the standard of beauty. And having a woman of color in this role does incredibly powerful things to the people watching.'"

Not to be dramatic or anything, but I'd lock myself in my room if a casting director said they picked me to "challenge" beauty standards. At the same time, Holland's comment makes sense when you think about The Witcher's characters being predominantly white – but people weren't too forgiving when it came to her explanation. "I feel like she's basically just revealing her own prejudices here," an X user wrote, referring to Holland's statement. "'Women of colour' can in fact, be very very attractive," he added.

While Chalotra is half Indian and half English, she definitely meets society's idea of "beauty standards." She's still fair-skinned, thin, is above average height, and has naturally beautiful features.

"'We hired you as an ugly diversity hire,'" said @HandScales. "Bro, that’s just straight up evil."

I'm sure Holland had good intentions, but according to some X users, her comment did sound kind of back-handed to people of color. "I'm confused, are they implying she wasn't conventionally attractive because the actress is non-white?" asked @TheStarElite. "Because that's not how that works...."

No shade to Holland, I'm sure she thinks Chalotra is gorgeous. But here's the problem with the social contagion known as the "woke" mentality: When people become hyperfocused on race, there's a chance that they'll unconsciously begin to assume racist tendencies themselves. It reminds me of when Candace Owens called out an interviewer for bringing up people of color when there was no need to. "The emphasis that you place is always on having a discussion about race," Owens said. "You guys are insistent on having a conversation about race and telling us that we should see, and implying that we should see race everywhere. I don't agree with that."

In the case of Chalotra, it's evident that instead of being chosen for her acting skills or her close resemblance to Yennefer, it seems her skin color and her "challenging" looks (not my words) became the deciding factor. It's insulting and demeaning, and it's not progressive. If anything, this "liberal" mentality only makes people more racist, because they attach certain negative attributes to people of color. It becomes more obvious each day that white liberals' patronizing behavior toward marginalized individuals is due to a feeling of superiority; it's covert narcissism under the guise of being a justice warrior. Judging by the way X users reacted to why Chalotra was cast, it seems people are finally waking up to this.

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