Gal Gadot Accused of White Washing for Playing a White Woman

There is some historical argument over what race the ancient Egyptians were; they may have been Black or they may have been Caucasians of similar complexion to today’s Egyptian population. We’re not really sure because it’s feasible either or both groups lived in the area at the time and you can’t actually tell someone’s skin color from their skeleton.

One thing we do know, however, is Cleopatra was neither, she and her family line were Southern European. She was like, white white, and also probably not as hot as you’ve been lead to believe.

The point is that people accusing Gal Gadot of whitewashing don’t actually know what they’re mad about, they just want to be mad.

Cleopatra was probably whiter than Gal Gadot, who is Israeli, and the last time I checked Israel was in the Middle East and in fact shares a border with Egypt.

Lexi Alexander, the dumbest person in Hollywood, appears to have deleted a tweet saying Cleopatra should be played by a black actress and claiming Cleopatra was black. Hanna Flint of The Guardian claimed casting Gadot as Cleopatra was an example of “Hollywood’s colonization of ethnicity,” a take that misses the fact that Cleopatra and the entire Ptolemy dynasty were literally colonizers. The founder of Cleopatra’s dynasty, Ptolemy I, was a Macedonian and a bodyguard and close friend of Alexander the Great.

Gal Godot addressed the controversy, telling the BBC “First of all if you want to be true to the facts then Cleopatra was Macedonian. We were looking for a Macedonian actress that could fit Cleopatra. She wasn’t there, and I was very passionate about Cleopatra.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a good thing that we’re seeing more diverse faces on television and in movies. Hollywood has long considered casting anyone who wasn’t white or Will Smith in a leading role in a major film to be “risky” so it’s good that things are changing. But when people do things like this, claiming a white woman playing a white woman is whitewashing, that’s when people start to tune out your movement as a whole, even when you’re making good points.