Man Creates AI Version of Dune’s Chani Because Men Are Yet Again Being Weird About Zendaya
I’ll take Dudes Being Weird for $500. And what’s behind that card? This post on X, where a man created an AI-generated image of what the character Chani from Frank Hebert’s Dune “actually” looked like.
The image is of a white woman, though aside from having blue eyes and red hair, Hebert never gives a concrete physical description of the character. In this user’s opinion, Zendaya doesn’t fit the part in the Denis Villeneuve adaptation — the implication being because she is Black.
The user’s own profile picture features him wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat. Considering that his candidate of choice ran on a platform of racism and deportation, it isn’t hard to see why he’s being weird about Zendaya’s casting — and it’s gross.
Why Can’t Weird Internet Men Leave Zendaya Alone?
The comment section is filled with other men commenting on the AI-generated woman from the original post. One man asked, “Didn’t she have red hair? Or am I trippin?” and the original creator of the post reposted his AI-generated Chani with red hair. Another user sarcastically wrote “but bro zendaya is amazing. look at her range” accompanied by a picture of the actor making a slightly similar facial expression in three separate roles — in flat-out denial of the fact that Zendaya is one of the best actors currently working.
Another man was angry that Chani had independent thoughts and opinions in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, saying that Hebert didn’t intend Chani to be a “girl boss” and that she wasn’t supposed to be “questioning” Paul’s choices throughout the film. The user is incensed that Zendaya’s Chani is “NOT how she was in the books.” In many of these men’s interpretations, Chani is supposed to be subservient to Paul’s needs. In their eyes, she’s also supposed to be white. One of the most disgusting comments of all came from a user who cited that Hebert called Chani “elflike” in the original book. Accompanying this post was a shot of Zendaya next to an AI-generated image of a troll-like creature, and the user sarcastically wrote that the actor fit the description.
Racism and misogyny are at the heart of the criticism of Zendaya, much like they are for many other modern films deemed “woke.” MAGA men want their films centered around men. If a woman appears on screen, she’s supposed to be a submissive side character — an accessory to the male lead. Zendaya has made an illustrious career distancing herself from that trope. Rue from Euphoria, Tashi from Challengers, and now Chani from Dune, each of these characters is headstrong, independent, and complex — not the kind of women that insecure MAGA men can handle. The fact that she is a woman of color only adds to their discomfort. Spoonfed xenophobic policies and racist theories by far-right figureheads, MAGA men are often challenged by the idea of a person of color with agency — agency that Zendaya’s Chani has.
It’s not the first time that conservative viewers have taken umbrage with Zendaya. After it was announced that she would be playing Mary Jane in Spider-Man: Homecoming, racist trolls flooded the internet with hate, complaining that a black woman was portraying what they saw as a white character. The discourse was so pervasive that Zendaya herself commented on it, saying, “people are going to react over anything” in an interview with Hollywood Reporter. Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn came to her defense, saying, “if you’re complaining about the ethnicity of Mary Jane, your life is too good.” If MAGA men would stop being gross on the internet, life would be good for the rest of us, too.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
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