Some days, I just can't with the internet anymore. 

The moment it was announced that Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong'o would be playing Helen of Troy in a new adaptation of The Odyssey, the usual corners of the internet completely lost their minds.

Suddenly, self-proclaimed purists became experts in ancient history, flooding social media with a wave of racist vitriol masked as concern for source material accuracy. Commenters — including Elon Mask — have resorted to calling her a "DEI hire" and "Helen of Detroit". She has been attacked and furiously compared to white German actress Diane Kruger, who starred as Helen in the 2004 film Troy.

Let's be completely clear about the irony here: the historical baseline everyone is pretending to defend does not exist.

While scholars and historians have long debated whether Helen was loosely inspired by a queen or noblewoman, she is, first and foremost, a literary and mythical figure from Homer's epics. 

Watch: The Odyssey Official Trailer. Article continues after video.

According to mythology, Helen was fathered by Zeus, who took the form of a swan to seduce or assault her mother Leda. Helen was hatched from a swan egg.

The backlash to a dark-skinned woman playing the role in this particular rendition of The Odyssey makes absolutely no sense on any logical level, primarily because Helen is a fictional entity.

Even if we were to entertain the argument that Helen represents a specific historical era, the hypocrisy becomes impossible to ignore the moment you look at the rest of the cast.

Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland are starring in the three leading roles as Odysseus, Penelope and Telemachus. None of them are Greek. Where is the aggressive outrage over the lack of cultural specificity? Where are the memes demanding authentic casting for them? Silence.

The internet only seems to care about strict adherence to geographic accuracy when a woman of colour becomes a part of the conversation. The double standard is undeniable.

Image: Getty

Even if this character were a real historical figure and we had proof of what she looked like, the historical accuracy defence is a tired, broken record.

Pop culture has proven time and time again that the heart of a story is completely independent of matching the exact demographics of the original. Look at the massive success of Bridgerton. Look at Hamilton. These projects proved that diverse casting serves to enhance a story.

Instead of celebrating a great actress taking on an iconic role, we are trapped in a loop where adaptations have officially become people's favourite scapegoat for modern racism.

We've seen this exact discourse before with the outrage over Halle Bailey in The Little Mermaid, the vicious harassment directed at Francesca Amewudah-Rivers when she was cast as Juliet in a stage production of Romeo & Juliet, and the bad-faith complaints about Nico Parker in the live-action How To Train Your Dragon.

All entirely fictional characters. Many of which are stories involving fantastical elements like literal flying dragons. But god forbid a made-up woman with an actual fishtail be played by a black actress.

People continuously use the excuse of a project being different from the original to mask their anger. But when you really think about it, it's never actually about the text, is it?

Image: Netflix

The vitriol being spread online about Lupita is appalling. It feels insane that I have to even dignify the internet's response with an answer but let me make myself very clear: Lupita Nyong'o is objectively, undeniably a stunningly beautiful woman. 

To argue that she doesn't fit the profile of a woman whose beauty "launched a thousand ships" isn't a critique of her acting capability or her looks. It is a direct reflection of colourism and Eurocentric beauty standards that refuse to see a dark-skinned woman as the blueprint for desire and power. 

It's time to retire this tired narrative. If you're mad about this casting, just admit what you're actually mad about, because if Tom Holland can play a man who can shoot webs out of his palms and make it believable, then Lupita Nyong'o can surely play Helen of Troy. 

Feature Image: Getty.