It seems too many movies and shows these days are less concerned with telling stories as they are with curating a politically correct world-view.
During the final season of Game of Thrones for instance, I listened to a podcast where two media critics talked about each episode the week after it aired. One of the narrators on that podcast was Joanna Robinson, an entertainment writer for Vanity Fair, and she seems to see entertainment entirely through this lens of political correctness. For example, she took exception to the killing of Missandei on the wall of King's Landing by Cerci's henchmen, because Robinson said she "carries the burden of representation", as the only woman of color on the show. Isn't that, in itself, a racist way to look at entertainment? Will we ever evolve beyond this point?
I did a full article laying out my thoughts after seeing the recent Batwoman trailer.
Batwoman & "Woke" Hollywood — The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
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The fourth option
This is a tough subject to discuss because proponents are sanctioning only the option they preach. Any criticizing and you're immediately demoted to Trump's voter.
OTOH this would be the shortest lived subject in the history; the answer is simply; yes, it is happening and it is negative.
Here’s why it’s a fourth option; I see most of you in these:
- Yes, but it’s good and I’m in some way liberal
- Yes, but it’s bad and I’m in some way conservative
- Nothing new is happening, it’s as it always was
When tackling subjects like this you have to know who you're talking to. If someone opposes because he wants women back in the kitchen just cooking and giving birth, the conversation is useless.
So here's a sentence on me; I come from the tradition of cultural studies, I marched in pride parades, I fought for causes I don't benefit from in any way, simply for the sake of the cause – the cause being people living with no judgement from others as long as they don’t harm others. Underdogs were the only people I ever fought for. It was queer, it was women, it was immigrants, ethnic/national minorities, who ever seemed like he needed help
Also, I’m a big feminist, bordering with militant and often a bigger feminist than some of my lady friends, sadly.
It turns out my feminism is just too radical and not kosher for the system.
When I start talking about subjects like these, I get in trouble with the entire spectre; from white supremacists, via Trump’s voters and Obama’s voters, all the way to woke. Or rather “woke” as there is nothing awoken in this silicon valley/liberal BS and I resent the fact that this is being labelled correct in any context; be it political or otherwise.
I also come from the tradition of media studies and held lectures in media studies, so I very much resent ShadyJ’s maverick effort of “term dropping” in order to justify this harmful trend.
I’ve been piling up material from the beginning of this century and when you say 10 out of 10 mainstream media products have men in any type of positive role, you’re 100% wrong. Until today I’ve piled up so much examples and material for what I’m saying that saying it doesn’t exist, renders you blind. It is almost non-existent this positive male role. The one and only positive role a man can get today is if he’s one of the marginalized like gay (Moonlight, Love Simon etc.) or if he is dying in order to pass the torch to a lady character (Quiet Place, Sicario 2, Star Wars etc.)
The shortest way to present my feminism; stop telling women what to be.
Completely and utterly stop telling them where you want them. Let them freely come up with something that is completely out of anything you might have imagined. Let them develop their own unique voice. And you won’t achieve this by this simple dumb formula; batman > batwoman; superman > supergirl; Mad Max > Furiosa – for this is just stuffing them in your old suits. It is what is known in feminism as a “female masquerade” and yes, you’ve guessed it right, it’s still guys who masturbate to these images like Lara Croft and others. “Give birth to my offspring and shut up” or “Get that leotard deep into your crack and jump around before my eyes” is EQUALLY bad. It’s like the difference between; “do this” and “do that”.
We once told them cook and give birth. Now we’re telling them; when in doubt act like a man. This is the “man-up lady!” era, but it’s literal, it is the eMANciaption era.
It is detrimental and I believe the time is yet to come to dismantle the consequences of this “grafting the imaginary phallus onto women for the peace of the hypocrite liberal mind”.
This is what today’s feminism is; whatever men use to do, women should do now and men should stop.
Why do I claim it’s harmful?
One of the feminist theories says we have a history of 50% percent of the voice (half of the inventions, half of the writers, half of talents) because women were pushed aside. It’s not as bad as that, because some did express themselves, but we still miss a lot.
Today it’s even worse; we’ll listen to women if what’s coming out of their mouth is formerly imagined in men’s heads. Today, it is either be quiet or talk like a man. Womanhood is being treated as something that should be erased completely.
The other reason;
It supports the patriarchal notion of men being right and neutral and the recommended model of living/behaviour. It says; men were there first, all we have to do now is introduce some women to the men’s way of life. Shove a cigar in their mouth, pour them a Scotch, stick them behind the wheel of an air-craft carrier and we won’t look as bad. IT IS NOT AS EASY.
And, guys... let me tell you... most of us here are men and some might hold this against me, but at the end of the day you gotta see we’re not all that right. With us it’s just about what we like to do and what we stubbornly persist upon even when we know we’re wrong. Forwarding the notion that even women are better when they simply act as men is utterly manlike.
This is bad. And even much worse for it is not being recognised as bad by almost anyone; not by men, not by women, or any political option. It’s only the Teabag party for all the wrong reasons.
If you want to do justice to a subject like this in a time like this, you know you’d need 200 pages, 10 years, million examples, and to endure to be despised by those you fight for. I don’t have it in me anymore.
As for the mainstream media and ShadyJ’s notion of men domination (I won’t bore you to death), here’s a small portion of it: every single movie that made some significant nickel gets redone with a woman replacing a man, from Terminator III onward; all the Star Wars, Star Trek, all the superhero movies and rumor has it Lady Bond and Lady Dr. Who are just around the corner. In the entire 21. century you can’t find one male character not being portrayed as weaker then the female character; Darth Vader and the little girl, Batman begging some little girl to spare him, Guardian of the Galaxy being weaker than the female character, Moneypeny being more of a badass in the field and shooting James Bond not to mention “M” (the lady, of course), Jack Reacher 2, Equalizer 2, the one and only role Angela Basset lately gets as a CIA big shot who lets it rip on the, “supposedly” leading male role/character, the X men with the Phoenix, Matrix, Minority Report, the BS of the new Bladerunner having some lady screaming at K’s face “you didn’t think that someone who has a penis can be the chosen one/first born “skin”...
You’ll have to take my word for it, and I know that anyone who doesn’t agree with me will jump at the opportunity to not take my word for it, but this is THE ONLY way we’re telling our stories lately. We have men; bums, useless, dumb, insensitive, failures, not getting with the times, bad fathers, serial killers, weaker, less competent OOOOOR; they’re good if they’re crying, they are gay, they are one of the minorities, somehow marginalised, somehow effeminate etc.
We have women who are; tough, badass, never cry, successful, beautiful unsung mothers, emotionally more mature without exception, who beat their male counterparts at every game, who are better at everything, better detectives, better pilots, better doctors OOOOOOOR; we have the ones whose farts even smell beautifully, who are always noble at being violent or being violent for noble reasons, who are serial killers every now and then just to shove it up your throat that they can do that and better than men, they only make mistakes because men made them make mistakes or it’s their fathers to blame, who are spared by scriptwriters to the extent of just being stupid-obvious.
Now, being serious about this subject; you could tell me why I’m wrong and why, perhaps some of you see how this will all be beneficial in the long run, but please don’t tell me; it’s not there; you’re imagining it; you’re a Trump voter; you’re too conservative; you’re misogynist; you’re afraid; it’s feminism; it freshens up the mainstream etc.
