People have been blaming Hollywood for being “too woke” for Trump’s rise.
I think for me, the problem is shaming anyone who refuses to see your movie and accusing them of being sexist or racist or homophobic. Even if women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people also don’t see your movie.
It all started in 2016 with the all-female reboot of Ghostbusters.
Obviously, the misogyny the cast received was horrible and unforgivable.
But I do think it was a huge mistake to lump in everyone else who hated it with those misogynists. Like AVGN.
James Rolfe is a YouTuber. He reviews video games and movies. He’s a fan of Ghostbusters. People wanted to see his thoughts on the reboot.
He had no interest in seeing it. And he had good, even great reasons, for not wanting to see it. None of them were due to misogyny.
James Rolfe’s reasons for refusing to see Ghostbusters (2016):
1. Trailer looked unfunny.
2. Instead of a proper sequel to Ghostbusters II, they made a straight up reboot.
3. They made it right after Harold Ramis died.
All very understandable reasons.
How did the internet react? They labeled him a misogynist. They mocked and bullied him. They labeled him a basement dwelling loser who hates women. Even though he was married! With kids! And was by all accounts a pretty chill guy.
He just didn’t want to see Ghostbusters
And yet the cast and crew of the reboot mocked and belittled him and everyone else who didn’t want to see it.
And guess what? The movie flopped.
It got ok reviews. But people just didn’t see it. No one was interested in seeing it either. Including women. And clearly it had no good word of mouth.
Insulting the audience, especially fans of the original, turned out to be a stupid business choice. Who knew?
Meanwhile, what did James Rolfe do? Minded his own business. Didn’t make hundreds of videos with Paul Feig having tears in his eyes, didn’t go on podcasts and say “I’m getting cancelled for my opinions!”
He just moved on and kept trucking along.
After Trump’s election, Hollywoods lesson from Ghostbusters (2016)’s failure was….. to double down on it and keep insulting the fans.
The Last Jedi divided fans unlike any Star Wars movie before.
Only this time, Disney was the one in charge of it. Disney owned ABC. And bribed critics and influencers with perks if they reviewed it positively.
There were tons of misogynists and racists who hated The Last Jedi because it had too many women, too many people of color, and too many not subtle political themes. They bullied and harassed Kelly Marie Tran off social media. It was awful.
HOWEVER,
Most of my friends also didn’t like The Last Jedi. Many of them are super progressive too. A lot of them are LGBTQ+.
They didn’t like The Last Jedi because they didn’t like how Luke was handled. And they also didn’t like how Finn was handled.
In The Force Awakens, Finn was in trailers and posters holding Anakin’s Lightsaber. And he was set up as a stormtrooper who left the Empire to join the Rebels.
He had the most compelling and unique story arc in The Force Awakens, a movie that was derivative of A New Hope.
And how did The Last Jedi handle him?……
They made him a coward trying to flee the rebels and find Rey. Then he gets tasered by someone. And spends the movie getting scolded for not caring about the Galaxy enough.
Even though he’s a Black guy who quit working for the Empire.
For years, the narrative from fans of The Last Jedi was “anyone who hates The Last Jedi is a toxic white male loser who hates women and minorities.”
You know who else hated it? John Boyega. Because it undermined him. Because he was Black.
youtu.be/bxf6ppZHAhA?...
Whenever I brought this up to fans of The Last Jedi, their response was “I don’t care what John Boyega thinks! I love The Last Jedi! And Finn had an amazing arc!”
John Boyega disagrees with you. And so do a lot of Black Star Wars fans who saw themselves in him.
This has kept continuing in years since.
Didn’t see The Marvels? You hate women!
Didn’t like She Hulk? You hate women!
Lots of women didn’t like them either.
It’s ok if you liked them! But not everyone who hated them was sexist. It just didn’t appeal to them.
The Little Mermaid remake received a ton of racist backlash for casting a Black woman as Ariel.
Halle Bailey did not deserve any of the hate she got. At all. She was in a movie. That’s it.
With that said, Disney live action remakes have sucked a lot lately. Zero creativity or imagination. Just reheated leftovers of much much better movies.
Lots of people didn’t see The Little Mermaid because it looked just as bad as they all did.
But if you said “Eh. I’m not interested. I’ll just watch the original.” People accused you of being racist, or supporting the racists online.
Just like that, seeing movies became a political movement.
And that’s the thing. I’m sick of politics. Literally. Sick of it. I’ve been throwing up since Wednesday morning.
I’m so tired of politics being part of every single part of my life. Including entertainment.
I’m not talking about celebrities being vocal about their political views. They have every right to share their beliefs, just like I have a right to disagree with them.
And I’m not talking about diversity in movies. That’s important and necessary.
I’m talking about the fact that you can’t even share your own opinions on any movie without being attacked for your politics over it.
Did you like The Marvels? You’re a soy boy.
Did you hate The Marvels? You’re a misogynist!
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
The point of this is not that Hollywood should stop making movies with diverse casts and progressive messages. Not at all. We need more movies like that.
We also need those movies to be GOOD! Like Barbie!!
Yes. Barbie was woke, had a diverse cast, and had a powerful message about feminism.
It also had Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken.
It knew exactly what it was, a toy commercial, but also had sincerity and earnestness. It was also funny as hell!
Yes. Lots of misogynistic men hated it. They were always gonna hate it no matter what.
But a lot more men clearly liked it. It made $1 billion. Got Oscar nominations. Even won one for Best Song!
It was proof that “Go Woke Go Broke” was a theory. Not the rule.
The bottom line is that we need to stop shaming people for not liking or refusing to see a movie that doesn’t interest them, just because that movie happens to have a diverse cast and progressive messaging.
Yes. We need to use art to make a point.
Yes. We need to use art to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed.
We need art to be inclusive and to help move us towards the future.
But don’t forget to make it entertaining!!
We just re elected a reality show host even after he got us into a pandemic and the worst recession since the Great Depression.
People voted for him not because of his policies or his competence. They voted for him because he’s ENTERTAINING!
Use your art to educate, and inspire people. Use your art to help people gain empathy.
But remember that they aren’t seeking out art that will do that. They are seeking out art that will entertain them first and foremost.
We gotta give the people what they want.
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