DISCLAIMER: For better context, click here for Part 3.
So we’re finally here at the end of my blogposts discussing pop culture as a whole (or as much of it as I can discuss, at least). I’ve decided to save the touchiest subject for last, so let’s just rip the bandaid off here and talk about…
Political Correctness
For awhile, I was debating whether I should even write this or not, since the topic itself is a never-ending, no-win debate. Furthermore, I recognize the fact that I, by no means, am of any authority to try to tell other people how to think. That being said, I eventually came to the realization that the entire pop culture landscape has evolved in a way where we can’t really ignore the political conversations (and debates) that result from it now. So here we go…
I remember back when the cast for Solo: A Star Wars Story was first announced, and all five of the main actors were white except for Donald Glover. This sparked an outrage amongst people on social media, who claimed that the film wasn’t being diverse enough. As a matter of fact, the hashtag “SoloSoWhite” started to trend for a bit. Then, a few weeks later, it was announced that Thandie Newton was joining the cast, and suddenly the conversation online switched over to “This is just Disney trying to shove their forced diversity down our throats!!” This is a microcosm of what basically the entire Internet is like these days, and I especially seem to notice it amongst pop culture fandoms.
And make no mistake; universally-loved things are not immune to this either. While I personally disliked the Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian, I’m aware of the fact that most other people out there did enjoy it, but even that episode was scrutinized for being “too PC” by people who didn’t like the fact that most of the side characters were female. Someone even said directly to me “I hate how it’s all women. You can tell Disney forced it to be that way.” What’s funny is that, back in the days of the original and prequel trilogies, people complained that Star Wars didn’t have enough female representation. Now all of a sudden it has too much? Personally, I actually enjoyed all of those side characters in the Mando finale (despite my disliking of the episode as a whole), and didn’t mind at all that they were all women. Furthermore, I liked Thandie Newton in Solo. All of these people are great actors, and their race or gender shouldn’t matter one way or the other. Not that I should even have to say it, but I like that all of these franchises are becoming more diverse and representative. The real sad thing is that stuff like this is still being debated in the first place.
Do I think it’s weird that Thandie wasn’t part of the initial casting announcement? Yeah, a little, but it could’ve just been a timing issue with her contract or something, or maybe they didn’t want to include her in the main casting announcement since her character dies early on in the film. Whatever the case, they announced her involvement shortly thereafter and, at least in my opinion, the movie was good and well-paced and everyone fit their roles pretty much perfectly, regardless of their complexion, or anything else. That’s what matters the most, at the end of the day. Even Glover’s performance, which I originally thought was so-so, has since grown on me a lot. I think any minor gripes I had with some of the acting performances had more to do with the director change mid-filming, rather than anything else. If Emilia Clarke’s comments in interviews are anything to go by, it sounds like the original directing team didn’t really give them enough direction, and the time for reshoots was already limited as is. Shame, but it is what it is.
Either way, I think the lesson to be learned here is that, regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, you shouldn’t jump to conclusions until you’ve actually seen the final product. While I definitely side with the left on this particular example, I still feel that some people (not all, but some) jumped to conclusions about the filmmakers being racist, without knowing the big picture. The Thandie Newton thing isn’t the only example of that here actually. Around the time she joined, Michael K. Williams was originally cast as Paul Bettany’s character, but had to drop out once all the sudden reshoots (resulting from the director change) created a conflict in his schedule, so anything that he had filmed had to be reshot with a new actor at the last-minute, and Bettany just happened to be available. Once again, I recognize that I’m of no authority to try to tell anyone how to think. All I’m saying is that, from my own experience, I tend to see a lot of people on both sides who end up being hypocrites and/or extremists. I know people say that horseshoe theory isn’t real, but again, from where I’m standing, it certainly seems real, especially among pop culture fandoms…
That being said, I still see a lot of misogyny in particular in these different fan groups. Remember when Gal Gadot was first cast as Wonder Woman, and everyone complained that she wasn’t muscular enough to play that character? Whereas when Tom Hardy was cast as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises just a few years earlier, people seemed to just brush off any body concerns with a quick comment like “Oh, he’ll just bulk up a bit. No big deal!” Some people also argued that she was purposefully cast so that the movie version of Wonder Woman would look like a skinny model, thus setting an unrealistic example for girls. Oaky, fair, but why should her body type matter one way or the other? Some people are just skinnier than others. Just like how some people are fatter than others or taller than others or shorter than others… You get the idea. People also complained about her limited blockbuster acting experience at the time (she had a minor role in the Fast & Furious films, and that’s about it). This is more understandable, to be fair, and similar complaints were thrown at Michael Keaton and Heath Ledger back when they first joined the DC franchise as well. Funny how all of them are universally loved now, though. The superhero movie genre sure is strange!
There was also the time they did that all-female Ghostbusters reboot in 2016 (which has since been rebranded as Ghostbusters: Answer the Call) and all four of the lead actors had to deal with online harassment for like a year. That being said, I understand that fans were more upset at the fact that the film was de-canonizing the two classic-era films (both of which have since been re-canonized now), which is understandable, to a degree, though I still feel like people raged way too hard there. So what if Answer the Call didn’t exist in the same continuity as the first two films? You can still go watch those other two films, you know. And for what it’s worth, I thought the movie was okay. As a matter of fact, I actually like it better than Ghostbusters II. At least Answer the Call had the audacity to just be a reboot, instead of pretending like it existed in the same continuity as the original, yet ignoring most of the events from that very film (which is what II did).
And don’t even get me started on the Kelly Marie Tran situation. Even back when I didn’t really like the character all that much, I still felt that a lot of people out there were making racist remarks about her, and then trying to cover it up with “I’m just talking about the character, not the actress.” To be fair, some people in that group did genuinely have complaints that were just about the writing of the character and had nothing to do with race, but not everyone. Then there was also the “Rey is overpowered” stuff, even though Luke was able to blow up an entire Death Star on his first day of flying in space, and Anakin could build C-3PO and win a pod race at age 9 (no, that “chosen one” crap doesn't count). What’s funny is that people who say that stuff about Rey also say crap like “Starkiller from the Force Unleashed games can totally kick Rey’s ass, bro!” Wait, if Rey’s overpowered, than wouldn’t she be able to beat him? Besides, isn’t that the guy who can make entire Star Destroyers explode with his brain or whatever? If anyone is too OP, it’s that guy!
There was also that time when Hasbro limited the amount of Rey toys sold during the promotional run of The Force Awakens, because they thought only boys play with action figures or some shit. Little did they realize that fucking nobody plays with toys anymore, because kids would rather play with iPads and whatnot now instead. Either way, limiting the Rey figures was wrong from a moral sense, and I’m surprised that, in the age of social media, Hasbro didn’t have the foresight to see the backlash that would result from this. I get that they were concerned about making a return on investment or whatever, but still, you’d think someone there would’ve pointed out the controversy that would cause…
Marvel isn’t safe from this shit either, despite how defensive all their fans are. For instance, Captain Marvel got ripped to shreds. Personally, I thought that movie was just okay too. I loved all the 90’s nostalgia, as well as the basic story premise, and the friendship between Young Nick Fury and Carol Danvers was spot-on. That being said, there were huge chunks of that movie where the dialogue got too “expotiony” for me, thus making those scenes all feel like “dead air,” for lack of a better term. Like the movie “told” me too much without “showing” me enough. The origin of Fury’s missing eye was also weird, but I got over it.
Some people also criticized the fact that the movie was sprinkled with “girl power” symbolism, but this didn’t really bother me. I didn’t interpret it as a “men are the enemy” type of thing, but rather just a “hey, girls are people too” type of thing, which I can respect. A lot of people also take issue with some of the things that Brie Larson herself says in interviews, but I’m not gonna go into too much detail on that here, as that has nothing to do with the movie itself. Personally, I agree with some things she says, and disagree with other things. If there’s anything I’ve learned over the years, it’s that it’s important to separate the art from the artist in pretty much any situation, whether you even like the artist or not. If you really wanna know more about what I think on this, watch this review (starting at around 5:50).
Then there’s the upcoming Black Widow, which is already receiving controversy because one of the female characters calls one of the male characters “fat” in the trailer, and a lot of people interpret this as a “reverse-sexism” form of body shaming. Personally, as a man, I didn’t feel offended by this joke at all, though I recognize the fact that, if the genders were reversed, the conversation about this movie would be way different right now. On one hand, I like that the advocation for gender equality is coming from all directions, instead of just one. But on the other hand, it’s weird to see everyone becoming so sensitive to stuff like this now. I guess we really do have a long way to go still…
And then there’s the whole conversation surrounding “queer-baiting,” with the most recent example of this being the quick lesbian kiss between two minor characters towards the end of The Rise of Skywalker. On one hand, I suppose more representation of any kind is good, even in small doses, but on the other hand, I can see why people are upset that the filmmakers just threw in this little “breadcrumb,” rather than fully embracing the idea of this form of representation with main characters instead. Perhaps the bigger issue is the fact that this quick scene was cut in some international versions of the film in countries that aren’t as “progressive,” so to speak, and Finn in particular was “downsized” (literally and figuratively) in some of the international marketing of all three Star Wars sequel trilogy films as well. Black Panther was also marketed exclusively with his mask on in some foreign markets too. Some may argue that these big studios want to respect other cultures, or whatever, but personally, I wish they would push for more equality with these things all over the globe. Clearly, we have a long way to go here too…
I bet some of you who are reading this right now think that I’m virtue-signaling/ white-knighting, while others of you may think that I’m mansplaining/ whitesplaining/ straightsplaining (I don’t even know what counts as what these days anymore). Either way, go ahead and think whatever you want, but trust me when I say that I expect to gain absolutely nothing out of saying this stuff. To be completely honest, I’m not even sure why I’m writing any of this, since a lot of these controversies died down long ago anyways, and the ones that are still ongoing will eventually die down too. I guess I just felt the need to get these thoughts out of my system, is all. Also, I know I’ve only just scratched the surface when it comes to the whole conversation of political correctness, let alone in pop culture. I simply wanted to write about the examples that came immediately to my mind.
And look, it’s okay if you disagree with me on some of the things mentioned above, as long as you’re not a total jerk about it to me, or anyone else for that matter. Are we cool?
Well, that sure was a lot in one post (let alone this entire sub-series)! Thank you, once again, for putting up with all my rambling here.
Peace!
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