Movies are one of humanity’s greatest creations ever. Thanks to movies, we can travel back in time or even to a galaxy far, far away. We can escape to places beyond our wildest dreams and lose ourselves in the fantasy.
Movies are also a great way to learn. We can track the progress of humanity through the re-telling of stories about wars, gain insight into different countries and cultures and see just how much we have progressed as a society.
Like photographs, movies are a snapshot in time. This used to be the essence of all movies.
But lately Hollywood has tasked itself with leading us into a more “woke’ future by attempting to right the wrongs of all social evils. Having ditched the sexism, racial stereotyping and bigotry of yesteryear, Hollywood is attempting to erase the past in order to remedy the problem of unconscious bias.
But they’re not doing it very well.
With inclusivity, representation and female empowerment being the buzzwords of today, the new self-aware Hollywood seems so focused on “fitting in” that they have forgotten what makes a movie successful – good storytelling.
Casting for movies has taken priority and is seemingly all about ticking boxes.
Black: check.
Brown: check.
Disabled: check.
Transgender: check.
Gay: check.
Female character in a position of authority: check.
In some instances, the quality of the script has been downgraded to an insignificant second thought. (Remember that Ghostbusters reboot?) Unfortunately, this haphazard method of trying to prove that they are socially aware reduces any serious message about equality to frippery. Representation and inclusivity does matter. But so does the art.
However, Hollywood isn’t entirely to blame for this “let’s please everyone all at once” trend.
Enter the Social Justice Warriors, aka SJWs.
Lately, every new movie release seems to be marred by an exhausting amount of controversy and complaints. This is the work of SJWs.
SJWs have found a home and platform in the digital space. These folks are seemingly well versed in intersectional theory but they exist with the sole purpose of telling people in the entertainment industry what they’re doing wrong.
You can no longer get the latest news about a new release without encountering phrases like “xyz is cancelled” or a finding a petition asking creatives to reconsider their casting choices. (Robert Pattinson is Batman, folks. Deal with it!)
In the words of the great 21st-century philosopher Taylor Swift, “You need to calm down!”
Just because a movie doesn’t fit in with the current social narrative doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist. Maybe if people watched things that made them a little uncomfortable it would create a productive dialogue to inspire change in the real world.
With that in mind, something has to be done about representation on screen.
But hurriedly “fixing” classic stories, movies and comic books that so many people love is definitely not the right way to do it.
Hollywood’s sudden rushed attempt to paper over the inequality cracks raises an interesting debate. Is the trend of recreating classic movies with a cast that’s more diverse really about inclusivity? Or is it just a convenient way for movie moguls to make a ton of money with zero creative effort? Perhaps it just highlights the lack of original ideas?
We could argue that instead of trying to repair the shortfalls of the past, movie makers should be looking to create a more inclusive future.
If people are clearly upset by the recasting of iconic characters with different genders, races and sexual orientations then why not create new iconic characters and leave the sexist, chauvinist ones in the past? (We’re looking at you, 007!)
At present, it seems like Hollywood’s main object is pandering to the SJWs, which is ultimately robbing viewers of good quality storytelling.
It’s also insulting to the discerning movie-goer. For instance: Am I supposed to fawn over a character, view her as a role model and see her as a source of inspiration just because she’s female? No thanks. (Luke Skywalker will always be my favourite movie hero. Sorry Princess Leia.)
And seriously Marvel, did you really have to gather every female character into one frame during the final battle sequence? Forced and condescending much?
Let’s be real for a second. The truth is that most fans don’t have a problem with characters of different races, genders or sexual orientations. In some instances, the diversity is the only cool thing about a lot of movies. With the possible exception of a few sad individuals, no one has a problem with a protagonist that’s “different”.
What is annoying is the forced, poorly formulated nature of it all.
Based
SJW’s are the equivalent of toilets not meant to be shat in.
If they were, Hollywood wouldn’t be making more money than ever.
Fantastic article. Whenever I hear a plot or decision based solely on political and/or SJW motivations I let out a sigh. As a movie lover it’s hard for me to swallow this month after month, year after year. I go to the movies a lot less, I get less excited for sequels (and god forbid remakes) because I know they are deliberately changed to check all those boxes. (Get ready for a female 007 vs just a female as another operative without the 007 moniker. Will also assume the men in this film will be sexist, and ignorant)
The worst part about this are the producers, writers, etc making it so bloody obvious that you know for sure that it’s all motivated by political means.
Now are those motivations simply being carried out because they are afraid to upset a percentage of the population? Or are they trying to tell me (sell me) that I need to care as well and be WOKE?
I obviously care. I care about everyone trying to find happiness in this life (it’s not easy) but to inject this so recklessly into movies and culture they don’t realize it’s destroying the art plain and simple and the end hurting those they are trying to promote.
It’s not a noble pursuit simply because of the silly execution (ie. the Marvel Screenshot above)
Look at the hacks going through all of Tarantino’s movie to see how much dialogue he is giving to women.
In the end I agree with Quentin it’s pure nonsense and they can do much better. Still bring minority groups into the light but do it in a authenticate way.
Great article – Hollywood will do whatever they can to make money. The bottom line is all that matters. They don’t truly care if anyone is WOKE.
Apparently Rey didn’t need all of that Jedi training that Luke needed – because she’s an empowered, strong and independent female and to try and teach her would be Yodasplaining…
Great article. Now if we can just get these SJW types to read it…
But the the title says it all: Social Justice WARRIOR. The noun warrior indicates that they’ll go to war to present and enforce their beliefs. This is simply fascism rebranded and repackaged for current age. Too bad the media/Hollywood machine and society doesn’t pay more attention to Social Justice Activists, you know, those are actually bringing positive change with a bias for action, and not just shouting from the rooftops for change and posturing like they care and are so selfless.
Well, master of the obvious here – trying to please everyone turns into filing off the rough edges to more try to reduce the number of complaints. ANY story no matter how crafty is ground down to bland mush and then no one really likes it. Also any writer, any true storyteller halfway qualified to tackle such a challenge is only doing it if he needs the paycheck, does as little as possible then runs like a bunny at a fursuit convention…
“Diversity” becomes the “Death Camp of Tolerance” and anything that sneaks through the big PC Wall is then edgy – even if its legit racist/sexist/obscene stuff that most would have ignored in the past…
We have a President who gained a LOT of street cred with the ‘common man’ whom he’d spit upon before having him arrested if he somehow snuck into his private mansion or golf course because he sat on his Daddy’s money so no one could “Fire” him but when the PC CryBullies tried to confront him with his sexist statements he said worse right back. Thus they saw him as someone brave versus “Richie Rich with no redeeming values”…
What a load of nonsense.
Actually I disagree with a lot of people on this. SJWs, the PC advocates, feminists and the LGBTQ communities are not the majority of people that PAY for these movies. Usually for instance a lot of your PC audience and feminists are taken to the movies by their boyfriends, husbands and/or parents. I remember in the 80’s and 90’s shows like Married with Children, because of this politically correct(or IMO incorrect) culture those type of show could never be made, last long or exist. The odd thing is those type of shows were EXTREMELY SUCCESSFUL. Recently I had some shows I enjoy get cancelled because they weren’t homosexual enough, they fat shamed(which honestly being fat IS UNHEALTHY for a fact) and/or didn’t have a woman in charge. This is BS and the reason I no longer pay to go to the movies. Eventually most of the paid streaming services like Amazon Prime, NetFlix and Hulu are going to become so bad I won’t have anything I’d want to watch on those networks and I wouldn’t have a reason to pay for a subscription. When it gets to the point that our crooked ass government stops funding Hollywood with our tax dollars and people stop paying for the movies and streaming services these companies are going to have to ask themselves the question “Why did we cater to the minority of our PAYING audience only to lose the majority of our PAYING members which is putting us at a loss?”. For example look at the MSM news networks like MSNBC and CNN, they’re losing a lot of money and ad revenue to independent media like individual content creators found on networks like YouTube because these people don’t have a boss telling them to push a political agenda.
If you look at Princess Leia in the original trilogy, you would discern a highly conspicuous strength to her character. She was not waving swords around or putting forth cheesy man-denigrating dialogues, but she appeared a strong character nonetheless. That is precisely the magic one hopes for. Even animated movies like Sleeping Beauty (1959) suffices to teach us that. Maleficent’s powers aside, her elegant conduct made her a dominating figure. She did not have to denigrate a man or use the “I am a woman” card.
Today’s movies must necessarily depict a badass woman with poorly written woke dialogue to make the woman look powerful. Contrary to what SJWs think, it only denigrates women further. It indicates that a woman cannot through her own body language appear strong-willed. That magic from storytelling is lost.