Accountability in Entertainment • Page 149

I feel the same way any time Hollywood gets on its ankle deep “feminist” kick & expects a pat on the back for actually including a woman in a Marvel or Star Wars film. Like, no, you’re the reason the power dynamic was maintained for so long in the first place. I’m not gonna congratulate you for the progress.

To put it another way, imagine if you saw someone abusing someone else. You & others tried to stop ‘em, but they made excuses & wouldn’t stop. Eventually, the pressure from surrounding people got so heavy that giving up on the abuse was safer & more beneficial to the abuser than continuing, so they stopped... & wanted applause for doing so. You’d obviously be happy that the situation was getting resolved, but would you congratulate the abuser? Or would you look at them cynically & just be glad everyone else shifted the environment enough to force their hand?

 

I totally get what you guys are saying and I thank you for the examples. It really illuminates the issue for me.

I am not looking to congratulate these institutions for taking a long time to make what seems like an obvious decision. I am happy to take the cultural wins as they come, though. If you’re gonna make a stink when you get the outcome you’ve been wanting but not in the EXACT way you want it, then why raise the issue to begin with? You were never going to happy to see change unless it was on your (or the culture’s) terms. That is what I think cheapens a cultural win.

 

I get that it's like, "yay you did the bare minimum too little too late but congrats anyway," but like, if enough people look around and see that enough other people are doing the bare mininum maybe that will incentivize those people to also want to do the bare minimum so then we'd have more people doing the bare minimum than before which would make the bare minimum the norm

(Yeah, I wrote this as a repetitive run-on sentence as a joke, but you get my point, right?)

 

it's definitely a cool seismic shift, but making the change to dissuade criticism which is clearly why they're doing it isn't ideal

 

I guess the one counterpoint I’d be willing to make is that, if the criticism is voiced the wrong way, MAYBE we’d accidentally communicate that they’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t, so why even try. So, there is some practical strategy in keeping positive change, even cynically/for the wrong reasons, attractive to those in power.

After all, the purpose of accountability, as we’ve discussed before, isn’t about being right or Mad Online, but about creating positive change. Gotta keep that incentive there.

But, even so... I’m not that worried about that at the moment. I’m more concerned that too-little-too-late change ends up getting people congratulated & puffed up instead of humble & repentant.

 

It’s good that it’s happening but they shouldn’t be applauded for doing it now just because they no longer feel they can get away with it. That’s really it.

If any of these shows felt like they could continue getting away with it, they wouldn’t be making these changes.

 

Is this finally the time Shane Dawson’s career is ended for good? I doubt it since he’s been given so many passes before, but one can be hopeful...

 

shes a mess too and i liked her on good luck charlie

 

whooooo invited doja

 

Why are the people who are in charge of these kinds of things in charge of these kinds of things

 

Golden Girls Episode With Blackface Scene Removed From Hulu – Variety

 

How does almost every single show have a blackface scene?

 

Wait, I don’t watch Golden Girls, but I don’t think what that article describes is “blackface”? Is the article just describing it poorly?

There are more ways to be racist, or “just” problematic, than blackface. So, yeah, if I am reading that right, then sure, let’s get rid of white liberal comedians being overly comfortable around race, lol. That’s a welcome course correction. But, I dunno, this almost gets into the territory of “good change for bad reasons” that worries me ‘cause it could easily turn into some awkward woke racism, like a character in Get Out would do.

Does that make sense?

 

This is from the episode:

 

Blackface was all the rage in 80s storylines

 

They were mud masks that the girls put on unrelated to the story but then when they come into the room it’s basically played for awkward comedy because of how they look. That style of joke is pretty common on the show, but obviously the misunderstandings usually don’t have any problematic connotations. The episode itself was dealing entirely with race, and some of it was done really well, but there are a few moments like that gag and some other jokes that were poorly handled and hard to hear now.

It does seem like a ton of companies are pulling episodes now as a quick way to avoid controversy and appear as if they’re making changes without actually listening to what’s being asked of them or doing the real work of making better environments going forward. The same as what’s going on with companies in other areas like the real estate “master bedroom” thing, just totally missing the point of what needs to happen.

 

yeah it really does seem like every studio is just combing their back catalogue of shows and pulling everything indiscriminately, no exceptions