It’s important to keep your cool, and tell a good story.
I totally believe in political correctness and social justice. My entire online presence is dedicated to representation of a minority – a matter related to both topics.
On my YouTube feed this week, there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of suggested videos that are telling me that the latest Marvel movie, CAPTAIN MARVEL, is a bomb of epic proportions and is on the verge of sinking the Disney corporation and all its subsidiaries.
Captain Marvel
I saw the movie this week and found it unremarkable, but totally watchable in places. It is of course, the story of a very, very powerful woman superhero.
Since THE LAST JEDI divided Star Wars fans right down the thermal exhaust port in 2017, video essayists and vloggers with YouTube channels have taken the fight to the ‘Social Justice Warriors’ and in particular it seems, the feminist cause. The main targets seem to be Doctor Who, Star Wars and now Captain Marvel. Many film fans seem to be getting increasingly wound up about the female characters in these franchises.
How is my tone so far? If it sounds like I’m going to slate these channels, we’ll I’m not.
Does that mean I agree with everything they say? Absolutely not. Does it mean I disagree with everything they say? No.
In a world of clickbait and comments sections, it’s often hard to hold a moderate, open-minded position on emotive topics.
Let me be clear. I’m a 40 year old white heterosexual man, not exactly raised in a militant environment. I’ve witnessed lots of toxic masculinity in my life, but also received some toxic feminism. So when I watch a video essay by channels like Dave Cullen, or World Class Bullshitters, I can often find myself agreeing and disagreeing with what they say. I saw a very funny one recently by The Critical Drinker which makes it clear just how many female action characters have graced the screens of my generation. I sympathise with the views. It definitely seems as though for better for worse, agendas is being pushed on film fans
Do I see the need for Dr Who to be a woman? Not really. In truth I find it a little annoying, but harmless. But do I see the need for more female heroes on screen? Yes, I’d say so. How about more BAME heroes on screen? Absolutely, unequivocally yes that’d be a good thing. More LGBT heroes on screen? I don’t know, I haven’t thought it through. I’m undecided. That’s allowed, right? As an agnostic, I should therefore be the target audience of not just SJWs, but also their critics, yes?
When producers are finally stupid enough to make James Bond black, you’ll find I may have a contribution to this growing online culture. I hope when the time comes a balance can be found. Because absolutism – in either direction – is the wrong way to go about winning me over. I want to be free to express a considered, nuanced viewpoint without being attacked.
Do you think the failure of Jodie Whitaker’s Doctor Who will be a good thing for female representation? I’m all ears. Convince me. Because the best thing about social media is that it gives people or groups a voice. However if your voice fails to convince me, understand that I retain the right to express so with my own.
I totally believe in political correctness.
OK, the phrase itself has got so stigmatised that it needs its own reboot, but the truth is: there are various minority or regional groups in English-speaking societies that can be treated absolutely awfully, and have been for a long time. Blacks, women, Pakistanis, homosexuals, transgender, autistic, scousers, Welsh, Irish – the language used to represent people affects how those people are viewed. How they are treated. How they view themselves. It has stunk. Mostly, it’s the fault of men.
Pathological Demand Avoidance
So, if you have a gender agenda, or one based on race or ethnicity, you’re labelled an SJW – Social Justice Warrior. You won’t be surprised that the bulk of anti-SJW YouTubers are men. Mostly white men. And let me tell you something about men: we’re all a little bit autistic and we don’t like to be told what to do. It’s called demand avoidance. Just like any group, we’re mainly decent people. Some of us are faster adapting to change than others. Let yourself into the world of demand avoidance in this context. Currently, my generation of decent, flawed, busy men is being told to:
- Stop using words you use. You’re racist.
- Stop eating what you eat. Meat is murder. Eat quorn.
- Actually stop eating quorn. Egg lives matter.
- Stop travelling how you travel. You’re killing the planet.
- Stop singing songs you like. You’re sexist.
- Stop liking films you like. You disempower women.
- Stop doing your job. You only got it because you’re a white man.
It’s hardly ‘Slowly slowly catchy monkey’ is it?
At some point, most self-respecting men will turn round and say “That’s it, fuck off. I’m done. Just leave me the fuck alone”. It’s at this point they’ll go back to calling a spade a spade, and reject everything you associate with. It’s not a positive message. It’s like THE DAMNED UNITED when Brian Clough (Michael Sheen) strolled into Leeds United and told the Football League Champions tha they only won football matches because they cheated.
True? Yes. Self-defeating? Yes.
Brie Larson – hugely talented star of Captain Marvel, was full-on awful recently in a talk on racial diversity in movie critics. She came across as smug, judgemental and bitter. in truth, she very nearly put me off going to see her film. Most of all, what she was saying didn’t really make sense. Basically, she said that too many critics are white males. She didn’t push a positive message. She didn’t explain or encourage how BAME folk could increase their representation. She just passively slagged off white men. She also appeared a bit unprepared, hot and bothered.
Did this help?
I think she’s created intolerance to the very worthy issues she’s trying to raise. I believe this is what’s currently happening in the case of CAPTAIN MARVEL, and feminism critics on YouTube. This week these same channels, with hundred of thousands of followers, are full of videos proclaiming the movie a huge failure before many of them have even seen it. When the main characters of THE FORCE AWAKENS were revealed as white female and black male, there was not this backlash. Perhaps this tells us that how we challenge these gender stereotypes, how we challenge privilege, is just as important as challenging them in the first place.
Wales
How you debate the Wales national movement matters. In fact, it can make all the difference. I’m a passive, Welsh patriot. Others may choose to call me a Welsh nationalist. Language matters doesn’t it? In terms of the Welsh National Movement, me and my colleagues are telling people to:
- Stop voting how you always vote. You’re destroying our country.
- Actually it’s not our country. Our country is Wales. You’re basically English.
- Stop identifying how you always identified. You’re an imperialist.
Does this help? No. How must it feel to read this about yourself?
Recently online, I’ve been accused of transphobia (when expressing sympathy for casting Scarlett Johansson as a Trans man). I’ve been told that I find minorities offensive (for stating that Cardiff’s travellers’ site is littered and dirty). In both cases we managed to diffuse the situation, but in the former I was very close to a “That’s it. Fuck off” moment.
Did this help? I can promise you that neither exchange increased my empathy for the minorities involved.
Intolerance is not limited to YouTube and bloggers. There’s a brilliantly funny, satirical facebook page – Welsh Independence Memes for Angry Teens – that was recently involved in a dispute with a Welsh Assembly Member. In the dispute, the AM Neil McEvoy expressed an opinion on Transgender rights that I thought was badly worded, but otherwise measured and respectful in tone.
The response to him was abusive. He was labelled a ‘TERF’ – Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist, for his view. A word which cropped up again was “abhorrent”. He was passionately ridiculed.
This is a fantastic fan page. I get a daily laugh from their very cutting memes on Welsh independence. I also cherish the notion that Welsh Nationalist youth groups have branched out in such a way as to feel they can represent the LGBT community. It’s such a positive step in our movement. But I thought this group were way off on this one.
I found a lesson to be taken from this argument, and also the issue of CAPTAIN MARVEL and even Welsh Nationalism.
Keep your Ego in Check
Why? Well, I’ve been known to get into an abusive debate with anti-Welsh British nationalists. So the same can be said for me. When I read decent, well-meaning persons state that people who want Wales independent are “narrow-minded nationalists” who want to send us “back to the dark ages” it winds me up. Their ignorance and misrepresentation angers me. I’ve thrown out an insult or two myself, in response to such nonsense that touches on everything that is wrong with the information stream of the UK, and part of the reason it needs to end. In my opinion.
Does it help? No.
I’m sure there are many causes to which I am ignorant and can learn more. Am I so protected in my bubble, that I can’t see how my tweets on Irish travellers, how Neil McEvoy’s posts on Transgender rights, are hugely ignorant and offensive? It’s very possible. Explain to me then. Just consider how you will persuade me around to your progressive ways. Don’t do a Brie Larson. Don’t fly off the handle.
In each and every exchange you choose how you associate yourself and others with your movement. There are thousand of peoples who will be sympathetic to your ideas, but have not yet been treated in the right way.
They are your audience. Try not to be offended by them. Tell them a good story.
Nick Stradling
WALES in the MOVIES 