Demanding That That Creative Work Be Inoffensive
The demand for inoffensiveness (not transgressing "woke" standards) isn't made straight out; it's made tacitly, by seeing that anyone who offends is pilloried online -- ideally right out of a job.
Oh, and make that "offends," like Scarlett Johansson did, by taking an acting job.
Gabriel Scorgie writes at Quillette:
There is a concerted effort among many progressives to pre-empt artistic risk-taking. They want the artist to work on pre-approved themes and express pre-approved truths, even if the artist herself suspects those truths may not actually be truths at all.This policy of obedience is toxic to creativity. Artist's need freedom to explore the unknown--to follow their thoughts wherever they go, and to represent their beliefs through art. Creating real art is bound to cause offence in some cases, yet the practice must be encouraged. Otherwise, the goal of art will be to placate ideological critics, thereby pushing it into the realm of propaganda.
Last month, actress Scarlett Johansson walked away from Rub & Tug, a film about transgender gangster Dante "Tex" Gill, after protesters claimed that she effectively was taking a job away from a transgendered actor. At one point, a representative for Johansson released a statement directing protesters to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto and Felicity Huffman, three cis (i.e. non-trans) actors who have played transgender characters in recent years. The seemingly flippant tone of this response only fueled the outrage. And protesters continued to press the issue until Johansson finally stepped down from the role.
Gill (1930-2003), who began life as a boy named Lois Jean Gill, was a gangster who ran a string of brothels thinly veiled as massage parlours. In 1984, The Pittsburgh Press awarded her the title of both "Dubious Man of the year" and "Dubious Woman of the Year." She was at war with the Mafia. One of her parlours was destroyed in a bombing. Another was burned to the ground by an arson attack. She was the leader of a doping operation that provided the Pittsburgh Steelers football team with anabolic steroids. And a lot of the help she received in growing her business came from Pittsburgh's gay community. Gill spent her millions on expensive jewellery (which she gave to favourite prostitutes), trips around the world, large parties, exotic animals--and gender re-assignment surgery. She got busted on tax evasion and was sent to jail, where she died. Gill lived a fascinating life. But due to the efforts of protesters, it's a story we may never see told in a popular movie.
By accepting the role of Gill, Johansson was not doing a disservice to the trans community. In fact, having an actress of Johansson's stature attached to Rub & Tug was likely the only way this film was ever going to be made. The original casting decision was part of a trend in Hollywood of hiring big-name actors to play sexual minorities, thereby ensuring a wide release even if a film's budget is tiny.
And Scorgie is right:
Artists should be nervous when advocacy groups gain influence over the creative process: Their focus is never art. It's always their own narrow agenda. "GLAAD will be holding dedicated pressure on studios to fulfil their social responsibility for LGBTQ inclusion, and we are here as a resource to help them achieve their goals," read the introduction to GLAAD's annual Studio Responsibility Index. It's a sly move to insist that furthering social responsibility--not making great movies--is the proper goal of a film studio. (From a film artist's point of view, meanwhile, the only "social responsibility" that requires advancement is their responsibility to tell great stories.)Notwithstanding her purported expertise, Ellis appears to have forgotten how Hollywood actually changed America's perception of gay and lesbian lives. It was not by waiting until the stars aligned and a perfectly diverse cast appeared. For Brokeback Mountain, Director Ang Lee hired the best actors he could get, full stop (which was a challenge at the time, as there was a lingering stigma in Hollywood against playing gay characters).
How many movies like this can the public stand?
One of the consequences of acceptance Is that your stories become unremarkable; what is left other than to pursue depravity in order to stand out?
Then, who WANTS a story which includes the defamation of the Steelers? Where is the benefit?
Radwaste at August 26, 2018 10:57 PM
This statement bothered me especially. Not just for the reasons cited by Scorgie, when he says,
GLAAD is not merely presuming to know what their goals are. It's deciding for them what they're goals are. GLAAD is not being merely presumptuous; it's bullying.
Patrick at August 27, 2018 3:30 AM
Aren't these the same people who, when art was upsetting the establishment, insisted that the purpose of art was to offend, to upset, to startle?
Conan the Grammarian at August 27, 2018 5:46 AM
Proglodytes are making themselves a laughingstock and holding back genuine change by being so absurd and ignorant.
Kent McManigal at August 27, 2018 7:02 AM
This is the Soviet method of art creation. That generated crap, this will generate more crap. Unless Netflix is overwhelmed with demand for Soviet movies? no? hmmm...
At which point do they come, hat in hand, asking for even more public subsidies for their crap?
I R A Darth Aggie at August 27, 2018 7:20 AM
There is no demand for art to be inoffensive. There is a demand for art to not offend the 'right' people.
Ben at August 27, 2018 9:07 AM
My understanding is that Tex Gill was a butch lesbian who wore men’s suits, not a transgendered female. Her story is interesting because she was a gangster and a pimp, not because she was (theoretically) transgender.
I think that because transgenderism is such a hot topic right now, a lot of otherwise unremarkable butch lesbians are assumed to be trans. I don’t know that many lesbians, but most of the ones I’ve met are at least slightly butch. It doesn’t mean they identify as men.
ahw at August 27, 2018 1:18 PM
It goes both ways.
From page 747 in the chapter "Why Consensual Crimes Have So Few Advocates" in the 1993 hardcover edition of "Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in a Free Society" by the late, great Peter McWilliams:
"When writing for the media, it's easier to work in stereotypes than to create flesh-and-blood characters. Need a quick laugh? Throw in an effeminate gay. And make him a hairdresser. Sort of a transvestite. Ha ha. Need someone to die of a drug overdose? Make it a prostitute. Need to show someone completely down and out with no hope of redemption? What else? A drug addict. Using stereotypes is a form of shorthand communication: the screenwriter doesn't have to work; the audience doesn't have to think. Hollywood was VERY unhappy when social pressure demanded that blacks no longer automatically be portrayed as lazy and shiftless, women no longer be automatically weak and helpless, and Jews no longer shifty and conniving. The film and television industry now has a new set of shorthand - mostly involving consensual crimes - and it has no desire to lose it."
(You can read the paperback edition - heavily revised - here):
http://www.sky.org/data/aint/310.htm
The part I quoted was from Part VII ("What to Do?") of the hardcover edition.
Quite a few chapters seem to have been cut, not just from the hardcover edition, but from the paperback as well. What's most relevant is McWilliams' near-180 turn on cults, compared to the hardcover edition.
"CAN (Cult Awareness Network) has now been sued into submission by Scientology, which now owns CAN. For cult information, please contact the American Family Foundation in New York."
Here's what I remember from the paperback edition and that I DON'T see at that site (but it's still in Google Books):
"I owe CAN an apology. In the hardcover edition of Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do, I'm afraid I trashed CAN. This was because (guess why?) I was under the influence of a cult (John-Roger's Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness or MSIA). Had I only read CAN's files on John-Roger and MSIA first..."
lenona at August 27, 2018 3:05 PM
Guess we can go back to Fun With Dick & Jane, provided the Spot and Puff come out as Trans-species.
Wfjag at August 27, 2018 3:50 PM
"get woke go broke"
Even the latest Star Wars movies have not made as much money because they forgot that they should be entertaining people and went for feminist redistribution of heroics. Rey is simply not believable. Luke had to struggle to learn the force but Rey just suddenly is a superhero? ugh
Why was female ghostbusters a bust? They focused on "female" rather than "funny".
Is there any demand in the rest of the world for Soviet propaganda art, or movies? No? I wonder why.
cc at August 28, 2018 9:21 AM
Blogger, voice actor, actor Will Wheaton was just recently drummed out of two social media services. The second one, Mastodon, is ostensibly federated so the idea is he could move to another instance but the block lists are distribute automatically so if he is on one he is on them all.
http://wilwheaton.net/2018/08/the-world-is-a-terrible-place-right-now-and-thats-largely-because-it-is-what-we-make-it/
bespoke woke at August 31, 2018 9:59 PM
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