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tepkunset · 5 years

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Military Propaganda is Nothing New to the MCU, but the Rendition in Captain Marvel is

(This post contains major spoilers for Captain Marvel, so read at your own discretion if you have not seen it yet.)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been chalked full of military propaganda from day one.

In fact, the very first scene in Iron Man is one of US troops driving though the foreign desert, making jokes and taking selfies in an attempt to paint them being there as normal and not at all intimidating. Iron Man is even one of the examples in the Insurge Intelligence article about the Pentagon’s Hollywood influence. This is an overall theme that carries through all the Iron Man films; humanizing the military because they’re the good guys. They can be trusted with all the weapons from Stark Industries. They don’t hurt innocent civilians, that’s what the bad guys do.

The propaganda in Iron Man is very simplistic and the same kind you see in most western movies when dealing with anything that takes place in the Middle East. White man good, brown man bad, #Murica. Because it’s so simplistic, it is easier to see through, once you actually develop the sight for it.

Then comes Captain America, who’s very name was meant to use US patriotism as an attempt to convince the US to care about WWII. And Captain America: The First Avenger brings a new type of military propaganda. Because let me just say that as a Canadian, American films about WWI and WWII are baffling. I mean I know your history classes are messed up, but do they really not even talk about Stalingrad? Crete? Hong Kong? Etc? Because your films all paint it like it was just the States against Germany, with maybe a mention of Britain there somewhere. Ya’ll were late to even join the war! But anyway before I get too off-topic, the point is, Captain America: The First Avenger is the kind of military propaganda that is all about heroic imagery. This is especially common in WWII films because there is no moral ambiguity in a lot of it, so it’s easy to point and say wow, look how great we were. American military at it’s prime, yep. Totally not like there are millions and millions of people dying to be concerned about, because look at all these manly heroic American men. And the military uses this imagery as propaganda as if WWII and American meddling in Iraq are the same.

Even in the later Captain America and Avengers movies, when up against the government, the films are careful to take blame away from the military and put it more on Hydra or politicians. The corruption in SHIELD? That wasn’t really SHIELD, that was Hydra influence.

You could argue that this is not in the same vein as true propaganda like what comes from Iron Man; I would agree to an extent. But it’s still there.

But the military propaganda in Captain Marvel is different.

Captain Marvel introduces the MCU’s take on the Kree and Skrulls. Well, there was minor Kree involvement in Guardians of the Galaxy with Ronan, but this is the first time on a larger scale. The movie starts by telling the audience that the Kree are peacekeepers and the Skrulls are terrorists, but upon actually talking to the Skrull leader, Carol comes to find out the Skrulls are actually mostly refugees trying to avoid total decimation from the Kree, because they refused to submit to their rule. The whole story has very anti military parallels... ...and it is at a huge contrast with pro-military subliminal imagery and messages.

What does Carol do the minute she realizes the Kree are bad? She points to child-turned Monica’s air force shirt and says that those are the colours she should use. The movie just finished painting a masterful comparison between the Kree military and US military, then took a dump all over it by saying no, that is not a comparison at all. The Kree are bad, but the US Air Force is good. Despite doing the exact same things Carol was shaken by the Kree doing just a scene ago. Frankly I would have been fine with them still using Carol’s red and blue outfit, because the States do not have the monopoly on the colours red and blue, but they had to go out of their way to make it about that.

I have seen a few people talk about how messed up that scene is already though, but what I have seen less of is people talking about the weaponization of feminism as military propaganda. There is a very strong #GirlPower message in Captain Marvel, and that on it’s own is great. I loved the scene where Just a Girl plays while she’s kicking ass, and I can’t think of a better ending than her telling Jude Law that she doesn’t have to prove a damn thing to him. But this #GirlPower doesn’t end there. Captain Marvel turns Carol’s military life into a statement of Girl Power. From the Air Force article they shared on the official twitter:

Less than one percent of the American population will know what it’s like to serve in the Air Force. However, major motion pictures give the global audience a glimpse into the service’s history of breaking barriers and a taste of its fighting spirit.

...

“Our mission is to project and protect the image of the U.S. Air Force through entertainment media,” said Lt. Col. Nathan Broshear, Air Force Entertainment Liaison Office director. “Major motion pictures, like ‘Captain Marvel’, provide an incredible platform to educate and inform the American public about the people, culture and heritage of the U.S. Air Force … inspiring the next generation of Airmen.”

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The Air Force’s involvement also impacted character development and storylines. In December 2017, Larson, Boden, Fleck and producer Jonathan Schwartz visited Nellis AFB, Nevada, and spent one-on-one time with Brig. Gen. Jeannie Leavitt, Air Force Recruiting Service Commander and the Air Force’s first female fighter pilot.

It’s there. Just because they hid it better than before, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. The fact that the propaganda in Captain Marvel is not so direct like it is in past MCU films is what makes it even more dangerous. If it continues to fly below the radar for people, if people continue to say that it’s not fair to point this out because Captain Marvel is a woman and therefore it’s misogyny, then that is sending exactly the message the Pentagon’s Hollywood Liason wants to hear. And that’s what is scary about the propaganda in Captain Marvel in particular.

#captain marvel #mcu #military propaganda #movie thoughts

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sarriane · 4 years

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it's interesting to see so much meta about 'the timeless children,' still, and considering all of the reviews, kneejerk reactions, criticism, love, hate, anger... it just makes me come back to the idea of how it's an attempt to restructure and recenter the show. whether it's a bad or good attempt is one fandom is never going to agree on (fandom never agrees on anything). but every little piece i see about it, every reaction kind of brings to light how it both suceeded and failed.

there's so much in the racial + gender dynamics to pull apart, places where they failed, places where they did well. i think it's the problem with a show that is still so white and so dominated by men, that while they're making an effort towards diversity, there's so many fatal missteps. things in the script that seemed innoculous in another circumstance are entirely changed when you add in identity factors.

(why would you cast a south asian actor and then put him in a nazi uniform? while it's great they cast an actor of color in a classic role, one who was clearly the perfect choice, it's also an unfortunate consequence that we now see the familiar racist image of a man of color "menacing" a white woman. thanks.)

it's not a problem limited to dr who, either -- i remember when kelly sue deconnick finished her run on her first volume of captain marvel, the villain was a genius scientist, and a woman of color. one fan commented (paraphrased): 'hey, i finally saw myself in your comic book - and i was the bad guy.' i remember KSD said something like "i thought all representation was good representation?" and she noted it, and i did too. again and again, we see this: creators in positions of privilege trying to provide representation, but falling short because of the racism, and misogyny, and bigotry they haven't unlearned.

and it's not easy. i certainly don't know how to write a story about a villain of color and a white woman and avoid any pitfalls -- perhaps the solution is to leave those stories to people who are actually from those racial backgrounds, or have those identities. but how to do that when the people in power making casting + writing decisions are white men? obviously, dr who needs more people of color working in it. it needs more women's voices, more queer voices. but even that's not a solution. RTD and JNT definitely didn't have eras free of homophibia and transphobia.

(we get this shit with queer-coding, too, which is why i've never advocated for doctor/master to become canon. i will happily read a million fics exploring the relationship, but i don't want to see the master portrayed as a predatory gay, thanks. and i don't want to see the doctor portrayed as a man caught in an abusive relationship, eventually ending with him literally keeping his romantic interest locked up and isolated while he tries to reform/brainwash her. i'm not into warden/prisoner porn, thx.)

i'm still working on my ideas about how/why doctor who has been irrevocably changed by 'the timeless children,' because the reviews aren't all bad. there are very much people who feel seen. in my opinion, it's very very difficult to take a show that's centered around england and turn it into a post-colonial narrative. dr who has hosted a variety of political opinions over the years, and so has the doctor (don't fucking @ me about kill the moon). in 2020, it's hard to continue to write the story of the doctor as a voice for the repressed when he's an old white man from a planet of "lords," that are a bunch of other old white men. at some point, it's another goddamn white savior narrative with a mansplainer at the center. (note that whittaker's casting does not solve this, but at least it's a start, i suppose? ugh, give us more jo martin!!)

so, the doctor is a woman now, and she has a history where she has been victimized, but she's overcome that. the knowledge of that does not victimize or martyr her, it allows the doctor to recenter herself in the narrative as a voice for the oppressed because she's been there.

i wish i could say that the show treated the jo martin incarnation with the respect she deserved, but even then, she's once again the Wise Old Black Woman trope. she goes from her character in 'fugitive of the judoon,' a doctor in her own adventure who refuses to let another co-opt her story, to a literal support character, the good angel on the doctor's shoulder reminding her who she is. and while it's nice to see a black woman doctor affirm who the doctor is -- she's affirming it to a white doctor. she's a prop. it's such a devastating waste of the character.

'the timeless children' reminds me a lot of captain marvel, and i think some of its failures are in that thirteen is not a Big Damn Hero. it's difficult to suddenly turn the privileged renegade into the timeless child, but also push the classic idea of: "should we trust the doctor?" because we shouldn't! she isn't a superhero. she isn't carol danvers, she has never had a history of fighting for everything she has - everything was handed to the doctor, including when he took the TARDIS and ran away. there's a note in an essay someone wrote in the 70's about 'the deadly assassin,' that showing us gallifrey takes the "who" out of "doctor who." for as much as the 'timeless children' tried to reclaim that, some of the questions it leaves us about the doctor are not pretty. especially when she lets an old, kind man die in her place (and grandpa joe from derry girls, for shame).

(on a wider note, in 50 yrs, will media criticism talk about the period of third/arguably fourth wave feminism in scifi? where white blonde women were treated like science experiments so empires could be built on their backs? but they refused victimhood and became heroines, standing up for those who canmt protect theirselves? which is great, except for the "white, blonde" element and the fact that this narrative, if it becomes a trend, is literally coopting parts of african american history.)

i hate that i have to settle for what we have, because i think media can always be better, and we deserve better, and they should try better. i've seen it said before that doctor who can't break down barriers, since it's a kids' show that airs before 8pm and has to be centrist enough to appeal to a wide audience. i think that sentiment is a little naive of what science fiction actually is and does. whatever the case, it seems clear to me that the next season of doctor who needs to involve more people of color in the cast + crew, and more women, and more queer folks. and it makes me aware of something much more in my control - that i've seen very few responses to the episode from fans of color. and i'm really not sure how to find these voices and amplify them, other than to follow and reblog, and listen.

i hope one day to reform these thoughts into something resembling proper media criticism, but i think it will take time, and revisiting old and new who, and probably seeing how the next special treats the reveals from 'the timeless children.' i've got so many thoughts about s12 and gender and race and the writing's almost "colorblind" approach to it all, and i never expected this to get longer than a paragraph long rant. there's just too much to talk about.

#dw #sarah has thoughts

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citrusandbergamot · 5 years

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do people ever get tired of being critical?

like, it’s so endless. so needless. take the bad with the good, I mean, come on. like, type in RWBY into the youtube search bar and half the videos are reaction ones about why RWBY sucks now, ‘why I stopped watching’ blah blah blah.

like, I get being frustrated and being annoyed that your expectations are not met but seriously

no piece of media is perfect to all people. it just isn’t. it’s really easy for something to feel awesome when it’s new. few things end stronger than they begin. Few things have a strong ending, period. But being so goddamn down on stuff makes the creators feel like shit. It makes people not want to finish things.

You know what’s worse than a character death you hate? A show/series never, ever having a conclusion, something just...drifting away. Like, I don’t super love the ending of Naruto. I actually really dislike it and what’s happened in the sequel. I don’t like most of what JKR has come out and said since the ending of HP. And I fucking hated the epilogue. Words cannot express how much I disliked it.

Can you imagine the agony if those stories had never actually ended? If they had given up, halfway through? Good god, it’d be awful, just awful. The what if, the endless what if. Do you think people are going to love the end of Rebuild? Do you think it can possibly match the expectations that have been building all this time? Eva fans want it to be perfect; they want it to be exactly as good as they imagine. Is it any wonder why it’s been delayed so long? The whole damn thing is probably torture for Anno. Do you think the ending of One Piece is going to satisfy its millions of fans? Maybe, maybe not. And that world is so rich, so complex, so consistent, so deep. It still has to end, eventually. If it’s not everything you want it to be, will that sour all the joy it brought to you before?

Can you name for me things that have met your expectations and exceeded them? things that ended as strong as their original promise, their beginning?

endings are weird, always. Even great endings, there’s often something that feels unfinished. There’s always a let down, it’s just the way that stories are shaped. Eventually the plot twists and the motivations and the consequences have to end, the camera has to stop rolling. Things that feel flat or disappointing sometimes just feel that way because we don’t want things to end, or because we want things to go the way we’ve expected them to. Like, I remember being so disappointed in Revenge of the Sith. And yeah, some of that comes from I think valid criticism of the pacing and emotional depth of the story, but in the end, I’m glad to have had that story, I’m glad to have the prequels. Shitting on them endlessly, needlessly, doesn’t do a damn thing to change it. It only generates more negativity and shitty, reactionary behaviour and stifles creativity, and makes the people involved in the project feel like shit. It doesn’t feel great inside either, all that negativity. Like, what’s the fucking point?

And sometimes endings take a while to settle. Sometimes, it takes awhile to really understand that it was the only way a story could end. I loved the way Life on Mars ended, but I know my brother absolutely hated it. I didn’t like the way Fight Club ended when I first saw it, but it grew on me and now I cite it as a brilliant, brilliant ending. I hate the depressive way Rogue One ends, but that last sequence with Darth Vader is one of my favourite scenes in the Star Wars universe. I actually think Return of the King has a terrible ending, but I understand why Peter Jackson chose it and it still makes me cry. I don’t think having the scouring of the shire would elicited the same emotional reaction. Trainspotting has always been perfect though. I think Supernatural should have ended in season 5, but if it did, we wouldn’t have had the bunker, or Abaddon, or Charlie, or season 8, or the way Jared looks right now, or Sam’s like, complete mental torture since season 6. ...season 4?? And all that shit has been awesome, to varying degrees. All that shit has brought some enjoyment, even if mostly (for me) as fuel for fanfiction. ((It’s brought about other things, more negative and terrible as well. Supernatural fandom would not be this way had it ended in season 5 and the fandom is so goddamn abusive and toxic it’s hard to talk about the good points of the show without bringing that up. But that’s not the show itself per se.))

And yeah, things sometimes live way past their expiration date. I really hate when Sam and Dean have the same old conversation - I want my characters to change. But i also know that other people don’t feel the same way - they want Sam and Dean to always be SamandDean. Take FMA. I think Brotherhood is tighter, more cohesive story. I think the 2003 version is darker, less simplistic, but with a lot more strife between the characters. Which has better growth? The one with the deeper plot/conspiracy and triumphant, satisfying ending? Or the one with the heavier consequences for the individual characters and more ambiguous ending? I love me some Brotherhood, I love it a lot. But remember what happens to Scar and Liore in 2003? Remember who killed Winry’s parents? Remember the final fight with Sloth? Do you remember the final fight with Sloth? Holy shit, holy shit. So I thought Dante was kinda a weak villain. Is that the only thing that matters?

Like....I’m pretty glad I live in a world with both versions. And I really cannot say which one is better, as each has their faults. Being needlessly critical of creative choices is just so exhausting and....well, childish.

Youtube tried to recommend a vid about why Captain Marvel is going to cause the downfall of the MCU. And I’m like....????? it hasn’t even come out yet???? To be that critical before even seeing it?? It’s just plain misogyny entitlement packaged up as ‘intellect’.

No show is going to stay exactly the same. What RWBY was pre-volume 3 is impossible to return to: the world is different post-fall of Beacon. The structure of the characters world, their expecations, their security, their drives...it’s all different now. The show is bigger, has a bigger budget, has better animation. The story, with the world building and the multiple factions and a clearer look at the end game, is so beyond what it was at the start, where everything was new, where Cinder was still mystery and seemingly all-powerful, where we didn’t know what was possible in the world. Where a goddamn Nevermore was the biggest Grimm they’d ever seen. Where Monty was still alive.

The show is going to be different. Different is not bad. Maybe they lost some of the potential but of course it’s going to, because it had to choose a path forward, it couldn’t stay exactly the same...! How could it have? I miss things about the early seasons a lot, but it worked because they could move the plot at a snail’s pace. Remember all those eps about Jaune being bullied? Remember all that shit with the dog and going to class and becoming friends. It was light-hearted and happy-go lucky and that made the action scenes pop and our favourite villain was campy and charismatic and not actually the one in control at all. Now we have darkness on all sides and the mysteries have been revealed for the dangers they actually are, and the emotional scenes and the connection between the characters and their resolve is the only thing that can push back against that darkness. Do I wish it was a little darker at times? Yes, yes I do. But it was always going to be a little simplistic.

It’s a web-series about teenagers. Chill the fuck out, you aren’t entitled to shit.

yes this is about Adam Taurus can you tell, if people couldn’t see it coming I don’t know what to tell you. If you couldn’t see it coming, we haven’t been watching the same show.

#RWBY #RWBY spoilers #entitlement culture #endless critical vid essays are exhausting #my reaction was #ATTA GIRL BLAKE #I'm kinda getting sick of people shitting on creators #like i know its super fashionable to mock and belittle JKR #and yeah her statements and choices post-DH have been a little suspect #she still....created Harry Potter?#she still brought harry potter into the world?#there is no way I'll ever stop loving Harry Potter #no matter how many valid criticisms there are of it or of JKR #no criticism can negate what good it has done for me #same with RWBY #I don't like any volume has much as I did the first 3 #but just because I don't think it's better now #doesn't mean it's not still enjoyable #I love Maria #I love qrow's goddamn issues #I love the animation #i love them overcoming their emotional demons #I adore adore adore everything about the ep with pyrrha's statue #and that ep in the farmhouse might have some of the scariest imagery I'd ever seen animated #if RWBY had succumbed to criticism in volume 4 or 5 #if it had ended before this season #if I had stopped watchin before this volume #I'd be poorer for it #watching Yang finally FINALLY activate her semblance like that #was so satisfying

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gendrie · 7 years

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I'm curious as to what you think of the fandom's treatment of Sansa, and women characters in general. Part of the reason I think Sansa stans are so fervent on Tumblr is because she is demonized on other platforms, notably Reddit, where they say some of the most vile shit about her. But then that translates to some Sansa fans being overly critical and nasty toward characters like Arya or Daenerys, which is what (I think) you're referring to in some of your posts.

you’re asking me what i think and thats what you’re gonna get, ok? im not some omnipresent being. i couldn’t possibly speak of the entire fandom in absolutes because i only occupy a small space here. all i have is my perspective, limited thing that it is. keep that in mind as i get into this. i think everyone gets treated like shit. mainly the women but its not even limited to that because the way characters like bran and tyrion are treated can be just as disgusting. which characters get hate and why and how and where depends on numerous factors. and what we as fans react to is just as varied.

i know sansa has gotten a lot of hate. it was really common to see people saying she’s weak and stupid and deserved what she got. its misogynistic garbage. and yeah, that the main reason why her stans behave the way they do. i get it. like i said im a spiteful bitch so i understand why they want her to succeed. they put her on a pedestal in a reaction to the hate. it’s as simple as that. but they also used that to hate on virtually every other character. and heres the thing: *i* don’t (regularly) go on reddit or the worg. i don’t have a facebook. i avoid talking to people irl lol. tumblr is the only place where i interact with the asoiaf fandom. so i have never been exposed to this to a serious degree. and even when i did go on the forums they always had strong vocal sansa supporters. from the very beginning i heard alllll about sansa hate and internalized misogyny and thought it was awful…..and then i watched this entire hellsite turn on arya. you say “overly critical and nasty” but that honestly does not even cover it. the way tumblr treated arya for years and years was un-fucking-real. you cant begin to understand unless you were there tbh. i suspect you weren’t because if you had been you’d know *exactly* what im referring to with my posts. theres no way of even explaining in a way that you’ll completely understand but they belittled her trauma like it was nothing. she was weak and stupid (sound familiar?) she was a bad victim™. she was a misogynistic little monster for not liking dresses. she was an inferior character for surviving with “physical strength” and by “acting like a boy”. they called arya a sociopath and a cliche. she wouldve died in kings landing and she was too fucked up in the head and violent to live like a normal person anyway so the only fate for her was death. they regularly theorized she’d die in a ditch or wished she’d become sansa’s servant/pet. they downplayed her significance and reduced her to a badass assassin killer who only existed to kill. she was unlovable and unworthy both in the text and out. all of these opinions were happily supported by the most asoiaf popular meta blog on tumblr. there were countless metas and posts and articles written putting arya down to prop sansa up. when arya’s fans tried to speak up against this they went after us too. we were “bad fans” for loving such an awful character. we glamorized and woobified her and needed to understand that this little girl was actually a terrible psychopath. and they did it all under the guise of feminism. i think that was the most appalling part. it was women and girls doing this while acting as if they were being model feminists. historically, most assholes on the forums have been men. but on tumblr its always been a female demographic. and watching them go after arya felt like betrayal. but then, arya was never a girl to them. which is the crux of the issue.

you might think im exaggerating but im telling you this is what it was like on tumblr. it was a constant, pervasive, mentality among the fanbase against arya. and other characters like dany and bran (anyone who gets in sansa’s way really) but mostly arya where the v. sansa thing is concerned. in a way that ive honestly just never seen with another character. sansa was universally worshiped on tumblr and it was like arya herself was responsible for every bad thing the gross fanboys had said about sansa. tumblr is not a site that encourages discussion or independent thought in the way the boards do. it operates much differently. most people don’t state their own opinions. they reblog other peoples. so once this took root it went unchallenged for a long time. its also a site that has always held feminine women in a higher regard than gender non conforming women. those were dark times. the entire thing is a perfect example of “you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain” imo lmao we’re all struggling with our own fandom demons no matter who we stan. ive told you my demons here. im sure sansa stans have their own horror stories that have shaped them too. they relate to her and want her to be the best and brightest in the series. i can dig it. but in doing that it got really ugly. they basically became the thing they hated. they turned on one little girl to defend another.

at the end of the day we’re all reacting to these books and this fandom and our experiences in a million different ways. that being said; i still can’t forgive lol. i understand them and might not perfect myself but they went too damn far. there will never be a resolution to this either. we just keep going around in this circle, forever and ever and ever.

#anon: what do you think of the fandoms treatment of sansa #me: DID YOU MEAN ARYA?#sorry lol #but once i started down that memory lane i couldnt stop #tbf they did bring up how arya's treated in response to sansa hate so #ask #anon

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bexical · 5 years

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Late Night

I saw Late Night over the weekend, and it was surprisingly heartfelt. It features Emma Thompson as Catherine Newbury, a late night show host in the later years of her career, and Mindy Kaling as Molly Patel, a former chemical plant worker and now Catherine’s new diversity hire. I’ve got a scattering of unrelated thoughts regarding this movie, which I’ll break down into three separate headings.

Main theme - being genuine

I really like the theme they pursue here. Molly calls out Cate on not being genuine or expressing herself. She is absent from her comedy, largely because she’s not even present in the writers’ room. To change this, Molly suggests an abortion joke and the other writers fight it, saying they steer clear of such political jokes, but Molly says Fuck That - express yourself, let the world see who you are, let them damn you and let them love you but make sure they know you.

So she does. She opens up to the world, and she connects with them in a way she has not done in a long time. And… she feels good. And opening up like that, connecting to people - it feels good for me. I want to be loved for who I am rather than tolerated because I am inobtrusive, and so I try to be genuine and open as I live my life.

A million to one - can you accept that ratio?

The movie presents an idea at one point that I want to discuss. Without giving away too much detail, one character says to another that one bad thing does not erase the million good experiences they have had together, and they say they are willing to live with that ratio.

The situation is a familiar one, but the sentiment isn’t. I’ve been told (probably deservedly) that I am too willing to cut people out for a few bad experiences and that I ignore all of the good experiences - but sometimes, I look at the ratio and it’s far less than a million to one. Is it even greater than one to one? Where are all these good experiences that I’m ignoring? Given how often this happens to me, I suppose I must just be erasing all the positive experiences from my memory.

But really, is the ratio ever a million to one? People can be so carelessly cruel to each other, and the little cuts accrue over time. Even if it is, can nothing be so bad as to wipe out a million good experiences? Am I unfair in giving more weight to the bad moments? I would argue these are the more honest experiences though - after all, saying “I love you” is quick and easy, but hatred requires time to fester and rot.

It seems to me that people are willing to spend so much time with those who have hurt them and continue to hurt them, and I refuse to let that be my life. But, at the other end of the spectrum, perhaps I am too quick to abandon my connections, especially over minor and imagined slights. I want to be able to look back and see all of the good and to cherish that, to be willing to weigh that with the bad and say yes, the good outweighs the bad, perhaps not because of any objective quantities but because I choose to give it more weight. And hopefully, I'll be humble enough to do that soon.

Diversity

I was in a lecture about diversity. When it came time for questions, one person said, “We see that diversity is linked with success for businesses, but is there actually causation? How do we know it’s not merely the case that more successful companies just tend to care more about diversity?”

And… the lecturer didn't know the answer. I’d go so far as to posit that we, as a collective social consciousness, do not know - but we still have people who take it to be axiomatic truth that diversity is good. Unfortunately, I would say that it’s wrong and even harmful to do so though - it weakens the validity of the claim when we neglect the reasoning behind it and just accept / proclaim it as truth.

In this particular regard, I would say Late Night is actually really egregious in its presentation of diversity. Catherine (through her untitled right-hand man, Brad) hires Molly solely to remedy the fact that her writing staff is entirely white and male, but the movie never really delves into how this situation arose in the first place. It briefly presents the idea that she “hates women,” but it drops the idea immediately. Seriously, why does she have such a monotonous writing staff? Is it internalized misogyny?1 Is it due to the systemic bias that favored white men before they even got there? The situation presents an opportunity to explore an answer, but it goes unanswered, leaving one with the problematic notion that maybe the best candidates were just white and male.

Another plot point where they attempt to address diversity is through their presentation of another comedian. His jokes are xenophobic and misogynistic and thus ‘obviously’ bad from the perspective of the movie’s intended audience, but they’re still funny to his intended audience (which is not an insignificant crowd). I think the film could have explored the notion of offensive humor, but it does very little with it besides note its existence, and I think that’s a shame.

And finally, let’s go over Molly’s status as a diversity hire. There is no question that she is one - the interview goes terribly, and she very evidently has no qualifications as a comedy writer, but Catherine tells Brad to “hire a woman already!” and so she is hired. And so, it’s hard to find it particularly offensive when various writers call her out on being a diversity hire, since we know she is one - and it’s really hard to support her in one instance when she stands up for herself and essentially claims she was the more qualified candidate and deserved the job. The movie tries to call out the patriarchy, but it fails to do so and instead actually makes a mockery of diversity, going against its intentions.

I think aiming for diversity is important, and I think it’s necessary that artists use their art to pursue important things. But I also think it is incredibly important that they do so responsibly, and I regrettably cannot say this was the case with Late Night.

I think internalized misogyny is a really interesting concept to explore. It is very counterintuitive and has a lot of nuance to it - from a character perspective, it also ties in very tightly to self-image. In fact, I’m exploring it with Kiri, the protagonist of my book. ↩︎

#movies #late night

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