In aristocratic households during the baroque period it was fashionable to have a menagerie of tumblers, dwarves, and Negro pages. They were curiosities; acquired, occasionally remarked upon, and then ignored. The same cycle appears to be playing out in the diversity of participants in entertainment.
Appealing to the producers of mass-marketed entertainment is already a Faustian bargain. To quote the character Howard Beale in the 1976 film Network, “It’s a circus, a carnival…we’re in the boredom killing business!” The producers are also more and more removed from the populace. They are locked into a world separated from normalcy by unconscionable amounts of money and an insular and highly competitive culture of intrigue, exploitation, and betrayal. Such an environment would create Harvey Weinstein.
To foster diversity Sony Pictures decided to gender-swap and reboot Ghostbusters in 2016. The corporation hoped to pull-off a double-coup of getting girls interested in a re-vitalized franchise while also selling a recognized brand to the rest of the world. The gambit failed spectacularly. The trailers alienated fans, many of them women, who had loved the nearly thirty-year-old original. At the same time the much sought-after and growing consumer market in China was completely barred because the Chinese refuse to exhibit films with ghosts in them.
Disney, seeming to learn from Sony’s mistake, decided to make a direct appeal to the Chinese market with the inclusion of the new character Rose Tico, played by Kelly Marie Tran, in the latest main storyline episode of the juggernaut Star Wars saga, The Last Jedi. Yet, no one at Disney seemed to figure out that there is a national and ethnic distinction between Vietnamese and Chinese. While the film was actually screened in China this time, it woefully underperformed.
Still, the lordly producers and their chamberlains, the marketing consultants, think they’re setting the trend. They read on Twitter–the modern version of the literati invited into the aristocratic parlors—about this term “pansexual” so naturally in the press junket for Solo they drop the hint that Lando Calrissian identifies as that. What happens? It is discussed, argued, and written about as if it’s the most important revelation in the world. At least within the circles that milord executive understands, that is. The result? The movie bombs. The Star Wars fans, disillusioned by The Last Jedi, stayed home.
Consistent with the Ghostbusters debacle, milord executive was outraged, “How dare the masses not see my vision! Don’t they know the entertainment industry is moving art and society forward!” The original fans of Ghostbusters, most notably James Rolfe aka The Angry Video Game Nerd, were attacked for being misogynists. Star Wars fans who criticized the direction of their beloved franchise were labeled racist and homophobic by Last Jedi director Rian Johnson.
What is the forward vision exactly? In mass entertainment it is hard to say because it seems self-contradictory. In the extremely entertaining and surprisingly thematically deep Wonder Woman the idealized feminine form is not soft – it is athletic and muscular. Gal Gadot playing the titular character had been an Israeli Defense Force soldier as well as Miss Israel. The supporting actresses playing Amazons on the hidden island of Themyscira were fitness instructors, professional dancers, and stunt performers. The most impressive transformation was Robin Wright, who had gone from our Princess Buttercup in The Princess Bride at age 21 to the beautifully fierce General Antiope at 51! Contrast that female accomplishment with the plus-size model Tess Holliday who had “achieved” 300 pounds on her five foot five inch frame and was given a cover shoot for Cosmopolitan magazine this year. Robin Wright looks great in her 50s. Only 33 years-old, Tess Holliday has become a fashion victim because fat acceptance is so hot right now.
One also has to wonder how any vision is arrived at and when it is to be maintained and when it is to be abandoned. For the live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell, Scarlett Johannsson was cast as Major Motoko Kusanagi. It was Marketing 101, use an established name to headline a property that may not be well-known outside of Anime and Manga fans. Twitter erupted with one of their favorite outrages, “Whitewashing!” Hollywood was taking a Japanese character and giving it to a white actress, denying a Japanese or Asian performer her break. It was Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s all over again! Except, the actual creator of the Major, Masamune Shiro, did not have a problem with it. The box office reception also seemed to reflect it. It had a mediocre opening in the US, but it was ‘Big in Japan’ and China as well. Yet, when Johansson’s name came up again, this time tied to a project where she would play real-life female-to-male transsexual criminal Tex Gill, the pressure wave from gay and transsexual advocate groups was too great, and she withdrew to show her solidarity with a community Hollywood says it cares about.
How long will diversity mandates endure? Our lords are very fickle and prefer financial success above all else. While pitching ideas for the project that would become Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the late Harlan Ellison was told by a Paramount executive, “I’ve been reading about Mayans. They’re big right now. Can you put Mayans in it?” Yet, our erstwhile lords were not always so keen on other cultures or voices. Staying with Star Trek, in the terrific and emotionally powerful Deep Space Nine episode “Far Beyond the Stars” the executive as arbitrary gatekeeper is exposed. Captain Sisko flashes back in time and becomes a writer for 1950’s science fiction magazine. He experiences the prejudiced attitude from the editor that their readers won’t accept black protagonists in their stories. The bigotry is so deeply ingrained that the magazine owner destroys an entire print run rather than let Sisko’s story, featuring a black hero, hit newsstands. Also demonstrated in the episode is that women writers used their initials to hide their sex, a reference to the very real experience of long-time Star Trek contributor D.C. Fontana. Stories and storytellers were once barred for being too exotic. What now is being kept from us for not being exotic enough?
A by-product of diversity is the concept of “staying in one’s lane.” While a gay actor can certainly play straight, a straight actor cannot play gay. Hence, the casting of lesbian actress Ruby Rose as Batwoman, one of the first superheroes in the DC universe to be written as a lesbian. Yet, the Twitterati still asked, “is Ruby Rose gay enough?” This time, Hollywood did not fold and Ruby Rose still has the part, although one does not sense courage behind the decision. Another case of damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t is the medieval role-playing video game Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Written and directed by a Czech game designer who was celebrating his own culture and heritage by using the setting of 1403 Bohemia. He was criticized for not having enough diversity in his game. Where were the people of color? Yes, it boggles the mind that everyone in 15th century central Europe would be white. It’s as ridiculous as criticizing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for being too Chinese.
Perhaps this harangue about gatekeeping executives is outmoded. There have never been more alternative venues for entertainment. From Netflix to e-publishing, it seems open to everyone. Nevertheless, access is always under threat by the leviathan. Blip.tv had been a webseries host utilized by many independent content creators and media critics. Most notable among its users was Channel Awesome, the distributor of content from “The Nostalgia Critic,” “The Cinema Snob,” “SF Debris,” and the comic book critic “Linkara.” In 2013 it was bought by the Disney subsidiary Maker Studios and two years later it was shut down in the Blipocalypse. Five years later, Disney outbids Comcast for the acquisition of 20th Century Fox, which gave Disney control over more than a quarter of the film industry and its copyrighted material. The House of Mouse is ever vigilant and ever litigious. Deviate from the strict parameters of fair use and one can expect a takedown notice.
Corporations and governments are also acting to discredit and shut down independent thinkers. The leftist UK paper, The Guardian, published a story on YouTube’s “alternative influencer network.” Citing a report from Data & Society it strove to prove a link between independent cultural commentators and right-wing radicalization. Data & Society used a graphic worthy of Fox Mulder’s crazier conspiracy theories to interlace psychology professor Jordan Peterson, independent journalist Tim Pool, gadfly Milo Yiannopolis, and white nationalist Richard Spencer. Officially they are deemed a political threat, but realistically they are only a threat to the mainstream news outlets and entertainment executives.
One of the personalities on the list that most defies and upsets the world our lords try to present is Blair White. She has used her platform to independently relate her personal story of gender dysmorphia and identity transition. She speaks as an individual and the lords, who only understand focus groups, can’t have that! To quote Network again entertainment is “the most awesome God-damned propaganda force in the whole Godless world!” It shapes us, forges groups of the like-minded, and creates a meme culture. It is why governing bodies like the European Union Parliament see it as a threat. The EU copyright directive, known as Article 13, treats platforms like YouTube and Facebook as publishers and forbids them from disseminating unlicensed material. That means if Disney doesn’t sign-off on your Lion King meme you can forget it ever going up on the European web. Should you question why we should care about EU copyright law, review Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here. Facebook would be scoured clean and even fanfiction could be shut down if authors complain to their publishers about how their characters are being written over at Archive of Our Own.
So what can be done? Is a revolution necessary? No, and it would probably be an empty gesture anyway, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” The answer is simple, the lordly executives need you but you do not need them. As a creator do not sell your idea to them, unless you are willing to see it altered to suit their whims or business plan. If you want to keep it pure and yours, don’t compromise. It may require going small-scale, it may require a Kickstarter campaign, and it may require passing a hat in a coffee shop. The brightest ideas will fade in the dazzling superficiality of the halls of the lord. As a consumer, the lords need your money. If you are unsatisfied with their product, then don’t give it to them. In spite they will turn on you. They may hound you on social media, or even block you. They will endeavor to turn the masses against you for being anti-intellectual, a bigot, a troglodyte. Endure it, in strife you will find true friends and allies who will respect you for having an honest opinion and courage besides. Yet, remember this: whether you love what’s coming out of the entertainment industry or hate it, respect a person’s fandom. Love what you love and be satisfied in that. Don’t force it on others and don’t take a fair and reasoned criticism personally. In The Hunger Games nothing amuses the lords more than when we set upon each other.