Wednesday, September 14, 2016

STAHP

James Poniewozik, writing in The New York Times, has some concerns about the plight of both real and fictional straight white men.

He writes:
"This fall, broadcast television will turn its attention to the battle of the straight white man to assert his masculinity in an increasingly alien world. And you won’t need to wait until the first presidential debate to see it.

The male protagonists of several new sitcoms are not as belligerent as the male protagonist of the election. (A possible exception: the one who wields a broadsword.) But they are besieged. At home and in the office, they find themselves struggling to prove that they matter in a world they no longer exclusively run." (emphasis added)
I see.

It's an admission of sorts that disaffected hetero white men aren't so much being oppressed, and more (and merely) that shows revolving around people other than them exist. And, I suppose when we have a lady also running for President it just begs an important question: Do straight white men even matter if they don't run everything?

I mean. Somebody has to be the courageous truth-teller who just comes out and asks it.

What does it mean to be a man when being a man used to automatically mean being superior to women?  If women are *shudder* equal to men, and queers are equal to straights, do straight men even .... exist at all anymore as a category when they have been defined for so long as opposites?

I mean, there just haven't been enough stories told throughout history and on screen about straight white men. Now is the time to demand more navel-gazing about what it means to be a man in society, what it means to be dominant, what it means to have oppressed other people.  You know, can we really blame the movers and shakers in Hollywood for thinking that even MOAR white male stories need to be told in the world?

Okay, okay.

I can't keep the sarcasm up.

Because, could any story be more .... boring than stories about men with unexamined privilege "examining" the new world order? Do or will actual straight white men even relate to these stories at all, or are will the stories be the same-old same-old sitcom "comedy gold" of "Men are irresponsible man-babies who must be kept in line by their nagging mommy-wives, but with a twist in that the mommy-wife is also the breadwinner"? Are shows about gender roles basically insulting to everyone?

Feel my judgment, fools who are greenlighting such projects. (moving GIF at link)

Anyway, director Lexi Alexander responded in a way that proves she's one of the best people in the TV/film industry to follow on Twitter:


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