Woke Myth

Left wing populism can be as annoyingly wrong and divisive as right wing populism. Although I tend to focus much more on the nonsense coming from the political right, that doesn't mean that their critique of wokeness and political correctness on the left is entirely without merit.

I've touched on this on numerous occasions in the past, most recently in yesterday's post; the political left has lost its ability to distinguish itself from the right in a concrete and materially significant manner, because it has fully embraced the capitalist power relations as the norm, as a fact of life that can't be changed or challenged. That's why they can now only differentiate themselves in cultural matters; women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration, gun laws, abortion, multiculturalism, you know what I mean. Now I'm not saying those aren't very important issues where there's still a lot to be gained. What I am saying is that this is all they've got, and because it's all they've got they sometimes go berserk on those issues. Political correctness isn't a problem, what is a problem though, is when years old tweets are dug up to be used for character assassination of ideological adversaries.

And it's not just in politics; the culture war is being waged in all of... culture. And that includes one of my personal favorite art forms, which is film. Lucasfilm, Marvel and other production companies that have been bought by media-monster Disney, have, in the wake of this ongoing culture war, constructed a myth that bothers me a lot. One that greatly diminished the quality of the latest films from some of my favorite franchises. It's the myth that there are no strong female characters in leading roles, a problem that has to be dealt with immediately and decisively... My first problem with this is that it's not entirely true; I know of a number of strong female leads, even in my favorite genre of film, which is sci-fi. Have these people never seen Alien? Have they never seen Princess Leia strangle Jabba the Hutt and rescue Han Solo? Have they missed the first Terminator films?

And it's one thing to increase the number of strong female leads; that I have no problem with whatsoever. It's another thing entirely if you have to actively diminish the male leads in order to let your female leads shine; that's just bad scripting which results in bad films. And when you then accuse fans who point this out of being misogynist, well, then you've done it; you're now the typical politically correct woke warrior, and you're deserving of all the backlash you'll suffer online. Again, don't get me wrong; I know some of the online pundits are truly misogynist and racist. It's just that you've lost the capability to call them out because they have legit complaints about the bad film you made. Looking at you, Lucasfilm; you've killed the Star Wars franchise for me and a lot of other fans by the way you treated Luke, Han, Leia, Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian in your new trilogy.

Anyhow, I don't want to rant too much, and linked below is a video that explains this myth about no strong female leads a lot better. I'm just still a bit sore about the new Star Wars films, and how the original heroes were used and weakened, just to make Mary Sue Rey look even stronger. Yes, she is Mary Sue Rey, not Rey Skywalker! She hasn't earned that name, just like she hasn't earned her Jedi powers... Okay I'll stop; maybe I am getting too old...

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