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What sparked this log is just how often I see the term 'woke' be used now in general discussion on the internet. It seems you cant go into a comment section for a new show, movie, or game without seeing the term thrown around followed by very heated rants between random people. Modern ntertainment seems to be fundimentally changing in reaction to various social pressures and movements in real life.
Also Recently I watched 'the sandman' on netflix with my mom and she made the remark after a few episodes 'why does every show now have lesbians in it?' Its a fair question, and I have never really thought about it. So here are some of my opinions on the matter that im sure all of you will unanimously agree with and there will be no controversal statements or conflicting feelings between us.
I really like dark fantasy and philosophy, so the initial hook of the sandman is up my ally. A cosmic entity stripped of power and imprisioned for 100 years is a such banger of a introduction to the world of sandman. I knew of it vaugly from my active comic book nerd teen years but never got around to reading it. I did't know anything about the series going into the show, and was not a fan of it beforehand. So what did I think of it? All in all its a good show! Many parts are awesome, some parts are meh., Its a good watch if you like these kinds of stories that tackle complex subject matters and abstract concepts.
After watching I did a little bit of research on moms 'why are there so many lesbians' question. As it turns out In the case of sandman, The inital comic series was one of the first somewhat popular cultural touchstones of the LGBQT culture, and it was highly contentious at the time of release in the 90's for daring to depict non-straight characters. Many angry squares mailed the editors of the comic with claims of 'corrupting the youth' through the excessive showing of homosexual relations. Take a look at the picture below, I find the editors response hilarious!
picture of homophobic editorial letter discussed above
Another complaint mentioned with the sandman I saw is that some of the character roles were black-washed. Meaning that some of the traditionally white characters were casted as black. This and generally more diverse casting has become a somewhat common thing with new shows and movies. Ill discuss my thoughts on this little chestnut down a few paragraphs.
Woke is one of those words that seems to fit many different context, and is hard to pin down an exact definiton to. Its an umbrella term that, to my mind, seems to mean 'the current trend for people of minority, be it race, sexuality, or gender, to be represented much more pervasively in media and general cultural phenomenon'.
In my experience, when a new piece of media comes out there is a much higher likelyhood that the casted actors will be black, sometimes where the character is traditionally white. The characters in the story will have a good chance of being gay, bi, or trans, and non-heterosexual romantic relationships have much more focus/screentime.
I am not a part of this group, but have many friends and co-workers who are. While not really a big part of my life or thoughtspace, I am absolutely fine with those who are. I am a wierd person, always have been, and so I have always felt for the plight of the various groups of people who also dont fit into the mold that society expects us to fit. People can be needlessly cruel and unfairly oppresive of those who are different *and* dare let it show publically. I recently read a gemlog " The Disease Called perfection" and it reasonates with me on this particular subject.
As long as you are a decent person and fun to be around, I really don't care for the specifics of what gets you off sexually in the privacy of your bedroom with a consenting adult, or what pronoun you would like to be adressed as. These arbetrary things are not interesting to me nor do they impact my judgement of your character (which is much more important).
People are people, 8 billion copies of essentially the same being repackaged into slightly different forms living wildly different experiences. Once you get past the artificial and arbetrary mask of individuality things like sexual attraction just dont matter.
Here in the U.S, the queer were historically treated terribly. For the longest time homosexuality was treated as a mental disease to be cured. Imprisonment followed by potential castration, electro-therapy, labodomy, and contiuous hormonal treatments were all on the table for the horrific crimes of romantically loving another person of the same sex or not being comfortable with your own.
The most memorable story of homosexual discrimination which haunts my mind is Alan Turing, you probably know him as the guy who thought up the modern computer. One of the smartest people of all time who also helped the allies crack germany's 'unbreakable' enigma machine during the war.
In the face of all that, What did his country do to him once they caught on to a hint of the gay after the war? Yep, you guessed it, he was given the choice of 5 years jail time, or castration and continuous hormonal therapy. He chose the latter option and it drove him to suicide within 2 years. The guy was in his 30s. Imagine what else he might have acomplished. Im sure the brits sure are proud of that stain in their history. If you want to learn more, go watch the movie 'the immitation game'
Gemipedia Article On Alan Turing
In modern day, the LGBQT movement has made a lot of progress on the front of discrimination. The peoples who once lived in fear of physical punishment for a trivial abnormality now parade around freely without fear. The squares have been mitigated to grumbling in echo-chamber internet fourms. Having more exposure in tv shows and such are a sign of a changing social dymanic. Hollywood has found some new and potentially very profitable groups to pander to, the time of predominantly straight white people in the spotlight is over.
So far, I have mostly discussed the LGBQT part of the 'wokeness' discussion. I would like to now take a moment to discuss the other side of things. Another very heavily oppressed and damaged people of america is the black communities.
A very big section of american history tought in schools today explicitly focus on how horrible slavery was, how segregation and mycarthyism lead to the many black power movements of the mid 1900s, and the many current tribulations the african american community as a whole is still going through.
Whats not so often taught in school is how a certain three letter government agency ran a very successful classified operation in the 1980s. This operations goal was to attack and erode the poorest black communities from the inside out by distributing insane amounts of coke into them. Oh by the way the journalist who uncovered that little nugget of consipracy was found dead in their appartment from suicide not long after. Why am I not suprised.
Gemipedia Article: Glowy Involvement In Contra Cocane Traffiking
Throw in the many examples of mycarthyism, segregation, violent police brutality against people of minority, particularly blacks, andactual not-so-secret conspiritorial attacks from various government agencies themselves, and you can start to see the picture of why theres some genuine cause for unrest in america, and how certain movements are arising to put pressure on the status quo.
Even today with all the progress society has made, there is still many unsolved massive cultural issues, and ongoing tensions between various political and ethnic groups, to put it lightly. Decades of injustice, racism, hatred and political scapegoating has lead to a boiling poing of sorts for all minorities but blacks seemingly in particular. BLM is just one manifestation of this surge of changing climate.
One thing to understand about hollywood, and really all creative ventures with corperate and financial interest, is the need to pander. To these machines that output entertainment, all that matters is growth and numbers. To that end, they will make active efforts to be as inclusive to the biggest subsection of potential viewers as possible.
To the 1% of the 1% who are in charge of mass producing the media, the investors and the CEOs, they don't care about you. They dont care about diversity, or equality, or injustice. To them, we are all cattle for the slaughter. We are not people to them, we are barely even numbers.
To them, social movements are just another means to control the common person through subtle direction of thought and mob mentality. The goal is to carale the cattle, increase the profits and keep the growth exponential. Thats the cold hard truth of the entertainment industry and its relationship with the people who benefit from controlling our thoughts for profit and power.
To that end, at least in media curation, maximizing profit potential and viewership/subscribers means being as inclusive to the biggest majority as possible while minimizing risk of scaring said viewers away.
Historically in america, pandering to white middle class families was the safest bet. Which meant whitewashing casting roles, and zombifying the depiction of american families in telvision to be cringily squeaky clean and void of any disfunctions a real family might have (think of literally every sitcom made before the 90s). The simpsons was such a counter-culture phenomenon for challenging these established pandering conventions, depicting a dysfunctional family with realistic personality traits that viewers could actually relate to.
Now, it seems the tides are changing. the straight white middle class is no longer the safest bet. The black and LGBQT movements of recent years seem to have convinced the elite powers that be, that theres a lot of potential profit to be made by pandering to a new section of peoples. Cis and white are out, queer and black are in.
I personally don't think it does. The source material itself was ahead of its time and it just so happens to fit with modern day trends. I also don't think theres anything wrong with a piece of media that is made for a specific demographic. The sandman show is a win for the people who emotionally reasonated with it during the 90s, and those who appreciate the stories for what they are.
One thing I do critisize many modern shows guilty of 'wokeness' is being very heavy handed with their inclusivity/pandering. Trying to shove political agendas and social movements into everything with no subtlety can come across as uncomfortable and souless.
Average people do not do well with a very sudden change to the status quo. Its the lesson most governments learn very quickly. If you want a society of people to change, they need time and small incriments of change. The 'boiling a frog in water slowly' approach. When the most popular shows that become cultural vortexes go from one extreme of inclusivity/pandering to another very quickly, people are going to notice.
If you are a straight person who grew up with straight media and little involement with the LGBQT community, it can be an uncomfortable culture shock to be hit with a piece of media that has 5 gay sex scenes within the course of 40 minutes.
Likewise if you are a white person who lived through a time period where media was full of whitewashing(*cough* *cough* boomers), it can be jarring to suddenly see such a huge uptick in minority castings even to the point where traditionally white characters are casted in a different race.
Now that blackwashing is the in-thing thanks to the shows releasing now being produced during the hight of the BLM movement back in 2020, this overt pandering of holywood to the black community is much more noticable.
I dont think everyone who complains about the 'wokeness' of shows is a racist or a bigot, I think a good many people are just used to the status quo and need some more time to adjust to a new paradime shift. Become more comfortable with the "drastic" changes in media.
"What is better, to be raised tolerant, or to overcome your bigoted and racist nature through great effort?" - Parthurnax, probably
If we step back and take a look at the timeline, right now has never been a more free and safe time for minorities and the historically oppressed. A lot of progress still needs to be made, sure. And a better balance of representation in media needs to be met thats not merely pandering to the in-group, but the direction is over-all positive when you look recent history overall.
Honestly, considering the oppresive history of said groups in america, and how badly our culture has been white washed for most of its history, maybe some black washing and over-representation of the queer is just deserved.
I am not a very hopeful person. I cannot see a very happy ending for my children and their children without much trial and tribulation and global trauma. They largely must pay the price of the indulgence and greed of all the generations whom came before, or face extinction.
But there are certain trends in the world that do spark a bit of hope in me. One of those is that baseless hate and intolerance seems to be losing its grip on the hearts and minds of the newer generations. In 50 years we have come a long way despite everything. Perhaps in 50 more our childrens children will know a slightly better world thats more accepting and equal. Maybe the hateful sins and ongoing traumas of dead generations can finally be washed away in the annals of history and the rising pressure of a dying world bringing people together.
Identity is something I care not for. Political identity, familial identity, cultural identity, sexual identity, spiritual identity, all completely arbetrary. All, in a way, meaningless. These endless definitions, terminologies, disorders, nationalities, races, genders. All these attempts to catagorize the various aspects of our being and our connections to other beings, our very humanity in all its tapestries of physical, emotional, spiritual complexity. Most definitons are empty boxes to divide little digestable pieces of ourselves into. To catagorize, understand, express and relate to others. A useful tool. A terrible trap.
Obsessing over the definement and rationalization of your self. A thing which by its infinitely complex nature cannot be truly understood by either. Every term you associate with yourself is a dividing line that need not be there. A million nouns cannot a person make.
All these definitions are arbetrary nothingnesses that make us feel in control of ourselves, the definitions make us feel safe, make us feel important, unique, part of a bigger group. They give something for our formless cognative identities to latch and mould to. They convince us we are different, seperate, diseased. They are a fence that keeps us in our pastures.
The diabolical archetecture of echo chambers and mob mentalities allow the few, clever and greedy to engineer a world which they can control the hateful, ignorant, and many. So many are obsessed with the little differences of eachothers labels, the meaningless opinionsthat make up the meaningless identity, that they cannot see beyond.
You are you. You like what you like, hate what you hate, love what you love. We all experience different problems, face tribulations and traumas solely our own, have our own forms in the mirror, and think our own thoughts. but beneath all that? When the thoughts are torn away, and the form crumbles to dust, and the little differences wash away at the end of time? You are me, and I am you. Together with great effort and compassion we can make a slightly better place for the ones we love and those who come after us. All else need not apply.
I don't really know what the theme of this log was in the end. I kind of had a couple thoughts bouncing in my mind and they merged into this... abomination of text. I am glad I got to write down some of my thoughts in text form. Thanks for reading, see you next time.
