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Woke?

Posted by RGA (R) on March 14, 2022 at 04:02:38

In Reply to: First awards are rolling in today... posted by musetap on March 13, 2022 at 23:12:28:

My problem with Power of the dog was that basically nothing happened. The Big reveal, if it really is in 2020, doesn't really matter to me - it was just an incredibly SLOW-paced movie where nothing really happens and when it finally does happen I was like okay so what?

What is the theme or message in this movie?

I am a pretty left-leaning guy and I am not exactly sure what "Woke" actually means because it seems to be a pretty big sliding scale. It seems the terms have started in the last 5 years and I need it explained to me perhaps.

Is woke about promoting equality - that black people, gay people, transgendered people are equal?

Well, this isn't new - I watched an episode of Night Court the other day and Dan Fielding met a high school cum who became a woman - Dan was outraged but by the end, they were buddies again - This was in the 1980s,

Watched an episode on WKRP and the same theme but this time with Herb Tarlek and a friend from high school who became a woman.

Was all this woke? Star Trek has dealt with it forever - they have had Black Captains (DS-9) and Star Trek Voyager has a female captain, a female chief engineer, a First Nation Indian second officer, a Black male head of security and a Korean ensign. That was in the 1990s.

And what about Family Ties - a liberal show with the most loveable Republican possibly ever put on Television in Alex P Keaton (Michael J Fox)!

Movies as well - Mel Brooks made Blazing Saddles which skewered racism - and what satire like this and The Producers does is it makes a belief system like racism so utterly ridiculous and laughable that the "message" to the audience is about reducing the idea of racism to a ridiculous set of belief that if a racist is in the audience they too will "learn" or "see the light" of how utterly absurd their beliefs in "white power" really are.

Jojo Rabbit is a brilliant recent example.


The problem with Don't Look Up is that it is not presenting the material in a way that allows the audience to come to any conclusions on its own. It comes across as shrill and basically shouts the message at the audience - indeed there is a scene where Dicaprio literally shouts the message at the audience. It's not necessary.

It's the same with some of my favourite shows - Doctor Who is a prime example of this. The Doctor is now a female - which is fine - but a guy who is expecting a make Doctor (as he's always been a male) addresses the male companion and the new female doctor intervenes - "I'm the Doctor - I've had an upgrade" - yes yes har har being a female is superior - men should accept this fact. This is why, I suspect, Conservatives especially, hate this crap. It's lazy writing for one and keeps pushing the notion that men(and boys) should feel inferior to women.

A show like Family Ties never did this - Conservatives could like this show because while Alex would win the day academically, Malory would show her strengths as well with a different kind of intelligence (artistic).

The Gay reveals in Power of the Dog seems to me to be something like 3 decades too late - like who cares. Lots of people are gay and they were gay in the 1800s and 1900s too and most of society really doesn't care anymore.

It reminds me of American Beauty where the neighbour is an asshat and anti-gay all the while secretly being gay.

It's called projection (doth protest too much) so when someone is hugely anti-gay there is a pretty good chance they are fantasizing about gay sex. Examples are like that guy who founded that "conversion therapy" outfit and it turns out he was gay or the myriad of Republican Politicians who are always ranting about gays - and then get caught engaging in gay sex.

There are some ultra-right-wing posters on this film forum who make fun of Pete Buttigieg and are always commenting on the looks of male rock singers and who love Barbara Streisand - - they rant about it so much that they kind of shine a light on themselves - they are clearly closet homosexuals.

I guess it's a long way to say that I think the problem with wokeism is not so much the message they are delivering but the way it is being delivered because none of these messages are new. TV shows in the 1970s and 1980s, as noted, from All in the Family to WKRP to Taxi to Family Ties to Night Court to M*A*S*H etc did the same but allowed the audience to come to the conclusion and not beat you over the head.

Lastly, I have no problem with the messaging - I am a progressive - I want people to be more progressive. But you won't do it bashing them and you won't do it guilting them. I know, I always try and it never works. :-)

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