#also another topic I want to write a video essay on but probably wont

[lastoneout]

Im starting to think that the reason lots of men don't like movies like Ghostbusters(2016) and Birds of Prey and Charlie's Angels(2019) has less to do with subjectivity or even overt sexism, but more because they don't know how to deal with the feeling of their only representation in a movie being a shitty person.

Like the best way I can describe it is when I was watching Black Panther I was really relieved when Martin Freeman's character turned out to be a good guy and had his little hero moment, and for a long time I didn't like, examine that? But eventually I was thinking and I realized the reason it was relieving to me is because he's white, and I'm white, and I was happy that there was a "good" white guy in the film. It's an extension of white guilt and my desire to be a "good" white person, and despite the fact that it's honestly realistic to show them all as evil I still felt relieved when one didn't suck. Which is an internal bias I need to be aware of and work on, because it's really not about me, and that sort of feeling isn't going to help me learn to be anti-racist and a good ally.

And when you look at films like Ghostbusters(2016) and Birds of Prey, most if not all of the main male characters are either morons or evil. In Charlie's Angles the main male character turns out to be evil. All of the men in Birds of Prey are assholes or evil(and they aren't even given the luxury of being cool while doing it, they are truly unlikable). In Ghostbusters(2016) the villain is a man, and the other two men I can think of are the Himbo dumbass and the Dean who was a dick. In Captain Marvel the only positive male rep is Samuel Jackson's character, while the villain is a white man.

I really do think these guys don't know how to deal with the feeling of not being represented in a positive, or at least enjoyable light, and they don't want to or know how to confront those feelings, so they rationalize them away as the movie just being bad. Especially because all of those films objectively feature many of the same tropes as male lead movies these same guys claim to love.

Take Captain Marvel, they criticized Carol for beating up a man and stealing his stuff, when in Terminator the same thing happens and it's praised as being cool. The original Ghostbusters was filled with slapstick and lewd humor that men love(as well as featuring the objectification of women)but when the remake does the same thing(I'd argue they objectify the himbo)it's "just not funny". Charlie's Angels features nearly every single spy movie trope that dudes love in James Bond, but when it's female characters it's suddenly boring and bad. Birds of Prey is the same way, loads of tropes common in every other superhero film, but its just not "good" when it's a female lead film.

The only female lead film with a male villain I can think of that wasn't criticized in the same way was Wonder Woman, and you know what Wonder Woman had? A lead white male character who was a good guy(as well as several other good male characters but they weren't white and I do think race plays into this so I have no doubt if Chris Pine's character was either a woman or removed they would have hated it).

I dont doubt that some of it really is sexism, and men just having internal biases against women, but I think the root of the issue really is white men being desperately uncomfortable when they aren't portrayed in a favorable light in a film. They have no idea how to deal with their only rep being shitty, or shallow, or evil, or dumb, or even just a background character. So they have to come up with other reasons why the film sucked, even if they are doing it subconsciously. Marginalized people on the other hand are all to familiar with the feeling. We deal with shallow objectified women, queer-coded villains, background characters of color who end up evil or dead. Its part of why I think I recognized that feeling when suddenly I was on the other side. When I was the oppressor class feeling uncomfortable with all the characters like me being bad, the butt of the joke, shallow. Why I was relieved when one turned out to be alright.

Im curious if other white people found themselves feeling the same way during Black Panther(which just to clarify was a fantastic film that absolutely had every right not to center white people, or to decide to make all of them villains, and any film centering marginalized people has absolutely no obligation to portray their oppressors in a favorable light) and if any men have every felt uncomfortable watching films where all the men suck. Also just for any input honestly, especially from people of color, I'm kinda considering writing a full essay on the topic so I'd love feedback.

#birds of prey #ghostbusters 2016 #captain marvel #wonder woman #charlie's angels 2019 #marvel #mcu #marvel cinematic universe #feminism #fandom meta #kinda #introspection at 10am whoo #also another topic I want to write a video essay on but probably wont

[angelholme]

May, Myself and I -- Year 3, Day 19 : Dreams

"You only realise you are dreaming once you have woken up"

There are a great many books, essays, studies, works and other related things about the nature of reality.

They tell us that the universe is several billion years old, that the earth is slightly fewer billion years old and that humanity is just a few million years old. That we didn't coexist with the dinosaurs, that earth was formed by lots of other rocks being sucked in by a larger rock and that the solar system was -- more or less -- formed the same way.

They also tell us that -- according to what I think is the best knowledge in the world -- the universe was created by a huge explosion at the "dawn of time" and before that we have literally no idea what happened before then. Because according to the best knowledge we have there was nothing before then -- literally nothing.

It turns out that while we understand quite a lot (well -- a lot, well -- some of) how the universe works, what we understand is based on what we have come to understand as the basic physical laws of our universe. Force is mass multiplied by acceleration, every action has an equal and opposite reaction -- that sort of thing.

So when we examine a universe that existed before this one -- such as one before the big bang -- we cannot possibly understand it, because it (most likely) doesn't conform to our physical laws, so it is beyond our comprehension.

It turns out that the human race is not good with things it doesn't understand -- with things that are different. I am pretty sure that is why we hate spiders (they are so WILDLY different from human beings that they just creep us out beyond all rational expectations), and why things like racism and homophobia, transphobia and xenoppobia are still around.

It's also why people -- even scientific people, even rational scientific people, have issues grasping the idea of life that could be entirely different from us. Life based not on carbon, but on silicon, or nitrogen, or hydrogen. Life where carbon is not the basic building block.

I think it's also why people are so reticent to believe in magic, and mythical beings, because it contradicts what we accept as the basic laws of the universe -- but magic, from a certain point of view, is just the manipulation of energy.

However that is a topic for another time, because now I am going to return to the idea of dreams and the idea that when you are dreaming you believe it to be real, and when you are awake you realise it isn't.

Because when you are dreaming you live in an entirely different world. A world where anything is possible, but a world where -- sometimes (most of the time) you are not entirely in control. A world where somethings you see things that aren't real, and a world where sometimes you do things you didn't think were possible.

A world which, from a certain point of view -- sounds like the world we live in now.

Which does, for me at least, beg the question :-

Do we live in the real world, or are we all living in a dream world? Sharing a communal dream, from which one day we will all wake up?

For all the knowledge we have about the nature of the universe, the way the world was created and the world in which we live, it is all predicated on the understanding of world as we know it.

So when people estimate the age of the earth to be four and a half billion years, that is based on the information we have on how to date the earth. (Using the age old adage -- if you have a three foot ruler and you measure a piece of wood, it will be three foot long. But if your ruler is only actually 2 foot, 11 inches then your three foot piece of wood won't be three foot long).

Before I started writing this, I was -- as is my wont sometimes -- playing Hitman. I was wandering round the virtual world of Whittleton Creek, trying to find a mad old woman who sold cookies so I could stab her in the chest. (Which I know sounds kind of mean, but someone wants her dead. And this is entirely beside the point I am trying to make).

The village of Whittleton Creek comes into existence when the mission is created, and all of the characters, memories and personalities are created -- fully formed -- when the town comes into existence. They exist as long as the mission is running, and -- providing I don't whack any of the characters along the way -- they only cease to exist when the mission ends.

But for that entire period of time, the characters -- as far as they know -- are a fully functioning community. Their world exists much like our world. They can walk, run, talk, think, eat, drink, sleep, have sex, fight, flee, blow things up and so on.

They are, for all intents and purposes, fully functional human beings. And while some would say their thought patterns are limited because they aren't capable of thinking outside their pre-programmed ideas, I would say the same applies to human beings.

There are a fair number of people who have a limited number of thoughts and will never be able to think beyond those thoughts -- and if you ask them to, they will refuse or have a melt down.

The virtual inhabitants of Whittleton Creek are -- within their own virtual world -- as real as you or me. (You or I? I remember a line from Rilla of Ingleside where she says "Me?" and it suggests she is being ungrammatical, and that always stuck with me but I could never entirely understand why)

So if two dozen citizens of a virtual world can be considered real -- when they only exist for limited periods of time -- then why is it beyond reason to ask if an entire planet of people might not be in the same situation?

Could we be virtual inhabitants of a virtual world? Living in a simulated reality, or a video game? Not one that has been running for several million years, but one that was turned on two days ago, or a week ago? One where I, or you, or that woman you drove past on the street, is the lead character and everyone else is just an NPC?

The Whittleton Creek mob don't know they exist in a virtual world, so why would we? All we know is the world we live in, and all we can discover is that world. And more to the point, we'd never be able to look beyond what we know of our world because we'd never be able to exceed our programming -- since no programmer would want us to do that.

I suppose by this point you are probably wondering do I really believe this? Well -- yes and no. I am a big believer in science, and tend not to dismiss it easily. But on the other hand I tend not to dismiss ideas out of hand just because they are utterly ridiculous.

And -- to be quite honest -- I really have very little interest in the true nature of reality. I care more about the here and now, and what we can do for each other rather than where we came from and how we got here. So making random suggestions -- that everything we see or seem is but a dream within a dream, or that we are all living in a huge video game and our goal is to reach level 2 without being destroyed -- is just my way of having fun and seeing how many other people have a sense of humour.

And also how many other people recognise Poe when they hear him quoted.

#may myself and i #mmi year 3 #day 19 #dreams