AlainLocke
Banned
By T. Hasan Johnson, Ph.D.
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” or “When White Women Finally Get to Run the Sci-Fi Plantation” by T. Hasan Johnson, Ph.D.
Click the link above to read the full story...
Since I was a child growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, I’ve witnessed the rise of both feminist and Black feminist narratives in society, academia, and media. And with it, their wet-dream of subservient men and boys across race, class, and context, all socialized to serve the Feminine Imperative of women’s needs and interests.
What does that look like? Well, you’ve seen it for years. Here’s an example in an AT&T commercial.
I remember seeing scores of female characters invade films, TV shows, and cartoons that once targeted boys. Sometimes they even developed female-centered versions of male-centered shows such as She-Ra, sister to He-Man, who easily kills him in the comics (both of whom are returning by the way. She-Ra to Netflix in 2018 with a possible movie and He-man a movie.
Fun fact: there was little effort to do the reverse, as neither Barbie, Strawberry Shortcake, Jem & the Holograms, or many others had versions made to target boys). Even the As a kid, I noticed that there was always a push to show how they were just as good as the males, a feat usually demonstrated by them matching males in all endeavors. Over time, I began to notice a newer trend in pop media: female supremacy. Now, women and girls (hell, even in female monsters such as the alien queen in James Cameron’s Aliens (1986), were better than their male counterparts at all things. They were always smarter, stronger, wiser, more capable, better leaders, more skilled, always right, better fighters, etc. From there, the Wonder Womans and Supergirls routinely bested their male counterparts. And strategically so.
This has seemingly become the new mandated norm, and it’s so generationally prevalent that my 12-year old has rarely (if ever) seen a male beat a female at anything in media. Even things that men can regularly beat women at are downplayed because comparisons are outlawed. So much so, that when two friends of mine who play tennis and basketball (respectively) shared with me that the lowest rated professional male players perform at a higher physical level than the highest rated female players, I was stunned. Although I’m not personally invested one way or the other about either sport (I don’t watch any of them to be honest), I was still blown away to hear it. Mainly because men aren’t allowed to be considered better than women at anything. And to point it out openly is a problem (think John MacEnroe’s public shaming at critiquing Serena Williams and highlighting the difference in men’s and women’s tennis). Even critiquing women using statistics and facts regarding performance levies the well-worn ad-hominem trope of being a misogynist.
In such fashion, the last few Star Wars movies reveal Disney’s plans to crystallize gynocentric narratives as the new norm. Why? Simply put, since the 1970s, when second-wave middle-class White feminists protested to join the ranks of labor (something poor Black and Brown women were already doing), industries began to notice that nearly overnight there was a new consumer market to sell to: women. They also discovered that men, too, prioritized purchasing for women. Soon, the media industry would catch wind. Initially beginning with talk shows and romance films, they also prioritized female-centered narratives in most genres.
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“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” or “When White Women Finally Get to Run the Sci-Fi Plantation” by T. Hasan Johnson, Ph.D.
Click the link above to read the full story...
Since I was a child growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, I’ve witnessed the rise of both feminist and Black feminist narratives in society, academia, and media. And with it, their wet-dream of subservient men and boys across race, class, and context, all socialized to serve the Feminine Imperative of women’s needs and interests.
What does that look like? Well, you’ve seen it for years. Here’s an example in an AT&T commercial.
I remember seeing scores of female characters invade films, TV shows, and cartoons that once targeted boys. Sometimes they even developed female-centered versions of male-centered shows such as She-Ra, sister to He-Man, who easily kills him in the comics (both of whom are returning by the way. She-Ra to Netflix in 2018 with a possible movie and He-man a movie.
Fun fact: there was little effort to do the reverse, as neither Barbie, Strawberry Shortcake, Jem & the Holograms, or many others had versions made to target boys). Even the As a kid, I noticed that there was always a push to show how they were just as good as the males, a feat usually demonstrated by them matching males in all endeavors. Over time, I began to notice a newer trend in pop media: female supremacy. Now, women and girls (hell, even in female monsters such as the alien queen in James Cameron’s Aliens (1986), were better than their male counterparts at all things. They were always smarter, stronger, wiser, more capable, better leaders, more skilled, always right, better fighters, etc. From there, the Wonder Womans and Supergirls routinely bested their male counterparts. And strategically so.
This has seemingly become the new mandated norm, and it’s so generationally prevalent that my 12-year old has rarely (if ever) seen a male beat a female at anything in media. Even things that men can regularly beat women at are downplayed because comparisons are outlawed. So much so, that when two friends of mine who play tennis and basketball (respectively) shared with me that the lowest rated professional male players perform at a higher physical level than the highest rated female players, I was stunned. Although I’m not personally invested one way or the other about either sport (I don’t watch any of them to be honest), I was still blown away to hear it. Mainly because men aren’t allowed to be considered better than women at anything. And to point it out openly is a problem (think John MacEnroe’s public shaming at critiquing Serena Williams and highlighting the difference in men’s and women’s tennis). Even critiquing women using statistics and facts regarding performance levies the well-worn ad-hominem trope of being a misogynist.
In such fashion, the last few Star Wars movies reveal Disney’s plans to crystallize gynocentric narratives as the new norm. Why? Simply put, since the 1970s, when second-wave middle-class White feminists protested to join the ranks of labor (something poor Black and Brown women were already doing), industries began to notice that nearly overnight there was a new consumer market to sell to: women. They also discovered that men, too, prioritized purchasing for women. Soon, the media industry would catch wind. Initially beginning with talk shows and romance films, they also prioritized female-centered narratives in most genres.
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