So this tweet happened:
Hmm. I hate to challenge Return of Kings’ legendary factcheckers, but they seem to have made a teensy little mistake here. Forbes actually thinks that the Star Wars “boycott” championed by assorted Internet reactionaries and racists didn’t cost Star Wars any money.
One clue here is the headline to the Forbes post stating that the boycott “Didn’t Cost Star Wars Any Money.”
In the post itself, Forbes contributor Erik Kain declares that RoK’s “claims about just how much of an impact their, ahem, “balanced, critical reporting” has had on the film’s financial success” were “even more ludicrous” than their claims that “The Force Awakens is little more than social-justice-warrior propaganda.”
Just a little heads up here, Roosh: Words mean what they mean, not the opposite of what they mean.
Unless the person saying these words is being sarcastic. For example, I was being sarcastic above when I mentioned “Return of Kings’ legendary factcheckers.” Kain was not being sarcastic.
H/T — @leyawn
@ Bina
It was originally the other way round; seriously.
Heh…so it was. Not sure what the logic was, there, but oak hayyyyy…
@ Bina
I think it’s Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy that makes reference to a species whose calendar goes backward.
I looked at the comments on the Forbes article (there were only 5 when I looked, I assume they have good moderators) and the very first one was from someone saying that Return of Kings isn’t an MRA site. The author responded:
I just want to give him a huge thumbs up for that. Thank you, Erik Kain, for not capitulating to the petty manosphere infighting BS.
EJ: About Sherlock, as they say, I wasn’t mad, but I was disappointed.
*SPOILERS*
If they’d just made it a fun “non-canon” episode that was set in the 19th century and gave no explanation for it, I’d be OK with that. But noooo, they had to work it into the existing continuity…the result being that the big mystery they spend most of the time on didn’t really happen, and they outright admit is just something Sherlock’s mind made up that wouldn’t have really worked that way. Left me feeling like “Well, that was a waste of my time.”
And it’s all they’re in the mind palace, now he’s awake, no JK he’s still in the mind palace, then at the end finally he’s awake and all the previous stuff was in the mind palace, fine…NO JK actually they’re in Victorian London and the whole thing was a story they were telling! Except actually it’s modern times outside!
It’s like they wanted to be clever and have a twist, but had no idea where the line was between “clever twist” and “random and incoherent.”
@ Dan Kasteray
Oh, dear God no. The idea that Steven Moffat is somehow this contemptible misogynist writer needs to die, seriously. It’s an accusation dreamt up by members of Reddits of dubious, hater-y nature that have never been able to say nice things, and are often rather hateful towards, Steven. They’re loud, it’s unfortunate.
He’s put some stuff that’s sexist in his work, but no more so than the next writer. It happens to most writers, because of the society we live in. His female characters have flaws, they’re sometimes damaged emotionally, but never do they give up and they usually save the Doctor rather than the other way around. (Amy is the coolest- she’s like, one or my favourite characters and, to me, very well written and likeable. And don’t get me started on Clara, possibly my fave companion.)
Alan:
You Britons could have impressive numbers more easily if you just adopted a continental climate…
@ Arctic Ape
For a Briton, when it gets to the point when you visit Lapland in the middle of the snowy winter, call home and discover it’s colder in England than it is where you are, it’s a bit ridiculous!
(That actually happened to me when I was between primary and secondary school (or first year of secondary?) It was a particularly mild year, but still. Last year when I went, one journey down a tall hill to our cabin I needed no jumper. That was cool!)
Nparker,
There seems to be a few show runners who despite being no worse than other show runners, or even better than average, get this IMO unfair reputation as misogynists. I’m thinking mainly of Moffat, Joss Whedon, and Dan Benioff and David Weiss. It probably is a small minority of feminists, but they are very vocal.
There are problematic and sexist things in each of their shows and I have no problem with those things being criticized, but they’re mostly clueless white guy kind of problems that can be constructively criticized. I really don’t think it’s fair to treat them like they’re basically MRAs.
All of their shows have interesting and three dimensional female characters who contribute to the plot. That’s better than most shows. So I wonder why they get the most criticism? I think it might be because so many feminists are into geeky things so those show runners are the ones making the shows we watch.
I also think some people just have the tendency to criticize absolutely everything. I prefer to actually enjoy things once in awhile, so I can take note of an issue, but then move on.
I never learned how to convert from F to BSc :/
Wow. Don’t buy the Star Wars Monopoly.
http://io9.gizmodo.com/rey-is-missing-from-new-star-wars-monopoly-and-this-is-1751001963
I had the displeasure of meeting fascist misogynists who are just like this. (And no, I am not using “fascist” as a pejorative. They really are fascists.) One in particular would make up all sorts of pseudoscience conjectures but never support them with any current scientific data. The fascist misogynists (not just him in particular) never use science. At most they quote 19th century authors whose outdated ideas have long since been refuted, because they can’t actually rely on current science.
All these far right groups are cults. Even though they hate each other, they operate in very similar ways. It’s really creepy.
@WWTH
Of COURSE Rey is missing from the new SW stuff. She’s from a Disney franchise that isn’t part of the Disney Princesses Line. You know boys don’t like anything to do with girls so that’s why they only get toys without girls in them. Obvi.
Oh for fuck’s sake.
I can’t speak for anyone but myself, and I have no opinion on the others, but my problem with Joss Whedon is that he needs to get over himself. His material is “better than most” but it’s not actually all that feminist, and yet he is held up (and holds himself up) as a feminist icon. He’s one of those not-particularly-feminist-guys who calls himself a feminist and expects to be crowned a movement leader. It’s really hard to escape the impression that he thinks this because: penis, which makes it equally hard for me to take anything he says seriously.
Roosh doesn’t even have Dewey’s excuse.
@ Pandapool
I think that’s really unfair, actually. The Monopoly board is only one in a sea of products for the new movie. I’ve seen Rey on a lot of merchandise for the new film. She’s already had several action figures for example. Disney have been progressing in their marketing of Non-Princess characters in regards to gender representation.
Bottom line is, Rey has been well served by Disney. Female characters have been in every Star Wars figure set in Disney Infinity, too- Ahsoka comes in the starter pack, Leia in the story-mode Original Trilogy pack and Rey in the Force Awakens story-mode pack. That’s just one example.
Also Disney have started considering gender a lot less important for marketing for a while now. Tangled wasn’t exactly aimed solely at girls, for example.
They’re also trying to reform sexist marketing. For example, Disney have announced that they are stopping production of Slave Leia merchandise and instead having Leia only in her other costumes.
Basically, Disney are doing better than most in terms of ignoring gender, and it really annoys me when they are treated as somehow on the same level as much more sexist marketers.
Now we just have to sort out the little problem of the lack of Black Widow in their Marvel marketing…
(And, only half related, in non-Star Wars progressive type stuff, there was a lesbian couple in a Disney Channel show awhile back. Then the five-year old star in the show received death threats. That made me sick to my stomach.)
There’s a difference between what Disney is doing and what Hasbro’s doing. Disney have been applying their rock-solid character-led strategy to Marvel and now Lucasfilm, so they are of course going to ensure that they put the main characters of the film, Rey and Finn, front and centre. (There is a part of me that hopes Disney dig out the Lucasarts characters and give them the same spit and polish but I know in my heart this won’t happen. We already got a Monkey Island film, they just called it Pirates of the Caribbean.) Disney marketing won’t do this with Black Widow because she’s not a main character, so they don’t have to.
Hasbro have buried Rey because Hasbro divides most of their properties into for-girls and for-boys. (Their nerd shit division Wizards of the Coast gets to make things for everyone.) This is their fault.
What’s frustrating is that the Disney creatives have worked out that the money you lose by having female leads is more than made up for by the women and girls who really really love your movie because you have a female lead, and all the other people who don’t care either way but find it refreshing. Frozen made fuck-off money out of sisters bein’ sisters, and now Star Wars has made fuck-off money out of Rey fixing her way across the galaxy.
@ Artic Ape & nparker
We had a continental climate up until the late iron age, I’d be quite happy to see it back.
Of course, Cornwall is weird anyway. There are lots of little micro climates down here. The bluebells will be out in a couple of weeks in a few places ( my fave stone circle being one of them :-))
I’ve just remembered David Mitchell’s brilliant rant when someone described the temperature of tea as “7” but without giving any units.
“On one scale that’s cold and on the other it’s solid!”
@nparker: Thank you for expressing my reaction to Dan Kasteray in a much more eloquent fashion than I was managing, even before I got distracted and ended up not posting anything.
Always happy to help!
I suppose I am quite eloquent…
Everything I wrote came out accusatory, like “Look who hasn’t been paying attention!” which I judged would not be helpful.
Somebody unearthed a picture of Oscar Isaac wearing a t-shirt with a print of a cover of Atlas Shrugged on it, and now Tumblr is melting down.
I’m predicting the end of the Mouse altogether. Wolves will howl in Main Street USA within six months, you mark my words.
@florkje
Thanks, Florkje!
What I didn’t mention was the profit motive for some of the writers.
Also not mentioned: the fact that it’s important to track these groups. The Jews in Nazi Germany kept hoping and wishing that the Nazis would go away, and we know how that ended. These groups bear watching.
nparker & Falconer , that’s great that you’re personally satisfied with how Disney is dealing with sexism in their merch. Doesn’t mean your opinion is *the* opinion, doesn’t mean people are overreacting or “haven’t been paying attention”. While shopping for my nephew’s birthday, and just by being in stores for that matter as Star Wars doo-dads seem to be plastered everywhere, I noticed plenty of things aside from Monopoly that were missing Rey. Action figures and Monopoly are far from the only things that they slap Star Wars logos on and call it collectible. Hell, they’re all over cereal boxes and soup cans right now and I haven’t seen Rey on those either, unless they’re just not shipping the lady packaging to my store.