Filmmaker Cassie Jaye seems to have developed a weird affinity for bigots.
First, she cozied up to some of the most hateful figures in the Men’s Rights movement during the filming of her documentary The Red Pill.
Then, when her funding for the film ran out, she happily accepted financial assistance not only from the actual subjects of the film but also from a motley assortment of far-right ideologues — among them a notorious quasi-journalist who was famously tossed off of Twitter after his fans barraged Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones with racist abuse, and a delusional Trump superfan who literally believes he gave Hillary Clinton the flu with his mind. (After a big donation to Jaye, he got himself an associate producer credit on her film.)
Now she’s trying her best to drum up interest in her film, which has barely drawn any notice at all outside the overlapping spheres of alt-right lady haters and MRAs since it premiered at a New York theater earlier this month.
While The Red Pill got a glowing, if rambling, “review” from new pal/volunteer fundraiser Milo Yiannopoulos at Breitbart, and a somewhat less-enthusiastic thumbs-up from Cathy Young at the right-wing internet tabloid Heat Street, the two real film reviewers who’ve bothered to give it a look have panned it.
Katie Walsh at the Los Angeles Times took issue with the film’s “uncritical, lopsided” argument, complaining that Jaye “twists herself in knots to justify the movement’s misogynist rhetoric.” The Village Voice’s Alan Scherstuhl dismissed Jaye as an inept “propagandist” and warned potential viewers that, as the headline to his piece put it, “You Can’t Unsee ‘The Red Pill,’ the Documentary About a Filmmaker Who Learns to Love MRAs.” (His review of what he described as an “agonizing” film caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the MRA crowd.)
With little hope of attracting positive attention from film critics, and apparently desperate for any publicity she could get, Jaye agreed to appear on the podcast of an internet-famous bigot who has been described by one critic, not without reason, as “THE MOST WARPED USELESS PEICE OF SH*T THAT I HAVE EVER HAD THE DISPLEASURE TO ENCOUNTER [on the] INTERNET OR ELSEWHERE.”
I am talking, of course, about the rape-excusing, abuse-encouraging, lady-hating, gay-baiting white supremacist Matt Forney — he’s the one on the left in the photo below.
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/787198238575120384
She didn’t just give Forney a couple of minutes of her time; she sat down with him for roughly three-quarters of an hour for his podcast “This Alt-Right Life.” It’s a singularly unedifying discussion. At one point she mentions that she used to get into arguments with her boyfriend every month about nothing, something she now jokingly blames not on PMS but on her (former) feminism.
Badump-tsssh!
She also expressed sympathy when Forney mentioned that he himself had been the victim of a “false” rape accusation. (Imagine that, the author of a blog post titled “Why Girls Rarely Mean No When They Say No” being accused of rape!)
Not that long ago, Jaye was by all appearances a staunch opponent of pretty much everything Forney and his alt-right pals stand for.
In 2012, she released a documentary titled “The Right to Love,” which, according to its description on IMDb, is the portrait of a “Californian married gay couple and their two adopted children,” fighting against the forces of “discrimination, ignorance and hate” who would deny them their right to marry and raise children.
Now she’s appearing on the podcast of a guy who is a virtual embodiment of this ignorance and hate.
It’s not as if evidence of Forney’s despicable views is hard to find, and not just in the WHTM archives. The name of his podcast contains the phrase “alt-right.” In the list of “popular posts” highlighted in the sidebar of his blog one finds such lovely titles as “How to Crush a Girl’s Self-Esteem” and “Why Fat Girls Don’t Deserve to Be Loved.” (Neither title is meant ironically.)
And then there is the endless stream of racist, misogynist and homophobic abuse that is his Twitter account. Some highlights from the last several days:
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/790064680907792386
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/790364983171354625
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/790367816360857601
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/790050589598162944
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/789976518596362240
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/789633067791122432
That last tweet — a reference to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s practice of murdering people by throwing them from helicopters — is technically a death threat, aimed at a National Review writer who has gotten many such threats from Forney’s colleagues in the alt-right, including photoshopped images of his 7-year-old daughter being gassed in a Nazi death camp.
Are these really the sorts of people Jaye wants to align herself with?
In his “review” of The Red Pill, Milo claimed, without evidence, that a virtual army of feminists was “scrambling to stop Cassie Jaye” and her film. In fact, feminists have mostly ignored The Red Pill. And the person who has done the most to damage Jaye’s credibility is, well, Jaye herself.
Meh. I think turnabout is fair play. If he’s going to relentlessly shame women who don’t meet some extremely narrow standard, he needs to live up to those same standards.
@WWTH
I disagree. I think it’s wrong to appearance shame and we don’t get a free pass just because he’s a jerk.
OT: Trump maintaining all the sexual assault allegations are totally false but today threw in this added bit of loveliness about Jessica Drake
http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/24/politics/trump-on-latest-accusations/index.html
@JoeB
No, we know, Trump. You grab them, as you say, by the pussy. We’re aware.
As the resident Matt Forney lookalike, I’ll repeat (sort of) what I said the last time this was brought up. It really isn’t about his actual looks. It’s about the fact that he thinks he looks like Clooney, when in fact he looks like a deformed baseball. What makes his appearance such an easy target is mainly his idea of how to look “cool” and act “alpha”. He always looks so clueless, pissed off, nervous, etc, and all that is combined with what we know about his character and his over the top shaming of other people for having the same physical attributes as he does himself. Some other person with the exact same physical appearance could look entirely fine. His rotten core oozing through his pores is what really makes him so hideous.
@ Makroth
We can only infer something about a person based on what they say and do (including who they claim they are). So, we can’t erase the author because that informs our perception of what they say. Donald Trump’s history with women, for example, make me less likely to believe his sincerity when he says he has “respect for women”.
But there’s a difference because he said and did those things. We can all see and hear what he’s said and done and inform our perspective when we interact with Trump’s subsequent words and actions.
In the case of Jaye, though, we don’t have anything to go on. Other than she made an ostensibly pro-same-sex movie, we have nothing to inform the perspective that her beliefs were antithetical to Forney’s.
So, I was pointing out that we shouldn’t speculate that Jaye must have ‘changed’ to ‘align’ herself with the alt-right – simply because of how we perceived one of her movies (either from seeing it or reading the summary) or because she’s an intelligent, articulate woman. Because we have nothing to indicate that’s true except our personal prejudices and biases.
We do, however, have her current statements indicating she was once a feminist (taking her interpretation of feminism at face value for the moment) but isn’t anymore, because feminism is whatever nonsense the alt-right strawman’s it to be.
So, like Milo and Trump, we can only draw our personal conclusions on what Jaye has said and done, and based on the above, it ain’t pretty.
That goes farther, for me, to determine if this is her true self and belief, then my personal projection as a gay man that anyone who is pro-same-sex relationships must be OK or the inference that she must be ‘undercover’ because the person we believe her to be wouldn’t do something like this.
@ kupo
Exactly. We can articulate the hope that an “intelligent, attractive and insightful” women wouldn’t hold these beliefs, but we shouldn’t dismiss them because of who we think she is (or should be).
I don’t really wonder why Cassie Jaye turned her back on feminism, but I do wonder just how deep that feminism went.
To me (my opinion only!) she seems like she was a fair-weather feminist, with probably a lot of unexamined internalized sexism.
I’m not saying this makes her a horrible person (although making The Red Pill probably does); being a feminist is a process, it takes time to A) be exposed to feminist thought and B) to examine and eventually incorporate that into your own personal set of beliefs.
That Jaye was likely an immature feminist who mostly accepted surface beliefs that she already felt comfortable with wouldn’t surprise me. I doubt she ever thought very long or hard about feminism, and it’s quite possible that it was an easy leap for her to accept “RPT”.
@snork maiden:
Nope. I had the unholy impulse to slip him a binky, too.
Seconding what people said about Ghostbusters. Almost didn’t watch it just on the principle that almost all remakes of 1980s properties suck, but it was every bit as witty and fun as the original.
I feel my comment was mocking him more for his demeanor, and strained attempt to look cool and edgy, rather than his body type.
@Petal and everyone else really
As the resident… well, we know what I’m here for… I’ll repeat (and expand on) what I said last time. Don’t pretend you’re not doing what you’re doing. You’re using his appearance as a knock at him. You’re using his looks to attack and denigrate him. You think that’s OK, cos you think he’s bad enough to deserve it. That this kinda hypocrisy is warranted, so long as you can get a rather base jab in. And that you (Petal specifically) get an extra pass, cos you’re a bald, white person too. If that’s OK with you, sign the dotted line. Just don’t ever say you’re not being a complete shit for doing so
Also, if you’re gonna make fun of his look, do be clever about it. ‘He looks like a baby’ is pretty low fruit. At least put some effort into your fuckery, damn
@Bina,
it’s just that I remember that look from when my baby boy used to do it; only he would manage to look cute at the same time. Forney just looks unpleasant, I bet he was a very colicky and constipated baby.
Imaginary Petal:
LOL!! No self awareness. Reminds me of Trump calling beauty pageant contestants “fat”. Makes you wonder if their mirrors are working.
Because that’s what we call hypocrisy.
The justification is that he doesn’t looks “as cool” as he thinks? This is the first comment about his appearance.
Does that sound like it’s about him being cool or not?
If people said “he’s acting like a baby that’s trying to imitate someone cooler”, that’s understandable, but that’s not what happened. It doesn’t matter if he’s trying to be hip and cool and down with it with a swagger like Jagger, his attitude has nothing to do with his appearance.
I mean, I know we all know he’s a white supremacist, rape-denying shithole, and it’s hard to reiterate the same thing and keep the thread going and interesting, but I rather read for the umpteenth time how his mannerisms are babyish rather than how he looks like a baby.
Ah, yes, as you can see here, him being called a baby totally has to do with his attitude and not how he actually physically looks.
Absolutely. Completely. 100% not about his looks.
I don’t think Trump uses mirrors. I don’t think he has a reflection.
I am uneasy with saying he look like [insert unflatterous comparison]. But I can agree with the idea that another person with the exact same body would easily look a lot better and that his internal hatred of himself and other show in his body language.
That being said “looking like a baby” don’t even register as an insult to me. It’s like saying of a men that he look like a women. If anything, it underscore the threat he represent. I can easily imagine him being a rapist or a violent bully, two things babies can’t be.
Physically, when I see him, I have the impression he would do any dare, either made by the society or by his warped mind, because he need to constantly prove himself he is a “real man”. I am not sure what make me think that, and it may very well be influenced by what he actually say.
I admit, it’s not the worst comparison, he’s likely compared people to worst (not that I care to remember), but it’s a still an insult and is suppose to be insulting. It’s not flattering, not that he should be flattered, but just, like, you don’t need to bring up how he looks at all. Ever. He could be Brad Pitt’s clone or a sentient pile of shit and he’d still be a horrible person, so why bring up how he looks at all?
I called him “Matt Forget” because of autocorrect, sorry.
I too am remarkably babyfaced and I do not mean to insult people who look like that. It’s just that he’s so horrible, it strikes me as odd and kind of funny. If he wasn’t such a hateful person he might look cute. It was not my intention to appearance shame or anything and I apologize. Having a chubby and youthful face is not bad.
Can we say he looks like an unpleasant evil baby? :U
HI everyone I know I’m kinda derailing here but I’m just so happy so I have to share this with everyone and I hope I can brighten someone’s day even it’s just a little bit so anyway I got a new kitten! I don’t know her breed I think she might be mixed?
A few days ago one of my bosses asked me out of the blue if I wanted a kitten and ofc I said yes and bought everything I needed and took her home that night and my mom was so shocked but she quickly got over it and my grandma was surprisely pretty cool about it and named her Misty.
I wish I can post pics of her but I don’t know how. But she is so cute! She was really scared at first but in just a day she’s used to us and even likes being with us. She is so mellow and sweet.
Btw I’m actually allergic to cats but i don’t feel bad at all. It must be the allergy pills I been taking and those bath kitty wipes I been using on her.
@authorialAlchemy
‘Unpleasant’ and ‘evil’ are well enough insults. Why are people so stuck on this? You don’t need to make the comparison to babies or eggs or whatever. If ya don’t need to, and you know it’s not cool, maybe just don’t…
@Fruitloopsie
Sweet!
@Axe, Jack, others
Point taken (again, because this is exactly what I said the last time I was called out for this ).
Axe, I see that my “Forney lookalike” line came off as an excuse. It was really meant as meaningless self-deprecation rather than a justification. My bad.
I think your points are all valid, but, Axe, I’m not pretending like I’m not doing what I’m doing. I’m doing exactly what I say I’m doing. I am making fun of his appearance in conjunction with his shitty views, because combined I think those are hilarious. So, yeah, I take full responsibility for that.
I will say this: for me personally, I think the edge is taken off those kinds of insults if they’re made abstract. I wouldn’t say “lol he’s fat”, and I retracted comments I made about his teeth the last time this came up. I’m also not fond of the “baby” comments. That kind of shaming directed at specific physical attributes causes a lot of splash damage and are just unclever and boring. What is (in my book) fair game, are creative, abstract, highly personalized insults, since I can’t really see the splash damage from calling Matt Forney, like I did in the other thread, “a burning log”. It’s more like a mental representation of the essence of Forney, rather than a direct comment on his looks. What does it even mean that he looks like a burning log? Which part is the log? Where’s the fire?
Sorry if this came across as more excuses. I dunno, but I do think there’s a big difference there. I’ll stop.
But is it ok to say that his beard is an upside down moustache, his moustache is glued on eyebrows, and his eyebrows are just stains from a meatball sub? I don’t know, people. Maybe I’m just not getting this.
Slightly O/T but may be of interest to folks here. BBC4 is doing a 3 part documentary about fiction. The one they’ve just put out is on Fantasy.
Features, inter alia, Tolkien, Gaiman and Le Guin.
It’s called ‘Sleuths, spies and sorcerers’
On iPlayer now for 30 days.
ETA: fruitloopsie – kitty congratulations!
@Fruitloopsie
I wish you and the kitten a fantabulous winter!
He acts like an unpleasant evil baby, and that may or may not make him appear like a baby, but you don’t have to say he looks like one.
I mean, it seems like I’m just bringing this up out of the blue but I’ve noticed there’s people that bring up how people look a lot over the time I’ve been on here, and I’m just kinda getting sick of it.