The current culture war in the US has caused a rather strange and in my opinion, unethical demand from creatives....
Identity specific content.
Right around the time that certain corners of the media were busy sharing celebrities for wearing native American costumes to Halloween parties and other types of accusations around "cultural appropriation" were rampant....another similar demand was being made.
"Give me the content that I think you should make...otherwise you're part of the problem"
On its face, this seemed to me like an obviously unreasonable and unethical demand to make of creators. By creators, I mean people who create entertainment content across a variety of mediums including authors, script writers, artists, directors, video game designers, etc.
Now, I think that criticism of content is perfectly valid....although if the criticism is that "more people of a particular race, gender, nationality, culture, sexuality, gender, age, etc weren't included" strikes me as a particularly shallow criticism....people are entitled to criticize whatever they like.
What I don't think people are entitled to do is demand someone create content with more people of a particular race, gender, sexuality, body type, etc....or they're somehow part of some "problem". This isn't a real problem, or a valid complaint, because the response to this is so obvious. If you want a particular kind of content....simply make it. If you don't like a particular type of content....don't support or buy it.
I can only imagine that this complaint/demand gets made simply because those making it are unable to succeed at making the content they want to see. While I've seen public debates over the ethics and morality of issues like cultural appropriation....I've never seen one over this issue.
That's not to say I don't understand the complaint if it affects someoneso income, for example. I can understand why a black actor would want to see more roles, even if I think it's a completely unethical demand to make. The more roles exist, the better their chances are to work.
The complaint however, has extended to some weird places....like the absence of LGBT characters in Game of Thrones (which has LGBT characters) or the way those characters died (in a fantasy book where characters regularly died gruesome deaths). The criticisms seemed to be more about the identity of the author than the content he created.
I'll grant that sometimes....the audiences' complaints about the inclusion of characters and their identities seemed shallow and childish as well. Obviously, no one's childhood was ruined by the all female reboot of Ghostbusters. It was a terrible movie built off the all female gimmick and it arguably ruined the careers of the female actors....but it wasn't bad because it had an all female cast. It was bad because the importance of the all female cast took precedence over it being entertaining....and it's hard to imagine that would have happened in the first place had such demands and complaints about content weren't made in the first place.
I had generally rolled my eyes at this identity driven nonsense until it ruined something I liked. I had considered The Last of Us to be one of the best stories in video games ever and a fantastic example of why video games should be considered art. The sequel had been long awaited by fans and even though it sold well....the reception from fans has been extremely poor. This is primarily because the very thing which made the original great (the story) was pushed aside to promote some pro-feminist pro-LGBT narrative. The original was my wife's favorite game....the sequel is so bad she hasn't finished it and dislikes even playing it. One of the primary advocates of this game ruining nonsense, Anita Sarkeesian, has been exposed for practically blackmailing a video game company into hiring her. She made a name for herself creating controversial and outrage in the "Gamergate" incident and is known for shaming companies like Blizzard into changing their games. One might be forgiven for thinking her motivations are driven by equality or equity or even exposing bigotry....but in reality, she's driven by money. Here's a message she sent to game creators recently....
"Video game designers! Let me help you avoid these kinds of mistakes. I want you to make the great games you're envisioning while appealing to a broader audience (and that includes not offending entire market segments)."
It appears her business model is....
1. Use social media to generate outrage/controversy for video game content related to identity and accuse creators of bigotry.
2. Offer her services as a paid "consultant" to "fix" issues related to content.
3. Inject someone else's work with her agenda driven content.
4. Repeat step 1.
I've begun to think that perhaps the reason creative works include a completely unnecessary asian female lesbian these days is so creators can simply avoid being shaken down by these charlatans using social media as a weapon.
What do you think? Is it ever ethical to demand that creators make the kind of content that someone wants or they're otherwise guilty of some kind of bigotry? Or do you, like me, find this complaint as always unethical since someone can always decide to support or not support content with their money....or simply create the content they want to see?
Thoughts?
Identity specific content.
Right around the time that certain corners of the media were busy sharing celebrities for wearing native American costumes to Halloween parties and other types of accusations around "cultural appropriation" were rampant....another similar demand was being made.
"Give me the content that I think you should make...otherwise you're part of the problem"
On its face, this seemed to me like an obviously unreasonable and unethical demand to make of creators. By creators, I mean people who create entertainment content across a variety of mediums including authors, script writers, artists, directors, video game designers, etc.
Now, I think that criticism of content is perfectly valid....although if the criticism is that "more people of a particular race, gender, nationality, culture, sexuality, gender, age, etc weren't included" strikes me as a particularly shallow criticism....people are entitled to criticize whatever they like.
What I don't think people are entitled to do is demand someone create content with more people of a particular race, gender, sexuality, body type, etc....or they're somehow part of some "problem". This isn't a real problem, or a valid complaint, because the response to this is so obvious. If you want a particular kind of content....simply make it. If you don't like a particular type of content....don't support or buy it.
I can only imagine that this complaint/demand gets made simply because those making it are unable to succeed at making the content they want to see. While I've seen public debates over the ethics and morality of issues like cultural appropriation....I've never seen one over this issue.
That's not to say I don't understand the complaint if it affects someoneso income, for example. I can understand why a black actor would want to see more roles, even if I think it's a completely unethical demand to make. The more roles exist, the better their chances are to work.
The complaint however, has extended to some weird places....like the absence of LGBT characters in Game of Thrones (which has LGBT characters) or the way those characters died (in a fantasy book where characters regularly died gruesome deaths). The criticisms seemed to be more about the identity of the author than the content he created.
I'll grant that sometimes....the audiences' complaints about the inclusion of characters and their identities seemed shallow and childish as well. Obviously, no one's childhood was ruined by the all female reboot of Ghostbusters. It was a terrible movie built off the all female gimmick and it arguably ruined the careers of the female actors....but it wasn't bad because it had an all female cast. It was bad because the importance of the all female cast took precedence over it being entertaining....and it's hard to imagine that would have happened in the first place had such demands and complaints about content weren't made in the first place.
I had generally rolled my eyes at this identity driven nonsense until it ruined something I liked. I had considered The Last of Us to be one of the best stories in video games ever and a fantastic example of why video games should be considered art. The sequel had been long awaited by fans and even though it sold well....the reception from fans has been extremely poor. This is primarily because the very thing which made the original great (the story) was pushed aside to promote some pro-feminist pro-LGBT narrative. The original was my wife's favorite game....the sequel is so bad she hasn't finished it and dislikes even playing it. One of the primary advocates of this game ruining nonsense, Anita Sarkeesian, has been exposed for practically blackmailing a video game company into hiring her. She made a name for herself creating controversial and outrage in the "Gamergate" incident and is known for shaming companies like Blizzard into changing their games. One might be forgiven for thinking her motivations are driven by equality or equity or even exposing bigotry....but in reality, she's driven by money. Here's a message she sent to game creators recently....
"Video game designers! Let me help you avoid these kinds of mistakes. I want you to make the great games you're envisioning while appealing to a broader audience (and that includes not offending entire market segments)."
It appears her business model is....
1. Use social media to generate outrage/controversy for video game content related to identity and accuse creators of bigotry.
2. Offer her services as a paid "consultant" to "fix" issues related to content.
3. Inject someone else's work with her agenda driven content.
4. Repeat step 1.
I've begun to think that perhaps the reason creative works include a completely unnecessary asian female lesbian these days is so creators can simply avoid being shaken down by these charlatans using social media as a weapon.
What do you think? Is it ever ethical to demand that creators make the kind of content that someone wants or they're otherwise guilty of some kind of bigotry? Or do you, like me, find this complaint as always unethical since someone can always decide to support or not support content with their money....or simply create the content they want to see?
Thoughts?
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