Kulturkampf

[PhoenixDark]

[Potato]

The woke crowd have hated Barbie for generations. Now they love Barbie? WTF? I'm so confused.

[BIONIC]

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The woke crowd have hated Barbie for generations. Now they love Barbie? WTF? I'm so confused.

It’s subverting all the sexist tropes by… enriching the very same toy company that perpetuated them in the first place

[HaughtyFrank]

what makes barbie a woke movie?

are they like "ken is trans now and that's ok, please call her kenja?"

Apparently when they leave Barbie land, Barbie discovers the horrors of sexism while Ken discovers the patriarchy, which he thinks is awesome and brings back to the Barbie land where the Kens then take over. 

It sounds pretty on the nose but I also haven't seen the movie and I sort of expect that someone of Gerwig's and Baumbach's caliber would tell this with a bit more nuance. Also everyone still seems to love Ken despite is supposed heel turn.

[HaughtyFrank]

Something that I find always amusing is how random these culture war targets are. Like the Transformers live action movies have been a pretty white franchise. 6 Movies with white leads and maybe some diversity in the smaller side characters but not much. Now the latest one, Rise of the Beast, comes along with a Latino man and a Black woman as leads and nobody seems to care. This wasn't some small movie. This was a 200 million tentpole one, but I haven't seen anyone on the left praising it or on the right attacking it.
Movie itself wasn't a hit but and merely broke even but I imagine that's mostly due to franchise fatigue and not because of the leads.

[D3RANG3D]

[Polident]

The people angry about it being woke probably don’t believe it is and don’t really care. It’s their brand to act this way. None of it happens organically. It’s switched up in a second when it’s convenient. Look at the recent cartoon Mario movie. Woke until it wasn’t.

Likewise, if the Sound of Freedom was led by Pedro Pascal, the conversation would be very different.

The woke crowd have hated Barbie for generations. Now they love Barbie? WTF? I'm so confused.

The movie has a character who acts that way. Literally calling out Barbie, to her face, for representing sexism and capitalism and body shaming and even says she’s a fascist. Think there’s a term for that. Preemptive self criticism as an act of dismissing it. It’s like that Gillette commercial a few years back.

[HaughtyFrank]

You just know that the sort of Barbie movie that Ben Shapiro would approve of would be utter horseshit (only positive being that he'd cast his hot sister).

Meanwhile other people are whining that a movie called OPPENHEIMER focuses too much on him and not on the female characters or Japanese people in interment camps.

It's all just a carnival of stupid dressed up in "politics"

[benji]

Remember when we learned how it was harmful to the community to accuse critics of being secretly attracted to or part of the community? Trans Twitter can basically never not accuse their critics of being attracted to trans women.

[Uncle]

The people angry about it being woke probably don’t believe it is and don’t really care. It’s their brand to act this way. None of it happens organically. It’s switched up in a second when it’s convenient. Look at the recent cartoon Mario movie. Woke until it wasn’t.

Likewise, if the Sound of Freedom was led by Pedro Pascal, the conversation would be very different.

The woke crowd have hated Barbie for generations. Now they love Barbie? WTF? I'm so confused.

The movie has a character who acts that way. Literally calling out Barbie, to her face, for representing sexism and capitalism and body shaming and even says she’s a fascist. Think there’s a term for that. Preemptive self criticism as an act of dismissing it. It’s like that Gillette commercial a few years back.

lampshading?

except for how often an idea is lampshaded and it's like "yeah, that's true, you can't turn around and proceed to do it anyway just because you pointed it out"

[benji]

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

This is another of Trans Twitter's "experts" that constantly posts wrong things and conspiracy theories but still gets quoted by journalists.

[benji]

[benji]

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

[Eric Cartman]

what makes barbie a woke movie?

are they like "ken is trans now and that's ok, please call her kenja?"

Apparently when they leave Barbie land, Barbie discovers the horrors of sexism while Ken discovers the patriarchy, which he thinks is awesome and brings back to the Barbie land where the Kens then take over. 

It sounds pretty on the nose but I also haven't seen the movie and I sort of expect that someone of Gerwig's and Baumbach's caliber would tell this with a bit more nuance. Also everyone still seems to love Ken despite is supposed heel turn.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jul/24/paunch-free-zone-why-barbie-movie-ken-body-diversity-empowerment

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

Greta Gerwig’s empowerment movie is unarguably righteous. But when Barbie being lifted up seems to depend on Ken being pushed down, it rings a little hollow

The Barbie movie’s great triumph is its heroine’s makeover. After a difficult history setting, and maintaining, unrealistic beauty standards, she has been reinvented as a feminist icon. But there’s a problem – one that shortchanges half the potential audience and jeopardises the overall empowerment message. It’s the Kens.

Ken has, of course, long been portrayed as a pretty boy, the canonical boyfriend throughout the decades. Consequently, he hasn’t formed as tangible a personality as the more contemporary Barbie dolls we see today, with Mattel focusing on humanising their lead figure in all her varying manifestations.

Although Ken has always played second fiddle to his girlfriend, some of director Greta Gerwig’s decisions over how to portray them in her film weakens the patriarchal deconstruction she’s aiming for. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Kens’ appearance. While there are at least two plus-sized Barbies, and one in a wheelchair, none of the Kens are anything other than svelte. Even those who lack a six-pack certainly don’t have a paunch.

Ken becomes like the Barbies of the past: generic, carbon copies of coiffed hair and muscles. They’re manufactured so only their looks matter, their worth beholden to their desirability; those who don’t quite fit the mould, like Allan, become outcasts. Then, like the Allan dolls, these outcasts are quickly discounted because they have no place in Barbieland.

That Barbie is allowed to be any size, despite the societal constructs that originally shaped her creation, feels unfair if Ken is trapped in a slim body. Plus-size men are denied a film in which they are represented, unlike female viewers in this case. One could argue that men don’t require such breadth of representation – after all, this film is not aimed at them, right? But that’s surely not the outcome Gerwig – or Mattel – were after.

Barbie’s journey of self-discovery is rooted in a challenge to the patriarchy. Although that patriarchy protects the Kens, the film shows how it also damages them, and leads them to turn Barbieland into a mecca for toxic masculinity. While the type of man being portrayed is one many people may have encountered, confining the Kens to that one type prevents them from escaping the very patriarchal system the Barbies are attempting to break down.

In the end, the Barbies adhere to the same standards. Rather than becoming a matriarchy, which seeks to find power from within as opposed to exerting it over others, the Barbies end up holding absolute power over the Kens. No one is freed from Ken’s coup; it simply gets a fabulously pink makeover.

A general critical consensus has formed on the foundation that it’s OK to dilute the Kens down to a parody of themselves because they’re only suffering the same humiliation women have endured. However, having the Barbies act like real-world men ultimately continues the long legacy of male influence, as opposed to quelling it.

Ryan Gosling’s Ken is on a journey alongside Barbie, too: he’s trying to learn who he is without Barbie, and finds himself left wanting. Even as the film ends, and Barbie is able to venture into the real world as a real woman, Ken is simply “Kenough”; he has no ending. His singing about his “blond fragility” is met with laughter, yet the joke conceals depths. Ken might be played as a repetitive one-note character, but he has complexities: he’s insecure and self-conscious, and bombastic in his attempts to mask his feelings of inadequacy. Compared to Margot Robbie’s Stereotypical Barbie, Ken is in fact significantly multifaceted.

Given how the narrative unfolds, Ken is unequivocally central to the plot. Without him, there is no Barbie movie – but there is no closure for his story. As viewers, we’re left with an uncomfortable punchline: that people are either superior or inferior, and that one group has to lose in order for the other to win.

Does this mean Barbie is a write-off, failing to live up to the hype? Not at all. But its powerful message of empowerment is skewered to only empower in one direction. Men have been retained their empowered position over millennia, but it still feels like a grey area to elevate Barbie by shortchanging the Kens. If Barbie is a feminist icon, the message should be equality for all, and not at the expense of someone else.

[BIONIC]

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

Reinforcing gender stereotypes?

[Cauliflower Of Love]

They both look miserable

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

These psycho vocal trans people are just the same women hating people they were before transitioning.

[Uncle]

when they're like HELL YEAH I'M FEMININITY-MAXXING BRO, LOOK AT THESE GAINS all hyper-competitive

[Potato]

This is hilarious on so many grounds.

Quinn: The 'ground-breaking' first out transgender player at a Fifa World Cup

In their opening match against Nigeria, Canada midfielder Quinn became the first out transgender player at a Fifa World Cup. Like their style of play, it was done with minimal fuss.

Quinn is a key part of Canada's midfield, their place as the midfield anchor crucial as the Olympic champions aim to add the 2023 Fifa Women's World Cup trophy to their cabinet.

They played the full 90 minutes against Nigeria. The result was a goalless draw - but the Canadian number five's role created history.

Quinn came out as non-binary in September 2020, dropping their old first name, asking to be known only by a mononym - a name composed of only one word - and saying they would use the pronouns 'they/them'.

Female player who transitioned to... non-binary...continues to play women's football. 

[HaughtyFrank]

Trans literally means opposite. Being non-binary literally rejects the idea of being an opposite to something. It makes no sense to call non-binary transgender

[BIONIC]

Now I don’t use the word hero lightly, but…

[Potato]

Trans literally means opposite. Being non-binary literally rejects the idea of being an opposite to something. It makes no sense to call non-binary transgender

Ahhh, but you see...

Unfamiliarity with Quinn's gender led to some negative reaction following the match against Nigeria. Searching their name on Google brings up "Does Quinn take testosterone?" as the number one suggestion.

Quinn said after coming out they do not plan to increase their testosterone levels, nor medically transition through other methods, while playing professionally

"There will always be rubbish, people with closed minds who want to change laws," Johal says. "I hope that when they see an athlete like Quinn, they are a regular and normal person.

Wouldn't want their gender identity to impact on their ability to play professionally now, would they?

What about the desperate need for gender affirming care? I thought it was genocide to deny it? This person is genociding themselves by denying themselves the essential care they need.

[Uncle]

Trans literally means opposite. Being non-binary literally rejects the idea of being an opposite to something. It makes no sense to call non-binary transgender

wait so I can start calling my mustard trans-ketchup

[benji]

Trans literally means opposite. Being non-binary literally rejects the idea of being an opposite to something. It makes no sense to call non-binary transgender

wait so I can start calling my mustard trans-ketchup

Not if that's not how your mustard doesn't identify shitchud.

[benji]

I warned you guys about Canada, I warned you:

An Ontario principals’ group says it is concerned about the safety of staff from bullying and harassment following the recent death of an administrator who had filed a lawsuit against the Toronto District School Board for failing to protect him after a confrontation during a diversity training session.

Richard Bilkszto retired as a principal from the school board in 2019 after more than two decades, but continued to work on a contract basis. His lawyer, Lisa Bildy, said he died by suicide earlier this month.

...

A statement of claim provided by Mr. Bilkszto’s lawyer said the principal and other administrators were invited by the school board in 2021 for anti-Black racism training by the KOJO Institute, a consulting firm that provides anti-racism sessions. During a session, Mr. Bilkszto expressed an opinion that challenged the speaker’s statement that Canada was more racist than the United States.

According to the statement of claim, the speaker Kike Ojo-Thompson, who is the founder and CEO of the KOJO Institute, said that Canada had “never reckoned with its anti-Black history,” while the U.S. had.

Mr. Bilkszto, who had previously taught in Buffalo, N.Y., disagreed. “Bilkszto expressed his opinion that Canada is a more just society than the United States, pointing to examples of the Canadian education system and universal health care,” according to the statement of claim. He said it would have been an “incredible disservice to our learners” to suggest differently.

In a session the following week, Ms. Ojo-Thompson emphasized the previous interaction with Mr. Bilkszto “as being a ‘real-life’ example of ‘resistance’ in support of white supremacy,” the statement of claim said.

Mr. Bilkszto alleged in the lawsuit that the speaker’s statements implicitly referred to him as a racist and a white supremacist.

In the sessions, Mr. Bilkszto said he was berated in front of his peers and felt humiliated. He alleged that the school board’s supervisors and members of the senior management team, who were in attendance, did not intervene to stop the harassment, which was contrary to the board’s policy on protecting the well-being and safety of its employees.

Mr. Bilkszto also alleged that the sessions constituted workplace harassment and he suffered emotional distress that was aggravated by the failure of the school board’s senior staff to intervene.

“Bilkszto left the training session feeling humiliated, attacked, unsupported, harassed and alone. He suffered mental distress as a result,” according to the statement of claim.

[Uncle]

it's obvious that canada is more racist than the united states when even their so-called diversity efforts are named kike

[HaughtyFrank]

Could have at least used the confederate flag

[Nintex]

[Cauliflower Of Love]

This is hilarious on so many grounds.

Quinn: The 'ground-breaking' first out transgender player at a Fifa World Cup

In their opening match against Nigeria, Canada midfielder Quinn became the first out transgender player at a Fifa World Cup. Like their style of play, it was done with minimal fuss.

Quinn is a key part of Canada's midfield, their place as the midfield anchor crucial as the Olympic champions aim to add the 2023 Fifa Women's World Cup trophy to their cabinet.

They played the full 90 minutes against Nigeria. The result was a goalless draw - but the Canadian number five's role created history.

Quinn came out as non-binary in September 2020, dropping their old first name, asking to be known only by a mononym - a name composed of only one word - and saying they would use the pronouns 'they/them'.

Female player who transitioned to... non-binary...continues to play women's football. 

Trans literally means opposite. Being non-binary literally rejects the idea of being an opposite to something. It makes no sense to call non-binary transgender

Reminds me of Demi Lovato.

[Eric Cartman]

[PhoenixDark]

Something that I find always amusing is how random these culture war targets are. Like the Transformers live action movies have been a pretty white franchise. 6 Movies with white leads and maybe some diversity in the smaller side characters but not much. Now the latest one, Rise of the Beast, comes along with a Latino man and a Black woman as leads and nobody seems to care. This wasn't some small movie. This was a 200 million tentpole one, but I haven't seen anyone on the left praising it or on the right attacking it.
Movie itself wasn't a hit but and merely broke even but I imagine that's mostly due to franchise fatigue and not because of the leads.

That's the thing that I find odd. How do people decide what is "woke' and what isn't "woke" when it comes to non-white leads. Just saw the new Exorcist remake trailer and it features a black girl and a white girl, both of whom get possessed. Some of the comments I've seen are that it's woke but...why? Is the presence of a black person in any lead position woke? Or is it woke if you remake something with a black/Hispanic/etc lead replacing the previous white lead? There's this weird sliding scale for this stuff and I def think some people are basically conditioning their brains to view the mere presence of non-white people as wokeness. Not even just in art or media. Black doctor? Woke. Black HVAC guy? Woke. Hispanic nurse? Woke. That's...uh...bad.