I hear what you're saying, Simplicity, about blowback on outrage. In fact, I kind of think the douchey tenor of the '00s culture was a blowback on the furious third-wave feminism of the '90s--as well as a wild swing away from the rather limp-wristed conception of manhood the mainstream media proffered in that decade. The book Fight Club represented masculinity when that was radical. The movie co-opted it and ten years of chest thumping, dry humping idiocy ensued.
The difference between what we see now and the outrage of the '90s is that we can better see the facts behind the outrage. Pointing this out feels like a cliche but social media makes a huge difference, and not just in the opportunities it provides for people to seethe. Look no further that the roles Twitter and Facebook played in the Jian Ghomeshi scandal. 20 years ago Ghomeshi could have used his power to keep everything under wraps and nobody would have found out what a scum bag he was until after he died. Instead, thanks to social media and the greater internet, it was his worst kept secret that he was a dirtbag--everyone who bothered to look could find people calling Ghomeshi a creep. When things finally came to a head, people who wouldn't have had a voice before suddenly did, and Jian was free to bury himself on Facebook.
All of this plays into a lot of the theories feminists have been talking about since the '90s. It's easy for us to ignore the problems women faced coming forward about sexual assault, for example, when all we saw were outraged feminists howling about how it happens, but never actually saw it happen. Now, we've seen Jian Ghomeshi try to pre-emptively discredit women and shame them into silence. It's the absolutely wonderful side of our loss of privacy: it puts the lie to liars. I look at this case as a confirmation of something that seemed too theoretical for most people to care. But, like light bending around Mercury, we've seen things play out just like all those angry womyn told us they would, and we'd be fools not to listen.
Of course, this isn't the only case. We also have the recent revelations about harassment in parliament. Now that we've seen the evidence, the wool can fall from our eyes and a gestalt switch can occur. As the conversation builds, we'll see more and more, and start trying to deal with the problem. Hell, look at how our city came together after the Rinelle Harper assault. I can't help but think it took Tina Fontaine's brutal murder to wake us up to that reality. But the upshot is, we actually cared about a problem for once, as a community, that we'd been ignoring or marginalizing for years, and it feels incredibly empowering. At the end of the day, it doesn't behove us to ignore problems. When we acknowledge them and deal with them, things actually get better. And that kind of success plays into an intoxicating virtuous cycle.
Maybe I'm just hopelessly optimistic. I know there are still racists, misogynists, and those who think the earth is flat. Lots of people still claim Jian was simply defending himself when he attacked his victims' credibility before anyone had charged him with a thing. I hope they like being virgins.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bdog
Biguc, you've proven time and time again to be an authoritative voice on culture and society. 
"Miley and Bieber are garbage, bring back that wholesome pop of the 2000s - you know, Fergie, Avril Levine and Nelly".... "No, that was garbage, the 1990s was where it was at for pop music. Back in those days, excellent artists like Sisqo, Backstreet Boys, and Aqua!"... "No, that was garbage, the 1980s...."
Usually those "these young whippersnappers don't know taste" types are in their 50s, not in their 20s lol (apologies if you're not in your 20s)... |
Haha yep, still in my 20s. Just prematurely grumpy.