Jan 8, 2022

Apparently, I'm a racist for not being interested in watching Encanto

 Because all Latinos must support stuff with Latino Representation and be happy to be represented or some bullshit. Context: I was on a double date me, my "special friend", her brother, and his date; we all chose to go to the movies. Here are the movies that were  available:

Spider-Man: No Way Home
The King's Man
The 355
Matrix Resurrections
House of Gucci
Nightmare Alley
Sing 2
Encanto

Out of those I was REALLY interested on The King's Man, but I wouldn't mind watching SMNWH again.
I've already mentioned that I'm not interested in Matrix Resurrections. Nightmare Alley and House of Gucci are movies that I could watch, but NOT at the movie theater.

My suggestion for King's Man was denied 3 against 1. No one wanted to see Sing 2 or Nightmare Alley. Matrix was locked in a tie and a tie breaking coin flip said no. My date was the only one who wanted to see House of Gucci, so she was denied 3 against one. The 355 suffered the same fate. Only my "BIL" wanted to see it.
So, it was time to decide Encanto's fate.
I personally had no interest in watching the movie, because I had seen the trailer and it did nothing for me. It's a Disney movie, it exists, but I'm not the Target Audience...
My date had seen it and though she enjoyed the movie, it wasn't a great movie in her opinion. Raya, Moana, Coco, and Zootopia were more entertaining. Her brother commented that it's a lot better than my date is claiming, but it's on Disney+...

 The movie is on Disney+ and your date wants us to spend $10 per person on tickets to see a movie Available on Disney+!?

I said Calmly...
To which his date replied: You don't want to see Encanto because you're racist!
She went on the whole representation matters BS speech... she even said that I'd rather watch a white man punch others until they saw his point of view than watching a beautiful movie representing Latinx women of color... which is doubly funny since the "Latinx" bullshit is even more ridiculous in Spanish, since it has a gender specific word to refer to Latin Women...
My reply was and I'll write it in Spanish for full context and add an English translation for my Spanish impaired readers:

Mira pendeja, deja la ridiculez de Latinx, que son LATINAS. La película no me llama la atención. Pensaba darle una oportunidad hasta que (name redacted) dijo que estaba en Disney+. Yo no voy a pagar $10 por ver una película que puedo ver gratis en casa.*

*= Look dumbass, stop it with the Latinx ridiculousness, they are LATINAS. The movie doesn't appeal to me. I was going to give it a try until (name redacted) said it was on Disney+. I'm not going to pay $10 to see a movie that I can watch for free at home.

I might have overreacted a little bit, but come on! Just because I'm Latin American doesn't mean that I automatically must watch EVERYTHING that might have a Latino in it. We ended up watching No Way Home and she was sulking during the entire film. No this is not an AITA thread. My issue is the intersectionality mentality and how it sucks the joy out of everything. Encanto might be a fun movie. I don't know since I haven't seen it. The only issue I have is that right now, the movie doesn't appeal to me. Same thing happened with Princess and the Frog. It seemed like a less funny and girly version of The Emperor's New Groove but in New Orleans. Years later, I gave it a chance and I liked it, BUT the trailer was the thing that made me NOT want to watch it. Hell, it took me years to watch The Emperor's New Groove. Hell, I only saw Frozen because it was on a loop at a display near the booth I worked at the time of its DVD release. Brave, I watched on Disney Channel out of curiosity, since the trailer didn't make me excited for the movie. Hell, even Cars was kind of forced upon me... Kachow!!

I discriminated against all races there... so I must be MEGA RACIST... or the more logical explanation: The trailers didn't get me excited for the movies and later down the road, I gave them a chance. But the intersectionality mentality seeks to look for ways to be offended.
So, by me not wanting to watch Encanto at the movie theater my reasons being: the trailer not doing its job of hooking me on it and for not wanting to pay for a movie that I can watch "for free" at home. (By watching the Book of Boba Fett, That's So Raven, Hannah Montana, and Disney's Gargoyles, I believe that D+ already paid for its worth, so anything else is a "freebie") translates into me being a Colonized racist and misogynist in the intersectionality mentality. 

If I want to play, say, Resident Evil 5, I'm a racist Colonizer sympathizer who enjoys using a big muscular white man that oppresses people of color, or I'm a misogynistic percert who Fetishizes an oversexualized Woman of Color by ogling at her rear end. I'm to busy trying to survive a Las Plagas outbreak to be staring at Sheva's butt. This type of Mentality is why we get such stupid things like "Orcs are an Allegory of People of Color with Sub-Saharan Origins" 

I honestly don't know who's worse:
The persons who decided that Orcs would be primitive, barbaric and violent to contrast with the more civilized races like Human or elves
The persons who see a primitive, barbaric and violent race and say that they look like Black People and that's racist.

I know I get a lot of grief whenever I touch the whole BS about tokenized diversity, but the problem with the tokenized diversity is that it is nothing more than a hollow gesture filling checkmarks. This intersectionality mentality does the same thing of trying to fill up as many checkmarks as possible in the oppression Olympics. And this type of Mentality sucks out the fun from everything, which is my main issue. This kind of Mentality brought the failed campaign to have Crayola remove the Spanish word for Black because it's "offensive". Or harassing a woman of Hispanic origins for naming their dog, the Spanish word for Black. Some of these folks complained about her naming her black dog after the dog's color... (it's written the same way but the pronunciation is very different.) In both cases the perennially offended kept complaining despite being given logical explanations on why their argument was flawed and based on US-centric colonialist mentality. 

If I'm going to watch a movie, I just want to be entertained for whatever time it takes. I don't need to make some sociopolitical statement about it. I don't  NEED to have characters to be "just like me" in order to relate to them... otherwise the only superhero I could relate to partially is Vibe... but no: I can relate to Plastic Man, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, The Hulk, Spider-Man, Rogue, Luke Cage, Beast Boy, etc. Not because they "are like me" in a physical sense or ethnicity, but because of their personality, Motivations, struggles, insecurities, fears, etc. Resonate with me.  If I were to focus on watching media that only "represents me" from race, ethnicity, or other physical traits, the media that would fulfill these parameters would be VERY limited. Now this is supposed to be changing, but the problem is the methods used. The focus is on Quantity over Quality. Let's use Luke Cage as an example. His struggles from his troubled past as a petty criminal being jailed for a crime he didn't commit, becoming a "mercenary hero" to make ends meet, becoming a Superhero father... it's an evolution that readers can understand and connect. I also understand that Cage's stories have a much different impact to readers that happen to be Black. Just as I can relate to a character that is not of my sex, race, or ethnicity, others can do so as well. The degree of relatability might be different, but I cannot let the "limitation" that "they're not exactly like me" stop me from getting that experience.

If we shutdown experiences from "the other" how can we learn about their situations, their struggles, and the whole walking a mile on someone else's shoes to find a common ground and both of us to become better people? It almost feels detrimental to the whole diversity thing.

Also, what's the point of having "diverse characters" if their entire personality is based on a single trait ie: race, ethnicity, disability, etc?
I'd rather have a well rounded character that happens to be black than a black character that happens to be.

I might see Encanto eventually, but not right now, because now I see it as a symbol of the collective stupidity of the perennially offended... I said unironically on a blog where I'm perennially offended and whine about things. But seriously, why pay ludicrous prices to watch a movie that you can watch for free at home? Also, not wanting to watch a movie or show starring minorities doesn't automatically mean that you're a racist. Also also, you don't need to watch EVERYTHING that represents your race or ethnicity...
Also also also, the if you don't have an interest in x means you're a racist/homophobic, etc. argument is stupid.

No comments:

Post a Comment