Is there evidence against this hypothesis?
I have this cynical, mean, low-opinion-of-humanity hypothesis, which I've been suppressing for a while. I am posting it at last, partly in hopes that people with greater knowledge will talk me out of it.
Many many details go into this hypothesis, but some of the more recent are:
1. The many-faceted Fail of the planned SGU episode "Sabotage" (as documented by sheafrotherdon starting here and here, especially the replies from Joe M. and the discussion here.
2. Joss Whedon talking about "Dollhouse" and his (and Eliza Dushku's) motives for making it.
What I suspect I'm seeing is men who are living in a world where many (most?) of the women they know are trading sex for something: money, position, access. They're living in a world where sexual harrassment is not a crime, but a perk -- it is accepted by all that a powerful man can do things like make an actress wash his car as her "audition". They don't just have casting couches, they have casting *lives*.
The Gate-PTB and Michael Bay IMHO don't even seem to know what consent *looks* like, much less why it's important. Joss knows better, but he seems more interested in relationships that are like prostitution than those like consent.
This is IMO completely ass-backward. One of the points of prostitution (and, I suspect, Hollywood culture's many variants thereof) is that it's simpler to have a relationship when only one of the parties is treated like a full human being. Consensual relationships, where *both* parties are thought of as people, are pretty much bound to be more complicated and interesting.
Basically, I think Hollywood sexual culture is a cross between that depicted in "Mad Men" and street prostitution. The next person who talks about "liberal Hollywood" gets my Vial of Wrath all over their head.
Tell me I'm misjudging. Go on, do it.
Many many details go into this hypothesis, but some of the more recent are:
1. The many-faceted Fail of the planned SGU episode "Sabotage" (as documented by sheafrotherdon starting here and here, especially the replies from Joe M. and the discussion here.
2. Joss Whedon talking about "Dollhouse" and his (and Eliza Dushku's) motives for making it.
What I suspect I'm seeing is men who are living in a world where many (most?) of the women they know are trading sex for something: money, position, access. They're living in a world where sexual harrassment is not a crime, but a perk -- it is accepted by all that a powerful man can do things like make an actress wash his car as her "audition". They don't just have casting couches, they have casting *lives*.
The Gate-PTB and Michael Bay IMHO don't even seem to know what consent *looks* like, much less why it's important. Joss knows better, but he seems more interested in relationships that are like prostitution than those like consent.
This is IMO completely ass-backward. One of the points of prostitution (and, I suspect, Hollywood culture's many variants thereof) is that it's simpler to have a relationship when only one of the parties is treated like a full human being. Consensual relationships, where *both* parties are thought of as people, are pretty much bound to be more complicated and interesting.
Basically, I think Hollywood sexual culture is a cross between that depicted in "Mad Men" and street prostitution. The next person who talks about "liberal Hollywood" gets my Vial of Wrath all over their head.
Tell me I'm misjudging. Go on, do it.
posted by Doctor Science at
11:29 AM
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