A Case Against SJW Woke-ism in Entertainment 3-29-22

I DETEST videos and articles that are titled, “You’re doing it wrong” ‘cause seriously, if it works, it’s not wrong. It may be less efficient, it may not be how something was engineered, but if it works. IT WORKS. That being said… SJW woke-ism in entertainment DOESN”T WORK! (as evidenced by the receipts for Captain Marvel, for MOST of the D+ spin offs and side stories, for ANY Star Wars movie that has Rey in it,(let’s be 100% clear here… I have nothing at all against Daisy Ridley, she did an excellent job with the GARBAGE that she was working with), for the new Ms. Marvel, for the upcoming bastardization of Tolkein’s universe in Amazon’s “Rings of Power”, and on and on and on… and the following explains why.

SJW Woke-ism will destroy any possibility of real entertainment if the knee-jerk SJW’s continue to EXPLOIT sexuality, gender, feminism and other types of “messaging” instead of focusing on what readers really want, which is STORY… it doesn’t have to be smart, it doesn’t have to be classy, it doesn’t have to be profound… but it DOES have to exist. We’ll get into the basic components of story in just a bit, but long and short of it, is that story = ENTERTAINMENT. Entertainment of all stripe, be it books, comic books, manga, movies, RPGs, tv, theater, comedy, music etc, is about a few particular things: escapism, education, empathy, equality, stimulation (whether emotional, physical, psychological or intellectual). When SJW’s “deconstruct” iconic heroes for the sake of forcing a “mary sue” into whichever “universe” they’re corrupting, not only are they being disingenuous, but downright patronizing and bigoted. Yes, BIGOTED, just as much as the frightened little snowflakes who fear that someone might be allowed to, and be loved for living their truth in identity, sexuality, gender etc, etc. These SJW’s are not only forcing their beliefs on others by slamming their mary sues into our faces, they are destroying cultural icons that we all grew up with, in the name of “diversity”, and “equality”, and “feminism”… just to name a few, and they are a thousand times DOING IT WRONG! They are taking a multitude of platforms that have a far greater reach than the most hateful of politicians or bigoted sensationalist hate-preachers, and they are becoming what they claim to be fighting against.

For anyone who doesn’t know what a ‘Mary Sue’ is… let me explain - a mary sue is often an idealized/infallible version of the writer’s own character who is inserted into a story (the upcoming Ms. Marvel for instance). Now I’m not going to go deep into it, if you like youtube, there are dozens of videos on the corrosive effect of “mary sue’s” on what could otherwise be good stories. Rey from the latest Star Wars movies is a (pardon the pun) perfect example, which is why she’s used so often.

I’m not going to go into an analysis of her so-called “character”, it’s been done to death. What I am going to do is explain some of the basic tenets of good character development and story telling that are expressly lacking in the SJW garbage being churned out like cheap sausage right now.

Basic steps to story telling:

Start with the “status quo” the character’s “baseline” of their life, show WHO THEY ARE BEFORE their “adventure” begins.

Introduce a life-changing circumstance, usually a deep challenge that WILL disrupt their status quo, (a misunderstood guy who got fingered for a robbery, now witnesses a murder and must decide what to do about it… if he goes to the cops he risks getting caught and brought in for the robbery, but he can’t “do nothing”. What does he do?

The killer finds our hapless protagonist and makes it impossible for him to go to the cops by framing him for the murder.

The protagonist tries every possible way to clear his name but the bad guys are always either right there, or a step ahead.

We learn the lead cop investigating our protagonist is being fed information from another cop who is really the killer.

Our protag. must now evade the cops and all their resources to clear his name.

There’s a confrontation, the protag fails and MUST GROW TO FACE THE CHALLENGES that also KEEP GROWING.

and on and on it goes, until there is a satisfying resolution whether in the protag’s favor or the crooked cop’s… but it MUST be emotionally satisfying.

Notice in the above… I do reference our protag as “he” and the crooked cop as “bad guy”… but it doesn’t matter, you could change out the protag and bad guy for women, for gays, for lesbians, for bisexual and/or transgendered people… those are characteristics of the characters, NOT THE STORY. The STORY, the conflicts, the attempts at resolution, the good vs evil, the GROWTH of the characters as they challenge each other to fulfill their agendas IS THE STORY.

Sexuality, gender identity and expression simply inform the characters, it DOESN”T make up the story. Even if the story was about a character going through the gender alignment process, their STORY wouldn’t and SHOULDN”T be about their identity or expression, their STORY is about the CHALLENGES, (family, friends, enemies, finances, the despicable laws that would accuse and possibly remove CHILDREN from their homes because their parents are trying to help them be happy and whole… and the government that calls it “child abuse”) and how they are OVERCOME in their JOURNEY to fulfillment!

These SJW’s in the entertainment industry think that it’s all about the color of skin, or the body parts that someone has that makes the story, THEY ARE WRONG! It’s clear that they don’t understand the concept of story. And more importantly, and more sadly… they are obviously incapable of truly CREATING a world of their own in which there ARE black elves, and Asian elves, and black dwarves, etc… instead they corrupt classic literature that was written with races based often on European Lore. They are pretenders to creativity who, if left uneducated, will destroy the ART of ENTERTAINMENT.

Real stories are UNIVERSAL, the challenges are UNIVERSAL, the heartaches, and heartbreaks, the triumph’s no matter how large or small ARE UNIVERSAL!

We see ourselves in characters because of the STRUGGLES they face that we have faced too. We see ourselves in characters because of their hopes and dreams, the same ones WE SHARE for our loved ones, for ourselves.

When you want ethnic, religious, cultural, intellectual, economic diversity in your characters and stories, build your characters with the appropriate history, but GIVE THEM AN ARC! If anyone in the throes of SJW-ism thinks that it’s not possible to identify with someone from a different culture, or background, or religion etc just because they don’t “look like me” then those SJW’s are at that time, incapable of TRUE creativity. Sure it’s fantastic when someone can see someone on screen who looks like them, but it’s not the end all and be all of storytelling. In fact, it’s the tail end of character creation if your story is good, if your characters have growth.

So SJW’s…until you know how to CREATE a good story, maybe you should go back to school… but then again, if you’re getting rewarded for your pandering, maybe you’re not a writer to begin with… really.