From a comment I left at Uncouth Reflections, on the topic of progressive status signaling in the creation of the new Star Wars movie:
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I’m more convinced that the whole butt-kicking babe trope has little to do with progressive status signaling, but is instead a form of autogynephilia — nerd boys feeling an emotional rush from imagining themselves as babes — mixed with standard nerd revenge fantasies against vapid jocks (that’s why she has to be a butt-kicking, patriarchy-thwarting babe, rather than a housewife babe or a supermodel babe).
I call these types “latent transgenders” because they don’t openly present as female (cross-dressing, etc.), but still invest loads of psychic energy in a make-believe persona where they’re female (why not imagine themselves as butt-kicking dudes?). See earlier posts on the general topic and the specific example of women's MMA.
The butt-kicking babe tends not to engage in any sexual activity because the socially stunted nerds are still in the stage of development where they’d rather receive a bunch of attention for being awesome (hot), rather than get into an adolescent or adult relationship. And seeing their avatar get it on might make them feel gay — which I don’t think they are. Unless, of course, their avatar gets it on with another girl — an increasingly popular scenario for nerd masturbation in 2015.
If the babe were the object rather than the subject of nerd sexual fantasy, meaning someone he wanted to bed, then the butt-kicking babe would get it on with a male character with whom the nerd viewer would identify. But she doesn't, so it's not a typical pornographic portrayal. It's something much weirder, where they identify with the babe herself rather than the guy who gets to bed her.
Progs don’t really care about Star Wars, and besides the creators are already fully leveled up members of the prog clan. There’s little left for them to gain. And girls are much more amenable to playing with boy-oriented toys than vice versa, so they don’t care if the protagonist is male.
The over-riding rationale for making this movie is fan service — offering any drug that fanboys are addicted to, and spiking the potency to 11. Therefore the point of making the protag a butt-kicking babe must also be part of nerd wish fulfillment, i.e. to stoke their latent transgender revenge fantasies.
“Would you Force me? I’d Force me.”
A few points
ReplyDelete1) I think you are entirely discounting the thought notion that when somebody can push an agenda without noticeably sacrificing box office they will.
2) Counter to that however is the fact that $150+ million budgets don't lead themselves to a lot of wiggle room owing to the need to make them as generic as possible to appeal to international audiences.
3) That being the case, I don't think you can necessarily view them as exclusive products targeting American males in the present culture.
4) If women are susceptible to the cultural rot "empowering" them to be "equal" careerist and delay/forgo child rearing why can't boys be susceptible to the same rot that attempts to sell them on those women being sexy?
5) There has been a nerding up of the male protagonists. Compare 80s and 90s action blockbuster to 00s and 10s. You have Stallone, Segal, Schwarzenegger, Van Damn, Norris vs. Spider-man, Batman, Hobbits, Harry Potter, Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes.
6) True nerd gets the girl (Big Bang Theory) doesn't happen very often because it is as unreal as 120lb ScarJo taking out 6 trained, 210lb males. Usually you see the males undergo a transformation to interesting. Aniken Skywalker from 1 to 3. Wall-E, Chuck, Ant-Man, Transformers, etc. So as much as your nerd audience might want the over weight guy behind the computer screen getting the girl. Your non-nerd audience will be repulsed by such, and therefore to the extent there is a love interest, Chris Pratt it is.
Your analysis brings up some good points, and it reminded me of an old post on Aurini's blog dealing with the subject of the "Action Girl" and its toxic psychological roots:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.staresattheworld.com/2012/08/sexual-self-anihilation/
I sincerely think that the fetishization of the butt-kicking female lead is tied to the same strings of mental illness that create autogynephilia.
In addition to this, I've noticed that many of those late-in-life trannies, when examined in more detail, almost to a man tend to be precisely those kind of guys that fit into Vox Day's hierarchy as gamma males.
"2) Counter to that however is the fact that $150+ million budgets don't lead themselves to a lot of wiggle room owing to the need to make them as generic as possible to appeal to international audiences."
ReplyDeleteGood point, movies have been getting blander and blander since the mid 80's due to Hollywood increasingly marketing stuff to teens (in the 80's and early/mid 90's) and worse, "families" (especially after the mid 90's). So stuff that's more nuanced gets tossed out the window. And it's really gotten bad the last 10 years or so, what with the blatant Asian pandering.
And runaway budgets are a big part of the problem, too. With more and more money shoveled into fewer and fewer movies, movies can simply no longer have the sort of production and creative idiosyncracies that made so many 70's and 80's movies excitingly unpredictable.
Contrary to what some may believe, a lot of 70's and 80's "low-budget" movies were actually mid budget movies since producers/studios didn't have all the money tied up in a few tentpoles back then. Gritty action movies especially don't really exist anymore, since it costs a lot of $ to hire and insure skilled stunt men, vehicle wranglers, pyro experts, set builders/designers, and also to secure and manage good locations.
Of course, blue collar violence (not terrorism or wars) is so rare these days that the audience just can't relate to (realistically) violent movies anymore. I doubt the new Star Wars has much blood in it.
Butt kicker babe wise, why do the protagonists of Aliens and Terminator (the 80's ones) work so much better than the modern crap? I think it's because those movies are quasi horror movies about a basically average person thrust into a desperate situation against an implacable/inhuman enemy. The protagonists are battered and exhausted by the ordeal, and so is the viewer to some extent. We sympathize with a wholesome person (of any gender)who is thrown down a gauntlet.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing really analogous to this in the Star Wars movies, which are about gifted protagonists learning maturity and (at least in the New Wave era chapters) team work. The prequels just didn't work since:
- Children don't belong in action movies (T. Phantom Menace, unless they're getting rescued or giving shotgun shells to Mad Max)
- Who wants to see a teenager becoming a psycho? (in the next two). Healthy people don't want to see villains explained/demystified, anyway. In the originals, Darth Vader gets redeemed at the very end, but we never do learn much about him. Just as well.
- Another thing that sucked about the prequels is all the time spent talking, talking, talking. About annoying characters and boring sub-plots/backstories. You'd think a series inspired by breathless serials would be less verbose. Whoever knew the series would descend into such tedium.
Being a Jedi means sitting around, negotiating and prissy nagging. What happened to Zen-like knowledge of life, time, and space? Being in the moment. That's what Obi-Wan and later stage Luke represented in the originals.
With the death of stoicism over the last 20-30 years, do the protagonists of the post Jedi movies get the grace and humor they had in the 70's/early 80's?
As always, your post titles are the best in the business.
ReplyDeleteI think you're absolutely right that nerd obsession with BKB roles is about projection, not attraction, and that this is due to messed-up socialization and weak identification with their own sex. It's probably not a coincidence that these characters are usually Mary Sues, unrealistically cool & competent in every situation and lacking much internal conflict. IRL girls will sometimes praise these characters from a sense of conformity/political obligation, but they have zero interest in actually doing the kinds of things the characters do (an acquaintance of mine was geeking out this week about how great it was to have a female Jedi lead, while 2 weeks ago she was complaining about how terrible gun ownership is and how people who own guns are cowards and bullies. Zero introspection). No, it's all about male nerds wanting to feel strong and capable while still being sexually passive and receptive.
Also, hats off for calling it months ago: this new movie really is just a dorky Millennial cosplay of Episode IV, drenched with fanservice but lacking the earnestness, ambition, novelty, and personality of the originals. They apparently believed that if they just did everything exactly the same (with some shitlib progressivism thrown in) they'd recapture the same magic, but it's hard to miss the note of disappointment in audience reactions (even positive reviews say "yes it was totally unoriginal and full of blatant fanservice, but...", a sign that time will not be kind to this one once the opening day excitement fades). The zeitgeist that produced the originals moved on, and our new zeitgeist only knows how to produce media-addict nerd jackoff material and cynical corporate franchise products.
Also, hats off for calling it months ago: this new movie really is just a dorky Millennial cosplay of Episode IV, drenched with fanservice but lacking the earnestness, ambition, novelty, and personality of the originals.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind also that the original 3 were made from '76-'83, which was a period much more conducive to camaraderie and openess. It's fun and believable, watching Silents and Boomers teaming up to fight the enemy and go on an adventure.
But actors born after about 1970 (certainly after 1975) have spent so much time in the every-man-for-himself era of roughly 1985-the present day that it's heavily corroded any possible sense of joy, trust, idealism, and good will among men. And we've been in a cocooning period since the early 90's, to boot. So late Gen X and Millennials are often disagreeable. Movies in the 40's and 50's weren't very good, but at least G.I. and Silent actors were fairly charming since they hadn't spent a huge chunk of their life worrying about being stabbed in the back by rootless, selfish, and greedy assholes.
My movie history is a bit limited on the business side, but I thought that the actors and actresses were still owned by the Studios back in the 40s and 50s. Or was that more 20s and 30s.
ReplyDeleteThe MyPostingCareer.com forum has an entire forum thread devoted to examining the "gender-fluid" friendly sexuality of beta male nerds:
ReplyDeletehttp://mpcdot.com/forums/topic/69-the-nerd-sex/
Fascinating stuff to read (although if you're easily offended by unfiltered opinions, you may want to steer clear.)
For my part, I always though the Nerds regarded the butt-kicking babe as a sort of revenge fantasy. Seeing big strong men (like the jocks who used to beat them up in high school,) getting their shit kicked in by a grrl-power action princess must be satisfying to a beta herbling. Especially since a lot of beta nerds are progressives who think white men (the kind of men most likely to get beaten up,) are the devil. There might be a bit of self-hating/masochism going on too, since most beta males are more likely to to be big and white themselves. In other words, this is just a version of the fat, 40-something nebbish, trussed up and naked on all fours, getting his ass caned by a latex-clad dominatrix - only with basement dwelling nerds who are too poor or too nervous to hire Mistress Chocolate themselves, and who are forced to watch a vicarious virtual version of the act on TV.
One more thing to note: a lot of today's nerds were heavily influenced by anime in the 90's, which featured a lot of wispy schoolgirls with superpowers kicking male butt. The Japanese nerds who produced this stuff were probably even more socially awkward than their American counterparts. I doubt that their intention was to push a progressive narrative, (since Japan wasn't all that PC back then,) as much as it was to provide boner material for hikikomori. It was Western nerds who got ahold of this grrl-power stuff and decided to turn it into a holy feminist crusade. (Not that there wasn't grrl power fetish stuff before this, but the Anime Boom really made it explode. Just look at Joss Whedon's output for an example. His Firefly series was heavily influenced by anime like "Outlaw Star". His heroines could have walked right out of a mid-nineties anime OVA.)
"it's hard to miss the note of disappointment in audience reactions"
ReplyDeleteI've noticed that too. For the official man-child perspective, I watched the reaction video by Mike and James of Cinemassacre (not to be confused with Mike and Jay of Red Letter Media), and it was clear they didn't respond to it.
Not just because they're too old -- they still play children's video games, after all. It just wasn't anything special, and they felt compelled to call it "great" despite showing little real enthusiasm.
You know it's bad when nerds have to force themselves to geek out over a Star Wars movie. Shouldn't it come naturally?
This may be the first movie that was created, marketed, and consumed as something explicitly other than a movie -- as more of a purification ritual for late Gen X-ers who still feel defiled after "George Lucas raped my childhood" with the prequel trilogy.
ReplyDeleteThat seems to be the reason behind the cosplay fanfic approach -- if we can project ourselves into the characters who are wearing the original costumes, set in the original locations, fighting the original kinds of battles, and even interacting with the original heroes, we will magically absorb the clean spirit of the original movies and purge ourselves of the dirty spirit left after the prequel movies.
Merely cosplaying as the original characters, and burning effigies of Jar Jar Binks, at a Comic Con will not suffice. The cosplay has to be made real for its purifying effects to be real. Hence the release of Star Wars: Cosplay Made Real.
Another hint about what's going on with butt-kicking babes -- by being both attractive yet asexual in behavior, these characters are punishing the vapid jock bullies sexually as well as in combat. Deflating the jocks' sense of sexual prowess and ability to bed babes.
ReplyDeleteThe vapid jock bullies would naturally want to score with any babe, but this one is not only not interested in them, she's militantly asexual. "So much for your easy time bedding babes!"
The denial of the vapid jock bully's sexual interest and advances is the closest that the nerd gets to fantasizing about castrating the jock (although they occasionally deliver on that too).
Nerds are not just bitter about being bullied by jocks in the male-male competition, but about being out-maneuvered by them in the competition to be chosen by females as mates.
That seems to underlie their mixed gender identity -- they want to maximally humiliate the jock, but there are two dimensions at play, one calling for a male adversary (kicking butt) and another for a female (the sexual rejecter). However, kicking butt could hypothetically be done by a woman -- highly unlikely, but not utterly impossible like a male butt-kicker rejecting the sexual advances of the jock (since the jock isn't gay).
Thus, only a female gender identity can serve both ends of the revenge fantasy, and nerds who want to indulge that fantasy to the max are committed to identifying with -- although not outwardly presenting as -- females.
I've heard they're setting up the black guy as the love-interest for the butt-kicking babe. If that's true it will be hilarious when these nerds see their avatar making out with a black dude. No, JJ, please make it stop!
ReplyDeleteI watched the Buffy the Vampire Slayer show during its original run and it's interesting how they progressed the character from a normal valley-girl type into a swaggering male action-hero with boobs. There's also a comic book series which continues the plot; I've read the Wikipedia summary and yup, they turned Buffy into a lesbian.
ReplyDeleteMy impression from reactions so far is that Millennials are more enthusiastic about this movie than are late Gen X-ers.
ReplyDeleteThe X-ers are treating it as a purification ritual -- the goal is merely to cleanse themselves of the ritual impurity of watching the prequels, restoring the Star Wars part of their being to what it was during the original movies.
The Millennials were born too late to experience the Star Wars mania.
Hollywood kept screening the original movies off and on through 1985, so even a late X-er like me who wasn't born when the first one came out could still see it on theatrical re-release in the early '80s. The Kenner toys, the side movies involving the Ewoks, etc., were all in production through '85, with only the side cartoons (Droids, Ewoks) lasting through '86. Then it was done.
So if your memories begin around 1986, they would not have included Star Wars as a current pop culture phenomenon.
Millennials first exposure to current Star Wars stuff was the hero-free, adventureless, helicopter parent-approved prequels -- not surprising that they don't get why Star Wars is held with such fondness by Gen X-ers.
Now that there is something current that at least vaguely resembles the originals -- albeit in a cosplay, cargo cult way -- they are getting to enjoy the childhood Star Wars experience that they never had growing up.
If the Star Wars movies they were raised on were designed to starve their sense of adventure (no heroes, no quests, just bodyguards on assignment), seeing this new movie is like finally being allowed to play outside without parental supervision. It still has no heroes or quests, but it's not as blatantly baby-ing as the prequels, and is more action-oriented.
Kids are supposed to have that kind of cultural experience when they're 3 to 13 years old, not 23 to 33 like the delayed Millennial growth pattern. They seem to be glad that they're at least getting to experience it during their 20s rather than not at all, and are reacting more enthusiastically than the movie deserves.
BTW, how many Millennials saw the original movies when they were re-released in theaters in 1997, to prepare audiences for the prequel trilogy to come? Did they at least get that kind of childhood Star Wars experience, or was it geared more toward teenagers and 20-somethings who'd already seen them?
ReplyDeleteI remember that being a big event with kids my age (sophomore in high school). A group of friends made a pilgrimage to the Uptown Theater in DC (a historic, one-screen theater from the 1930s), and I seem to recall the other people standing in line and in the theater being close to us in age. If anything, maybe a little older, but mostly Gen X-ers.
I don't remember many small children, perhaps because of the location -- not a convenient family-friendly suburban multiplex. And I don't believe it had such a wide distribution, since it was a re-release. It was one of those "screening the classics" kind of events, just one that lasted a month per movie.
It seems like the precursor to the self-conscious fan-service approach to the "Star Wars in theaters" experience. Not geared to impressionable children forming their first memories, but indulging lifelong fans for the umpteenth time.
Millennial commenters, weigh in.
I've seen the new movie. It makes The Phantom Menace look like an epic from D. W. Griffith. Nerd reactions have been extremely bizarre with talk of hulking sobs throughout screenings. The film is not even passable entertainment. It is television shit shot wide with contempt for human emotions. At least Lucas had genuine trouble connecting with humanity, it gave his sperg outlook a unique vision (yes, even in the boring prequels)this new thing is just robotic.
ReplyDeleteNever saw the originals in the theater, I do remember people bitching about the CG (and Greedo shooting first) on the internet. I did watch the originals a lot on tape. I do remember coming very close to seeing the Alien 2003 re-release at the theater since I've always wanted to see a classic action/horror movie outside the context of home TV screen viewing.
ReplyDeleteThe prequels: never had any desire to watch these movies again after seeing them theatrically. One time was enough. I rented Attack of the Clones, but i don't think I even was able to make it through the whole thing.
@Feryl:
ReplyDelete> Movies in the 40's and 50's weren't very good, but at least G.I. and Silent actors were fairly charming since they hadn't spent a huge chunk of their life worrying about being stabbed in the back by rootless, selfish, and greedy assholes
The film noire genre in the 1940's reflected a deterioration in the level of trust between men and women. That might have resulted from enlisted men's experiences with their girlfriends and wives who stayed behind in the U.S. during the Second World War. Many of these women had relationships and affairs with other men in their boyfriends' and husbands' absence, and many of them also took jobs formerly performed by men in the war effort, which gave them a taste of independence from male providers. The noire movies showed female characters as selfish, scheming, deceiving and greedy, and the male characters discovered that they couldn't trust them. Audiences responded to this portrayal of women because it reflected their own experiences.
OT: Agnostic, what do you make of Sheldon & Amy's sexual debut in "The Big Bang Theory"?
ReplyDeleteIt looks like the convergence of two streams of modern social dysfunction: The Peter Pan-ish gay actor (Jim Parsons) playing Sheldon, and the mouthy Jewish Princess actress (Mayim Bialik) playing Amy. Bialik also has a Ph.D. in neuroscience in real life, which indicates some intelligence on the right side of the Bell Curve, like many of her people.
I'm an older millennial and I saw the rereleases with my younger siblings and cousins in '97 and we all loved them. The 1995 VHS releases (which were billed at the time as the last time the original films would be available for home ownership— which was technically true in the end) were also common gifts given to older/middle Millennials.
ReplyDeleteI was born in 89 and I never saw the original trilogy in theaters, although I vaguely remember them being rereleased and some kind of fuss about the edits Lucas had made.
ReplyDeleteI remember enjoying the original Star Wars film (episode 4) on TV a few times as a kid, though I never saw more than a few minutes of Empire or Jedi. My dad was an early boomer, so he was probably already too old to really get into Star Wars even though he was a SciFi fan and loved Star Trek. Hence Star Wars was not much of a thing in my house until the prequels started coming out. I liked Phantom Menace when it came out, as it seemed like a well-made kids' movie from my perspective. By the time Attack of the Clones came out, I was old enough to think it kinda sucked, though I thought Revenge of the Sith was OK overall (saw it with some friends, all of whom said they hated it.)
The 2002 Clone Wars cartoon series (the cel-animated version, not the CGI version that came out a few years back) was popular with some kids in my grade. A lot of us played the Rogue Squadron video games and had the light-up toy lightsabers that came out as merchandise for the first 2 prequels. The campy Lego Star Wars video games were also really popular for some reason, I personally never played them.
Hillary Clinton ends debate with, "May the force be with you," securing the crucial man-child vote.
ReplyDeleteSomething I haven't heard Millennials talking about re: Star Wars is playing with the action figures as children. In the mid-'90s, they released the original characters, and then went nuts with the Phantom Menace characters when that came out.
ReplyDeleteBut you don't really hear memories of the action figures in Millennials' accounts of the '90s in general or about Star Wars in particular. Those toys never went up in value either -- not just a huge supply, but zero demand at the time or ever since. No nostalgia.
Try to imagine action figures, vehicles, and playsets being as popular as video games were for Millennials. That's how huge they were, especially after the movies stopped being shown in theaters. You could still create your own scenes, battles, and adventures with the toys. They were always popular, in demand, and still sell for lots of money.
(Related post on the absence of action figures as a popular kids' toy during a cocooning / autistic climate: http://akinokure.blogspot.com/2013/12/toys-most-popular-with-todays-less.html )
I wonder how this has shaped Millennial attitudes toward Star Wars. If they were just playing scripted video games, which were like poorly written cartoons, they didn't get to create their own adventures like the little Gen X-ers did with their action figures.
Could be another reason for the difference in fondness, and not wanting to see the franchise further degraded.
Hmmm. I came to an alternate conclusion: the tough grrrl-babe routine was about the disheartened-weak nerd boys giving up any notion of self-improvement or leadership and instead outsourcing the toughness and leadership in a relationship to a girl---whom, given the rising feminist culture, the nerds viewed as the more powerful sex.
ReplyDeleteI looked at a movie like Jason X of the early-2000s as an example for this (the movie is a sequel to The Friday the 13th movies, but with tongue firmly-in-cheek and set on a spaceship hundreds of years in the future where Jason shows up.)
In the film, a nerd-boy builds his dream-girl sex robot who is also a bodyguard for him and physically more powerful as well as having an aggressive, dominant personality. She ultimately takes the hero-male role of defending her "baby" from the monster Jason. In short, all the nerd boy has to do in the film is show up and be geeky, and she not only sexes him, but defends him and argues for him.
In short, in his world, he should never has to grow or change to survive or be happy; she does it all for him. He just merely has to exist for her.
That's similar to many feminist arguments: women should be independent, unfeminine, argumentative, independently wealthy, and of course kick ass without a man's help. The man exists merely for her chosen romantic attachment, and he had better not try to change her or dominate her.
People don't get so excited and intensely invested in a character who serves a mere "outsourcing" role. The nerds would just feel relief that someone else was taking care of the duties so they don't have to. With the butt-kicking babe, they're cheering her along so passionately that they can only have invested their very selves into her character.
ReplyDeleteAlso, outsourcing of male responsibilities wouldn't make her be attractive or sexualized.
And if they were imagining her as strong in order for her to make all the moves with them romantically, then the butt-kicking babe would get with some schlub, and the nerds would identify with the lucky schlub. They wouldn't need to root her on in her butt-kicking either -- she's just supposed to do all the work sexually, and that's enough for them.
The trope extends into the video game medium as well, where the nerds not only choose to play as butt-kicking babes, but spend time crafting just the right kind of babe to play as. While controlling the character's movements choices and actions, they cannot be thinking "Man, she's hot" but "Man, am I hot".
It's no different from playing Doom and thinking "Man, what a badass I am," only the nerd is identifying with a girl rather than a guy. Do that long enough, and he's a crypto-tranny.
"In short, all the nerd boy has to do in the film is show up and be geeky, and she not only sexes him, but defends him and argues for him."
ReplyDeleteShe sexes him? How very 14 years ago. Actually, that may have been unusual even back then. The butt-kicking babe shows no interest in any man sexually, let alone actually get it on with him. That would make the crypto-tranny feel gay, when he's hetero but gender-disoriented.
The only way a butt-kicking babe can feel attraction and act on it is if the object is another babe. That way the nerd can identify as a girl, while also fantasizing about getting it on with a girl.
They're in for a big let-down if the next Star Wars movie makes the black guy the love interest of their heroine avatar. I'm 100% positive that the ultimate fan-service for them would be a girl-girl romance, even if it's just hinted at and subtle.
They went there explicitly with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the less-attractive girl from Cruel Intentions, etc.
I think you guys are missing the point pretty hard.
ReplyDeleteIn today's culture, guys think they can't be strong or dominant without becoming guilty of being disrespectful towards others, or at least nerd guys do. These guys can't imagine themselves in power fantasies, because they would instantly become mortified by thoughts of "Oh jeez, I'm not showing up anyone too hard, am I? I don't want everyone to think I'm a douche, better demean myself quick." So the entire point of putting a girl in for these power fantasies is to let guys get in touch with the exhilaration while sidestepping the fear of societal disapproval. Because they sure as hell don't think reasonably attractive women need fear societal disapproval in a hundred years.
That's like saying that someone who wanted to fantasize about being able to fly would have to imagine themselves as a bird rather than a reality-breaking human being who can fly. Otherwise they'd be mortified or "does not compute" about violating human nature.
ReplyDeleteThat's the whole point of escapist fantasies -- escaping some key rules of everyday reality.
And even nerds aren't dumb enough to believe that babes mincing around in Tomb Raider style clothing would have no societal disapproval to face -- namely being ostracized as an attention whore, slut, etc.
And in their own view of the world, the evil patriarchy looks down its nose at strong independent women, especially hot ones who reject jocks. So they're already accepting massive disapproval there.
Do nerds strike you as the type who strive to live up to society's expectations of them, or who think that society's stupid rules can go to hell?
I linked to this as it was a fresh take on the grrl power BS. I've always viewed that as omega nerds wanting a girl who liked their stuff but then would sex them up after, use them and be in charge since they are sexual novices. This movie was recycling garbage.
ReplyDeletehttp://28sherman.blogspot.com/2015/12/movie-review-of-star-wars-episode.html
That was my vague hunch, until I looked more into it. Or rather, when the phenomenon became so widespread that it was impossible to ignore.
ReplyDeleteSome of these things were visible 10-15 years ago, but you couldn't really tell who was into them. Girl-on-girl, butt-kicking babes, etc. Now that the internet has grown so much, there are hyper-tailored micro-niches for every group, so all you have to do is look at who is into it, and go from there.
Once you find out that it's mostly bitter nerds consuming this stuff, rather than horny frat dudebros, a lot of the puzzle pieces fall into place.
You have a good blog. Your stuff is different. I sincerely mean that as even in the odd corner of the web we inhabit, people can become predictable.
ReplyDeleteYour presidential power location thing is a reflection of where economic power resides. After Ike who was admission that DC was now the power, JFK bought the '60 election but Nixon-LBJ-Reagan-Bush's showed power was from the west (oil). Prior to WW2 but after the civil war, it was NY-OH manufacturing power with multiple POTUS from OH-NY. All of America's multiple political forms eventually enter a crisis and out of the resolution is where our figureheads spring.
I think the increase in “badass chicks” has to do with how nerds see themselves within the gender/social hierarchy. Nerds know they can’t be the dominant alpha, at least the ones who aren’t completely delusional. They also know they’re not conventionally masculine men. However in the end, they still want the babe, as all straight guys do. The problem is they know they can never be dominant over her; they know they can never be the masculine man to her feminine woman. In order for this to work, they flip the script.
ReplyDeleteThey fantasize about her being dominant over him and view the ass-kicking-chick-cops or Stormtrooper-killing-princesses as the ultimate sexual fantasy. In that fantasy, they can still be the loving, supporting beta whilst (in their minds) still getting the bombshell in the end.
I don’t personally believe that these men actually see themselves as the hot badass chick, but rather see themselves as her lapdog. It’s a sexual fantasy rather than a self-insert one.
I know you said the sexual fantasy should have the ass-kicking-chick get it on with other men, but I don’t think this would naturally follow. The sexual fantasy would be broken if the “waifu’s” went into a relationship, sexual or not, with another man. The nerd would see it as his woman cheating on him.
I think the self-insert fantasy comes from a different group of low-tier men who are so desperate for any sexual attention that they would rather be women to get it. They don’t become straight women, because they’re not gay, but instead become “Transgender Lesbians.”
I don't entirely agree, but this post did give me a lot to think about.
If she were the initiator and he the passive responder, then some goofy nerd would be conquered by her, or at least that would be implied.
ReplyDeleteLike in an old raunchy screwball comedy, where the school slut / drunk sorostitute goes all the way with some dork.
The last time I remember seeing that scenario was in Superbad, where the McLovin geek gets a twerk dance from some lusty redhead, and they get it on in a dark room.
Another way you can see their projection into the female protag role is how they'd respond if she were femmed up in the next movie.
I've been out of the video game world for 15 years now, but apparently Samus -- the butt-kicking babe bounty-hunter from Metroid -- has become another object of nerd fixation. In one of the recent ones (Other M?), they made her more typically girl-like, and the nerds totally shit their diapers over it.
Under your view, it's because they could no longer assume she would be the aggressor, and they'd have to act more like typical men to bag her. But that would only cause them annoyance. Instead they felt utter disgust and rage. Like, how dare they make her so girly and silly and helpless?
Under my view, this was a case of cognitive dissonance -- they were reminded that they were projecting themselves into the girl's mind and body, and this time she had typically girly traits. It made them feel emasculated, when their whole fantasy is about feeling powerful (an escape from their real-life impotence and ineffectualness).
Why would they care so much if the butt-kicking babe had less deadly agency, unless they were projecting themselves into her place within a violent video game?
We will see the same thing if the Star Wars girl is femmed up in the future. That would neuter the nerd's fantasies of wielding deadly power (without having to train).
The only way the stormtrooperette will get sexually involved with someone is if it's another girl, allowing the crypto-tranny nerds to imagine themselves as one girl or the other.
ReplyDeleteJudging from iconic girl-girl scenes in popular movies, the new girl would be (even more) plain-looking, naive, and socially awkward. The protag would then take the initiative in making her feel safe, unashamed, and then share a kiss or something.
That way the nerd gets to continue his fantasy life as a girl, while also getting sexual with a girl, and the other girl doing all the work.
Here's what I mean. The lesbo kiss scene from Cruel Intentions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwwMn3Y6rUA
There's a simple explanation to consider. Teenage nerds like hot girls and don't really care if they're playing the male lead.
ReplyDeleteSo they like hot girls but don't want any chance at vicariously banging them through a male character? Doesn't sound like they "like" them the way you're suggesting, then, does it?
ReplyDeleteFundamentally, they want to *be* hot girls -- who also kick butt, and who may get sexual with other hot girls. Hence their obsession with girl-girl fantasies.