You used to be able to take it for grated that when a studio announced a new TV show, they made the announcement assuming that the creators were dealing in good faith. Back in the 80s, a new Saturday morning cartoon being greenlighted meant the network execs were confident the show would appeal to its audience.
That audience consisted of two demographics: a) kids who would enjoy the story and characters and b) those kids’ parents, whom the TV networks and the toy companies counted on to shell out money for actions figures based on the IP. Relevant to our purpose here, b) relied on the show seeming harmless enough to fly under parents’ “bad influence” radar.
Since two-earner households became the norm in the 70s, parents have sought to compensate for neglecting their kids by bribing them with cheap plastic trinkets. There’s a concurrent tendency to overcompensate by vetoing toy purchases that bear the slightest whiff of impropriety. I’m not complaining. These factors provide a reliable barometer for propaganda, as we’ll soon see.
These days, to assume that any of the crumbling media giants would release a new offering in the hope of turning a profit, you’d have to be utterly ignorant of recent debacles in video gaming, trade science fiction, comics, and Hollywood. Attempts by social justice warriors to flay these industries and spread propaganda in their skins have led to prominent consumer revolts against the SJWs.
If you remain skeptical that multibillion-dollar corporations would voluntarily go kamikaze into mountainsides in the name of intersectional theory, take a look at this post’s header image. The picture on the left is a promotional still from Netflix’s new She-Ra series. If you don’t remember She-Ra, it was a He-Man spinoff that flipped the main characters’ sexes. The show never took off as big as its predecessor because its creators failed to acknowledge that girls have different coming-of-age fantasies than boys. It goes to show that even going back tot he 80s isn’t going back far enough.
Even without the explanatory cartoon, the picture above is a dead giveaway that Netflix is remaking She-Ra for reasons other than a profit motive. They have the original 1980s series as an object lesson in what not to do, viz. projecting male power fantasies onto girls. A She-Ra reboot intended to be successful would have started by making the character design more feminine. Instead, they doubled down and gave the title character boyish features and a masculine head-to-shoulder width ratio.
The picture on the left is how the She-Ra reboot was marketed starting last year. The picture on the right is actual artwork from the show. A normal person will immediately see why reactions have been overwhelmingly negative. The main character looks like a gender dysphoric Dennis the Menace.
There’s no use trying to dismiss this kind of Charlie Foxtrot as a well-intended misstep, not with millions on the line. It’s an open secret that Netflix has been in precarious financial straits for years. Not surprising when management knowingly turn their streaming service into a Ponzi scheme. The con works by leveraging your company to the hilt to buy up all the talent. In theory, you’ll end up as the only game in town and can pay off your debts with the sweet monopoly profits.
An unwritten rule in Hollywood states that one studio in every generation tries the same grift. It nearly killed Sony in the aughts, and it did kill RKO. Netflix is doubly screwed because in addition to racking up debt like it’s going out of style, they’ve been effectively cooking the books by depreciating their digital library much more slowly than anyone else in the business. The FTC and the IRS haven’t figured out a way to close the loophole yet, but I wouldn’t bet on them giving up and going home.
Netflix’s only way out of the hole they’ve dug is to attract more subscribers. The fact that they’re vomiting out a reboot of an unsuccessful 80s kids’ show that appeals only to Sapphic cat ladies proves they’ve drunk deep of the SocJus spring and have entered a nosedive aimed straight at Normieville.
The formula–one might more aptly say ritual–is now well-established. An SJW converged entertainment company on the skids announces a new project based on an established franchise with some degree of American cultural cachet. They build up buzz as one might expect for an honest product launch, only to deliver a crude and twisted parody of the original.
What follows is crucial. In fact, it’s the whole point. The converged corporation fans initial murmurs of normie dissatisfaction into a full-fledged backlash. Conveniently, the company will have hired a race hustler masquerading as a writer or a LOOK AT ME!!! LGBTQ+ mascot to headline the project. Those who complained have unwittingly stepped into a kafkatrap wherein the production’s SJW fellow travelers in the media can snipe at normal people with their victims caught in a crossfire.
The memory hole is a defining feature of the social justice cult. Because the cult’s ideology is totalitarian and progressive, it must constantly disavow its own past. Since the cult recognizes only two broad categories of people: “Us” and “not us”, perpetual loyalty tests are deployed to separate the reprobate from the elect.
Companies like Marvel, Disney, and Netflix now exist only to broadcast these identity tests to the SJW hivemind. When you publicly oppose the latest assault on truth and beauty, you identify yourself to the collective as an outsider and therefore an enemy.
Much like Global Thermonuclear War, an SJW Turkey Shoot is a chump’s game where defeat is guaranteed by virtue of agreeing to play by the stated rules. Don’t waste your time trying to answer the SJWs’ accusations. The only logical response when you find yourself in a crooked game is to flip the table.
Don’t give money to people who hate you. Support independent creators working hard to bring you honest entertainment instead of smug civics lectures.
Nethereal, the first installment of my thrilling Soul Cycle space adventure series, is available now for just 99 cents. Check it out!
Brian,
I happened to be reading various Twitter feeds when the story broke. My jaw hit the floor at the spiteful ugliness. The running away from reality and the pig headedness in denying teleology is coming home to roost.
This She-Ra is Cal Arts ugly(tm).
I don't have daughters so I'm a tad clueless what their coming of age stories are.
xavier
Did you know that She-Ra is what killed He-Man? The He-Man franchise was cooking along great, playing on young boys coming of age and 'I have the Power' fantasy. As soon as they came out with She-Ra, He-Man no longer had a monopoly on the 'power' and all the young boys saw that and walked away.
So not only did She-Ra not appeal to girls coming of age type fantasies, but it destroyed the boys. So they all left He-Man almost over night.
The folks in the Toy industry still talk about it as a huge blunder, because they lost millions.
Nope I didn't know that. What would've been the correct course of action with She ra?
And what's a good coming of age story for girls? And how could She ran have tapped into it correctly?
xavier
Fascinating story. And one that's played itself out a million times. Males and feminization are like oil and water.
The original She-Ra debacle isn't surprising in retrospect. Tom Kalinske was the president of Mattel back then. He was already famous in the toy industry for resurrecting Barbie. His attempt to "Barbify" Masters of the Universe makes sense. Do what you know, after all.
AS usual, the solution is:
1. No more money for Netflix
2. No more money for She-He-Hoo-Ra Boy Lady, Esq advertisers
3. No more money for the toy company that supports this ugly monstrosity of cartoon ambulation
Sorted.
I was a He-Man fan when I was a kid but what killed it for me was that there was such a big disconnect between the toys and the cartoon. The toys were a collection of total sword-and-sorcery badasses, while the cartoon reworked them as a bunch of dweebs who constantly preached at the viewer like your parents and teachers. And no, She-Ra definitely didn't help, either 🙂
I'm no expert on little girls, either, but I think girls tend to gravitate toward concepts that stress relationships over action. Boys fantasize about overcoming their problems through physical excellence and dominance and girls want to overcome by being more popular, forming more friendships and/or ostracizing competitors. You can still do action stuff with girls (tomboys are a common thing and a lot of the girls I've known have told me that they would take their Barbies and imagine them doing spy or astronaut missions and stuff) but the point of emphasis will always be different because girls won't respond to righteously kicking the crap out of a villain the same way that boys will.
Male relationships: The All-Valley Karate Tournament.
Female relationships: a bucket of crabs.
That'll leave a mark.
That's how I've heard *women* describe it.
#MeToo
The toys were definitely edgier.
How dare Netflix hire a white dyke! How racist can they get? When are the mystery meat tranny spechul-sexuals who can't draw going to get their chance?
I can't even right now.
nice
If any of these people were honest they would create a product that directly appeals to what people want.
For instance, let's use John Wick as an example. John Wick was a major success, went back to the roots of 80s action, was high quality, and spawned a sequel that might have bested the original. It was a bonafide hit AND an original product at the same time.
So why has no one followed its example?
Where are the films cribbing of its success, or trying to outdo it? Where is the media attention on this franchise? Why has nothing in the industry changed despite its existence? They're not stupid, they've capitalized on worse trends before. So it has to be on purpose.
And that is why nothing will get better. It has not been about making quality products for a long time.
Banking on nostalgia of the classics and selling it back to us without any soul.
Atomic Blonde was directed by one of the guys who worked on John Wick. The general reaction seems to have been something like, "It was alright, I guess?"
Yeah, Atomic Blonde flatlined. It wasn't what the audience was looking for. Though I have to hand it to the team behind it: they didn't call those who disliked it names and insults. They just let it fail.
Sailor Moon is how you get it right. Girls care about the adventure inasmuch as it adds greater externalized significance to the emotional drama of day to day life. What I think actually hooks them is the relationship-driven stuff in between. I'll test my theory against the fandom. Does the fandom obsess over who Sailor Moon fights and how she wields her power?? No! These people care about who she kisses, what she wears, and who her best pals are. But what elevates the discourse beyond Soap Opera Digest tier old-lady stuff, is that everyone involved are magically powerful space princesses. See that? Not only does that make it a better soap opera for children, it's also a better soap opera for immature females unable to come to grips with the fact that they are, in fact, no cooler than their mothers.
I wonder if S/He-Ra will have drama with her #GirlSquad.
Supporting evidence: Sailor Moon recently underwent a successful reboot.
You do know that Sailor Moon is significantly different in its original incarnation, right? My kids are geeks (apple doesn't fall far from the tree), so I've been schooled on this one. Apparently, there is a ton of lesbianism in the original storylines. It was subbed and dubbed with *way* different dialogues than the original. That being said, yeah, Sailor Moon always seems to be popular, with girls for the adventuring, and with American boys for the short skirts. 😉 Japanese culture frowns on cleavage, but is dandy with seeing half-moons everywhere, it seems. 🙂
You are sadly correct, once they get done with the first story arc and the whole Miracle Romance thing, Sailor Moon gets real deviant real fast. I blame the switch in directors. Once Junicho Sato was out, Kunihiko Ikuhara took over and brought all his fruity preoccupations with him. Get off that ride no later than season 2.
I don't care if I'm the only one who thinks so, but I'll swear to the end that if you want to watch Sailor Moon you should watch the dub, the FIRST dub, with the synthpop soundtrack and the cast of Prom Night 2 doing the voices. (Dang it, they're talented!) I don't think the rewrites make a significant difference. The gist is the same. But stop after the end of season one. What you'll get is a perfect object. The hero grows up, star-crossed lovers reunite, evil is defeated, the universe saved; THE END. Superversive as hell. I love it.
I've always thought the lesbianism was hilariously integrated in Sailor Moon. For one, every single homosexual character is a bad person or evil. I'm not sure if Takeuchi or the directors of the anime were saying anything with that, but it is unavoidable.
As for me, I've always enjoyed the non-filler of the first anime better than the rest. You can see a lot of the influence that crept into later shows.
I'm waiting for the day when those of us fed up with sjw's infecting all of pop culture create our own streaming service. Also, do you think this is an outright attack on femininity as I do? I think there is a push to either to female characters into androgynous characters like the example above or into obese land whales. All in the effort to shame men and attractive women. I'd even say they'd go as far as to try to propagandize what attractive is. They keep trying it in both comics, videogames, and film lately. Of course they can't fight nature and men of the non soy variety see through the lies and call out the ugliness for what it is. Ultimately I believe shows like this are attacks on objective beauty by ugly people. Both inside and out.
I agree with your assessment wholeheartedly.
"Also, do you think this is an outright attack on femininity as I do?"
You'd have to be blind not to see it. As Z-Man said recently, men safeguard the culture, but women create it. If you were trying to destroy a culture, you'd target mothers first.
To recap, the Left has:
-Torn mothers out of the home to put them to work.
-Championed abortion and artificial contraception.
-Escalated the war of the sexes to a crisis point by anathematizing normal male desire while removing any and all restrictions on female lust.
You do the math.
Eli
Yup. We have rather sexist incoherency:
1) the illustrator is a mannish lesbian who
2) wants to empower grrrrrls by
3) adopting a mannish look and implicitly develop mannishly
4) and somehow this mannishness will magically appeal to girls because empowered(!) while boys will backslap Mannnish re as the tomboy sister who'll share their secret handshake in the treehouse.
So a girly girl She ra who loves ribbons in her hair but is lethal with blades is impossible,.,.. because girly girls can't weld a sword???
xavier
The trend for turning characters into asexual blobs is disturbing. There's something really wrong with taking a character that is an adult female and portraying them with the physicality of a slightly plump male child.
It's creeping me out. There are things WRONG with these people.
Mandatory free helicopter rides now!
Really sucks too because they relaunched He-Man in the early 2000's and it was badass. Love the hell out of that show. Well I guess we will have to wait another 20 years for a proper reboot.
Everybody thought the She-Ra reboot would follow the style of the 2000s He-Man. Netflix clearly knew it, too. Look at their original promo art above. They purposefully made a promise to the audience that they intended to break all along. That is raw enmity.
Contempt for the audience runs deep within the entertainment industry. Good thing it's easier to walk away than ever.
Yeesh. Yet another reason to get rid of Netflix…
How about this for a mech+pilot? https://i.imgur.com/Xqo6VxV.jpg
Hi all,
Thanks for the comments. So Netflix pulled a 3 card Monty on the customers. Yeah that'll go done so well.
xavier
I'll speak in favor of the original She Ra cartoon (got nothing good to say about the new version) in that I didn't think of it as a masculine power fantasy, but found her to be graceful and feminine as well as powerful.
If anything, her whole goddess-like presentation was more reminiscent of Wonder Woman in terms of powers and inspiration to others. Her whole skill set was also different from He-Man, with abilities like telepathy and an adaptable morphing sword rather than brute strength.
I also found the cartoon to have somewhat of a darker tone, where He Man was defending the kingdom and Greyskull and the good order of the rulers, She Ra was a redeemed former villain in a world where evil had triumphed and the bad guys ruled.
But as to why it was unsuccessful, being of the masculine persuasion I can't speak as to how this would impact girls. Also, I don't think boys were very interested in the Barbie-style She Ra toys, but the cool, monstrous Hoard toys were in the style of the He Man figures.
But anyway: the new version could have worked if they'd stuck to the presented concept art.
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