this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
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While this is true, it's also true that pendulum swings can go further in the opposite direction than equality.
While a trite example, in the recent Barbie film, at the end when things are going back to the seemingly good way, the men in Barbieland ask if they can have a seat on the supreme court and are told no, which is then explained as Barbieland being a mirror to the real world such that as there's increased equality in the real world then equality for men in the mirror would increase.
Apparently the writers weren't familiar with the fact there's four women on the supreme court right now and a woman has been on the court since 1981 (around twice as close to the creation of Barbie than to the present day).
Even in the context of its justifiably imbalanced equality it failed to be proportionally imbalanced.
There's interesting research around how the privileged underestimate the degree to which the good things that happen to them are because of privilege, but that at the same time the underprivileged overestimate how often the bad things which happen are because of bias. In theory both are ego-preserving adaptations. But it also means that either side is going to have a difficult time correctly identifying equality from their relative subjective perspectives.
You mean self aware, hyperbolic satire?
They know there have been women on the supreme court. It was a reference to second wave feminism, and inverted because that was the joke.
While you are welcome to your take, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and here's the writer/director responding to that very scene:
It was a film about plastic dolls from a corporation trying to seem less like a big bad corporation. If you're using the Barbie movie as evidence in an actual philosophical debate around other human beings having equal rights, you have bigger problems in life.
Philosophy is all about finding meaning in common life, why shouldn't we use the barbie movie?
Because pop culture corporate feminism isn't actual meaningful feminism, it is an entirely different beast the serves to reinforce the patriarchy.
How does it do that?
By claiming to reject hierarchical sexism while reinforcing the structure of oppositional sexism.
Ok that's reasonable
Do you like having rights? Probably. Would other people like the same rights? Absolutely. Do people who want rights deserve your ire because of a movie? Fuck no.
I wasn't commenting on the conclusions, only the source of the analogy.
Well if your conclusion is that the pendulum could swing too far, my question would be, "Without actually letting go to find out, how do you know it's a pendulum at all?" A movie isn't going to give us the answer.
Sure things could go radically far and we end up in a matriarchal society, but not even trying to provide equal rights isn't going to prevent radical change. It will force the hand of radical change, if history tells us anything.
It's not my conclusion, I didn't even read the original comment well enough to remember what they were arguing for. But I think I agree with you here.
Good old internet arguments. Glad we landed on an agreeable point. 👍
Yup haha