The culture wars over ethical issues continue to deeply mark the United States, as the results of the midterm elections held this week show. The clashes between progressives and conservatives continue against the backdrop of fundamentally opposing visions of America, of what it has been, what it stands for, and what it should become.
States have legalized marijuana. Others banned denying access to abortion, which would have been the second most important “ballot box issue” for the electorate, after the economy, according to polls carried out at the leaving the polling stations.
A year ago, Glenn Youngkin became Republican governor of Virginia by banking on fear of critical race theory. Polls then showed that 9% of Democratic President Biden’s supporters changed sides precisely because of these themes. This time, the Republicans won nearly all of Florida by following their governor, Ron DeSantis, who obsessed over censoring books and cartoonish school curricula as too woke.
The requests and practices of book censorship have in fact never been so numerous for decades and they come mainly from the right, but not only. The attacks are particularly aimed at BIPOC (non-white), LGBTQ2 or subjects deemed too queer.
dark elves
The cultural industries, the arts and literature, like education, thus find themselves at the forefront of confrontations around ethical issues. The multicultural cast of the series Rings of Power (Amazon) has sparked yet another fan battle to celebrate or decry the appearance of dark-skinned characters in cryto-medieval fantasy. The dark elf as the Turk’s head of white supremacy… We’ve seen it all.
Hollywood is either leading the charge or taking the attack, of course.
“Americans are tired of being despised, seeing their values ridiculed, mocked and being lectured,” commented Fox News host Sean Hannity, a renowned Trumpist of strict obedience, after the evening of distribution of the prestigious statuettes. of 2021. “Hollywood elites, famous professional athletes and other warriors woke of social justice, now constantly impose their political convictions in every aspect of your life. »
The World Audiovisual Database (IMDB) lists 60 films and series in the genre woke. There are also several lists of best of in the same category. The production Supergirl of CBS and CW is often considered the most ” LGBTQ2 friendly “. Last year’s grand finale featured a wedding of two women. There are many more, from batman at Black Lightning (with the first black and lesbian superheroine).
Activist group Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has calculated that one in ten characters on US prime-time television series are now queer-connected. GLAAD is campaigning to raise this threshold to 20% by 2025.
A recent question on the Quora site asked, “Why does every TV show have to be woke Nowadays ? Some whiny responses echo the clichés that leftists control production centers and broadcast platforms by forcing supposedly “unnatural” perspectives.
Metaculture
Culture also obviously finds in these culture wars a great material to create, to entertain, to make people think. While the partisan attacks become more and more bitter, cultural productions expose the socio-political shortcomings, ridicule the exaggerations, channel the criticisms.
Television series, at the heart of the third golden age of this mass media, are constantly adding to it and often to pure delight. Series Atlanta (the last season ends this fall), camped in the rap scene of the city, constantly exposes the effects of American-style systemic racism, including police brutality and endemic poverty with always notes of hope and assumed poetry .
The Scarlet Maid (the fifth season has just ended) based on the novel by Margaret Atwood warns against the dangers of a misogynistic theocracy. Master of None (2015-2021) humorously recounts the banal daily life of an immigrant child who faces racism, diversity, new romantic relationships. Dear White People follows the journey of black students at an elite university. The production denounces injustices and racist behavior on campus while multiplying the debates around the themes and problems addressed, including identity, multiculturalism, the history of the United States, the role of the media, wokism.
The university also serves as very fertile ground for the series The Chair, another central piece of this chain of productions dealing with the culture wars. The pivotal scene from the series released last year on Netflix shows Professor Bill Dobson (Jay Duplass) in action, in an amphitheater at his (invented) university in Pembroke, New England. Poor Mr. Dobson is depressed over the death of his wife and the departure of his adult daughter to another college.
The course of the day focuses on the absurd and fascism. Carried away by his demonstration, the professor imitates the Nazi salute. The gesture serves the purpose. He repeats it, and students film it on video. The broadcast of the tape followed by the teacher’s refusal to apologize triggers cataclysmic effects.
All the basic components of this intellectual comedy intertwine to shape a delightful critical exposition of the tensions around wokism, diverse ideology, and the politics of feelings.
On this campus made to represent them all, Ji-Yoon Kim (Sandra Oh) becomes the first woman and the first non-white person to lead the team of immensely cultured and outdated old teachers, where young teacher Yaz McKay (Nana Mensah) could become the first black to be made permanent. Director Kim herself has a very complicated relationship with her Korean family and her adopted daughter of Mexican origin.
You can take and leave a lot too. The United States dominates world culture and the Web, but its obsessions do not spread everywhere, thankfully. In February 2021, a British poll asked the following question: “When politicians talk about ‘culture wars’, what do you think they mean? Only 7% of respondents answered correctly, 15% gave a wacky explanation, and 76% of people admitted they didn’t know…
Americans are tired of being scorned, having their values ridiculed, mocked and being lectured Sean Hannity”