Have you seen And Just Like That…the sequel, still broadcast on the HBO network, of the cult series from the turn of the millennium Sex and the City ? In both cases, it is difficult to do better (or worse) as a cultural production concentrating the zeitgeist.
The original production exposed the lackadaisical, over-consumerist existence of the 1% by documenting the friendship of a quartet of privileged white women from Manhattan, obsessed with men and Manolo Blahniks. The new production still focuses on the lives of these überprivileged people (except one, Samantha), but by introducing the diversity that was sorely lacking in the first version. The scenarios tick all the boxes of an arts council grant application form one by one, with queer or racialized characters everywhere, all the time. This choice could be defended if, at least, Just like that… wasn’t as boring as Cornwall on a rainy day.
This current example does not appear in Woke fiction (Le Cherche Midi) by Samuel Fitoussi. This is not a reproach. The book cites hundreds of others to support the thesis summarized by the subtitle: “”.
Samuel Fitoussi was born in 1997 when X Files And A boy a girl dominated TV. A journalist with a degree in economics, he demonstrates impressive erudition, an appreciable capacity for synthesis and an undeniable talent for oscillating between theoretical debates and concrete cases. The Observer read a lot and watched even more TV shows and movies to support his topic.
All this for what ? To add more against wokism, which is becoming a new French obsession. The cultural analyst sees it as an ideology affirming that the major social fact of the West is now organized around racism, misogyny, transphobia and homophobia. For woke activism, the private is political; universalism, a hypocrisy; the heterosexual white male, the supreme oppressor; and reality, less important than sensitivities.
The book dissects the cultural impacts of this new political-moral order. The remake of Snow White will be done without dwarves. Peter Pan is of Indian origin and Tinkerbell is black. Spain bans gendered toys. Miley Cyrus, “a rich white woman,” causes scandal by appropriating twerking from black culture. Superheroine films must be directed by women. The demonstration supported by examples ad nauseam comes down to eight commandments from the new breviary: “you shall not practice cultural appropriation; you will not propagate gender stereotypes; your heroes will be virtuous; your minorities will be discriminated against”, etc.
Denunciations of systemic wokism sometimes go too far, to the point of caricature. From the first lines, Mr. Fitoussi draws up a long list of flagship creations from previous decades which would no longer be produced today, according to him, because their authors would have forced themselves to self-censorship by adhering to the ideology which imposes a new morality. The anthology goes from Seinfeld has Game Of Thrones.
Frankly, this idea doesn’t hold up. First of all, why should we redo identically what belongs to another era, when morals are changing, sometimes for the better? Game of Thrones has been criticized for its sensational exploitation of female nudity and scandalous rape. Why would it be relevant to persist in this dubious path, moreover abandoned by the ante-episodes of House of the Dragon ? Curb Your Enthusiasmby Larry David, co-creator of Seinfelddares to tackle with bite all the subjects of the EDI programs (equality, diversity, inclusion) without any taboo.
Ultimately, the study offers the counter-example of BAC North (2021), police thriller about a narcotics squad leading a ferocious pot hunt in the northern districts of Marseille. The film is currently enjoying great success on Netflix, even though it has been accused of perpetuating stereotypes about immigrant suburbs and being complacent with the police, when according to the Gospel it would be woke, to abolish it since it represents the status quo of structural racism by violent white men.
Samuel Fitousi speaks of it as “the freest film, the most freed from the ideological injunctions of the moment”. Here again, frankly, a lot of nuance is missing. The production doesn’t even pass the Bechdel test. No need to watch it with a Judith Butler textbook in hand to feel sorry for it (a little). We are far from The Wire, let’s…