TV shows were better when they were diverse.
Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking. And you’re wrong. Modern TV shows aren’t too diverse. They aren’t diverse at all.
I spend a lot of time thinking about Firefly, so let’s talk about that.
It has all the usual boring diversity – men, women, white, black, blah, blah, blah.
On top of that, it has represented in the main cast:
Masculine men – Mal, Jayne.
Masculine women – Zoe.
Feminine men – Wash, Simon.
Feminine women – Kaylee, Inara, River.
It gets even better than that. The way that each character is masculine or feminine is different. Mal’s masculinity is extremely different from Jayne’s. Inara’s femininity is different from Kaylee’s, which is different from River’s.
This is good writing. Hell, even mediocre writing will get you this far.
(To any troglodytes reading this and ready to be all um, actually, Mal was actually slightly feminine in one scene, so you’re wrong, please, tell me more. Pointing out that Antarctica isn’t actually cold because a tiny room has heating amidst the boundless expanse of solid ice is such an insightful contribution to the discourse. Well done, you beautiful, special puppy. You’re right – exceptions do disprove trends and generalisations. So stunning, have a gold sticker. You’re not embarrassing yourself at all!)
Even better, every character is treated with respect. Simon may be a feminine man but his love for his sister is impressive. He’s valued, useful and capable. Jayne may be a hulking idiot but he’s strong, resourceful and great in a fight.
And then there’s Book – an enlightened man who can be masculine when he needs to be and feminine when he needs to be. In the first episode, he stares down a gun-wielding maniac, beats a cop and stops Jayne from murdering someone in cold blood. That’s all masculine. He also promises to protect an unarmed prisoner, abandons his morals to do what’s right and talks about how that all makes him feel. That’s all feminine.
Speaking of Book – there are atheists and Christians too.
Now, imagine a version of Firefly made after 2010 or so.
There’d be two types of characters: masculine women and feminine men.
And they wouldn’t all get treated with respect. The men would be there to be useless, upstaged, clumsy, stupid and thuggish.
There’d only be atheists. Or, if there is a religion, it’s some feminised pagan pap.
Oh, but there’d be so many shades of brown skin colour.
Face it, diversity is dead. If this objective analysis doesn’t convince you, I challenge you to watch a TV show from before 2009 or so. I’ve been watching a lot of older content. Obviously, a lot of stuff from back then is woeful. But virtually all of it from today is unwatchable. Brainless power fantasies aren’t fun to watch. When they’re brainless feminist power fantasies – and when every genre of TV fits that, from sitcoms to horror – then what’s the point?
“It’S nOt FoR yOu!” Then I won’t watch it. “So ToXiC!”
I’d prefer it if more modern shows had real diversity – of personality types, not just skin tones. But it’s not a problem. For one, it’s just TV. For another, there’s more great stuff out there than I could ever watch.
Anyway, why am I talking about this?
Because it pays to pay attention to the little, chronic issues. Big problems are easy to spot – it’s the subtle ones that can do you in if you’re not careful.
“Aren’t there more important things to worry about than TV?” What, do you arrange your problems from worst to least important, then ignore #2 onwards on that list?
Yeah, there are more important things to work on. I’m working on a few of them. And entertainment’s collapse into monotonous propaganda ties to deeper issues. We’d still make shows like Stargate and Firefly if we weren’t sick to our cores.
What about you?
What “irrelevant” and “harmless” problems are you ignoring?
Sometimes, the trivial things point to deeper obstacles. The strange vices, the emotional outbursts, the persistent thoughts and the lingering habits can often be the most dangerous.
Want to work through those?
Want to see what’s really possible for you?
Let’s talk about that: