The Last Time I Will Talk About Diversity Media

A slew of SJW oriented nonsense hit comics and nerd culture since I last posted. Iron man will be replaced by a 15-year-old black girl, and Donald Trump became MODAAK. The incoming reviews of the feminist Ghostbusters reboot seem to be fairly terrible, as expected. The thing is, I could spend an eternity ranting about everything wrong with third wave, intersectional feminist identity politics and how it literally is the antithesis of artistic expression. But I have other things to get to in my life, so I'm going to keep this brief.

1. The push for diversity in mass media by pandering to minority audiences is a manufactured, fallacious problem that effectively destroys both the integrity and desirability of said media.
2. This destruction could not be a better thing.

There are countless clickbait articles complaining about how all the mass media made for the male demographic perpetuates inequality. You will, however, notice that these same outlets do not complain nearly so loudly about media aimed expressly at a female demographic. I have never seen major headlines garnered at the romance genre, whether it be in book or film (while feminist critiques do exist, they are not nearly so loud). The superhero genre, however, gets constantly crucified on the internet for not having enough minorities or women involved in defining manner. Again, I have not seen much complaining about how much diversity there is in contemporary romance. What these pushes for diversity miss is the fact that in a capitalist society, money is a prime mover behind art. If it sells, it will be propagated, endlessly, until it is not profitable.  If it does not sell, no amount of complaining on the internet or in gender studies courses will make it change completely. If anything, these pushes will only serve to damage the marketability of the media being sold.

Don't believe me? Take a look at some numbers. None of the Fantastic Four films are regarded as masterpieces; however, the push for artistic and racial diversity (White Johnny Storm was recast Black), helped plunge the film into one of the worst bombs in recent history. All of the diversity pushes, according to some sources, is leading to falling sales. If the recent Ghostbusters tanks, as some expect it to, it will be in a growing line of agenda pushing media that simply doesn't sell. People may like to virtue signal by claiming that having a black girl replace Iron Man is so very progressive, but the target audience for Iron Man will simply stop buying the comics until they get what they want. Ultimately, pushing a message into an artform only soils its quality.

You see, the problem of diversity, as mentioned earlier, is fallacious. Let me tell you why. The only thing remotely problematic about today's media is how dominated it is by large corporations. This itself is only a problem in that it dominates the public consciousness. If I were to ask you to name comic book characters, you might name a few big names like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and Iron Man. This is where the so called problem comes from. All of these characters come from two media companies, DC (owned by Warner) and Marvel (owned by Disney). Because the big names are all white guys who promote heteronormativity and are targeted at a male audience, feminists cry loudly about their representation. But did you know that there already is a comic about a strong black woman who don't need no man? If you want a comic that devotes itself to the feminist ideals of love, friendship, and collaboration, why not just simply purchase the popular My Little Pony comic? Similarly, movies constantly come out that deal with female experiences. Why not simply watch them? The answer to these questions already are, as far as you know how. In a society where we can spend out money as we see fit, we already make the choices we want to make regarding media, as long as we are properly informed about our options. No one forces us to watch the Avengers film. We go because we want to go. Trying to circumvent the desires of audiences through forceful pandering will only result in a massive loss for the companies trying to make content.

And...this could not be a better outcome. If big companies continue to tank their profitable franchises by trying to appeal to every audience at once while alienating their core base, then we might actually see the overall market see true diversity. I'm not simply talking about racial or sexual diversity (though that will happen too), but diversity of creators who found their voices crowded out by intellectual properties long past their prime. Why was Ghostbusters, a film made in the '80s, even remade to begin with? Why are the only new stories being told merely retreads of our older stories? Why are we doing Star Wars again? Can't our own generation come up with our own things?

So I've decided that I'm happy that Marvel, DC, Disney, and other big companies are cluelessly ruining their own toys. It only means that when the dust settles, we might make some of our toys to play with.