!!

💕

Literally

That is so true! I think even a lot of lefties still jump through these hoops that conservatives put up for us women by saying "no woman makes the decision to have an abortion easily". It's really not that hard for some people, super difficult for others! I personally would genuinely rather die than give birth, under any circumstances. It's my body. It's personal and its nobody else's business why I feel that way! You're so right, it's like any medical decisions, sometimes it's simple and sometimes it's complicated, but in every case, it's nobody else's business! ❤

Girliepop things aside, i really enjoyed this conversation

Definitely agree that I love that the ideas have become more common place

binchies rise up 🫡

Sometimes we can’t really choose whether something is political. When Lindsay Ellis started out just her being a woman in a field dominated by men was perceived as political. She didn’t need to express any further political beliefs than the one that she could make video essays about movies. Now, I do think that she wasn’t shy about her progressive values so she attracted a left wing audience which comes with its own toxicity and purity-testing that culminated in her being cancelled. When even one’s existence can be political there is no getting around politics completely in the public sphere. One can decide whether or not to engage with it but it will be there in the audience no matter what.

@@btarczy5067 Well it could also be cultural. In my country, a woman doing something isn't as political as it appears to be in the US. When growing up I don't ever remember people around me getting angry at a female character in a videogame or a non-white character. Now as an adult I see people utterly raging about it, like it's the worst thing in the world. I just can't help but look around and think to myself 'what on Earth happened?' But then Lindsay Ellis also rose to fame during the apex of online misogyny, and now a woman reviewing movies is a pretty normal thing to happen, so the anti-feminists rebranded a little and just drafted in women with Conservative views to be the movie or game reviewers instead. I think a lot of the current climate is driven by culture war politics which dominates most discussions. For example, I grew up in a Conservative area, I had a lot of friends whose parents voted Conservative, and many of them do now. But we never ever discussed politics growing up, not even through our twenties really either. Then, after returning home after Covid lockdowns, I find that all of the sudden these same friends are bringing up politics all the time, and talking about their favourite political podcasters. I do think a part of it is a trend thing too. That's what drives engagement, the anger and resentment gets more clicks, 'ragebait' they call it. I have to be honest, I am a very political person, but I like my escapes too, I don't want to bury my head in the sand, I am engaging with politics on a personal level, but when it comes to my channel I just want people to discuss and appreciate our shared love of film and not drag it back to 'is it good representation or bad representation' or 'is it too woke!!!' These may be the elephant in the room at times, but that doesn't mean they have to be the focus for every single critical perspective on film. I feel really sorry for the likes of Halle Bailey, for example, who is a jobbing performer, who tried her best to play Ariel in the Little Mermaid film, but the only focus in the media was on her race. Not her ability as a singer or an actress, on the lottery of her birth. That is encouraged not just by the 'alt-right' or whatever they call themselves now, but on anyone who approaches a film purely through a political lens. Halle Bailey has the right to be assessed on her abilities, not on being a political tool, as do other performers who are hired for being good at their job but only assessed on what they represent in the culture war.

Did you actually listen