Greetings, gentle readers.
Elements and categories of popular entertainment have always had their ebbs and flows in terms of quality, quantity, and sophistication. The Aztecs had all sorts of sports that involved horrific mutilations performed on the losing competitors — a tradition carried on in modern day Latin America where, as Douglas Adams notes in "The Meaning of Liff," the ball games consist of the ball being hit against a wall until the prisoner confesses.
For most of the 20th century, artists aspiring to become popular entertainers needed to sacrifice all dignity and integrity at the feet of the gatekeepers of their chosen industry. This was particularly true for women. Carrie Fisher rather succinctly described it in the title of her book "Surrender the Pink." Apparently, those were the words - verbatim - spoken to her by a producer as he gestured her toward a proverbial casting couch.
The bottom line was that the people with the power and authority to sign the contracts to make someone a star of stage, screen, airwaves, vinyl, etc. were generally odious men with a penchant for using sexual degradation to emphasize their dominance. The victims tended to be women like Fisher, or pre-adolescent boys like Coreys Haim and Feldman. The bottom line is this: in a society where there is an overabundance of people willing to do literally anything for fame, and the avenue to that accomplishment is guarded by skeezy, power-happy, flabby old men, the tendency for that situation to involve abuse was nigh-universal.
Then came Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo movement. Suddenly, skeletons were coming out of closets and the world's worst-kept trade secret was suddenly front-page news. Marlee Matlin, Rose McGowan, Annabella Sciorra, Ashley Judd, and dozens of other celebrities were suddenly fountains of information about the price of access to the red carpets and Beverly Hills cocktail parties.
I'm just going to throw three observations out there, the last leading to my overall theme about the relationship of talent, skill, and sophistication to successful entertainment careers.
Not everything is being revealed.
For those aspiring entertainers that were abused, debased, defiled, humiliated, molested, and raped, I can offer sympathy, support, and solidarity. That being said, there are two elements that made the casting couch culture function: people desperate to be famous, and grotty executives that can create careers with a contract. I suspect for every person who was mistreated by said grotty executives, there is at least one other person who walked into those sorts of "negotiations" with his or her eyes wide open, prepared to do whatever it takes to get that record deal or daytime soap role. There's a reason the system was so pervasive and enduring. The same thing that made victims ashamed to come forward is the same reason that mediocre talents were able to gain access and exposure. There are a thousand more stories yet to be told, and not all of them fit the narrative of patriarchal exploitation.
This isn't the most salient example of rape culture.
Around the same time as Harvey Weinstein and his ilk were being harried onto private jets for some intense therapy in Switzerland, a disgusting cretin named Roy Moore was campaigning to win a Senate seat in Alabama in a special election to replace Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, who had left his post to become U.S. Attorney General.
Roy Moore has been accused of varying types and degrees of sexual misconduct by the women listed below, who state that he interfered with them sexually while they were still younger than the age of majority.
- Leigh Corfman
- Wendy Miller
- Debbie Wesson Gibson
- Gloria Thacker Deason
- Beverly Young Nelson
- Gena Richardson
- Becky Gray
- Tina Johnson
- Kelly Harrison Thorp
Since coming forward, these women have been harassed and bullied by those who suspect them of lying with the intent to slander the candidate. Tina Johnson's home in Gadsen, Alabama was burnt to the ground on 3 January 2018 in a suspected arson attack.
In short, Roy Moore defeated Donald Trump-endorsed Republican candidate Luther Strange to become the Republican nominee. It's fairly upsetting that Republicans would choose the worse of two evils, but then in the final election, Moore almost managed to win the Senatorial seat. Were it not for the concerted and earnest efforts of black women, this disgusting piece of subhuman garbage would have joined the ranks of the other quasi-evangelical hypocrites that clutch their bibles as they violate every ethical principle they purport to represent. So America owes a debt of gratitude to women of colour, but the fact remains that Moore only lost by 1.5%. That's a hair's breadth. That a ghastly kiddie-diddler could potentially get elected to the United States Senate based on what one supposes must be partisan and identity politics is a terrifying prospect. But how is such a thing plausible?
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the forty-fifth President of the United States. In a single swoop, his election legitimized and validated every outdated and outmoded racist, sexist, exclusionary, and xenophobic mode of thought. In what esteem does the leader of the free world hold women?
“You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything… Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.” —Access Hollywood, 2005
And what about people from Mexico?
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you… they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bring crime (sic). They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” — Presidential candidacy announcement, June 2015.
How about people of a religion like Islam? He even speaks of himself in the third person for this one:
“Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” — Rally in Charleston, SC, December 2015
So that's gender, nationality, and religion. How about LGBTQ rights?
"It’s like in golf. A lot of people — I don’t want this to sound trivial — but a lot of people are switching to these really long putters, very unattractive. It’s weird. You see these great players with these really long putters because they can’t sink three-footers anymore. And I hate it. I am a traditionalist. I have so many fabulous friends who happen to be gay, but I am a traditionalist.” — New York Times interview, May 2011
Oh, and then there are his views on veterans.
“[John McCain’s] not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” — Ames, IA in July 2015
The list goes on and on. His creepy statements and photographs involving his daughter Ivanka are a tad more than nauseating, and his personal attacks on Megyn Kelly, Rosie O'Donnell, Mika Brzezinski, Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian, and Kristen Stewart are stupefying as well as profoundly stupid.
The man holding the highest office in America speaks in the dog-whistle language that appeals to the lowest and basest human instincts of selfishness and paranoia.
With such a role model, it is not difficult to imagine that hate-filled deviants should coast to pre-eminence in his poisonous wake.
Oh, and by the way, here is a list of some of the women who have formally complained that the president's conduct constituted sexual misconduct and/or assault. The complaints include groping, fondling, kissing, and other forms of unwanted physical attention. Again, in a world where women should be allowed to speak their truth to power and should be taken seriously, believed, and supported, people like Oprah Winfrey and other #MeToo and #TimesUp activists are profoundly silent. Easy to use social media to pick on Hollywood sleazebags, but when the rot is in the Oval Office, suddenly nobody has anything to say.
- Kristen Anderson
- Mariah Billado
- Lisa Boyne
- Rachel Crooks
- Tasha Dixon
- Jessica Drake
- Jill Harth
- Cathy Heller
- Samantha Holvey
- Ninni Laaksonen
- Jessica Leeds
- Melinda McGillivray
- Cassandra Searles
- Natasha Stoynoff
- Bridget Sullivan
- Temple Taggart
- Karena Virginia
- Summer Zervos
The bottom line here is that you can accuse, shame, excoriate, and ostracize Harvey Weinsteins all the live-long day, but as long as the 45th President of the United States sets the example that legitimizes pussy-grabbing and all of the other dehumanizing practices he praises, Oprah Winfrey's "new day" is not on the horizon. The roots of patriarchal misogyny are deep, and they are institutionalized in organized religion as much as they are in the current White House administration.
The same system is still being perpetuated, despite #MeToo.
And finally we end up at the intersection of politics and the arts. Using the old casting couch culture, talentless mooks could make their way into positions of public exposure. But has shouting down Harvey Weinstein eradicated that culture? The existence of Trumps and Moores would seem to indicate that while some progress has been made in the entertainment sector, society as a whole still seems to value the idea that amateurish schmucks can jump the queue and go from shower-stall crooner to multi-platinum recording artist, or from junior high school Broccoli Stalk #3 to Matt Damon's next love interest.
It has been said that excellence within the context of a particular discipline can be achieved with ten thousand hours of applied learning and practice. However, the shortcut of sacrificing one's dignity and self-respect seems to be equally acceptable. Sure, fellating Howard Hughes will no longer get you a role in a major motion picture but rather a potential prison sentence for necrophilia, depending on the legal jurisdiction you inhabit. Instead of debasing one's self in private, the new fad is to force people to do so on produced television.
The latest thing is "The Launch," a reality television show. Let's examine some of the elements. The prize is fame, exposure, and a record label contract. In order to win the prize, you must win the favour of a grotty, middle-aged white man. In the meantime, your rehearsals and practice time is aired in front of a viewing audience eager to relate to common, ordinary "Harrison Bergeron"-esque talentless performances.
No sex on air, of course, but I'm sure the interwebs will compensate for that soon enough as soon as some of the contestants are thrown onto the trash heap of pop culture history. And Americans are very shy about sex. Where Yankees used to chastise British people for being prudes, the amount of censorship in the United States is reaching ridiculous proportions. How many television networks were allowed to repeat the president's statement “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” verbatim?
To echo the great Lenny Bruce, American media bathes in blood. The violence available for viewing on any of the major networks is as intense as any centerfold from "Fangoria" magazine on a daily basis. But any tender and loving moment between two caring individuals that shows a nipple? Verboten. Thrown onto the bonfire of "degenerate art."
What does "The Launch" mean for American society and its valuation of art? Well, apparently the contestants don't even need to win the competition, as they can now release singles directly to iTunes and Spotify and whatever other online distribution system and start racking up platinum sales before the show even concludes.
This essentially means that popular music now is not being performed, recorded, and distributed based on merit. These are not virtuoso musicians that have spent the 10,000 hours to perfect their art. They haven't fine-tuned and honed their stagecraft by playing at gigs in venues of different sizes with audiences of different tempers. Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork paid their dues and busked on streetcorners, and learned what riffs got the most pennies in a hat. Then they managed to get songs written by Carole King and Neil Diamond to propel them to stardom as The Monkees.
The bottom line here is that the vast majority of popular music being marketed at the public now is less sophisticated and authentic than The Monkees. Mediocrities that haven't even convinced the grotty white guy to award them the victory are flooding the market, and because the delivery system is so automatic and convenient, money is flowing into the studio labels for free. That's right, studio A&Rs can release five or six singles (one from every competitor) without signing any of them. Eventually, they'll sign one of the groups, offer them something miserable, milk as much sales as they can, and then drop them in the dustbin. Why? To do anything else would require investment. This is about profit and getting people to pay them money, not about rewarding artists for artistic merit. Reality TV exists as a cheap way to fill airtime where there are no expenses for scriptwriters or directors, and the unpaid warm bodies double as performers and marketing devices.
Does anyone remember the group "Next"? They were number one on Billboard's Top 100 Hot Songs in 1998. Can you name the single? Yup. Twenty years from now, the poor William Hung wannabes that embarrassed themselves on national television will be wishing that they had the kind of enduring fame that Bobby Pickett earned. Meanwhile, the public will at least have the convenience of deleting the unoriginal filler from their smartphones rather than grow to adulthood and have their shelves cluttered with anodyne dreck that any six-year old with a 1982 Casio electronic keyboard could produce.
Shower Songlist
Again, like a crossword puzzle, anyone who can determine the common factors among all or most of these tracks gets to act intellectually superior and smug for an undefined period of time. Outwit the shuffle function, and you may demonstrate some sort universal principle of existence.
- Tusk, by Fleetwood Mac
- Help Me Rhonda, by The Beach Boys
- Fifty Mission Cap, by The Tragically Hip
- Bombs Away, by Johnny Clegg and Savuka
- Around the World, by Aqua
- Kashmir, as performed by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (Unplugged)
- Ring of Fire, by Johnny Cash
- Hockey Night in Canada Theme, by CBC musicians of some sort
- Rockin' World, by Joe Strummer
- Brain Drain, by Lightning Seeds
And I think that's about enough out of me for the multiple sittings that it has taken. Hope that most of it is coherent. Until next time, goodnight England and the Colonies.
—mARKUS
