Tory MP Nick Fletcher blames crime in young men on female Doctor Who

You have to hand it to the Tories, they are a bunch of verminous cunts, but they do make you feel clever.
 
Jodie Whittaker strikes again. Poor bloke just needed a positive role model.

‘Doctor Who’ Tory MP reported to sleaze watchdog over his outside interests

Nick Fletcher initiated a debate in Parliament on 'promotion of electric vehicle usage' while working for a company that installs electric vehicle charging points‘ @DailyMail
 
I watched a film starring Jodie Whittaker last night, where ironically, she ended up being a role model to a very young lad going through a rough time.
 
youngbob said:
I think the two of us can absolutely agree that major companies and business brands rarely have the benefit of society at the forefront of their thinking when coming up with their latest campaigns. When John Lewis made their Christmas advert this year, I don't think they included a black family out of the goodness of their hearts. As you say, it's all about image management. John Lewis put a black family in their advert this year because they want to be perceived as a company that's modern and progressive, and they seem to think that employing black faces is a fast-track way to ensuring that people believe that about them. I think, on some level, it speaks to the homogenous hypocrisy at the centre of neoliberal globalisation that a massive name like John Lewis can just wade into centuries-long discussion about black liberation and freedom in the Western world and look like the good guy when all they're trying to do is protect their falling profits. I prefer it when they make cute adverts with cuddly animated animals for that reason.

However, I think you're conflating the cynicism of corporate elite marketing strategies with the good ethics of long-running, established movements set up by marginalised and minority groups to preserve and protect their human rights. I don't like the John Lewis advert this year, for what it's worth, but what I don't have a problem with is the effect that advert might have on the general public's perceptions of black families. It's only a theory, but I believe that the more we see of people who don't look like us, the more normalised it becomes, and thus the better we all treat each other. Throughout history, for as long as humans have have been keeping track of themselves and writing things down, we've always had a fear of "the other". As far as I'm concerned, the differences and inherent "otherness" we all have should be celebrated so that we fear each other a little bit less every 10 years or so. The advert hasn't been made with honest intentions but that shouldn't distract from the potential of a white boy at home who watches the advert and treats the black boy in his class a little better the next day.

I'm not saying the advert alone has solved racism, because that's a laughable notion, but the advert is taking place within a larger cultural shift that will nudge us a little bit nearer with every generation that passes. I think MLK Jr. himself said that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" - which is to say that equality isn't something that springs up overnight and doesn't take prisoners, it's just something that slowly gets to wherever it needs to be over hundreds of years.

I'd argue that what you're seeing right now is capitalism and mainstream society catching up to, and then co-opting, progressive movements that have been around for longer than either of us have been alive. And because it's all a bit new to quite a lot of people, none of us really know the right way to approach the subject, so bits of it come off as over-earnest or a bit twee. I think your anecdote about the non-binary casting call, and your general anxieties about positive discrimination, is an example of this happening in real life. I imagine it's because the casting company (or whoever they were) think that casting a non-binary actor is the "right thing to do" because, with the best of intentions, they're trying to give more opportunities and better representation to a group of people who've been ignored and dismissed for a long time. That comedian Bo Burnham refers to this as our "period of over-correction", where lots of people suddenly become aware of a long-term problem and try a little too hard to solve it.

It's a bit like what's happening with the NHS right now. The pandemic exposed to millions of us just how poorly run and underfunded the NHS really is, so we're all doing that extra bit more to try and "protect" it at the moment, even though it's the NHS' job to protect us! It'll settle down eventually and we'll all go back to abusing the NHS and taking it for granted like we did up until March 2020, and I imagine the same will happen with things like diversity quotas and (your words, not mine) "positive discrimination" in company hiring policies and acting roles. We notice a problem, we go to great pains to solve it and end up creating new ones by over-solving it, then someone says "Hang on a minute, should we calm down a bit?", and then the pendulum eventually settles somewhere in the middle.

I'd really strongly urge you to seek out alternative viewpoints that haven't been meddled with by elite hands, because sometimes the sanitised nature of corporate-approved "progressiveness" makes it unpalatable for lots and lots of people. I'd read up on smaller political organisations that prefer methods of egalitarianism over equality; find genuinely radical art and entertainment that's been created by real people in marginalised groups who really have something to say. I don't agree with the idea of removing gender, race, sexuality, etc. from these equations because that's eerily close to cultural assimilation and part of the problem with a neoliberal globalised mindset that wants us all to be the same. As I said, our inherent "otherness" to each other is something that needs to be celebrated and discussed.

Anyway, I'm getting off my point now so I'll round up. Basically, everything is going to be fine. You might see the odd diversity box being ticked on TV and you might occasionally hear of friends and family members losing out on opportunities because a black transgender lesbian furry showed up at the last minute and stole the gig, but everything will just sort of roll on as it always has done.
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I just want to say I really enjoyed reading that. Superbly put and I do agree. We certainly are severely kicking the arse out of it, which is a dangerous place to be.

Look at modern day feminism for example, it's now viewed as a man hating cult of angry women with dysfunctional fatherly relationships and not the triumphant and incredibly progressive movement that it once was. Modern feminism villainises many women for making certain lifestyle choices (i.e. Strippers or stay at home mothers) and it has stained the name of a great historical movement. I don't want to go delve into my views on feminism, but changing opinions takes time, patience and education.

Corporations jumping on the bandwagon as you rightly say is hypocritical. How many of the organisation's have a gender balanced board for example? The BBC is such a corporation. How many people do you know that agree with the extent of their forced equality and modern day cancel culture?
 
mccity said:
I watched a film starring Jodie Whittaker last night, where ironically, she ended up being a role model to a very young lad going through a rough time.
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I saw her first film where she got her baps out for Peter O'Toole.
 
I haven't watched it since Eccleston. I've been far too busy mugging old ladies.
 
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