Atheism+ and Social Media

Atheism+ to me, or at least some of the vocal supporters and advocates on the forum are teetering on the edge of being ever so slightly puritannical and 'tut-tut' when it comes to television, video games, movies or even just general tropes that teeter on the edge or go past their social justice spectrum.

I mean threads like this where a user references some tropes being racist, sexist and homophobic. I think that he misses the point in that tropes are mostly descriptive, not prescriptive. They are just apparent in certain characters, contexts and genres. Possibly the most absurd example I saw them give was the "God Save Us From The Queen" which is only misogynistic in the sense that it by definition refers to a female. The name likely derives from "God Save The Queen" rather than any deliberate implication of women being ice queens, or evil. You even have exclusively or at least almost exclusively male tropes for Kings. Such as Adipose Rex and the Caligula.

Amongst other things they noted as sexist were "Hollywood Homely" and "The Smurfette Principle" (the latter is obviously and it even says it is due to target audience).

I'm not sure whether or not the narrative on that thread there is in favour of just identifying them or would rather that the tropes did not exist. I should hope only on the former. Sometimes an overindulgence on certain tropes can indicate prejudice on behalf of the writers but mostly they're just making characters and in the case of sitcoms they're going to be hammier and more of a caricature than anyone in reality and in drama more chaotic and unpredictable for effect than real counterparts.

Some other threads on this there: Social Justice In Fiction: What to Avoid and Diverse Characters amongst a few sexism in video games threads.

I mean, it is interesting - I am beginning to view these guys as a left-wing 'social justice' embedded version of Mary Whitehouse. Mary Whitehouse. Presumably many of those members would take issue with, say, Father Ted because Father Jack clearly has some form of dementia and is finding humour in alcoholism. Father Dougal is a manchild (another almost exclusively male trope) incapable of relating to the real world and Mrs Doyle is a very traditional housekeeper. Red Dwarf frequently (throughout its history) makes a plethora of stereotypical jokes about race, religion and culture. Indeed in their most recent incarnation they made a running joke seizure (or a kind of 'electronic seizure/blue screen') and in the next episode poked fun at "Chinese Whispers" which included talking to a stereotypical Chinese far-eastern food vending machine. This is not to even mention things like Brass Eye, Four Lions, Blackadder, Faulty Towers ("Don't mention the war!" "K? Me no speak English.") amongst other classic sitcoms and movies.

Presumably, given their anti-albeist and anti-racist setup they'd dislike at least those some of those to some extent. Further I imagine they would strongly dislike some music due to its theme. Much of 'extreme metal' has goreridden band names and song names with similar lyrics.

Thoughts?

Yeah, it's odd how this group of supposed freethinkers has quickly established itself as opposing free speech.

Of course, tropes influence society, so it makes some sense to rail against tropes that you think are harmful. But while tropes can form perception, they mostly just reflect existing ideas and prejudices, and by complaining about it these people are essentially telling the show makers to make their shows less realistic.

Comedy in particular often revolves around prejudices and generalisations. And in drawing attention to- and lampooning these prejudices, I think comedy serves the goal a+ wants it to, making people more aware and causing them to think about their irrational little biases. It's just sad that these people who are so concerned with what people believe can't really look beyond the superficial fact that these prejudices are even addressed, to see that the prejudices are then mocked and ridiculed.

AliRadicali wrote:Yeah, it's odd how this group of supposed freethinkers has quickly established itself as opposing free speech.

Of course, tropes influence society, so it makes some sense to rail against tropes that you think are harmful. But while tropes can form perception, they mostly just reflect existing ideas and prejudices, and by complaining about it these people are essentially telling the show makers to make their shows less realistic.

Comedy in particular often revolves around prejudices and generalisations. And in drawing attention to- and lampooning these prejudices, I think comedy serves the goal a+ wants it to, making people more aware and causing them to think about their irrational little biases. It's just sad that these people who are so concerned with what people believe can't really look beyond the superficial fact that these prejudices are even addressed, to see that the prejudices are then mocked and ridiculed.

Comedy does mock prejudice and generalisation but often it also just makes fun of things for comedy value. It seems a good number in A+ have a major humour bypass and cannot laugh at anything where the condition of someone is inadvertently or otherwise being made fun of and in drama, they cannot observe the series unless it fulfills some kind of gender or racial quota and is diverse enough for them.

It isn't a movement any more, it can barely be called a forum, it's a support group, for people that need it. I have no problem with that, I hope no one else does either. Is it good for the people that now have the A+ privilege, i'm not sure. They'll figure that out, on their own.