This could be the nadir of service journalism
A hilarious waste of bytes on a website that is a larger waste of bytes
This link will take you to the most unintentionally sad/funny bit of cultural chaff. This article is less nourishing to the intellect than a rerun of M*A*S*H. It is, among other things, the opinion of a person whose opinion you will never see again for the rest of your life.
Try to keep in mind, this person is serious when they write this:
https://www.vulture.com/2021/08/tv-white-men-the-white-lotus-ted-lasso.html
Besides being an example of incredible vacuity and two dimensional thinking, this is also an example of service journalism. Which is to say, it is writing for the sake of publicizing or promoting somebody else’s work.
Vulture is essentially TV Guide for people who are too ignorant of recent history to be aware of the one time resource for the elderly called TV Guide. Vulture manages never to exceed the level of quality you would find in the in flight magazine on Delta Airlines. Which is another way of saying reading Vulture is an intellectual a step down from staring at rats fucking.
I have a little more to say about Vulture later, but first I will try and sum up the arguments of the writer.
“TV is trying to be harsh to white men, but it isn’t harsh enough for meeee.”
It begins with an uplifting passage, ending with a question that has rather grim implications:
“This summer, television became preoccupied with a question: What should happen to men? Not all men — TV has not been inundated with stories about Black men, migrant men, trans men, men who struggle to make ends meet by holding down three gig-economy micro-jobs. One conundrum has kept cropping up in various genres and iterations: The white guys who used to be default protagonists on TV and in American life, all of the beleaguered dads, bad bosses, authoritative leaders, and wild-card mavericks, are no longer the main characters. So what happens to that guy now? Should he be erased? Can he be rehabilitated, his entitlement washed away? Where is he supposed to go?”
Of course the ordinary white man certainly can’t remain a fixture in contemporary entertainment. White men are taking up undeserved space in the world of TV. Naturally, one might ask, does this useful approach to human economy also apply to the environment outside of TV?
If the white man continues to get screen time, it should be for the noble purpose of demeaning him. This is contemplated as well:
“The Guy, the Main Guy — the guy whose problems we care about, the guy who used to be a show’s dominant point of view — becomes a hurdle to overcome. He’s not quite an antagonist because he’s too clueless. Nathan and Kevin lack the agency to cause problems on purpose. They are objects of disdain, of lingering, almost nostalgic fondness. We used to love The Guy so much! He was our Beaver Cleaver, our Tim Allen in everything Tim Allen has ever played, our Alex P. Keaton, our Don Draper, our Michael Scott. We can’t just throw him out or relegate him to the status of recurring minor guest star. But he no longer fits. His privilege feels outsize. As a protagonist, he doesn’t spark the same joy he used to.”
I see. Too many white men on TV. Well, maybe that’s true, but maybe it’s wrong.
It makes me wonder, has this writer ever heard of BET or Telemundo. Perhaps the writer hasn’t heard of the wildly successful TV networks that were created for audiences that aren’t predominantly white. Is she aware of Tyler Perry?
If I watched TV in Portugal, I bet it would be pretty hard to find too many TV shows made in Portugal that starred a Chinese person. Is Portuguese society irredeemable racist? It must be, but only for this reason, and no others whatsoever.
Now, about my own preferences for entertainment. I personally love anything starring Idris Elba, Samuel L Jackson, and Denzel Washington. Those men are magnificent in my opinion. If I have the chance to choose between a movie starring Idris Elba versus idiot Matt Damon, it’s Idris all the way. And, if I’m lucky, I might go to the grave having never seen the Matt Damon movie.
Anyway, I find it pretty easy to find entertainment starring people of color as protagonists. If you’re not aware, try seeing if the internet can tell you something about a little known figure named Eddie Murphy.
All of the above might lead you to conclude that I wish for some kind of TV racial segregation. I’m anti-segregation all the way, which used to be considered an anti-racist position. That was until racists took over anti-racism.
I think this article is actually premised on hate, welcoming a new form of degradation of a despised group. The funny thing is that this article is specifically about television that is produced almost exclusively for an audience of privileged white people. And the author is revelling in the apparent demise of white male protagonists. This is soooo funny, because the audience is mostly white male viewers, or people whose lives are intimate with white male viewers. Those poor fucks(the white males) feel like they have to cheer for entertainment made for them that declares them defective and expendable. How funny, when they’re already in a tiny and drab little back shed of entertainment. I’m glad to know they suffer through shows that degrade them, instead of enjoying themselves watching something interesting or funny. For instance the many comedies of Tyler Perry.
Anyway, under the pretense of being commentary about TV, this article is racist and hateful. It expresses the idea that one specific racial and sexual demographic is not being adequately shamed and ostracized by our culture. On what planet should that be a goal in any society? Easy one, none. If you’re entertained by resentment and encouraged by the degradation of people based on immutable traits, you’re a despicable person.
This bilge was the product of writer who’s mind is so deracinated and soul is so shriveled that they yearn to see Steve Zahn humiliated. If you think seeing Steve Zahn suffer will make you feel better about yourself, you have crossed into a peculiar form of modern madness. That part makes me laugh!
It’s totally fantastic that this article exists. Here’s why. Imagine you see a man walking through a city park with a metal detector. They are sweeping the playgound looking for anything of value dropped, perhaps by a child or teenager.
I see that person, I recognize the depths of their desperation, and thank Zeus that I haven’t been reduced to that. It refreshes my resolve to keep in good standing at a paying job.
Getting paid $65 to write 2000 words for Vulture, and then having nothing to say, so you choose to write about TV White Guys, is as desperate as the metal detector man.