Dyret, I doubt anything I say is going to be helpful to you. You simply believe that the problem does not exist. I can't force you to see a problem that you refuse to see. It is not within your realm of experience, and therefore you simply deny its existence. This only serves to hurt minorities and promotes the oppression of people because of their race, sexuality, gender, etc. You are, effectively, part of the problem by virtue of simply refusing to believe it exists.
No, I see a problem with female portrayal in the media for instance. When Aliens, or more recently Dragon Age: Inquisition is considered a groundbreaking feminist work for having female characters that aren't fucking useless there is definitely a problem. What I'm more sceptical to is how much this actually bleeds over into real life attitudes. I know of four rapist IRL, and much like people who torture cats I don't think any amount of societal or media influence could prevent them from turning into vile, disgusting people, but that's the other internet debate that never ends well.
In any event my original point was 'don't blanket hurt/antagonize people who may be willing to listen.' I shouldn't have brought up the personal bullshit.
you know of four rapists, how many do you not know. The obvious ones are easy to hate, the ones who rape a girl after she's drank to much to struggle, or guys that rape their girlfriends, etc cause more questions and skepticism towards the victims than the rapist. And there are always questions for the victim because we expect them to fight back or behave a certain way. Or not fight back, that's also an expectation, whatever you do is going to be unexpected for someone and they are going to question your integrity.
Hollywood does dramatically affect real life and you see that in hollywood because it in in real life. The pay gap, for example. The very few women represented in STEM jobs, which has a lot to do with girls being discouraged from participating in the things that would make them interested in these jobs.
I mean toys are actually more gendered than they ever were in a long time, there has been a drop in women in STEM jobs, there's all these areas where we have lost ground and things have become hyper focused on gender roles and stereotypes, and that's not counting the backlash against feminism which brought us gems like the Man Show and Jimmy Kimmel inexplicably having a career.
And it's not just women that suffer from the patriarchy. Recently, Shia LeBeouf revealed that he had been raped by a woman, and you have human filth like Piers Morgan flat out calling him weak and a liar and just being a despicable human being. I've had liberal sites I have unliked because they have had the nerve to question this like it just isn't possible.
I get what you are saying about speaking to the audience and not alienating people but that is trickier than it sounds. There is this abject refusal to perceive privilege. Look, I'm white, I know all about privilege. There's a ton of benefits to having white skin. I realize it can make you angry to hear that you might be getting things that others don't get due to something you yourself can not control. But we've got to move past that.
I've made mistakes in the past where I have said ableist things, for example. and at first, you get angry, like you are not that kind of person and you would never intend that, but then you have to move past that and question whether or not it is true, and if it is, what you can do to change that, or in the case of privilege, what you can do to elevate others to the level of privilege you receive.