Nostalgia Plus Time Equals Offence

Image Credit: fabrik

There is a trend towards political correctness that has been playing out over the last few years.

What was once funny and acceptable is now considered downright offensive.

Recently JK Rowling has faced backlash for ‘transphobic’ tweets. This has led to her being totally vilified and her master work being pulled apart for other such issues.

eg: Cho Chang as a character name for the only Asian character, by today’s standard, seems quite raciest.

There has even been calls to ‘de-author’ her work. That is, to consider the series author-less, and thus separate from Rowling’s current transgressions, so that it can be viewed as a separate entity.

I’m not here to place judgement on her tweets, you can read them and make up your own mind.

Rather I’d like to extrapolate this trend to see what will happen if we continue to judge the past by today’s standards.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to argue that:

• Pokémon promotes slavery: a subclass of creatures that the ruling class forces to fight each other.

• The Simpson’s glorify domestic violence: Homer’s strangulation of Bart with no consequences.

• Thomas The Tank Engine encourages economic slavery: a good engine is defined by how hard it works. When it no longer can, it is discarded to an eternity of solo confinement.

• How I Met Your Mother is misogynistic: Barney’s character aside, there are numerous instances of Ted treating women extremely questionably. 

Try this for yourself. Think of your favourite movie/show/book from your childhood and just look for issues.

Ask yourself:

Is it raciest? Sexist? Transphobic?
Does it promote toxic masculinity?
Does it appropriate any cultures?
Is there a diverse range of characters?
Is there a disabled character that adds more to the story than their disability?
How honestly does it treat mental illness?
How does it handle religion?
How does it handle issues of weight and appearance?
We could go on, but you see where I’m going with this.

There are two issues here.

The first is that no work of art (then or now) would survive such scrutiny. If you are looking to be offended, you will be offended. It is easy to pull a part a piece and find issue.

I don’t think it is possible to create art that will transcend into the collective consciousness, that will last for years, without being offensive. Or at least being open to the kind of dissections stated above.

If you know of such works, please tell me.

The second issue is that political correctness is an ever-sliding target. The most woke piece 10 years ago can’t reach today’s standards of progression.

The further we go back the harder it is.

To discount the past for not matching today’s standards is folly. That’s where we came from, and the art that it produced shaped the time and informs us of it.

I say that we let them stand. Read and appreciate them for what they are: relics of a bygone era.

Should such art be created now? That depends on the ability of the artist (and how brave they are to risk the anger of the internet).

To suggest that we remove offensive works from the shelves seems Orwellian (speaking of, I’m sure that we can find issues with animal farm or 1984 ... right?).

Finally, this perpetual hunt for the next thing to be offended by is reductionist.

If you look for offence you will find it.

This approach, whilst feeling self-righteous, will take away your entire past. It will leave you with nothing to hold onto.

I’d further suggest that if you look back over your past actions with a critical (artworks, tweets, essays etc) you will be able to find fault.

If you judge your past self by today’s standards, you will find issues. Just like society has learnt and is evolving, so are you.

So let’s not delete past, yeah?