On Inclusion: Wonder Woman, Bill Maher, Rights, and Privilege

“One of the things about whiteness is that it wants to be present everywhere. It wants to participate in every single thing, and this idea that there are some things whiteness can’t participate in has always been a challenge for it.”
Pod Save the People, DeRay McKesson responding to Bill Maher’s use of the N-word

Wonder Woman is a remarkable film in many ways. It’s the first solo female superhero movie in over a decade, and as such, it’s the first solo female superhero movie of the modern comic book movie boom. It’s also the first undisputed win for DC and Warner Bros. in their cinematic arms race with Marvel, much to the relief of lifelong DC comics fans like me. The film isn’t perfect, but there’s a lot of good stuff there. It’s most overt themes revolve around war and the nature of good and evil, while feminism is more a subtext. But what interests me most is how the film was marketed and the controversy that arose because of this.

Wonder_Woman_Gal_Gadot-posterWarner Bros. didn’t run a huge marketing campaign for this movie, but they owe a significant thanks to the famous Alamo Drafthouse movie theater. In the spirit of the first female superhero movie of the modern era, Alamo Drafthouse ran a women-only showing— only female moviegoers, only female staff—, and this sparked a surprisingly large outcry from male fans. Of course, rather than hurting the movie, the backlash earned Wonder Woman plenty of free news coverage and social media buzz. While this controversy certainly isn’t the only cause, it has definitely contributed to Wonder Woman exceeding its projected opening domestic box office by roughly 35 million dollars. The film is a smash hit with every demographic other than men under 25 years old.

Another news story recently caught my attention as well, the famously controversy-courting Bill Maher is in the news again for using the N-word on air during his TV show Real Time. Maher was replying to Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse’s invitation to “come work in the fields with us,” to which Maher responded, “Work in the fields? Senator, I’m a house n*****!” Maher has since apologized for the remark and will soon have guests on his show to discuss his actions. What’s perhaps more alarming is the number of people coming to his defense on social media.
“Why should the N-word be off limits? Freedom of speech!”
“Bill Maher’s done a lot for black Americans, so it’s okay when he says it. He’s even dated black women!”
“Oh come on, he was making a joke. Lighten up.”

Top of Show 2 seat: Bill Maher and Bill Nye - CEO, The Planetary Society; Panel left to right: Dylan Ratigan - Sustainability Entrepreneur; Jeremy Scahill - Producer/Writer, "Dirty Wars" Co-founder, The Intercept.org, Independent Journalist; Eric Klinenberg - Professor of Sociology, NYU, Author, Going Solo; Mayim Bialik - Author, Mayim's Vegan Table, Actress, " The Big Bang Theory"The problem here is that Maher is a white man flippantly using a word that, for centuries, was used to knock down people of color. If a word has historically been used to hurt a specific group of people, maybe that group of people should get some say on when it’s used. Maher violated that. He deployed a piece of hate speech for laughs. And people are defending him under the banner of “free speech.”

Reading about the Maher controversy and the Alamo Drafthouse backlash, I can’t help but notice a pattern: people in positions of privilege lash out when they feel like they’re being excluded from something. As a white man from an upper middle class family, I get it. Honestly, sometimes I have those initial knee-jerk reactions too, but stop for a minute and think about how ridiculous these positions sound in the full context of history.

Men have controlled society for most (if not all) of known history,
we still get higher salaries than women for the same work,
we have an easier time running for elected office than women,
and we just generally get away with more than women,
but having one showing of one movie at one theater be women only
is unfair to men?

White people have oppressed people of color for centuries,
and in addition to all the deeply entrenched personal racial biases,
there are still countless institutions in our society today
limiting the rights and freedoms of people of color
(the justice system being the obvious example),
but declaring even one word off limits in public conversation
violates white people’s rights?

When you’ve grown accustomed to privilege, the thought of being excluded from anything is offensive to you. The thought that your rights could be violated even slightly is shocking. But this overlooks the fact that others have been excluded their entire lives. Before rushing to defend Bill Maher or attack Alamo Drafthouse, we need to stop for a minute and consider the things that have been denied to others their whole lives. All of us eventually want to reach a place where people are treated equally, but we’re not there yet, so we’re going to need to make some concessions. Missing one movie or abstaining from one word doesn’t mean you are being oppressed; it means you are becoming aware of your privilege, and you’re giving someone else a chance to experience the things you’ve had all along.

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