Much has been made over the past couple of days since the Isla Vista shooting of the question of whether Hollywood is to blame. Ann Hornaday's incrimination of a puerile and male-dominated industry has led to a charged and interesting debate . Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow voiced their indignation at being unfairly associated with this atrocity, Hornaday admitted a certain degree of fault for calling out these two men specifically, Sasha Stone wrote a fantastic overview of the rise in mass killings in America, and Michael Moore took the opportunity to once again decry this country as the bastion of all that is wrong with the world.
Stone's article provided troubling data about the rise in mass shootings in America throughout the past decades. The figures are damning as the incidence has increased decade by decade, and most alarmingly, there are already more of these events in this decade than any prior decade, and we are only a third of the way to 2020. Stone goes on to explore an array of possible reasons for this dramatic increase, arguing that there is clearly a combination of contributing factors and it is worthwhile to explore them all. Hornaday, Stone concludes, was justified in her questions about Hollywood, and though her finger-pointing at Rogen and Apatow may have been uncouth, her inquiry into entertainment and gender dynamics should not be dismissed out of hand.
After the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, the public discourse turned to gun control and violence in the media. Vice President Biden traveled to Hollywood to talk it over with the industry brass, a slew of A-list actors got together to decry movie violence in a heartfelt PSA, and some genius recut that very PSA to include clips of each of these spokesmen weilding weapons and blowing things away. There was no clear connection between Sandy Hook and Hollywood per se, but the event's proximity to the Aurora shooting five months earlier -- when another lunatic opened fire in a movie theater during a screening of the latest dark and violent Batman sequel -- certainly provided guilt by association. And as these tragedies become increasingly frequent, it is perhaps inevitable that we will continue to cast a blaming glance at the institution that most powerfully influences our culture and our youth.
Hollywood is an easy target, and everyone is free to point his/her finger and take his/her pot shots. After Sandy Hook the dominant issue was excessive screen violence. In the wake of Isla Vista, gender politics in tinsel town has become the early frontrunner. A question worth posing amidst all of this blame-slinging is what/who is Hollywood? Who are these men with all the power who love guns and gore and hate women and apple pie? Certainly we can find better scapegoats than Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow whose films may not be high art, but neither are they objectionable in the way of torture porn like the Saw and The Human Centipde franchises, or even the violence of the revenge fantasies of Quentin Tarantino, or the blatant misogyny of Lars Von Trier.
The reality is that Hollywood is a machine that produces whatever it can sell. Should we blame this nameless, faceless monolithic institution, or should we blame ourselves for consuming the candy that destroys our teeth and makes us ill? Blaming Hollywood seems almost as misguided as, dare I say it, Elliot Rodgers blaming women who have rebuffed his advances and men who have been more successful than he. Rather than recognizing the fault within, we transfer responsibility to something we cannot control and imagine ourselves to be the hapless victim.
There was a time when the audience had little voice, when the tastemakers and powerbrokers decided what content we would be fed, and we could choose only to be passive consumers or to be hungry. Today, however, we live in a world where the wall between the producers and the consumers has come down. The democratization of media through the internet and the accessibility of production tools has enabled each of us to have a say in what is greenlit and what is on. We vote with the purchase of a ticket , the switch of the channel, or the click of a mouse. And "Hollywood" is paying attention. When movies like The Blind Side gross 10 times their budget with a strong female lead and a touching story of family values, Hollywood is paying attention. When movies like Dallas Buyer's Club, 12 Years a Slave, and The Help win Oscars with their depiction of the plight of the disenfranchised, Hollywood is paying attention. When little faith-based films are making big at the box office, Hollywood is paying attention.
If we want a healthier culture and a more refined media, all we have to do is take responsibility and demand it with our viewing selections. This is not to say that the dearth of women in the higher echelons of Hollywood is not a valuable issue to explore. Nor is it to suggest that we shouldn't be discussing the role and nature of violence in the media. Rather, the goal here is to contextualize the conversation about Hollywood and blame with a question of personal responsibility, values, and choice.
I heard a story recently about a man who received a small gift box in the mail with only a bullet inside. It was sent by a waitress who he had recently tipped extremely generously because he saw that she was having a bad day. The note from the waitress that accompanied the box said that the man had no idea what a difference he had made in her life that day. That evening after work, she had intended to end it all with the enclosed bullet, but his act of kindness had changed her mind and veritably saved her life.
The question I would ask is not who to blame for what Elliot Rodgers did, but rather whether a media that promotes kindness and compassion might create more behaviors that could positively affect desperate people and avert desperate acts. Mental illness will not be cured by uplifting movies, but as our popular culture continues to grow in reach and influence, we need more positive entertainment that provides people hope and promotes universal values.
It is with this in mind that we created eflixir.com, a move site that curates thousands of uplifting Hollywood films and links each of them to thematically related social causes. If we're optimistic and looking out for one another, there will be less alienation, more communication, and hopefully the growing trend in these kinds of mass killings will be reversed.
Stone's article provided troubling data about the rise in mass shootings in America throughout the past decades. The figures are damning as the incidence has increased decade by decade, and most alarmingly, there are already more of these events in this decade than any prior decade, and we are only a third of the way to 2020. Stone goes on to explore an array of possible reasons for this dramatic increase, arguing that there is clearly a combination of contributing factors and it is worthwhile to explore them all. Hornaday, Stone concludes, was justified in her questions about Hollywood, and though her finger-pointing at Rogen and Apatow may have been uncouth, her inquiry into entertainment and gender dynamics should not be dismissed out of hand.
After the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, the public discourse turned to gun control and violence in the media. Vice President Biden traveled to Hollywood to talk it over with the industry brass, a slew of A-list actors got together to decry movie violence in a heartfelt PSA, and some genius recut that very PSA to include clips of each of these spokesmen weilding weapons and blowing things away. There was no clear connection between Sandy Hook and Hollywood per se, but the event's proximity to the Aurora shooting five months earlier -- when another lunatic opened fire in a movie theater during a screening of the latest dark and violent Batman sequel -- certainly provided guilt by association. And as these tragedies become increasingly frequent, it is perhaps inevitable that we will continue to cast a blaming glance at the institution that most powerfully influences our culture and our youth.
Hollywood is an easy target, and everyone is free to point his/her finger and take his/her pot shots. After Sandy Hook the dominant issue was excessive screen violence. In the wake of Isla Vista, gender politics in tinsel town has become the early frontrunner. A question worth posing amidst all of this blame-slinging is what/who is Hollywood? Who are these men with all the power who love guns and gore and hate women and apple pie? Certainly we can find better scapegoats than Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow whose films may not be high art, but neither are they objectionable in the way of torture porn like the Saw and The Human Centipde franchises, or even the violence of the revenge fantasies of Quentin Tarantino, or the blatant misogyny of Lars Von Trier.
The reality is that Hollywood is a machine that produces whatever it can sell. Should we blame this nameless, faceless monolithic institution, or should we blame ourselves for consuming the candy that destroys our teeth and makes us ill? Blaming Hollywood seems almost as misguided as, dare I say it, Elliot Rodgers blaming women who have rebuffed his advances and men who have been more successful than he. Rather than recognizing the fault within, we transfer responsibility to something we cannot control and imagine ourselves to be the hapless victim.
There was a time when the audience had little voice, when the tastemakers and powerbrokers decided what content we would be fed, and we could choose only to be passive consumers or to be hungry. Today, however, we live in a world where the wall between the producers and the consumers has come down. The democratization of media through the internet and the accessibility of production tools has enabled each of us to have a say in what is greenlit and what is on. We vote with the purchase of a ticket , the switch of the channel, or the click of a mouse. And "Hollywood" is paying attention. When movies like The Blind Side gross 10 times their budget with a strong female lead and a touching story of family values, Hollywood is paying attention. When movies like Dallas Buyer's Club, 12 Years a Slave, and The Help win Oscars with their depiction of the plight of the disenfranchised, Hollywood is paying attention. When little faith-based films are making big at the box office, Hollywood is paying attention.
If we want a healthier culture and a more refined media, all we have to do is take responsibility and demand it with our viewing selections. This is not to say that the dearth of women in the higher echelons of Hollywood is not a valuable issue to explore. Nor is it to suggest that we shouldn't be discussing the role and nature of violence in the media. Rather, the goal here is to contextualize the conversation about Hollywood and blame with a question of personal responsibility, values, and choice.
I heard a story recently about a man who received a small gift box in the mail with only a bullet inside. It was sent by a waitress who he had recently tipped extremely generously because he saw that she was having a bad day. The note from the waitress that accompanied the box said that the man had no idea what a difference he had made in her life that day. That evening after work, she had intended to end it all with the enclosed bullet, but his act of kindness had changed her mind and veritably saved her life.
The question I would ask is not who to blame for what Elliot Rodgers did, but rather whether a media that promotes kindness and compassion might create more behaviors that could positively affect desperate people and avert desperate acts. Mental illness will not be cured by uplifting movies, but as our popular culture continues to grow in reach and influence, we need more positive entertainment that provides people hope and promotes universal values.
It is with this in mind that we created eflixir.com, a move site that curates thousands of uplifting Hollywood films and links each of them to thematically related social causes. If we're optimistic and looking out for one another, there will be less alienation, more communication, and hopefully the growing trend in these kinds of mass killings will be reversed.
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