One huge problem with America is our politically correct culture. Everyone is always finding random reasons to be offended. The latest attack from the PC police is criticism for the new queer movie “Stonewall.”
“Stonewall” is a movie chronicling the early gay rights movement. The film received backlash for making Danny, a fictional white, cisgendered, gay man, the main character instead of focusing on the real-life trans people of color that actually started the riots. The film’s director Roland Emmerich has received massive hate for the film and is being accused of whitewashing history.
“You have to understand one thing: I didn’t make this movie only for gay people, I made it also for straight people,” Emmerich told Buzzfeed. “For straight people, Danny is a very easy in. Danny’s very straight-acting… Straight audiences can feel for him.”
Emmerich just wanted to make a movie most audiences could relate to, so he chose a character that people would want to see. He had to whitewash history and make queer people fit into a heteronormative bubble in the process, but it was for art. Emmerich has nothing to apologize for.
I’m glad Emmerich wanted the movie to be not just a movie for the gays and include straight audiences. It’s well known that heterosexuals don’t have enough media representation. A whopping 3.9 percent of primetime television shows in 2014 featured queer characters, according to Glaad. With this many loud and proud gays covering our television screens, how is any straight person supposed to connect with the characters?
People don’t watch queer films so they can go outside of their heteronormative comfort zones. A gay person acting and engaging in gay culture may scare off or confuse audiences. That’s why popular shows like “Scream Queens,” “Glee” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” only have gay and trans characters that remain under the radar with no flamboyance. Sure, they’re gay, but they’re not shoving it in our face.
Straight audiences shouldn’t be forced to connect with gay culture. Instead, the history of gay culture should be manipulated to better-fit hetero needs. White people shouldn’t be expected to connect with a black, transsexual woman starting a riot. Emmerich did us all a service by changing the story to an Abercrombie-looking white boy that threw the first brick. Audiences wouldn’t have been able to understand the story if a person of color was in the forefront; they’d be too busy trying to connect with the white background actors.
It’s clear to see by just looking at modern pop culture that the only thriving franchises are those that are led by white, cisgendered casts. Television failures like “Empire,” “How to Get Away with Murder” and “Orange Is The New Black” just aren’t cutting it. There’s too much focus on people of color and queer people of color. If these flop shows took Emmerich’s words to heart, maybe they would actually be successful and even nab some trophies during award season.
The movie’s critical acclaim prove that Emmerich’s straight-baiting worked. The movie was praised with a 9 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and score of 31 on Metacritic. With movie reviews this amazing, it’s a wonder more movies don’t take historical figures and make them straighter and whiter.
People need to get off of Emmerich’s back. He’s just trying to make movies that everyone would want to see and he obviously did just that. For me personally, all I want to do after a long, hetero day is come home to my hetero wife and hetero kids, sit on my big, hetero couch and turn on my hetero TV. How am I supposed to do that if every show and movie is filled to the brim with the gays?
