Magic time

(Originally posted to tumblr, which is the worst possible medium for bloviating.) 

The worst job in Hollywood right now isn’t damage control at The Weinstein Company. It’s publicity at DC/Warners.

The Justice League promotion junket is starting its rollout. Trailers, television appearances, etc. The movie’s got a lot riding on it – will it be able to build on the momentum of Wonder Woman or be more of the same darkly-lit confused murkiness from the earlier films? How will it fare against Thor: Ragnarok, its competition by proximity, and then against the canon of the MCU? Will it make the Superhero Movie Fatigue meme return in force? It’s a big deal.

But instead of simply trying to turn Gal Gadot’s SNL clips viral, the PR department is instead handling this:

‘Game of Thrones’ Star Jason Momoa Grilled on Twitter for 2011 Rape Joke

With his own ‘Access Hollywood’-like videos, Ben Affleck is proving our worst assumptions about him

Hollywood is very good at making stuff go away. It’s why we have a Harvey Weinstein problem in the first place. But there are some problems that can’t be made to magically disappear and, right now, at this very moment, Males Misbehaving Toward Women In Hollywood is magic-proof.

Momoa’s rape joke isn’t new news, but it’s relevant now in a way it wouldn’t have been up until last week. Remember Jeremy Renner and Chris Evans being dickish dudebros during the AoU junket? It was a tempest in a teapot, over in a flash. While Renner and Evans apologized (or ‘apologized’ in Renner’s case), there wasn’t even a consensus that they’d really needed to – women just can’t recognize a joke and obviously they’d been joking. Up until last week, Momoa had benefited by the same standards because he, too, had obviously been joking. Now… Now there is work to do to make sure Momoa’s Q-rating doesn’t dip too far that it can’t recover before next month. Gadot can’t be the only one movie-goers actually like.

(Affleck, as usual, is in a shitstorm of his own making. And Jennifer Garner doesn’t have to waste any more of her capital cleaning it up unless it touches their kids.)

If the last couple of days have done anything, they’ve highlighted how much more actresses have to put up with than unequal pay. And they have started to turn the spotlight from H Weinstein to all of the men, big shot and small fry, who have benefited from a system where their privilege was so thoroughly baked in that they didn’t even see it. Or, why so many never noticed any bad behavior that was probably happening in their proximity.

All of a sudden, deeds count as much as, if not more than, words. The internet never forgets, not con appearances that were filmed on a phone camera or outtakes of long-dead cable shows. And the women who’ve suffered don’t forget, either. “I have to be a feminist, I have daughters/sisters/female friends” doesn’t get your Ally Card punched anymore.