Don't cry for me, Argentina
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woman of colour[cough]. But she loses points for not identifying as a
menstruator of colour…or should that be a
mxnstruator of colour? (thinking)
What's that I hear? The distant clucking of chickens coming home to roost?
Victoria Alonso, president of [deep breath] physical and post-production, visual effects, and animation production at Disney Marvel Studios, and prominent activist of the Hollywoke LGBTQIABC+FLAP
Whether this is a course-correction on The Message
in general, or more specifically related to Alonso's allegedly unprofessional working practices, which led to delays and a decline in the quality of the visuals—as if the decline in writing quality wasn't bad enough—is known only to a few at the House of Mouse. For now, anything else is speculation. It could represent a step in the right direction, or simply be the one swallow that does not a summer make.
Either way, it's hardly a ringing endorsement for Alonso. Presumably, her memoir of her corporate ascent, modestly entitled Possibility is Your Superpower and set for release in May on Disney's own imprint,* will get a last-minute epilogue. Perhaps to be entitled:
With great Wokeness comes great Brokeness.
DavidB, commenting on Marvel Studios Veteran Producer Victoria Alonso Exits, Variety
QFT&LOLZ! (LOLZ)
Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead.
Marvel fans have railed against Alonso wanting to change the X‑Men to The Mutants, so as to be more inclusive of women. But at least she didn't want them to be X‑Mxn or XX‑Persons. As with so many situations in life: things could always be better, but they could also be a lot worse.
In an interview with Talking Movies, Alonso said: I think if you're a woman, it's very difficult not to be aware that you're a minority, anywhere. Although we are 51% of the population…
. Several commentators have leapt on this apparent contradiction. But, although the clip has been clipped, so that any context has been removed, I imagine that she's referring to women as a minority in positions of creativity and power. And there's a good reason for that, because if they have a chip on their shoulder for being a minority, or some other activism stick up their arse, they fuck it up. That's not to imply that fucking up is a women-only prerogative, just that it gets noticed more; possibly because they make more this-is-my-platform noise beforehand. Either that, or PaTriArchY aNd MisOGyNy
™ innit?
* Does this count as vanity publishing?
How drear. The answer as to whether Alonso's departure was due to her activism, or post-production deficiencies affecting the MCU's box office performance of late, may be neither. Instead, it might have been a response to a breach of contract and conflict of interest. But that could yet all be smoke and mirrors, with Disney's legal eagles simply finding a convenient but plausible justification for kicking her sorry arse out the door and down the road. Given her status as a LGBTQIABC+FLAPcolour
, they had to be very careful in building their case. So what this means in terms of future strategy is still unclear.
More job losses are expected at Disney before the end of April. Those might indicate whether the tide is turning away from messaging and tokenism, towards apolitical entertainment and thoughtful, organic, representative representation. I doubt it though. On the other hand, anything that loses Disney money leaves me with an urge to dance…
[ dances the DIE DISMAL DISNEY dance ]
According to Alonso's attorney: Victoria, a gay Latina who had the courage to criticize Disney, was silenced. Then she was terminated when she refused to do something she believed was reprehensible.
Oooh, reprehensible
…sounds spicy. I wonder what favours Minnie asked of her: Make me squeal, Vicky, like no man or mouse can!
I'm calling this as a scoop,* and you read it here first kids!
* [libel-defence]It may not be true.[/libel-defence]
An even more underwhelming explanation for Alonso's fallout, and the so-called reprehensible
request, was nothing more that her refusal to obfuscate pride references in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania for Kuwait. Fucking KUWAIT.
In January, as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was being readied for release, word came down that Marvel executives wanted an editor to blur a storefront window that featured rainbow decorations and the word “Pride” for the version of the film to be released in Kuwait, which has restrictive anti-LGBTQ laws. The storefront was shown in two brief scenes in which Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) walked down a San Francisco street. [snip] The Quantumania request reached Alonso, who refused to have her team make the edit as part of her duties overseeing visual effects and postproduction at Marvel, insiders say. Marvel then went to an outside vendor to see the edit through.
Pamela McClintock and Aaron Couch, Victoria Alonso Clashed With Marvel Over Blurring Gay Pride References in ‘Ant-Man 3’ for Kuwait (Exclusive), The Hollywood Reporter
Is that really it? If nothing else, it sets a histrionically low bar for defining reprehensible
.
False hopes were raised that her shitcanning might signal a course correction on the messaging. Instead, it was all over nothing more than a pissy little Arab nation's anti-LGBTQIABC+FLAP
Jesus H. Christ! (SMH)
Still, at least DavidB's epilogue title regains its relevance: With great Wokeness comes great Brokeness
, indeed.