Really what the Blade Runner section of Bring on the Meteor VIII was for me was a chance to talk a bit about JOI, one of Blade Runner 2049's most fascinating elements, in an already fascinating film, seriously if you haven't seen Blade Runner 2049 yet, go see it, so you can experience it for yourself rather than having it spoiled, at the very least it's so far out grossed Ghostbusters internationally, but that isn't saying much just yet, it's just that not enough people are watching it. I did however originally do a full 2 paragraphs about the Feminist Frequency video; Flying Cars! Robots! Racism! Are You Ready For Blade Runner 2049? and surprise surprise, it was cancerous, so rather than just letting it gather dust in my drafts like the Tony Blair Brexit speech I cut from Bring on the Meteor IV, here it is, with some small changes to make it a bit more coherent.
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYRsDi4fGOA&t=5s
So now we can talk about something that caught my attention before I got off my arse and unsubscribed from her YouTube channel, yes, I was subscribed to it, Anita Sarkeesian's FREQ Show, in which she talks about Blade Runner, so let's do this. Let's not waste any time and get right to the meat, her opening statement is classic Sarkeesian, stating that Blade Runner's cyberpunk future is just as racist and sexist as the world is now, yeah, Anita, sure, whatever, but do carry on, and do not try to be funny because you're not, you're really not. Neither is your complete misunderstanding of Blade Runner, a film that does make its audience ask questions, but not stupid progressive minded questions like why there aren't that many minorities in L.A., something only an intersectional feminist would ask. Let's instead ask the question of why you are dwelling on the detail that Replicants in Blade Runner are also built for sexual uses, yes Anita, Replicants are unjustly treated in Blade Runner, used as slaves as well as for sex, but never mind that I guess, it's kind of the point of Blade Runner, a film that asks you to consider whether the difference between human and Replicant really matters, but here's the thing, Replicants aren't robots. Your comparison of Replicants and sex robots is completely pointless because Replicants, while artificially created, do not function or act like robots, for all intents and purposes, they are human, but they're also not since they were built instead of born, it's a grey area, which makes their treatment wholly unjust, you are missing the point and your feminist interpretation does not line up with the reality of the film you are criticising. You are obsessing over this point about sex robots because feminists hate and fear sex robots, and in the mean time you are failing to reflect Blade Runner accurately. And for my next point, may I assert that you might be the reason sex robots are a thing, not you personally, but your ideology, which teaches its adherents that men are evil and sexist and see women as nothing more than pieces of meat, which is both a complete lie and completely evil, because men aren't actually monsters Anita, and women aren't actually helpless flesh sacks, very ironically contrary to your beliefs. I for one still prefer real girls, because real girls have personalities, would you believe, but in my mind there is no doubt of a correlation between feminism and movements like MGTOW, I see you as two sides of the same coin, women who live in the lie that men are evil and useless, and men who live in the lie that women are evil and useless, maybe if you didn't call people sad and misogynistic this wouldn't be the case, but I'm sure you'd find another way to be horrible, while also conveniently omitting the fact that dildos and vibrators exist. Next we see Anita paying lip service to Blade Runner's question, an exploration of humanity, and what really separates humanity from its artificial slaves, but of course you can't just not inject a bit of cancer by saying that it's exploration is made less meaningful by its focus on white men, hey, anyone remember those 'racist' flyers I talked about in Bring on the Meteor VIII, this is what they were saying, a story focusing on white men is inherently a weaker story, because Anita Sarkeesian is a racist and a sexist. And Anita again proves that she doesn't understand Blade Runner by inferring that its focus on white men means that women and people of colour are less deserving of being considered human, Anita, are you trying to give a brain haemorrhage? That is so clearly not the case, as proven by a simple name; Rachael, gender and race really don't play a significant part when the film has bigger, more philosophical fish to fry.
Here's where things get really bad though, since as I continued watching this video I audibly yelled Fuck Off at my screen, at precisely 2:44 in the video, when Anita says that our culture oppresses women, yes Anita, you are trying to give me a brain haemorrhage aren't you. In the UK universal suffrage was made into law in 1928, 50 years before you were born, America was a bit behind us at 1965, but that's still nearly 20 years before you were born, Canada, 25 years, Australia, 20 years, and let's not forget the equal pay acts passed in America in '63 and in the UK in '70, what oppression are you talking about, I genuinely want to know, what? The MRM has you so covered on that Anita, but of course they're all misogynists, so let's ignore them. Your constant assertion that Blade Runner explores patriarchy doesn't make it true either, I very, very much doubt that that was Ridley Scott's intentions in 1982 or Denis Villeneuve's intentions in 2017. This constant babble about patriarchy is continued when she criticises the film for not dwelling on Race when exploring oppression, oh dear, the film doesn't obsess about race like you do, what a shame. I'm getting dismissive at this point, but seriously watch the video if you haven't, it's really that absurd. Deckard's equation of calling Replicants skinjobs to calling black people niggers is actually a good way of framing the unjust treatment of Replicants in an easily relatable way to the audience, since we all understand nigger to be a derogatory word, and can therefore infer the same for skinjob, but perpetuate racism? no, how does it, because he said a word, no, it's the precise opposite Anita, it's making the audience sympathetic for the Replicants, fuck your racism. In this thankfully very short video Anita clearly demonstrates a misunderstanding of the meanings of Blade Runner, and an ideologically slanted interpretation of the film that is inaccurate. Frankly I'd expect nothing less from Feminist Frequency, who made a name for themselves by lying about video games and then lying about getting online harassment, which I'm sure she did get to some extent, but A I still don't see the evidence of organised large scale abuse, and B, I don't really have much sympathy for such a garbage human. Blade Runner is a fantastic study into persecution and social bigotry, but where it goes wrong for Social Justice Ideologues is that it doesn't consider the kind of social bigotry they want it to; racial and gender persecution that they in their warped and dogmatic interpretation of the world, think is literally everywhere, hiding in, for example, the air conditioning, on a side note, sexist air conditioning is never going to stop being funny. Anita Sarkeesian is a bully and a liar, anyone remember VidCon, but let's add lunatic to that list, because as she demonstrated in her response to the VidCon debacle, her interpretation of the world is horrifically, objectively wrong, and when you can't take your intersectional feminist lens off, and you think women in our developed world really are second class citizens, I guess Blade Runner really would be problematic, because Blade Runner explores meaningful ideas in an interesting way, rather than being pathetic social justice drivel.
Well that was fun, to be honest, I'm not even surprised that such a short video was so terrible; I've come to expect it from Anita. But I remember watching her Tropes Vs Women series way back when, and seeing someone who knows nothing about video games trying to talk about video games, and doing so in a sickeningly dishonest fashion, of course she'd do the same for movies. As time has passed, my hatred of Anita and her work has turned more to apathy, and as new controversies rolled along, she's still tried to remain as relevant as possible, and there are events that make me really fucking hate her, like VidCon, but sadly, while her many, many connections still make her an individual with power, she's ultimately old news. On Blade Runner however, just like with video games, she is wrong, Blade Runner isn't concerning itself with social justice, frankly, it's better than that, which is why progressives hate it, and why Anita Sarkeesian cannot represent it's themes accurately. Maybe one day she'll thrust herself back up to enemy number one for the enemies of progressivism though, which is why even when her YouTube views aren't doing so great, she still needs to be refuted.
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