Gina Carano has been disavowed by Disney, and fired by her agent.
On the surface level, this really bums me out, because she’s the only actor filling a niche I love. She is one of the very few believable female action heroes. ScarJo is great, but you have to suspend a bit of disbelief in any action scene she’s in. Gina is strong and badass and looks like someone who can kick real ass in a physical confrontation. Plus I love her charecters. She can act very well and is super charismatic.
On a deeper level, it bums me out because Disney owns like half of the entertainment industry, and they are going for Deep-Blue branding. Which means people who are Red Tribe and out about it can’t work there.
I.
Let’s first address the lie that Gina Carano is being turned out due to anti-semitism.
As pre-emptive throat-clearing: Anti-Semitism is not acceptable. Racist, bigotted, and mysognistic people don’t need to be indulged.
But not only is Red Tribe not typically anti-semitic, Carano specifically is not anti-semitic. Every allegation I’ve seen points back to this tweet:
“Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…even by children. :(
Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?”
Now, this is super cringy. Republicans have no idea how to do the “is this oppresion?” thing, and it’s cringe as hell whenever they try. But I’ve had people say to me personally that this isn’t just cringe, it’s “inherently anti-semitic” and “holocaust denialism” on par with neo nazis! Literally said that to me! So….
Calling Corana’s post holocaust denial is a worse take than Corana’s post! It trivializes actual neo-nazis that actually deny the holocaust. She at least demonstrated a knowledge of how the holocaust was made possible, that it was a bad thing, *and that it happened.*
And let’s take a second to acknowledge the root of where this is coming from. It’s a form of the “First they came for the Socialists” quote of (checks internet) Martin Niemöller.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
If one is sufficiently misinformed, one can feel they are at the beginning of this process.
Obviously no one is rounding up conservatives. But there are a lot of Red Tribe people who honestly believe that they are being cast out of broader society. That they’re being portrayed as sub-humans that no good American would associate with, and that even being friendly with them (or patronizing businesses owned by them) is enough to get those good American’s a lot of side-eye from their friends.
Of note – they aren’t completely wrong. People who don’t hide their Red Tribe-ish opinions often can be kicked out of their friend groups, or fired from their jobs. Gina Corana, for example, as will be shown below. Furthermore, for even saying that I think she’s being smeared and defamed, I also worry that certain people will think *I* am Red Tribe-ish and I should be avoided. So there is some truth to this.
Some Red Tribers see this process of outcasting to be similar to the dehumanization of minorities that often happens in the build-up to an ethinic cleansing campaign. They are really wrong about the situation on the ground, and what sort of “danger” they are in. But their news sources are things like Fox and InfoWars and other crazy shit that feeds into this paranoia. So yeah, I aboslutely believe someone could be very conserative and… pro-semitic(? Is that word?) and compare the treatment of conservatives to 30s Jews. They’d be wrong, but not holocaust denialists. Certainly not anti-semitic.
II.
So no, she’s not anti-semetic. What she is, is strongly Red Tribe, and not afraid to be public about it. Every single tweet that has been linked in every article I can find about this has been Red Tribe flag-waving. None of them are Bad or Racist or whatever. I’ve had people tell me personally that she’s a “racists, sexist, bigoted, conspiracy theory spewing, science denying […] terf.” More than once, and using those words.
I dug for a while, and these are the tweets I could find. I admit, I haven’t put hours into this. This is just what was readily available. I assume that it’s about the worst anyone can find though, otherwise the even-worse stuff would be what’s being amplified, rather than this.
This is Right Wing. It hints at cheating in the voting system. It’s not remotely evil. It is true that 40% of the country was left feeling cheated by the recent election, and that’s a bad thing. I disagree as to what the cause of that feeling is (*cough* lies and propaganda from the Liar In Chief and Right Wing media *cough*), but I agree that this is a shitty feeling and a shitty result which endangers our system of government. It certainly needs to be addressed. Sweeping it under the rug by saying 40% of the country are conspiracy-theory-believing lunatics and should be ignored or shunned is NOT FIXING the problem. It will only get worse unless it’s addressed.
First of all, this ISN’T EVEN A CARANO TWEET! It’s someone else, and she “Liked” it. You know how often I Like stuff? All the time. I don’t always agree with it. Often I do. Sometimes it’s just to show support for someone saying something that was hard for them to say. Sometimes it’s even stuff I disagree with, but I want to acknowledge that I read their comment and it was civilly-phrased. Or that I disagree in broad strokes, but there was a good point made. But let’s assume that she does agree with what’s said here.
This is Right Wing. It’s not evil. It speaks to a lived experience of feeling physically threatened and powerless. The left would understand this if it was phrased using their words. We can disagree on the truth of the statements in question, but they are obviously someone’s real experience, and quite a lot of Someones if we’re being honest.
This is Red Tribe. It’s also just plain true? Except for maybe the “working is a right” part, that’s just silly optimism. Sometimes things are true and also unfortunate, and we have to find some way to balance interests and trade off costs. But where is the lie?
LOL. OK, this is just funny. :) Funny Red-Tribe signalling.
LOL again. :) This is also just funny. This is apparently the height of her “TERF” phase. After months of pressure for pronouns, she added joke pronouns to her profile. Not only was this a fun way to handle the hate she was getting, it was pretty witty too. I don’t even think it’s Red Tribe to think pronouns are gauche, it’s just not DEEP BLUE, and I guess that’s a sin too.
Common Red Tribe complaint. Not evil, just waving the flag of “Hey you guys, I’m Red.” Oh noes, her political party isn’t our own, whatever shall we do?
And…. that’s it. That’s all the worst stuff I could find.
Maybe she’s like, really really racist IRL, and people have been covering for her because Disney was telling them to keep quiet about it? Dunno. Kinda doubt it though.
III.
You Can’t Be Red (and out) In Disney
So, she’s not a “racists, sexist, bigoted, conspiracy theory spewing, science denying […] terf.” Unless, of course, one uses the definition of “anyone who is Republican is a racists, sexist, bigoted, conspiracy theory spewing, science denying […] terf.” In which case, OK, but also, Fuck You. People using that definition are the reason our politics are in the state they’re in now. That’s the voice of the hate-filled-but-in-denail populace that needs an Outgroup to loath.
Assuming that whoever reading this isn’t one of those people, we now see that Carano wasn’t fired for any sort of extreme bigotry, but for being Red in a Blue Company. Disney is obviously going for deep-Blue branding, so there’s no way this wouldn’t happen eventually. Maybe they didn’t vet her politics before they hired her? More likely, they didn’t expect her character to become so popular. (why would a strong female badass be popular, after all. lul.)
Disney is allowed to fire people if it hurts their business to keep them employed. This is a well-enshrined principle of the entertainment industry, and has been since its inception. Firing an entertainer due to audience demands is pretty common. Moreover, she signed a contract saying she would keep Disney’s best interests, including but not limited to keeping her opinion to herself. So, in legal and business terms, Disney is in the clear.
Her public firing is probably better for Disney, at least in their leadership’s opinion. But I’m more concerned about society than Disney. I don’t like that courting a Deep Blue audience is a thing. I don’t like that we have Blue Businesses and Red Businesses. I don’t like that a company that owns like half of all the entertainment in the world is dedicated to holding a Blue image and a Blue audience and actors have to stay silent or be blacklisted from a huge swath of work opportunities.
Most of all, I really dislike that someone like Gina Carano can be exposed to the toxic underbelly of the internet, and decides to push back against it rather than ignoring it, and is punished by her employer for it. Craven-ass corporations folding to the whim of the worst recesses of the internet makes all of society worse, in a horrible spiral. People standing up against it, even when they are wrong on individual policy matters, are at least fighting the good fight. I admire that sort of strength of character. I hope she finds another good role soon. Preferably one in a show I’ll enjoy watching. :)
The Starless Sea, by Erin Morgenstern
