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. :)
13 Responses to “Gina Carano proves you can’t be Red in a Blue company”
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Being right wing and being evil are not the same thing, but they are not mutually exclusive either.
Telling people that they have a reasonable basis for the claim that our election results were fake and Biden is only President because Team Blue cheated is evil. It destroys confidence in our system and encourages people to attempt violent overthrow of the government on the grounds that they cannot change the system through elections and provides cover for Team Red to ram voter disenfranchisement laws down the nations throat in the name of stopping this alleged cheating (over 200 bills and counting by Team Red already to this purpose). It would be one thing if Team Red actually produced an iota of proof that this cheating had in fact occurred, but literally all they offer is that the orange man said it. While I agree we cannot realistically or ethically just marginalize 40% of the population, the way to handle this is to clearly and consistently tear apart all Team Red lies on the issue. What Gina Carano did here was both Right Wing and evil. If by evil we mean a malicious and disingenuous act that has serious consequences.
Ditto for mocking people who wear masks. People are dying because Team Red is constantly promoting the myth that either covid doesn’t exist or is not dangerous, that wearing masks makes people look silly and doing so is simply a way to indicate party affiliation. This is right wing stuff, it is also evil.
While I am not sure I would call promoting the myth that Trump supporters are an oppressed minority evil, it is dishonest.
As for the Red Tribe not being typically anti-semitic do you mean Republicans are not typically anti-semitic or the Republican Parties actions are not typically anti-semitic?
If the first, then I would be curious what your basis is for that. Otherwise I would say the Republican Party leadership is typically extremely anti-semitic, a GOP congresswoman who claims forest fires are caused by Jewish space lasers just received a standing ovation from her Team Red colleagues, GOP attack adds against Senator Ossoff involved doctored images to make his nose look longer. When a group of Nazis violently attacked counter protesters screaming that they would not be replaced by Jews, Agent Orange said they were “very fine people” and told a group of nazis who literally attempted a coup against the US government that he loved them. I agree not every member of the Red Tribe is a swastika wearing skinhead, but to claim Team Red doesn’t actively court the vote of people like this is simply not true.
> the way to handle this is to clearly and consistently tear apart all Team Red lies on the issue.
And I think people should do that. Instead of doing their best to denounce and make a paraiah of anyoen who feels cheated by the election. Carano is pointing out that she (and many others) feel cheated. Instead of addressing the problem, she’s called a racist transphobe and fired. This is the opposite of helping.
> Ditto for mocking people who wear masks
The pic in question could just as easily be read as mocking people (particularly those in California) who over-react so much that it makes living impossible (as it would if you put a mask over your eyes while trying to drive). Given how much CA overreacted, this isn’t a mockery without merit.
> While I am not sure I would call promoting the myth that Trump supporters are an oppressed minority evil, it is dishonest.
Disagree. All debates are bravery debates. There are many places were people to the right of center are a minority, and are oppressed. It’s a big country.
> I would say the Republican Party leadership is typically extremely anti-semitic
The Republican Party leadership are generally the most supportive of Isreal — which, yes, IS NOT ALL JEWS, but to call the R leadership, that gives the most love and aid to the only jewish ethnic state in the world, “anti-semitic” is bizarre.
Actually, I need to get into more detail on this. Another post forthcoming.
> This is the opposite of helping.
I disagree, people should not be spreading lies about Carano, but her endorsing a thoroughly disproven conspiracy theory that lead to an attempted coup against the US government and is currently resulting in literally hundreds of Jim Crowe 2.0 laws being introduced to disenfranchise voters who dare to vote against the Red Team should have consequences.
>Given how much CA overreacted, this isn’t a mockery without merit.
I live in CA, the quick action of our elected officials in SF and LA kept us from becoming another NYC when the outbreak began and saved countless lives. Living is demonstrably not impossible here as those of us living here can attest to, and no one is asking anyone to put a mask over their eyes. They are being asked to take sensible precautions as failing to do so will result in more deaths. I know a number of healthcare professionals, not a single one has said CA overreacted to this, most feel we dramatically under reacted. This pic is just another attempt to deny the reality of covid and encourage members of team red to “own the libs” by ignoring mask mandates.
>The Republican Party leadership are generally the most supportive of Isreal
Yes, in order to get the vote of evangelical christians who view jews as an export product to be sent to Israel in order to achieve the apocalypse which will result in all the jews, atheists, muslims, homosexuals and other lesser beings being obliterated. If the state they give such love and aid to was obliterated by nuclear missiles tomorrow they would be dancing with joy. To conflate this with an actual support of jews is simply not accurate. Hence the blatant antisemitism by GOP leaders I just referenced.
Similarly, the Republican Party leadership are generally the most supportive of the military. This is simply a way for them to get suppprt of voters who think supporting the military translates to love of America. When it comes to sending soldiers off to die in pointless wars, they could care less, when it comes to providing aid to soldiers who suffer from life long physical and psychological damage due to those wars, the Republican Party leadership is sickeningly indifferent.
Holy fuck – your painting basically the entirety, or the core, of the Red Tribe as you have seems pretty indistinguishable from ‘conspiracy theorizing’.
Also, seriously, the blue tribe courts some absolutley disgusting people too. If your metric of someone being good/bad is “does their political party court the vote of horrendous people” you will hate 95% of Americans.
That’s not true.
I admire standing up for this. It’s made all the harder by the fact “Team Red”’s leaders have been wiffing pretty badly lately. Unfortunately, that makes it all the more necessary.
Thank you for this.
It wouldn’t be so galling if they were actually consistent, but I doubt they will stop kowtowing to an actually evil regime like the Communist Party of China anytime soon.
I reject the claim that she is “red in a blue company”.
It isn’t like she’s being fired for being against regulation. It is her racist and transphobic statements that got her into trouble.
And the closest thing Disney is to a “blue” company is some vague signaling by minor characters in the last big iterations of their tentpole franchises that they are gay. All of the major studio execs and most of the cast and employees are still white dudes.
Also, she’ll be fine. I don’t understand the desire to come to the defense of rich celebrities.
> It is her racist and transphobic statements that got her into trouble.
She hasn’t made any. You are spreading lies about her by saying that she has. That is exactly what I detest, and why I posted about this topic. Stop lying about people just because they aren’t of your political party.
> Also, she’ll be fine. I don’t understand the desire to come to the defense of rich celebrities.
She’s highly visible, and people spread obvious lies about her. That’s enough for me.
I tend to believe the trans and poc communities who are taking her comments as racist or transphobic (be them dogwhistles or explicit). Who are you or I as cis white dudes to say whether something is racist or transphobic?
Also, Disney is notoriously Union busting and anything BUT a “blue company”. They didn’t fire her for being “red”. They fired her because she was getting bad press.
> Who are you or I as cis white dudes to say whether something is racist or transphobic?
I’m a functional human with basic English literacy. I can see when I’m being lied to, and I’d thank you not to besmirch trans and poc people by implying they are the liars.
> Also, Disney is notoriously Union busting and anything BUT a “blue company”. They didn’t fire her for being “red”. They fired her because she was getting bad press.
OK, that’s a pretty good point. They’re just a company. It’s because their target audience is being represtend by very blue mobs that are spreading lies to generate bad press about a red enemy that they acted. If their target audience was red instead, I don’t doubt they would have caved to a red mob working to smear a blue person just as readily.
Right – white dudes all being inherently and unavoidably evil, and thus not ‘really’ Blue?