“Inclusion rider.” When Frances McDormand won the Oscar for best actress yesterday, she rapped about women having stories to tell and being hooligans and anarchists who clean up well. It was riveting stuff in the way a socialist sit-in is riveting. But McDormand saved the best to last: “I have two words to leave with you tonight, ladies and gentlemen: inclusion rider.”
Despite first impressions, inclusion rider is not politically correct porn or a slow train to a re-education camp. It’s a contractual rider that actors with a messiah complex insert to demand gender and race diversity on set. It’s the kind of requirement that killed off Star Wars and Ghostbusters , as politically correct casting gave us charisma-free viewing.
It’s uncertain how many box-office bombs it will take until Hollywood’s comrades realise people won’t pay good money for ugly and boring, no matter how politically correct ugly and boring is. We want beauty, stunning vistas, original thought and great adventures. We want the fruits of genius, not the low-hanging fruit of social justice.
Hollywood’s leading ladies are enjoying a kind of immunity from professional criticism following revelations that tinsel town’s leading men are dirty rotten scoundrels.
Last year, I wrote about the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Since then, hundreds of allegations about the casting couch have come to light. Actors of both sexes have recounted incidences of impropriety ranging from sexual innuendo to rape. The problem is real, but making sex and race standard employment criteria reinforces the same biological reductionism that fuels sexual inequality.
McDormand called on one actress to stand up so all would follow. The pied piper was Meryl Streep. McDormand didn’t hesitate to choose Streep, which tells you something about the #MeToo movement. At a previous Oscars ceremony, Streep applauded rapist Roman Polanski.
McDormand’s speech is getting rave reviews in popular media. It shows how low the bar is set for women. The danger of identity politics is it feeds ego while arresting development in a culture of low expectations.
If Hollywood’s leading ladies really want to create a better future for the next generation, teach them the value of hard work, discipline and gratitude.
We need the truth to understand
Tarrant’s incoherent ‘manifesto’ must be understood so we can know our enemy.
Rich socialists are more equal
Julian Burnside and the boys at the Savage Club have known this for years.