This morning I sat down with my coffee and opened up Facebook to see what is going on in the lives of friends and grab a meme or two which floated by on my feed. Upon it was featured a post with an article regarding “Stranger Things” star Caleb McLaughin who plays Lucas Sinclair. In the brief article, Mr. McLaughin stated he was convinced some of the fans of the show were racist because of a lack of visitors at a convention and the amount of Twitter and Instagram followers he has in comparison to his co-stars. He went on to tell a foreign audience America is just seeped in bigotry.
Now, for all I know maybe he is right. Maybe there are really are just millions of fans out there of the show who are secretly racist, fast forward his scenes and refuse to follow him on Twitter. I’m not omniscient so I can’t know for sure, but, and just thinking out loud here, perhaps it isn’t the first explanation we can look at regarding his measly, laughable 15 million followers (how embarrassing). I think we just might be able to conclude a few other things to into account. It is the norm for celebrities nowadays to jump on the victimhood bandwagon, but just for the sake of argument, let’s pretend we don’t immediately look for this as an explanation. What other could there be? Hard to imagine but for the sake of this entry, let us try.
For one, honestly, when it comes to this show, he isn’t the most fascinating character and, hey, that isn’t necessarily his fault. Not being sarcastic. It isn’t. His character simply isn’t the most engaging and other than the pizza guy from the last season, he probably is one of more of the “expendable” (for lack of a better word) characters especially since more and more characters have been added to the show. At the beginning of “Stranger Things” he had more of a presence, but his position has been declining as the show goes on. Again, probably of no fault of his own. It isn’t as if he or Eduardo Franco write the show. Truly, if I had Twitter or the Gram I would follow the actress who plays his sister before I followed him because her character on the show is clearly more interesting.
Argyle (Eduardo Franco) and Erica Sinclair (Priah Ferguson)
Second, and looking beyond “Stranger Things” is the fact many of the people have done projects outside of the show which have gave them more prominence in the public eye. More exposure often equals more followers. Though Gaten Matarazzo, who plays Dustin Henderson, has slightly more followers I believe, because he has a sense of humor and personality which is quite evident outside of the show; apparent in interviews and whatnot.
Millie Bobby Brown who plays Eleven was the recent Godzilla films, stared in Enola Holmes (and soon Enola Holmes 2, also on Netfix), and, she is a woman. This may be a shock but it’s probable a few teenage guys out there had a crush. Finally, you have Finn Wolfhard who stared in both parts of “IT” and “Ghostbuster’s Afterlife.” Although Caleb McLaughin has some film credits, the movies haven’t had the audience the others have had.
This celebrity victim mentality stars are “opening up about” is getting
out of hand. Bryce Dallas Howard recently bemoaned the horrific
experience she had to endure because to star in the last, purportedly
awful, Jurassic Park movie, the movie-makers actually were or going to
ask her to lose weight. Well, this was a distressing revelation to me.
Who knew actors and actresses had to conform their bodies to the roles
they are supposed to play? First the Weinstein scandal and now this.
I don’t think the occupation really has much room for such complaints. You are casted to act as another person, of which there is a conception in the script or mythos of and what the audience expects, and a person will be cast to fulfill the part. You are also well-paid for your time and effort. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t like Bryce Dallas Howard is a CPA and her dirt bag boss asked her to lose weight. Such a thing would be unacceptable. However, actors and actresses, when it really comes down to it, despite all the talent in the world (and often because of it), are spectacles. Yes, I said it. It is the nature of the job. It can’t be easy to conform into roles, and makeup and costumes while able to add, are unable to remove. Which one of us hasn’t been amazed at any actor who has transformed themselves for a role, particularly those method actors who strain the limits of good health to provide entertainment to the masses? From the sounds of it, most the time the actors who complain of such transformations aren’t called to do a Christian Bale-level morph.
Is it unfair Hollywood works for something as superficial as sex appeal? Maybe. Yet, it is something I have noticed about the entertainment industry though: Sex sells. Hollywood is in the business of making money. Sex appeal works in bringing in money. Therefore, they encourage their actors and actresses, particularly those who are pleasing to the eye to begin with to, well, flaunt it. Maybe it is morally corrupt of our society, I won’t dispute that, but it isn’t a surprise. Yet, actors and actresses always seem surprised. Are they really?
It is so beyond the realm of believability they would be so ignorant, so stretches the imagination, my conspiratorial spidey-senses just can’t but flare up. Much like my hemorrhoids. Imagine if you will, for a moment, a governing body of folks beyond the voting booths. Imagine them standing beyond and behind the politicians, behind the podiums, behind the newscasters and Hollywood boardrooms. Imagine these folks have a dastardly plan, of painting our nation as an evil one for the expressed purpose of replacing division among the economic classes, with divisions of race and gender, or of victim and privileged, in order to create a new Marxist “utopia.” The victim the neo-proletariat and the privileged the neo-bourgeoisie. Imagine for a moment these things classes with the presence of comfortable satisfaction were waning and with it the anger. Imagine this poor utopian concept slipping further and further away from this body’s grasp. It would needs a spark. It needs a fire. It needs and inferno.
A brainstorming session then results in an ingenious plan accompanied by cackling laughter, to paint the privileged as the victim and infiltrate the victimhood school to divide and ramp up anger. Recruits are brought in from the media to press the narrative, and speak of the great pains they are suffering while lining their pocketbooks. Many shake heads, laugh, murmur, and not enough flock to their cause. The infiltrators present day-long propaganda, clogging any media with pre-approved messages and telling them their contentment is a lie and there are people right outside their door waiting to cause them harm. Waiting to objectify them. Waiting to take away their rights. Waiting to abuse them in all kinds of manner. Oh, even if these appear slight and inconsequential, it is really representative of a deeper and more profound darkness in the heart of the oppressors. Even if you have less Twitter followers, it speaks of the deep hatred just waiting in the shadows to spring out, not only supposedly onto the celeb infiltrators, but anyone who can identify with them or those characteristics which ensnare them and demote them from contented to suffering victim.
Oh, but how much more proof is needed! Not enough anger. Too many people going about their lives. Shrugging. A new strategy forms. That's it! More cackling laughter as they release crappy movies with the infiltrators staring, removing the norms from beloved tales so when they don’t make money, which they plan anyway, they can blame it on the oppressor and show the victimhood camp the proof of the ingrained hate within all the privileged. Movie studios and media channels and online platforms spending millions with no expectation of return just to get the message out. Taking the hit for the sake of the illusion.
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