The Witches Are Coming summary

What can a series of comedy movies from the 1990s teach us about gender politics? Well, if the movies in question are from the Adam Sandler ouvre…quite a lot, actually.

Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Little Nicky, and others might not be cinematic masterpieces. But they are some of our culture’s best-loved examples of male mediocrity. Take Billy Madison.

“Why can’t we all just get along?” It’s a common refrain in today’s sometimes hyper-critical political discourse. Surely, the question implies, things would be easier if we stopped quibbling about pronouns and deleted tweets, and instead agreed to live and let live.

And yet, “Why can’t we all just get along?” hides a multitude of sins.

Goop, the lifestyle brand founded by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, has become notorious for the wellness products it peddles. Just google “jade yoni egg,” and you’ll soon see why. But Goop’s jade eggs and crystal-infused waters are far from New Age fads. Wellness and self-care are concepts that have firmly entered the mainstream. 

These days, there’s a whole industry in selling wellness-related products to women, like bespoke juices and organic face masks. The science behind these products may be questionable. But the fads themselves are relatively harmless. Aren’t they? 

For more than 20 years, the foul-mouthed elementary schoolers of a fictional Colorado town have been entertaining television viewers. When South Park, the animated series developed by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, premiered in 1997, it was lauded as the last word in cool, subversive humor. Decades later, South Park still exerts a cultural influence – only, it’s not a positive one.

When portraying the antics of Cartman and company, South Park makes a point of tackling topical political issues. A trademark of South Park’s satire is its creators insistence that when it comes to politics, everyone – whether they’re on the left or the right – is fair game. 

In the 1990s, there were few shows funnier than The Simpsons. These days, we can still appreciate the show for its sharply drawn characters and keen satire. Yet many people find it hard to watch the character of Apu without wincing at the crude South Asian stereotype. In 2018, responding to growing public outcry, The Simpsons creators acknowledged that Apu’s characterization was outdated.

Humor changes. Society progresses. And art needs to keep pace with society’s evolving standards. It needs to respond to valid critique if it wants to stay relevant. 

A US network once refused to air a teen drama that dealt with the topic of abortion. It sounds like something that might have happened decades ago, but this was in 2004. The show in question was an episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation, and PBS pulled it from the air that year. 

Now, PBS didn’t decide to pull the episode simply because the topic of abortion came up. Rather, it chose to pull the episode because the character who opted for an abortion didn’t express sufficient remorse over her decision.

The patriarchy poses many problems for women. Under patriarchy, women are at much higher risk of sexual violence than men. In the workplace, women are vastly underrepresented at management level. In the home, women still perform far more domestic duties than men do.

How do we fix this? There are lots of so-called solutions floating around, like: