Hereditary

Hereditary is a super fun movie about how a girl on the autism spectrum is literally possessed by a demon, a concept that is fresh and original and has definitely never been done before, nope.

The fact that the kid is possessed is a spoiler; we're just supposed to think she's weird and hideous and frightening at the beginning. It turns out that the girl developed her autism/possession from close contact with her grandmother, who was also weird and strange and terrible. When the kid dies about half an hour in, the demon possesses her teenage brother, which is such a shame, because he was so normal and healthy before. This story is told from the point of view of the mother, who just can't handle things and is so stressed out despite being a good and caring person. I mean, let's be real: As a parent, you have to be careful with autism, because it might be contagious. (Or something your child can develop after being vaccinated, heaven forbid!) And honestly, as an upper-middle-class white mom, it's best to cut people on the autism spectrum out of your life before they infect your children.

My take: Hereditary is great spooky movie about "creepy" people centered around a bold and artistic depiction of sensitive family dynamics. :)

Ari Aster is doing such brave and intelligent work, and now I'm really interested in seeing Midsommar. I'm sure it won't happily roll around in the mud of male violence and emotional abuse for most of the movie before then justifying it by having the men punished in a totally fantastical way, and I'm sure this punishment of overt misogyny won't be presented as something that only a fringe cult of crazy people would consider to be reasonable.

Re: Hereditary

No, wait, I’m not done.

Although I wouldn’t call myself “neurotypical” by any stretch of the imagination, I’m allistic, and I can’t speak from the perspective of anyone on the autism spectrum. That being said, I still can’t get over how fucking furious this movie makes me.

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Fictional depictions of marginalized groups and performative wokeness aside, I guess what I’m really upset about is the idea that the safety and wellbeing of autistic people is somehow in opposition to the mental health of allistic people. These two concerns are deeply intersectional, and a solid and grounded respect for difference and diversity benefits everyone involved. How is this not blatantly obvious to anyone who cares about fairness and justice?

I mean, don’t get me wrong – I am all about witches and monsters and demonic possession. I eat that shit up, really I do, and it’s because I love these sorts of stories so much that I can say with confidence that reinforcing the idea that there is something deeply wrong and possibly even supernatural about people who aren’t 100% neurotypical is lazy and boring and not a particularly interesting or original premise for a horror movie.

"Disgusting Men"

I know I often complain about the creative work produced by men, and it probably sometimes sounds as if I'm some sort of radicalized TERF who hates men. I promise that's not true. I actually spend a lot of time encouraging, supporting, and promoting the creative and academic work of men. I'm lucky to be surrounded by good men - gay and straight, transgender and cisgender, younger and older, men of all races, ethnicities, and nationalities - and I want the men whose lives intersect with my own to be happy and achieve their goals while realizing their dreams. I really do, and I put a lot of work into helping make this happen.

But listen.

It is the nature of the systems of the world we live in to enable the creation and maintenance of monocultures of men who have never learned to question their own privilege as men, and it's still statistically the case that these men dominate many of the centers of cultural production in the United States, from university-sponsored creating writing programs to Hollywood moviemaking. The creative landscape is changing with each passing year, and that's fantastic. While acknowledging and celebrating the new and interesting stories being told by all sorts of people, however, I think it's still important to call out the stupid bullshit of the privileged elite for what it is.