Hollywood values

[[File:Hollywood Sign (Zuschnitt).jpg|thumb|right|225px|The internationally recognized symbol of fornication, drugs, and whatever else your grandpa likes to get mad about.]]
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{{cquote|[[Apple Inc.|Apple]] roared into the TV game with 'The Morning Show' — a superb drama about the importance of dignity and doing the right thing… made by a company that runs [[sweatshop]]s in [[China]]. So, well, you say you're [[woke]], but the companies you work for, unbelievable — Apple, Amazon, Disney — if [[ISIS]] started a streaming service, you’d call your agent, wouldn't you? So if you do win an award tonight, don't use it as a platform to make a political speech. You're in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the [[real world]]. Most of you spent less time in school than [[Greta Thunberg]]. So if you win, right, come up and accept your little award, thank your agent and your [[god]], and piss off. It's already three hours long.|||Ricky Gervais at the 2020 Golden Globes awards ceremony<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/at-the-golden-globes-gervaiss-sharpest-barb-poked-hollywoods-piety-nobody-cared/2020/01/05/61c859d6-2e59-11ea-bcb3-ac6482c4a92f_story.html At the Golden Globes, Gervais's sharpest barb poked Hollywood’s piety. Nobody cared.] by Hank Stuever (Jan. 5, 2020 at 8:23 p.m. PST) ''The Washington Post''.</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCNdTLHZAeo Ricky Gervais' Monologue - 2020 Golden Globes] ''NBC'' (Jan 5, 2020) ''YouTube''.</ref>}}
{{cquote|In this age of terror and soaring budget deficits, when our President has proposed cuts in veterans' benefits and funds for children, I got a tax cut of over $100,000! Support the Hollywood elite. Please ''re-elect'' [[W|George Bush]].|||Bradley Whitford}}
Value is at least as much an [[economic]] as a [[culture|cultural]] concept. So any proper definition of '''Hollywood values''' ought to begin with the astonishing costs of producing major [[films]] and the "blink to make sure it's real" real-estate market. The production "values" of movies made in Hollywood, [[California]], run easily to eight or even nine figures (in [[United States dollar|USD]]), and the value of real estate in Hollywood shocks the little people who can only imagine having the income to buy a little wedge of it.

Using the alternate definition of the word, as in "[[family values]]", "Hollywood values" are &mdash; wait &mdash; does Hollywood even ''have'' a uniform [[belief]]-system? Even [[metaphor]]ical [[war]]s need real enemies, or at least imagined enemies with [[empirical]] referents, and the [[culture war]] needs enemies, so who better than those objects of envy in Tinseltown?

==Overview==
[[File:OutWest1918-01.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Fatty Arbuckle (top) in ''Out West'' (1918).]]
===Film===
Hollywood, by its very nature, attracted a certain class of people. Much of the [[American]] film industry was established by first- and second-generation [[Jewish]],<ref>Gabler, Neal (1988). An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood. Crown. ISBN 0-385-26557-3.</ref> Eastern [[Europe]]an, [[Irish]], and [[Canada|Canadian]]<ref>Foster, Charles. ''[http://books.google.ca/books?id=UOw9GvrYvqIC&lpg=PA43&dq=Canadian%20pioneers%20in%20early%20Hollywood&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true Stardust and Shadows: Canadians in Early Hollywood.]'' Dundurn Press, 2000.</ref> Americans who found themselves locked out of much of the [[WASP]]-dominated social and cultural life of the early 20th century. Film, as well as similar industries like vaudeville and musical theater (which both had a substantial influence on the early "talkies" of the 1930s), was considered to be "vulgar" entertainment suited only for the lowest common denominator, and thus, was scorned by the era's cultural [[elite]]s, who instead had a fondness for [[literature]] and more "respectable" forms of theater. Yet there was a demand for such entertainment, and since nature abhors a vacuum, the evil immigrants rushed in to take the jobs that the [[Fun:Jesusland|Real Americans™]] turned their noses up at because it was beneath them.<ref>{{wpl|Cinema of the United States#Rise of Hollywood|Cinema of the United States - Rise of Hollywood}} on Wikipedia</ref><ref>[[Video game|Some things never change]].</ref>

[[File:The Sign of the Cross CM233.jpg|thumb|left|275px|Still from ''The Sign of the Cross'' (1932), a film which caused much pearl-clutching.]]

So now you've got a new and rapidly growing (in both wealth and cultural power) field of entertainment that was established by, and is thoroughly dominated by, immigrants, a good number of whom are Jewish,{{efn|Indeed, before [[Holocaust|certain events]] made such views unacceptable in polite company, many early rantings against "liberal Hollywood" frequently mentioned "[[International Jewish Conspiracy|Jewish Hollywood]]" in the exact same breath. This is not a [[coincidence]] — to this day, [[Antisemitism|anti-Semite]]s still use the trope of "Hollywood values" to claim that the entertainment industry is being controlled by the Jews to [[White extinction scenario|subvert the white race]].}} and most of whom don't fit in the culture of early 20<sup>th</sup> century America. In addition, a large number of WASPs who also find themselves alienated from "[[traditional values|traditional]]" cultural life, including some who may have a few (''*ahem*'') [[homosexuality|skeletons in the closet]], are themselves migrating to Hollywood because it's the only table in the cafeteria where outcasts like them are welcome. Jews, immigrants, homosexuals, [[money]], and new media, all in one place... you can see where this is going.

It wasn't even a decade after the first Hollywood studios had established themselves when the first great [[moral panic]] arose from Real America™ regarding the "immorality" of Hollywood. The {{wpl|Fatty Arbuckle}} scandal in 1921-22 and other incidents like it led to calls for government [[censorship]] of film, which didn't happen only because Hollywood, seeing what it was facing, pre-empted such efforts with censorship of their own. The {{wpl|Motion Picture Production Code}}<ref>[http://www.artsreformation.com/a001/hays-code.html The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 (Hays Code)]</ref> (also known as the Hays Code) was written up in 1930 and put into force in 1934, binding Hollywood's films to a strict set of guidelines for decency and [[moral]]ity until the mid '60s.

While this placated America's self-appointed moral guardians for a time, after [[World War II]] it would prove to be insufficient, as there was now a new threat to [[Dr. Strangelove|America's bodily fluids]]: [[Communism]]!{{efn|Say it in your best '50s instructional video voice. Feels good, right?}} As it did in many industries across America during the [[Great Depression]], communism attracted a lot of sympathy from the rank-and-file in Hollywood during the film industry's unionization battles of the '30s, and with the [[Soviet Union]] as a nominal American ally during [[World War II]], Hollywood's government-commissioned [[propaganda]] films took a neutral-to-positive view of the communists as friends in the global struggle against fascist tyranny. But even before the mushroom clouds had dissipated over [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|Hiroshima and Nagasaki]], the second [[Red scare|Red Scare]] had begun to heat up once it became clear that the wartime alliance was over, with Americans concerned that all those Eastern Europeans in Hollywood were a [[fifth column]] that would turn American media into a "[[red-baiting|Red propaganda machine]]." Hundreds of writers, actors, and directors lost their careers in the [[Hollywood blacklist]] of the 1950s, as anti-communist studio heads like [[Walt Disney]], Jack L. Warner, and Howard Hughes, egged on by the press and [[Joseph McCarthy|HUAC]], sought to purge the industry of political radicals both real and perceived. Simultaneously, the notorious [[tabloid]] ''Confidential'' combined the sleaze of the ''[[News of the World]]'' with the [[reactionary]] politics of [[Fox News]], going into overdrive reporting on all the misdoings of Hollywood's stars — which, at the time, included such things as homosexuality and even [[Miscegenation|blacks dating whites]] — and delivering an irreparable blow to the idea that the Hays Code had cleaned up Hollywood in any meaningful way. This being the age of ''Leave It to Beaver'' and ''Father Knows Best'', the usual suspects reacted like they usually did.

[[File:Shirley Temple in Bright Eyes with James Dunn 2 (cropped).jpg|thumb|160px|right|James Dunn and Shirley Temple in a publicity photo for ''Bright Eyes'' (1934).]]
But then something different happened. The [[Supreme Court]] had ruled in 1952, in ''{{wpl|Joseph Burstyn Inc v. Wilson|Joseph Burstyn, Inc v. Wilson}}'' (also known as the "Miracle Decision" after the film involved), that the film was protected speech under the [[First Amendment]], and with the '60s rolling in, nobody cared about indecency any more. Besides, Hollywood in the '60s had much bigger problems than its public image — namely, competition from television and foreign (especially [[British]]) cinema, the latter of which was ''not'' bound by the Hays Code and which, thanks to the Miracle Decision, could not be legally censored. Films like the sultry, action-packed ''James Bond'' series of spy thrillers, Hammer's blood-soaked, [[sex]]ualized remakes of classic horror films, and the [[Italian]] film industry's violent, morally gray take on the Western genre drew in hordes of viewers sick of Hollywood formula, and the Hays Code meant that they never had to worry about American competition. Under increasing pressure from British and other European film studios and looking for an angle from which to compete with television, Hollywood, having loosened the Hays Code in 1956 and relaxed its enforcement in the ensuing years, abandoned it altogether in 1968 and replaced it with the MPAA's (still in use) film rating system, allowing for far greater leeway in content.

The result? Ask any film student or critic what the greatest decade for American cinema was. The answer you will get is probably the 1970s, the decade after the Hays Code was buried. Filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Sidney Lumet, William Friedkin, Francis Ford Coppola, and others broke down the barriers of "old Hollywood" and brought about a revolution in American cinema that helped to turn back the tide of irrelevance. Despite notorious missteps like ''One From the Heart'' and ''Heaven's Gate''<ref>No relation to the [[Heaven's Gate|cult]].</ref> that forced the studios to rein in filmmakers' creative freedom, by the '80s Hollywood was back on the path to financial sustainability thanks to the likes of [[Fun:Star Wars|George Lucas]] and Steven Spielberg applying the "New Hollywood" style to bigger, family-oriented blockbusters.

===Television===
Meanwhile, a similar revolution was going on in film's rival, television. Despite a few minor blows like the quiz show scandals<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/quizshow/index.html "The Quiz Show Scandals."] ''The American Experience'', PBS.</ref> and FCC chairman Newton Minow's "vast wasteland" speech,<ref>Newton Minow, [http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/newtonminow.htm "Television and the Public Interest."] 9 May 1961.</ref> it was never anywhere close to the precarious position that the film industry was in. In fact, its success was responsible in a big way for Hollywood's decline in profitability and cultural influence during the 1950s and '60s.

However, by the late '60s the "Big Three" American television networks (CBS, NBC, and ABC) had discovered, through the study of [[demographics]], that a lot of what they thought were their most highly-rated hits were, in fact, doing poorly among the viewers that the marketers who paid their bills craved — namely, young and middle-aged people in the cities and suburbs with plenty of disposable income who were still figuring out what brands to trust. This was most pronounced at CBS, which had the highest ''ratings'' but the worst ''demographics'' as its viewership skewed overwhelmingly towards older viewers and people in rural areas, demographics that [[Advertising|advertisers]] didn't care for due to both their comparative lack of purchasing power and decades of ingrained brand loyalty making it hard to change their consumer habits. In the '60s, they were nicknamed the "Country Broadcasting System" due to the [[stereotype]] of their viewership being composed of farm boys and retirees, quickly canceling any show that attracted the slightest whiff of controversy.<ref>''[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130569467 The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour]'', for instance, frequently tackled issues of [[racism]] and often heavily criticized the [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson administration]] and the [[Vietnam War]], leading many stations to censor the show. Far from embracing the controversy that resulted, CBS eventually canceled the show over it in 1969.</ref> NBC also discovered just too late that ''[[Star Trek]]'', a seemingly low-rated show that they had just canceled, would've actually been measured as one of their biggest hits had they applied the use of demographics just a few years earlier. Still the network didn't bring the show back, notwithstanding there being plenty of fan outcry to do so.

The result of this embrace of demographics was the {{wpl|Rural purge|"rural purge"}} in the early '70s, when CBS canned long-running, rural-themed shows like ''Lassie'', ''Petticoat Junction'', and ''Green Acres'' in favor of programs like ''All In the Family'', ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'', ''M*A*S*H'', and others aimed at a more urban — and urbane — viewership base.<ref>Davidson, Telly. [http://www.frumforum.com/how-politics-imitates-television/ "How Politics Imitates Television."] ''FrumForum'', 5 August 2011 (recovered 29 January 2015).</ref> ''Green Acres'' star Pat Buttram cynically remarked that CBS was "cancel[ing] everything with a tree," but the rural purge worked, as CBS's image turned around overnight and its new shows became some of the most talked-about hits on television.{{efn|[[Ironic]]ally, CBS, the network that pioneered the use of demographics, soon forgot about them, sliding back into its old reputation in the '80s and earning a stereotype as "the network for the living dead" thanks to its biggest hits being older-skewing shows like ''Dallas'' and ''Murder, She Wrote''. By the '90s, it was relying on sports programming to stay afloat due to the rest of its prime time lineup being unappealing to advertisers; its loss of baseball and NFC football coverage in 1993 nearly destroyed the network.}} The other two networks (most notably ABC, which had always been more youth-oriented), noticing CBS's recent success, followed its lead, and just a few years into the '70s most of the older-skewing hits of the '60s were canceled.

===To sum up...===
In other words, Hollywood didn't suddenly become "immoral" because the [[liberal]]s running the show wanted to foist decadent values onto American society, they became "immoral" because it was the only way that they could hope to stay ''in business'' against foreign competitors. For the television industry, meanwhile, becoming "immoral" afforded them exponentially more advertiser revenue and profit than they had been earning by focusing on Middle American audiences. In other words, it was pure [[capitalism]]. And don't [[conservatives]] always tell us to "Buy American" and not support those evil foreigners, and that capitalism is the greatest economic system the world has ever seen?{{efn|Actually, this may go a long way towards explaining why the original [[fascist]]s were opposed to capitalism.}}

==Today==
The perception that Hollywood is a subversive force in American culture, spreading liberalism and [[secularism]] and undermining Real American Values,™ is still widespread within a [[Wingnut|certain section]] of the populace. [[Michael Medved]] and the late [[Andrew Breitbart]], for example, built cottage industries promoting the idea that conservative actors and filmmakers are actively [[persecution complex|persecuted by Hollywood's "liberal elite"]] and prevented from getting work in the film industry.<ref>[http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/40-celebrities-who-are-republicans About that...]</ref>

Let us ignore the fact that the "liberal" Hollywood machine cranked out three gung-ho ''Transformers'' movies that got progressively more militaristic (and awful) as the franchise went on,{{efn|At least until the fourth film, when Beijing started waving a bigger wallet than the Pentagon and Michael Bay shamelessly pandered to ''them'' instead. ''Capitalism!''}} as well as the two-hour Marine recruitment ad known as ''Battle: Los Angeles'', supporting [[Autogynephilia|autogynephilic]] conсept and [[gatekeeping]] for [[transgender]] people movie ''The Silence of the Lambs'' and the pro-[[PATRIOT Act]], pro-[[War on Terror]] blockbuster ''The Dark Knight''.{{efn|Not that ''The Dark Knight'' is a bad film. Hell, even the most [[pacifist]]ic bleeding-heart will tell you that it was awesome. It's just something to think about for anybody who claims that you can't get a big conservative film made in Hollywood.}} The show "24" has many pro torture narratives and had writers that supported [[George W Bush]] and admired [[Ronald Reagan]]. The show was also infamous in its depiction of Muslim terrorist, including a Middle Eastern family in Season 4. The show itself was popular with conservatives and was often promoted by [[Rush Limbaugh]] and [[Fox News]]. Interestingly enough, this is the same show that featured a black president and a Middle Eastern woman (who was later racially profiled) as the head of a CTU divison. Or the fact that they have shown themselves, over and over again, to be decades ''behind'' the times when it comes to what's acceptable regarding [[race]], [[gender]], and indeed just about any cultural issue.<ref>[http://www.avclub.com/article/scientific-analysis-reveals-theres-crazy-gender-ga-201612 Analysis reveals there's a crazy gender gap in screen time for this year’s Oscar nominees], AV Club (That's in 2014.)</ref> It took until 1967 for a Hollywood studio to make a movie<ref>IMDb: [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061735/ ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'' (1967)]</ref> about an interracial couple that didn't demonize the idea, by which time most of America outside [[the South]] was fine with it, and when the [[AIDS]] epidemic broke out in the '80s, the industry's response was as shamefully homophobic as anyone's at the time, despite the fact that, as Elizabeth Taylor (whose response ''wasn't'' shameful<ref>Collins, Nancy. [http://www.vanityfair.com/news/1992/11/elizabeth-taylor-activism-aids "Liz's AIDS Odyssey."] ''Vanity Fair'', November 1992 (recovered 12 May 2016).</ref>) pointed out, Hollywood wouldn't exist without gay people. Or the fact that Adam Sandler, a registered [[Republican]] who, in 2007, made a hit comedy built almost entirely around a [[homophobic]] premise,<ref>IMDb: [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0762107/ ''I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry'' (2007)]</ref> is still one of the biggest comedic stars in Hollywood despite the fact that 
everyone
 many people feel that he stopped being funny years ago. Or that it's nearly ''impossible'' for a mainstream Hollywood movie to portray an [[atheist]] character who isn't a jerk, doesn't have loose morals, didn't get dealt a bad hand by life (thus explaining why they don't believe in [[God]]), and/or doesn't convert to [[Christianity]] by the end of the movie.<ref>[[TV Tropes]]: [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HollywoodAtheist Hollywood Atheist]</ref> Or that Hollywood's attitude towards gun violence and [[Vigilante|vigilantism]] seems to be that [[Gun nut|it's ''totally awesome'']].<ref>Bell, David Christopher. [http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-every-movie-misunderstands-guns/ "5 Ways Ever Movie Misunderstands Guns."] ''[[Cracked.com]]'', 9 February 2016 (recovered 10 February 2016).</ref>

So yes. Hollywood is clearly a very liberal place. [[Argumentum ad nauseam|Just keep saying it]].

==A reality check==
{{cquote|The myth that Hollywood is a bastion of leftism dies hard. Contrary to the right-wing cliché, a social, political, and economic dichotomy has existed for years. Regardless of the leanings of the creative community, large companies are inherently conservative and all too eager to enable oppressive government.


Sure, the “talent” (writers, directors, composers, actors) is overwhelmingly [[Democrat]]ic—but the mega-media entities (studios, streaming services, distributors, networks) have always acted like every other corporate interest. (Even the actors ranks have been filled with Republicans for decades.) Moreover, the entertainment corporations historically have been [[Sheeple|sheepishly compliant]], willing to defer to [[authoritarian]] power even if it means compromising creative independence and First Amendment [[freedom]]s.|||Jennifer Rubin,<ref>[https://contrarian.substack.com/p/words-and-phrases-we-can-do-without-8ec Words & Phrases We Can Do Without: ‘Liberal Hollywood’? More like ‘Craven Entertainment Corporations’] by Jennifer Rubin (Sep 23, 2025) ''The Contrarian'' (Substack).</ref> formerly a labor and employment lawyer for Hollywood studios}}
The bottom line is that Hollywood is run by major [[corporation]]s. Whatever the personal convictions of individual movie stars may be, the real movers and shakers in Hollywood are the CEOs, chairpersons, and executives of the studios. They make movies with liberal messages because they will make money in the [[blue state]]s, just as they make movies with conservative messages (such as the aforementioned ''Transformers'' movies, ''[[American Sniper]]'', ''[[Red Dawn]]'', etc.) because those will make money in the [[red state]]s.<ref>Palmer, Landon. [http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/why-iron-man-3-is-the-most-political-superhero-movie-ever-made.php "Iron Man 3" is the Most Political Superhero Film Ever Made"] and [http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-occupy-hollywood-lpalm.php "Culture Warrior: Occupy Hollywood"], ''Film School Rejects''</ref> If Hollywood is liberal, then it is [[Libertarianism|''classically'' liberal]], its chief ideology being rooted in profit and keeping the censors off their backs. Since, for nearly a century, it has been [[Religious Right|culturally conservative Christian activists]] who have led the calls for censorship, Hollywood has long had practical, bread-and-butter reasons to distrust right-wing politics, and so its culture, if not among the studio heads then certainly among the filmmakers and actors, has gravitated to left-leaning liberalism almost by default. That being said, they ''are'' a privately-owned-and-run industry, and they're no fans of socialism; during the '80s, they adored [[Ronald Reagan]] (a former Hollywood actor) and embraced his nostalgic, free-wheeling, flag-waving, pro-capitalist brand of conservatism.<ref>Wilkinson, Alissa. [https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/8/29/20826545/hoberman-make-my-day-interview-hollywood-reagan-trump "Make My Day: How '80s Hollywood and Ronald Reagan fueled each other — and paved the way for Trump."] ''Vox'', 29 August 2019 (recovered 3 November 2019).</ref>

Ultimately, Hollywood is a vast, nebulous industry, so it cannot be conclusively said that it is dominated by any one political ideology. Ideals from across the [[political spectrum]] are on display in one form or another, and most others in Hollywood are deliberately apolitical and solely interested in creating entertainment for its own sake.

===''Left-wing'' criticism of Hollywood===
{{cquote|They fix the need, develop the taste / Buy their products or get laid to waste / Coca-Cola is back in the veins of Saigon / And Rambo too, he got a dope pair of Nikes on / And Godzilla, pure motherfucking filler / To keep your eyes off the real killer / Cinema, simulated life, ill drama / Fourth Reich culture, Americana / Chained to the dream they got you searchin' for / The thin line between entertainment and war|||Rage Against the Machine, "No Shelter"<ref group=note>Ironically, Rage Against the Machine wrote "No Shelter" for the soundtrack to Hollywood's glitzy, vapid, big-budget, marketing-driven remake of ''Godzilla'' in 1998 — a fact that the band gleefully took the opportunity to point out and mock. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NEoesmnYU4 The video] even contains a reference to the Hiroshima bombing, an event that heavily factored into the original Japanese ''Godzilla'' from 1954, just in case it wasn't obvious that they were trolling everybody involved in the remake.</ref>}}
If one is looking for real-deal, left-wing politics in the American film industry, then the place to look is in the indie/arthouse/film festival scene (Tribeca, Sundance, and so on). It has long had an uneasy relationship with the mainstream Hollywood system; while it employs Hollywood talent on numerous occasions and often relies on the major studios (all of whom have their own "indie" arms) for distribution and promotion, it is also a popular destination for left-wing actors and filmmakers who think Hollywood is too stifling. This is far from unique to the film industry. The modern indie scene is deeply embedded within the urban artist (or, more pejoratively, "hipster") culture, and its politics can be far more easily traced to that scene's [[hippie|countercultural]] beliefs than to anything in Hollywood.

Furthermore, many leftists would likely give you an earful if you ever told them that Hollywood was a subversive, radical force. The claim of "Hollywood values" has a mirror counterpart among both leftists and non-American (especially non-[[Western world|Western]]) [[Nationalism|nationalists]]. To them, Hollywood's commanding position in the global pop culture is seen as a tool of American "cultural imperialism," pushing American [[consumerism|consumerist]] values and a whitewashed image of the nation's [[American Dream|social life]] and [[Military-industrial complex|military]].<ref>Maisuwong, Wanwarang. [http://www.ijert.org/browse/june-2012-edition?download=282:the-promotion-of-american-culture-through-hollywood-movies-to-the-world "The Promotion of American Culture through Hollywood Movies to the World."] ''International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology'', Vol. 1 Issue 4, June 2012.</ref> Consequently, for many countries that seek to protect and promote a certain vision of their own culture (for better or worse), the first step in doing so is censoring Hollywood movies and other American cultural products. [[China]] is arguably the most famous example of this today.<ref>Brooks, Eireann. [http://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1063&context=jibl "Cultural Imperialism vs. Cultural Protectionism: Hollywood's Response to UNESCO Efforts to Promote Cultural Diversity."] ''Journal of International Business and Law'', Vol. 5 Issue 1, 1 January 2006.</ref>

[[Feminism|Feminist]] and [[Civil rights|anti-racist]] activists have also long criticized Hollywood for the preponderance of white men claiming leading roles at the expense of female and non-white actors, even in stories where white men logically wouldn't play a major role. Hollywood has a long history of casting lily-white actors as swarthy [[Asia]]n, [[Latin America|Latino]], [[Middle East]]ern, or [[Native American]] figures who, historically, would've had trouble passing the brown paper bag test, using [[Whitewashing in film|"tanning" makeup, stereotypical clothing, and fake beards]] to get them to look non-white. They still do this today with films such as ''Exodus: Gods and Kings''<ref>Shaw-Williams, H. [http://screenrant.com/exodus-gods-kings-race-controversy-ridley-scott/ "Ridley Scott on 'Exodus: Gods and Kings' Whitewashing Controversy."] ''ScreenRant'', 26 November 2014 (recovered 14 January 2016).</ref> and ''Gods of Egypt''<ref>[http://variety.com/2015/film/news/gods-of-egypt-white-cast-apology-diversity-gerard-butler-1201649401/ "'Gods of Egypt' Director, Studio Apologize for Lack of Diverse Casting: 'We Can Do Better.'"] ''Variety'', 27 November 2015 (recovered 14 January 2016).</ref>, the only difference being that now they get criticized for it.<ref>[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/moviesandtv/columns/moviebob/12046-Is-Ridley-Scotts-Biblical-Epic-Exodus-Whitewashing-Ancient-Egypt This article] by Bob Chipman goes into detail on the history of this practice. He does, however, give a caveat for films set in ancient Egypt, due to how ethnically diverse the region was during that time period given its status as a trade center, an imperial power, and a target for other imperial powers.</ref> Films and TV shows with mostly black casts, meanwhile, have long existed in a (pardon the pun) ghetto of sorts, marketed almost exclusively to black audiences and usually existing in low-budget genres like crime or comedy.<ref>[[TV Tropes]]: [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MinorityShowGhetto Minority Show Ghetto]</ref> 2016 saw "#OscarsSoWhite" become a popular hashtag, criticizing the fact that all twenty of the Academy Award nominations for acting went to white actors for the second year in a row, despite a number of acclaimed performances by non-white actors. Some have seen this not as a sign of bias on the part on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but rather, as a symptom of a bigger problem of white actors being favored for roles, especially for "prestige" roles.<ref name="oscarssowhite">Seymour, Gene. [http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/23/opinions/oscars-so-gray-seymour/ "Why the real problem isn't #OscarsSoWhite."] ''[[CNN]].com'', 23 February 2016 (recovered 24 February 2016).</ref>

The same goes for female-oriented films. The "chick flick" stereotype of cheap romantic comedies aimed at women (often while perpetuating negative stereotypes of them) is well-known to the point of parody even among the most manly of men<ref>Heather Hudson, [https://blogs.longwood.edu/heather7993/2014/07/28/prettywoman/ "Chick Flicks: What's the Big Deal?"]</ref>, while in bigger blockbusters, women often serve little role beyond shallow eye candy and love interests that exist for the male protagonists' fulfillment and the male audiences' wish fulfillment. Even as early as the '80s, complaints over the lack of female representation in Hollywood films had produced the [[Bechdel test]] as a satirical method of demonstrating how hard it is to find movies with women as the lead characters. It's worth noting here that [[Anita Sarkeesian]], before she became the bogey(wo)man of [[Gamergate|reactionary male gamers]], got her start critiquing the portrayal of women in Hollywood movies.

Again, just like in the '50s and '60s, television is a place where Hollywood routinely finds its ass kicked. On TV, producers like Shonda Rhimes, Lee Daniels, and Kenya Barris have had great success running popular, acclaimed, dramatic series and sitcoms led by women and/or people of color, and even when it comes to shows created by white men, you get a mix of popular programs like ''The Wire'', ''Modern Family'', and ''Orange is the New Black'' that are rooted in racial and sexual diversity. Networks like The CW, MTV, and Freeform have enjoyed great success appealing to young women with their scripted programming. Money talks, and when women and non-whites suddenly had enough money for advertisers and businesses to view them as a potential major market, the advertiser-driven television industry started listening. As such, many critics of Hollywood whitewashing have pointed to modern television as a model for how things can get better.<ref name="oscarssowhite"></ref>

In short, if Breitbart, et al. really wanted to look for lefties within the film industry, they should've started in Silver Lake, Echo Park, and Tumblr rather than Hollywood and Burbank.

===Superheroes===
Let us also take a look at one of Hollywood's biggest cash cows in the 21st century, the superhero movie. It can (and has<ref>Burgas, Greg. [http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com "The political leanings of superhero comics… revealed!"] ''Comic Book Resources'', March 1, 2010.</ref>) been argued that the entire concept of the "traditional" superhero, ''à la'' Batman{{efn|In some cases, [[BibleMan|not conservative ''enough'']].}} or Superman, is fundamentally conservative.{{efn|Funnily enough, during the 1930s and 1940s, Superman was explicitly sticking up for such evil things like [[civil rights]] and [[trade unions]]. Apparently it offends audiences a lot less to ''talk'' about the [[American Dream]] than it is to actually do something about it.}}

Of course, this is a widely disputed point, as for every argument that superhero fiction is inherently conservative, there's a counterargument against it. The hero is often a man, despite the long-known existence of female superheroes like Wonder Woman, Catwoman and Elektra... many of whom, until ''very'' recently, have ''utterly bombed'' in the transition to the screen. While superhero ''comics'' are fairly diverse, superhero movies have been, with the exception of ensemble pieces like the ''X-Men'' movies, ''Fantastic Four'' and ''The Avengers'', a sausage-fest. That said, recent female-led outings such as ''Wonder Woman'', ''Captain Marvel'', and ''Birds of Prey'' have been massively successful with critics, audiences, or both. On one hand, the character possesses some form of [[Nietzsche|moral, physical and/or biological superiority]] over the rest of his fellow men -- therefore supposedly disproving the [[equality]] of all men; on the other hand, a decent majority of heroes start out as relatable everymen and outcasts who work their way up to becoming the heroes seen on the screen. The hero has often been "chosen" by 
God
 a higher force, or is just filthy rich and highly dedicated, which some see as an attempt to claim that [[Occupy Wall Street|the 1%]] ''does'' care about us! In reality, benevolent billionaires in superhero stories are actually in the vast minority, and most rich people in such stories are evil and corrupt; in either case, the fact that the person is chosen by God or happens to be a billionaire is not typically meant as a value judgment, but rather an explanation of how they got their powers in a plausible manner.

Heroes are typically depicted as acting outside [[legal]] channels to protect them -- which, as some point out, is just like what the [[CIA]] and [[NSA]] are doing. Of course, those same heroes more often than not work ''alongside'' military and law enforcement officers, and only work outside the system because of systemic corruption within those systems (not to mention that demanding unyielding loyalty to government institutions would not be very liberal either.) Detractors characterize heroes as acting outside the law because it is right and proper and in line with "truth, justice and the American Way," often to a total lack of appreciation by those who they're trying to protect (just like those [[ACLU]] radicals who should just shut up about what the CIA and NSA are doing). The difference, of course, is that unlike the CIA and NSA, superheroes do not engage in torture, do not kill entire civilian populations just to take out a single target, do not engage in mass surveillance (''The Dark Knight'' being the one exception, and even then it was all but explicitly said that wiretapping was not the right course of action to take), and overall do not force their will onto the masses. Critics of superhero films like to claim that morality in such stories is a [[moral absolutism|matter of black and white]], but this is not even remotely true. The heroes in such stories have flaws, make mistakes, and are otherwise far from paragons of virtue or perfection; villains, on the other hand, are often given tragic backstories, understandable motives, entertaining personalities, and occasional moments of empathy and compassion that humanize them.

Many argue that superhero fiction has long been a favorite go-to of anti-establishment types who wish to challenge systems they see as corrupt or unjust. Matt Frati of ''The Medium'' brings up some interesting particulars:<ref>https://medium.com/@mattfrati/why-bill-mahers-wrong-about-comic-books-and-stan-lee-s-legacy-3d3d4f19da66</ref>
{{quotebox|Take the X-men for starters. The legendary team of genetic mutants fighting to defend a world that largely hates and fears them was directly inspired by the fight to end segregation and defend Civil Rights for blacks in the South. At its core, X-men was and still is a story about the evils of bigotry and intolerance in all its forms, a story which, sadly, is just as relevant today as it ever was. Throughout his life and work, Stan Lee always advocated tolerance and rallied against bigotry and hatred in all its forms.
[Stan] Lee’s other characters, such as the Incredible Hulk, were reflections of the real paranoia over the threat of nuclear weapons and the dangers of radiation. The Hulk was an anti-establishment character, an anti-hero whose most persistent enemy was the U.S. Army. Soon after in 1966, Lee and the legendary artist Jack Kirby debuted Black Panther, the first mainstream African American superhero who helped give voice to the frustrations and hopes of Black-Americans fighting for their rights as human beings. Characters like this and later edgy anti-heroes like Wolverine and the Punisher, struck a chord among many college students and radicals pissed off about the horrors of Vietnam, race inequality and the general indifference of the establishment itself. In the late sixties and early seventies, comic books stories, many written by Stan Lee, began to tackle the dangers of hardcore drug addiction, the effects of urban decay, income inequality and the ever present ghosts of racism and class division.}}
Noted leftist and film critic Mark Hughes has also offered cogent arguments for superhero movies' tendency to align with the left-wing on a number of issues.<ref>https://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2019/02/01/why-bill-maher-doesnt-understand-stan-lee-or-comic-books/#660dc16e6797</ref>
{{quotebox|Likewise, superhero films have taken on the national security state, government surveillance and assassination programs, war profiteering, racial injustice, homophobia, overconsumption, and many other relevant topics as both subplots to larger stories or as overarching narratives. For younger fans, these comics and films are often an entry point for thinking about and discussing such issues, and it can help create a love of both comics and of social awareness in fans. For adults who grew up reading comics, the films continue doing what comics did for us in our youth. And for tens of millions of viewers who watch the films but didn't read comics, the films demonstrate you can have your popcorn entertainment and escapism, while still getting a healthy dose of serious relevant storytelling to think about on the way home from the theater.}}

===The international box office===
Furthermore, in the last decade the American market has ceased to be the be-all, end-all decider of success or failure for Hollywood. As the rest of the world (particularly the developing world) has grown in economic stature, Hollywood has become increasingly dependent on international box office in order to sustain its ever-expanding budgets — and foreign films are entering the US market, once seen as a 100% buy domestic affair (barring the brief interlude of the '60s), in growing number.

A perfect example would be 2011's ''The Adventures of Tintin'', a $135 million budgeted CG-animated epic by Steven Spielberg based on the [[Belgian]] comic ''Tintin'', which has no mass appeal in the US but is on a par with ''The Simpsons'' or Marvel Comics in much of Europe. Its US release was an afterthought, making only about $77 million, but overseas it made nearly $300 million, a certified blockbuster. Likewise, the $180 million adaptation of ''The Golden Compass'', the first book in Philip Pullman's ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' trilogy, made over $300 million overseas and just $70 million in the US; it would've made a great year for its production company, New Line Cinema, had they not foolishly sold off the international distribution rights to other companies.<ref>Wray, Richard. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/29/useconomy "Jobs to go as New Line Cinema merged into Warner Bros."] ''[[The Guardian]]'', 29 Feb. 2008.</ref>

In this environment, especially coinciding with a time when the US's international reputation [[Iraq War|has taken]] [[Donald Trump|a nosedive]], Hollywood has to be very careful with its appeals to [[patriotism]] — whatever American viewers it might gain would be more than balanced out by disgusted [[Europe]]an, [[Asia]]n, and [[Latin America]]n viewers deciding to stay home. And now you know why the live-action ''G.I. Joe'' movie turned the all-American Joes into an international team, and why the ''[[Red Dawn]]'' remake retooled the villains from the Chinese to the [[North Korea]]ns at the last minute.

===Sexual abuse===
The one moment that conservatives might seem to have a leg to stand on in terms of attacking is the recent explosion of Hollywood power players (''X-Men'' director Bryan Singer, boy band impresario Lou Pearlman, Universal Studios attraction developer Gary Goddard, the 2017 revelations concerning [[Harvey Weinstein]], the reopening/reminding of the cases of Roman Polanski, and so on) who have been accused of [[child sexual abuse]] or [[rape]] by various individuals, whose accounts seem to corroborate each other, in civil suits. The Weinstein allegations led to many major Hollywood players (Rose McGowan, Alyssa Milano, Asia Argento, Ashley Judd, [[Gwyneth Paltrow]] and Patricia Arquette, among many others) coming out about their experiences. Back in 2014, [[Michelle Malkin]], of all people, wrote a lengthy article talking about how there appears to be a world of child grooming, [[pedophilia]] and flaunting the rules, hidden in plain sight, and that people should combat it. Of course, she goes off the rails in blaming this as a ''liberal'' problem, saying things to the effect of (and bear in mind this is a paraphrase), "the sanctimonious [[Obama]]-loving, [[SJW]] crowd who manufactured the [[War on Women]] are protecting their own and turning Hollywood into a cesspool of sick perversion. What can you expect from Democrats?"<ref>[http://newsbusters.org/blogs/michelle-malkin/2014/05/06/column-hollywoods-sexual-predator-problem-explodes "Hollywood's Sexual Predator Problem Explodes"]</ref> And since Weinstein's exposure, conservatives have used it a handy shibboleth to wave away criticism of [[Donald Trump]]. Of course, child sexual abuse and rape is a problem that has no political boundaries whatsoever. And besides, the fact that several of the individuals Malkin lists are not registered Democrats, or that [[family values]] spokesman [[Ted Nugent]] has never been punished for his vile history of underage sex, completely misses Malkin's eye.

While the {{wpl|Weinstein effect}} has sent shock waves throughout the industry in recent years, culminating in a shitstorm of tit-for-tat [[cancel culture]] campaigns between liberals and conservatives over the battleground that is the issue of sexual abuse, Hollywood's unfortunate history of sex offenders has spanned for as long as the film industry existed: the late {{wpl|Diana Serra Cary}}, former 1920s child actress who went by the screen name Baby Peggy and later memoirist and historian, recalled in her memoirs about a starlet named {{wpl|Patricia Douglas}} who was sexually abused and later blackballed for her allegations.<ref>Cary, Diana Serra. ''What Ever Happened to Baby Peggy: The Autobiography of Hollywood's Pioneer Child Star.'' St. Martins Press. 1996. (ISBN 0-312-14760-0)</ref> Cary's recollections were featured in the 2007 independent documentary film ''Girl 27''.<ref name="girl27">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=590vNRpjhwE |title=Girl 27 |date=March 18, 2024 |last=David Stenn |access-date=2025-12-03 |via=YouTube}}</ref> [[Shirley Temple]] (who would later turn out as a staunchly conservative Reagan-era diplomat), also made a sex abuse allegation against {{wpl|Arthur Freed}} (yes, that same sleazy bastard who brought you ''{{wpl|Singin' in the Rain}}''), whom Temple alleged to have [[Child sexual abuse|shown his genitals to her]] when she was twelve years old, back when the child actress was in the process of moving to MGM after her contract with 20th Century Fox ended.<ref>Harmetz, Aljean (February 11, 2014). [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/arts/shirley-temple-black-screen-star-dies-at-85.html "Shirley Temple Black, Screen Darling, Dies at 85".] ''The New York Times.'' Retrieved April 12, 2022.</ref><ref>[http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2014/02/honor-art-without-honoring-artist "The Art Of The Creep: When Good Movies Happen To Bad People".] ''Vanity Fair.'' Retrieved April 12, 2022.</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Larry King Live with Shirley Temple Black | date=April 2014 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_KacEMBJg0?feature=shared&t=744 |access-date=2019-10-20}}</ref> Fortunately for Freed and unfortunately for Temple, the incident apparently was never formally investigated and thus the producer walked away scot-free from it. This was also on top of the [[Moral panic|now-questionable]] scenes in some of Temple's films, such as the infamous "On The Good Ship Lollipop" scene in ''{{wpl|Bright Eyes (1934 film)|Bright Eyes}}'' where Shirley's character serenades her signature song in the company of grown men. In 1937, British author Graham Greene wrote a controversial review of the Shirley Temple vehicle ''Wee Willie Winkie'' where he implied that Temple was a sex symbol for creepy old men. Fox Pictures understandably took offence and successfully sued Greene for libel, however while Greene did have [[stopped clock|a point]] for criticising the entertainment industry's exploitation of child actors, retrospective commentary noted how Greene's review—satirical or otherwise—undermined its critique by adopting the rather disturbing viewpoint of a child predator than directly address how Temple was commodified.<ref name="greene">{{Cite web |title=Novelist Graham Greene reviews the 9-year-old Shirley Temple |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/menwritingwomen/comments/r898jc/novelist_graham_greene_reviews_the_9yearold/ |access-date=2025-10-10 |website=[[Reddit]]}}</ref><ref name="slate">{{Cite news |last=Anderson |first=L. V. |date=February 12, 2014 |title=What Was the Deal With Graham Greene Calling Shirley Temple “a Fancy Little Piece”? |url=https://slate.com/culture/2014/02/graham-greene-and-shirley-temple-what-to-make-of-the-novelists-sexual-review-of-wee-willie-winkie.html |access-date=2025-10-10 |work=Slate |language=en-US |issn=1091-2339}}</ref> At any rate, Greene went full [[edgelord]] with his review decades before edgelords were even a thing, yet it pretty much [[pwned|backfired on him]] as he became more complicit for child abuse than contemptful against it. Greene's tone-deaf and patently paedophiliac commentary resonates well with [[wingnuts]] portraying themselves as [[psychological projection|high and mighty]] culture warriors fighting against a folk devil that is liberals within Hollywood but at the same time doing the very same lecherous deeds they accuse liberals of.

Additionally, several Hollywood bigwigs had deep connections with [[Jeffrey Epstein]], one of them being Harvey Weinstein himself.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g7d39n6vgo Prince Andrew hosted Epstein, Maxwell and Weinstein at Royal Lodge], Joe Pike, ''BBC'' 27 October 2025</ref><ref>[https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/07/jeffrey-epsteins-rolodex-famous-friends-and-acquaintances.html Jeffrey Epstein’s Rolodex: A Guide to His Famous Friends and Acquaintances], Adam K. Raymond and Matt Stieb, ''Intelligencer'' 10 July 2019</ref> Brett Ratner, a director who has been accused of sexual harassment himself and has also directed the Amazon-produced [[schlockumentary]] about [[Donald Trump]]'s third wife ''Melania'' has been pictured with not only Epstein but fellow sex trafficker {{wpl|Jean-Luc Brunel||.}}<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2026-02-02/melania-director-brett-ratner-turns-up-in-epstein-files-again ‘Melania’ director Brett Ratner turns up in Epstein files, again], Stacy Perman, ''LA Times'' 2 February 2025</ref> Another director who was deeply connected to Epstein is Woody Allen, who also has many allegations made against him,<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/us/jeffrey-epstein-woody-allen-daughter-bard-college-leon-botstein.html Epstein Helped Woody Allen’s Daughter Get Into College, Emails Show], Vimal Patel and Marc Tracy, ''New York Times'' 4 February 2026</ref> as well as his wife (who Allen had met when she was 11 and was the daughter of the person he was dating) Soon-Yi Previn, who also went as far as to smear one of [[Anthony Weiner]]'s victims.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/04/soon-yi-previn-jeffrey-epstein-emails Woody Allen’s wife, Soon-Yi Previn, told Epstein that #MeToo movement ‘went too far’], Ramon Antonio Vargas, ''The Guardian'' 4 February 2026</ref>

==Other things to think about==
Three well-known [[politician]]s first gained popularity working in Hollywood: [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]], [[Ronald Reagan]] and [[Donald Trump]]. Perhaps there is a clue in that?

Some of the strongest political voices ''against'' Hollywood Values once pandered to the film, television and [[music]] industries with their support of the [[Stop Online Piracy Act]] and the PROTECT IP Act (in the United States [[House of Representatives|House]] and [[United States Senate|Senate]], respectively)<ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203471004577142893718069820.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories ''Wall Street Journal'' -- "Brake the Internet Pirates"]</ref><ref>[http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-57359403-261/who-is-winning-sopa-read-rupe-murdochs-twitter-feed/ Rupert Murdoch supports SOPA]</ref> while the Writers Guild of America, West -- a group at the core of "big Hollywood" if ever there was one -- opposes the bills.<ref>[http://www.wga.org/content/default.aspx?id=4774 On Capitol Hill]</ref> Apparently, those godless, [[Japan]]-loving, [[Flying Spaghetti Monster]]-worshiping gamer [[nerd]]s in Silicon Valley are officially a bigger threat than Hollywood now. On the other hand, Breitbart also opposed SOPA and PIPA.<ref>[http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sright/2012/01/18/left-and-right-unite-against-hollywoods-failed-sopa-overreach/ His shite]</ref> Hey, a [[stopped clock]]...

==See also==
*[[Appeal to celebrity]]
*[[Bechdel test]]
*[[National Legion of Decency]]
*[[Parents Television Council]]

*[[Fun:Hollywood conservatives]]

==External links==
*[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-is-increasingly-normalizing-censorship-china-report-finds-1305935 Hollywood Is "Increasingly Normalizing" Self-Censorship for China, Report Finds]
*[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-hollywood-helped-hitler-595684 The Chilling History of How Hollywood Helped Hitler]
*[http://www.esquire.com/print-this/dylan-farrow-woody-allen-movies?page=all The Hollywood values that we ''should'' be critical of]
*[http://www.breakingnews.ie/discover/explainafilmplotbadly-is-the-best-thing-on-twitter-today-641274.html Hey, Twitter is useful for something.]

==Notes==
{{reflist|2|group=note}}

==References==
{{Reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Antisemitism]]
[[Category:California]]
[[Category:Identity politics]]
[[Category:Media]]
[[Category:Rape culture]]
[[Category:Stereotypes]]
[[Category:United States history]]

Categories: Antisemitism, California, Identity politics, Media, Rape culture, Stereotypes, United States history