DADT and the plucky underdogs...
I did part of my growing up in the 80s, and Spouse is a few years older than me, so we remember the same things, but she remembers them with less naivete because she was a little older and had more friends than I did. When we talk about media from that era I'll frequently end up saying, “Why did they...” and she'll just me off with “Cocaine.” It's gotten to the point where we'll be encountering some cultural element that seems odd and I'll just ask, “Cocaine?” and she'll nod. That's how I know that whatever thing it is is a peculiar quirk of the period and was probably never actually taken seriously by anybody at the time, but it is seen as normal to the culture in retrospect. The kinds of things that time travelers always get subtly wrong when they travel to a period that they never lived in. “Hello, fellow youths! What is happenin'?!”
Still, a lot of the stories from that period made me feel good about myself because there were so many that were about groups of plucky underdogs and outcasts who bonded together and saved the day while making the squares look tepid.
I'd long considered this genre to be basically harmless and a fun way to poke at the establishment and show weirdos like me that we can be useful and productive members of society... like Rudolph.
Sadly, it wasn't until much later in my life that I learned how those very stories uphold the status quo of a society and reinforce commitment to the existing system. The plucky outcasts become the exceptions that prove the rule because even as outcasts, they work to save the society as a whole and expose the weaknesses embodied by the squares.
Like, they were never going to make a Police Academy movie where our lovable band of misfits work together to replace the present system with community systems of care and cooperation, only to make the present system look more accepting and essentially harmless. Ferris Bueller was never going to use his charisma and whimsy to provide material comfort for people, only to keep women and beta cucks in line and glamorize creative selfishness.
I had been out for about four years by the time I enlisted in the US Army in 1995. DADT (Don't Ask Don't Tell) meant that they couldn't ask if I was Queer and as long as I didn't tell anybody, they wouldn't kick me out. Okay, I thought, this is some plucky weirdo situation. I grok this.
And it was.
But I was not consciously aware that my self-subjugation was a form of system worship beyond my imagination. I was not aware that other people weren't living day to day in fear of the damage that rumors could do, and I didn't see how many other people weren't getting assaulted at work. The abuse, the rape, the constant threats... this is normal for the plucky weirdo. Right?
No, buddy. It's not normal. It's not okay. And it hurts a lot and does great harm.
But that's the slippery slope of the plucky weirdo outcast trope. One begins to accept a little abuse and things build up from there. In real life, there are no script writers to craft redemption for those who harm or comedic triumph for those who are harmed. It just hurts and it perpetuates the abuse that is inherent in the system.
When I went into that system knowing that I was not accepted as I am, I gave every single bully and twit a lever to use against me. I got by through liberal use of my rope-a-dope skills and by being smarter than most of the people around me. It was not fun. It was not healthy.
When every day is a struggle to survive, that is not a good lifestyle.
I want to see the version of Real Genius where the students manage to sabotage the military industrial complex and trick them into producing prefab hygiene units, or mosquito netting and shipping it where it will help people. While seeing the grifting jerk's house explode the way it does is emotionally satisfying, it remains an implicit act of approval of the weapon and the system that worked to bring that weapon into play.
(if you've never seen Real Genius, please do watch it. While it's super dated and rude, I still like it better than that tv show with the “geniuses” who live with the “normals” and hi-jinx ensue. The lack of a laugh track probably helps.)
The harmless and dated media of our youths may be dated, but it is not harmless. Until we challenge what we watched and consider it with a critical eye about what exactly we were being sold at the time, we cannot ferret out the habits of thought that were programmed into us. The words people used were not nearly so important as the relationships they were showing without explicit words. This is my example of how early programming set me up for a rough experience.
I know others have had worse experiences and others have had better experiences. It's not for me to tell their stories. I am a DADT era veteran, and the experience turned me 500% more queer and 300% more anarchist. Part of me is worried that younger people will look at the dated language and over sexism and racism of those 80s shows and dismiss them as “cocaine” products. I worry that they may never look deep enough to see that the poison isn't The Blue Oyster gag, but the idea that outcasts and weirdos are required to save stagnant systems and are only ever accepted while they are doing that and are far more expendable than those who conform.
Being an outcast is a superpower. I think we must consider very carefully how we use that superpower to reinforce the very systems that cast us out.