We’re seeing a rise in hate, dislike, intolerance, bigotry and every other negative word you can think of over the past few years. People who were once tolerant and unbothered by an actor’s gender or sexuality have now made it their life’s work to talk about that and only that. The worst part is, it’s somewhat profitable; hate and bigotry get clicks, and it becomes an echo chamber of toxicity and ego, dominated by men.
The Supergirl movie, starring Milly Alcock, had some buzz when it was announced. Marketing started after the Superman movie had been out for a while, which was widely regarded as a film filled with hope and optimism, with David Corenswet delivering a strong performance as Superman. But very quickly, as the trailer for Supergirl dropped, a smear/hate campaign against Milly Alcock started because she didn’t look “conventionally attractive” and because she’s a leading superhero in a movie, which is “going woke”.
“Go woke go broke” was one of the main slogans for people who subscribed to this incel-like, toxic, misogynistic rhetoric. It did substantial damage to Supergirl’s box office performance, but it wasn’t wholly responsible.
I admit that even the comic book fans who went into the cinema with excitement and an open mind walked out underwhelmed. However, they highlighted Mily Alcock’s portrayal of Supergirl as one of the film’s highlights, while criticising the writing.
Here’s an example of the anti-woke agenda crashing and burning. The Odyssey, directed by the legendary Christopher Nolan, was set to release, and the cast was revealed. Lupita Nyong’o was cast as Helen of Troy and as her twin half-sister Clytemnestra. That was strike no.1 for the anti-woke people; only because she is black, they have a problem with her being in the movie. Their argument? It’s not historically accurate. I don’t know if I would call it historically accurate when it’s adapted from a poem! A work of mythology and epic fiction; there is no historical accuracy in the movie because it is adapted from Fiction!
Strike no.2 for that group: Elliot Page was cast as Sinon. Elliot Page is a transgender man; that was enough for people to hate on him. Their predictions across their social media platforms were that it would flop; even people like Elon Musk were amplifying this narrative and hate campaign to make the movie flop.
It grossed $1.684 billion at the global box office, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time and the highest-grossing movie of Christopher Nolan’s career. I’ll leave you to conclude whether “go woke, go broke” was successful or not.