Transcription via user I CAST FIST
Quoting the text for easier read to everyone:
The desire to exclusively engage with media and art made by “unproblematic” artists is a direct result of Americans viewing media consumption as an inherently political act because that is the supreme promise of Western prosperity and the religion of consumerism, and that’s because it’s seemingly all that’s left. We’ve been stripped and socialized out of any real political energy and agency. Our ability to consume is the only thing remaining that’s “ours” in late capitalism, and as a result it’s become a stand-in for (or perhaps the sole defining quality of) every aspect of being alive today - consuming is activism, it’s love, it’s thinking, it’s sex, it’s fill in the blank. When the act of consuming is all you have left and indeed the only thing society tells you is valuable and meaningful, the act must necessarily be a moral one, which is why people send themselves down manic spirals deciding what, who is “problematic” or not, because for us the stakes are that high now.
I believe it is from this.
Commenting to cite and also to read later
I’m gonna read it, but in my 50-some years I have never enjoyed any movie LESS than Showgirls. That move was so awful that it sucked any possible enjoyment out of the sex and nudity. So, using this as the source for the banner and as some kind of centerpiece for this article is leaving me a little skeptical that I’m going to agree with the author’s overall point.
Lmk what you think. I haven’t seen showgirls but it sounds like it was working as intended since the author talks about using sex scenes to provoke a response to consumerism, if I’ve understood it correctly.