The website Autostraddle.com describes itself as follows:
[A]n intelligent, hilarious & provocative voice and a progressively feminist online community for a new generation of kickass lesbian, bisexual & otherwise inclined ladies (and their friends).
Despite all that progressive perfection, the below incident reminds us, once again, that progressivism is fascism. They want everyone’s thoughts to be pure enough to meet their utopian ideal. Scary stuff.
But on a lighter note, the below incident also reminds us that it’s lots of fun to laugh at progressives.
The website Autostraddle.com recently posted a lengthy apology for a post they published regarding the Salma Hayek character in the movie Sausage Party. In the film, Hayek plays a lesbian taco. An Autostraddle writer reviewing the film had written that Hayek’s interpretation of a lesbian taco was … a positive portrayal of a Latina.
Hmm.
First: why would a reviewer care if a ridiculous character in a farcical movie promotes good will among the world’s peoples? The reasonable response — and probably your response — to political praise being heaped upon an animated lesbian taco is:
Life’s too short to evaluate the social impact of an animated lesbian taco.
But the “progressive” response, which was voiced by Autostraddle’s readers?
“How #*$&@*$ dare you.”
Of course, Autostraddle’s editors agreed with their frothing readership.
Autostraddle opted to apologize, and further, to offer complete transparency about their editorial process to illustrate how such a sin could have occurred. Wrote Autostraddle:
On Monday afternoon, I put the freelancer’s review into wordpress and was getting it ready for publication when I opened up a discussion about it in our senior editors channel in Slack. In the interest of transparency, I am copying and pasting the transcript of that conversation here.
heather: Salma Hayek Is a Surprisingly Endearing Lesbian Taco in “Sausage Party”
how’s that [headline]?
i can’t see how a latina woman voicing a lesbian taco in a seth rogen movie could ever be a good thing, but this review says it is nuanced and sweet
riese: is the reviewer white
Let’s stop for a moment. Note the first question asked by an Autostraddle editor in response:
is the reviewer white
Got that? To a progressive, one’s DNA determines if one’s opinion is “true” or “false.” So what happens when two Latina women have opposing viewpoints? Or two lesbians?
“Shut up,” that’s what happens.
Autostraddle continues:
There are several reasons I should have listened to the alarm bells of unease I felt about the Sausage Party review. First and most damning: we allowed a non-Latina writer to cover a story about a caricature of a Latina, and while the review didn’t specifically mention the film’s stereotyping, by praising the film as a positive portrayal of a queer Latina, we allowed a white writer to, in effect, condone that stereotyping. Second, when I was looking for reviews, I trusted the opinion of mainstream newspapers and websites and didn’t specifically seek out reviews written by women of color, generally; or Latina women, specifically.
Once again, you see the issue at hand: White folks cannot be trusted to determine whether a lesbian taco is a true representation of Hispanic culture.
Wait a minute, Autostraddle … I’m confused. Because …
Salma Hayek is a freaking Latina!!! So it can’t possibly be offensive!!! Right???
Have a progressive headache yet? It may help to note that Salma Hayek was not, in fact, playing a Hispanic woman. She was playing a taco.
It’s food, for crying out loud. Delicious food. (And yes, I’m craving tacos right now. Don’t judge me.)
Autostraddle goes on to note that in general, they try to make sure that all writers share a trait with a character, or something along those lines.
The reality is that this mea culpa illustrates where SJWs priorities really lie: making sure that superficial features are treated as our most important characteristics, not our souls.
Your DNA equals your worth. Sounds like fascism to me.
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