People are mad at Hollywood again. But this time, they’re mad about the wrong thing.
This year, the main topic of discussion surrounded Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster Barbie, which dominated box offices last year and was not only a financial success but a pretty big cultural phenomenon. Yet while the film received a range of Oscar nominations including Best Picture, neither Gerwig nor lead actress Margot Robie received nominations for their work. Since Barbie’s thematic content focuses on gender issues, the act of “snubbing” Gerwig and Robie sparked accusations of sexism within the Hollywood industry.
Technically, I do agree with these accusations. I’m not about to argue that Hollywood is not sexist. In fact, in the 2010s I myself used to write about topics like representation and diversity within the film industry, complaining about topics like #OscarsSoWhite.
But now that we’re living in such an urgent era, where the wealth gap has created an affordability crisis that makes it impossible for most people to thrive, I find it difficult to concentrate on this aspect of Hollywood nowadays. During a time that felt more peaceful, I was perfectly happy to go after the system for these milder (yet still problematic) failings. But now?
Now, 950 pages of court documents identifying “associates” of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein have been published. Epstein, I will remind you, was arrested on counts of sexual trafficking of minors, and allegedly died by “suicide” in prison. These new documents reveal people shown to be “connected” or “friendly” with Epstein, and include the names of very wealthy, high-profile people, including politicians like Donald Trump, Al Gore, and Bill and Hillary Clinton.
We don’t know for sure exactly what the inclusion of these names in these documents mean. And most media organizations, likely for legal reasons, are keen to point out that technically there is no proof that anyone on this list was involved in Epstein’s sex trafficking activities. Technically, the people on this list could all be perfect, uncorrupted angels, who had no idea anything was going on at all.
But obviously we must consider the other possibility as well—the one that suggests that they understood very well indeed.
I point this out in the context of Hollywood, because while Epstein’s list included the names of many powerful people like royals and presidents and tycoons, it also included the names of people in show business, including Leonardo Dicaprio, Kevin Spacey, George Lucas, and Bruce Willis.
In the context of such a serious issue like sex trafficking, complaining that Robie and Gerwig should have received Oscar nominations seems like small fry. Robie and Gerwig still remain rich, powerful, and successful despite issues of sexism in Hollywood. But sex trafficking, particularly that of minors, is a whole other matter.
The seriousness of this topic has also got me thinking about how we conceptualize celebrities in Hollywood. Just like anyone else with wealth and privilege, high-profile people in show business also do horrible things and escape accountability since they are protected by powerful systems. This is why the #MeToo movement and the jailing of Harvey Weinstein was so significant. Up until then, it had been well-known in the film industry that it was common practice for predators in Hollywood to use their power to sexually assault people, yet it wasn’t really until #MeToo that people actually suffered consequences for these actions.
Despite the above, however, we still generally perceive celebrities as being fun and entertaining and perhaps less sinister than other rich and powerful people. They, and the system of Hollywood that protects them, is still generally represented as glamorous, artistic, and perhaps even frivolous. This concept of frivolousness actually plays an important role in Hollywood’s public image. Since their realm is art and not policy, their influence on the world is generally not taken as seriously as the influence of others.
So while we are comfortable portraying oil tycoons and presidents and CEOs as evil and corrupt, and we are rightly happy to attack the systems that uphold them in order to prevent suffering and poverty, when it comes to Hollywood, we don’t really attempt to do the same because on the surface, it seems silly.
Yes, we have gone after individual people in Hollywood. This was the whole point of the #MeToo movement. But while it is understandable to go after individuals for the individual terrible things they have done, it is important to also consider the systems in which these people were enabled to be predatory, and to consider when it may not only be flawed, but broken entirely.
It is now accepted, for example, that Hollywood can be a creepy breeding ground for sexual predators. But while we accept this, we don’t think of it as being that big of a problem. #MeToo had its time in the sun, but has now passed. Hollywood is still allowed to go on, and I have never heard anyone calling for what I think is actually appropriate—for Hollywood itself to just be shut down entirely.
This sounds dramatic, so let me argue my point.
To use another issue for comparison’s sake, another contemporary topic of concern is unchecked violence and lack of accountability within Western police systems. Many Black people, particularly Black men, are killed by police officers for tragic and awful reasons. While there are issues with individual officers, not all individual officers are necessarily the major problem—the problem is if police systems do not take the deaths seriously, and do not implement any significant changes to prevent tragedies from occurring. If it does not, then individual officers really have no reason to behave any differently. If the system is not massively improved, violence and a lack of accountability will continue to thrive.
In the same way, Hollywood is also responsible for the evil it breeds. Like with the police system, it is also a corrupt entity, which has resulted in suffering that belies its frivolous image. In addition to the countless incidents of rape and sexual assault against grown men and women that came out in the #MeToo era, many people in Hollywood also face allegations of grooming and sexual assault against minors as well, which brings to mind Epstein’s charges.
On top of this, there are countless examples of “troubled” children raised within the Hollywood machine, who end up experiencing nervous breakdowns or substance addiction issues by the time they become adults. Sexually assaulted or not, these children were clearly traumatized by their experience.
But much of the time, this is blamed simply on the pressures of the industry. It is normalized as “just the way it is” in show business, and individual children are often even blamed themselves as just not adapting to the show biz. But this is such a weird thing to brush under the carpet or fail to investigate more in depth. The film industry has a responsibility to prevent this damage from occurring, and if these kinds of things keep happening, then what is the point of Hollywood even existing? The risks outweigh the benefits.
With systemic issues in the police system, some activists use the slogan “defund the police” to argue that the only way to hold this system accountable is to divert funds away from them, and to redirect the money elsewhere that might be more useful. Practically, we cannot defund the police entirely, for if we want society to function, we do need some degree of policing so that things don’t completely fall into chaos.
But this argument doesn’t apply to Hollywood. We don’t need Hollywood for society to continue.
We, in fact, don’t need it at all.
I am eager to point out that I am not arguing that art or film is useless or unimportant. I believe art is hugely important. It’s a way for people to comment on society, to satirize elite systems, to point out when things are not working for the benefit of the greater population. Art is essential to reflect pain, to stir up difficult conversations, to cope and escape from an often unfeeling world.
But Hollywood itself is not needed for art and film to thrive. Hollywood is just a structure, an organization composed of the elitist of the elite. It is a system that is happy to pretend it is not as damaging to the world in the way other elites are, even though they are always embroiled in weird sex shit and it is full of people who are completely divorced from how wealth inequality affects the average population. The Covid pandemic was a great example of this, when actors and other celebrities attempted to comment on situations they couldn’t even begin to understand.
Yet despite the fact that celebrities are completely out of touch, they still get to decide which stories to tell. They still get to choose which topics get discussed, and get to determine what should be considered political and social issues in the cultural hegemony. They fly massive, polluting jets around the world while lecturing us on environmentalism, and then receive awards and praise for their bullshit. And while #MeToo brought certain crimes to light, we would be unwise to think that all of them came out. Filthy Rich, a documentary on Epstein, revealed how for a long time, he escaped prosecution for truly awful crimes, because he was too well-protected by wealth and power.
Is it logical to assume he was the only one?
It always feels frivolous to go after Hollywood. Some people claim it to be a “distraction” from going after other power structures. But why can’t we turn a critical eye to them as well?
Hollywood is a bloated and self-congratulatory system. Their apparent frivolousness leads us to dismiss their crimes as unfortunate but largely irrelevant. Even though it upholds powerful elites that can easily instigate terrible damage and suffering. Even though their money can buy them out of any problems just the same as politicians. Individual people may get cancelled, but the system is allowed to continue and thrive, when it is in fact the core of the problem.
And on top of this, in an affordability crisis, when people can’t even afford homes or fresh food, the system makes billions and billions of dollars, which feeds right back into itself.
For what purpose? For “problematic” Oscars that no one watches? For a billion Marvel movies that are all exactly the same? For a system that is supposed to be artistic, but no longer attempts to push boundaries, and doesn’t attempt to challenge any flawed systems or anyone in power?
Bringing Hollywood’s reign to an end doesn’t mean the end of film. There are many fantastic independent directors and studios who are making great things, just like independent writers on Substack. With the tools of the internet, social media, and streaming services, we no longer need a system ruled by rich and powerful people deciding what stories should be made and rewarded. I don’t need Hollywood to tell me that Disney-Pixar ALWAYS deserves to win Best Animated Picture for example, when so many other great animation studios exist, and Disney-Pixar is powered by one of the richest people in the world with no incentive to challenge ideas in the cultural hegemony.
So while it may seem insignificant to question show business when governments and massive corporations are more able to directly influence policy, this issue is entirely my point. Governments and corporations do need to be held accountable, but Hollywood is a corrupt structure in the exact same way. They are also wealthy and out of touch. They also massively influence people’s lives. They are also a PR machine, which attempts to control our opinions, and escape accountability for their actions.
There’s a reason, for example, why the Democrats and Republicans are all riled up over Taylor Swift right now. (They are trying to get her endorsement for the 2024 election and trying to start a smear campaign against her, respectively.) But they have incentive to do this. It is because although Swift may not actually know anything about politics or have any direct power over policy, she is so influential at this point that her opinion actually matters. Celebrity and celebrity systems do actually matter where pain and suffering is concerned, because power always matters.
I don’t actually expect Hollywood to be “defunded”, though that would be nice. But the system deserves way more scrutiny than we are currently giving it. In a world where many communities are suffering from massive wealth inequality, we need to be thinking of systems where wealth is concentrated, and where these structures are exerting their power. It is not frivolous to be concerned about their influence.
And they depend on you believing that it is in order to keep getting away with shit.
All systems protect their members, at least to the extent they can without imploding. The best way to crush a system or institution is to deny it money.
I've read a number of articles that show Hollywood's grip on film is loosening. Production costs remain high for studios, distribution is more democratized with streaming, and AI could just change the game altogether.
Film could leave Hollywood, and thus its power. Time will tell, however, as of now, it's monopoly power is waning. If money leaves, executives will be exposed; no one ever remains untouchable in a setting where money has since left.