The Entertainment Media and Trump’s Crusade against DEI

Is a return to the past in our future?

Last week, we just saw Donald Trump commandeer the Lincoln Center, claiming the performing arts center doesn't "share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture." 
He wants CBS shut down for being critical of him. 
He has appointed three senior (conservative) movie “stars” to be his “Special Ambassadors” to “Troubled” Hollywood, again invoking the idea of a “Golden Age.”

It’s troubling. 

When we combine this with the Trumpian regime’s campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and the push by the new attorney general to pursue criminal investigations of private corporations with DEI as a company policy, I have to wonder what effect this will have on the Entertainment Media.
(Oh, and let’s not forget the new push to “eradicate” some imagined “anti-Christian bias,” and make God a priority in our country again, I can assume this will inevitably involve targeting the “godless” queer community.)

Most companies that make movies and TV shows these days are owned by large parent corporations.
They will get pressure from this regime to reject DEI. 

Will they bend to the will of the Trump regime?
(Don’t say it can’t happen. Many large companies/corporations have already caved.) 

How will that “look” in the movies and TV we watch?

This week, I was watching TV and noted openly queer contestants on game shows (that also included queer content), LGBTQ characters on major network series, a wide range of races in featured roles, and people of other faiths making positive contributions to the stories. 
Is that going to change?

Are we going to see a return to the “monochromatic” landscape of straight white people in most of the leading roles? 

Are we going back to the nuclear family as the (imaginary) norm, with a subservient wife/mother whose only job is to stay at home?

What about people of color? 
Can we expect them to be relegated to sidekicks, wacky neighbors, scary gang members, or docile domestic help? 

Will LGBTQ characters return to being invisible? Or used cautionary tales again?  

Can we foresee Hallmark going back to love stories that only involve young, attractive, heterosexual, white couples?

Forget Good Times. Give us Ozzie and Harriet.
Father Knows Best, not Modern Family.
No to Gilmore Girls.” We want Donna Reed.
Instead of Glee, let's have Lawrence Welk.
We don't want Queer Eye, we want to return to Walton Mountain. 
Leave it to Beaver forever. Heartstopper never!

The media will not be about reflecting a changing culture, but about manipulating it to prevent change. 
It won't be about enlightening the minds of society; it will be state-controlled propaganda!

Yes, as a TV/Movie geek, these concerns bounce around in my brain. 
And as one who’s studied the history of authoritarian rulers, I also know this is the classic strategy—control the media!

The push for diverse representation in the media has been a long, hard-fought battle.
And in less than a month, the advances are being wiped out—erased by a racist, xenophobic administration. 

Wake the hell up, America! 

Reject the 🐂 💩
Stand Firm.
Together, we are strong. 

💙 ☮️ 🟰 ✊❗️