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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   36318 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 10, 2023

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Is Dylan Mulvaney the Trans Andy Kaufmann?

Watching the Dylan Mulvaney spectacle play out has left me with an odd feeling that I’ve struggled to quite put a finger on, with Mulvaney causing me to have something like an uncanny valley reaction to his transition and demeanor. I don’t mean this to say that Mulvaney looks almost female, but not quite, I mean that Mulvaney gives me the impression of someone that isn’t sincere about transitioning, but has put enough effort into it that I’m not exactly sure what’s going on and what to make of this person. In light of the recent Bud Light debacle I’ve finally settled on an explanation that makes more sense to me - Mulvaney is a modern Andy Kaufman, playing the part of a trans person well enough to convince some people, while others are in on the joke, and all of them contribute to Mulvaney’s accrual of fame and cash.

Who was Andy Kaufman? I think the Wiki summary is better than anything I’ll write up:

During this time, he continued to tour comedy clubs and theaters in a series of unique performance art/comedy shows, sometimes appearing as himself and sometimes as obnoxiously rude lounge singer Tony Clifton. He was also a frequent guest on sketch comedy and late-night talk shows, particularly Late Night with David Letterman.[6] In 1982, Kaufman brought his professional wrestling villain act to Letterman's show by way of a staged encounter with Jerry "The King" Lawler of the Continental Wrestling Association. The fact that the altercation was planned was not publicly disclosed for over a decade.

Kaufman died of lung cancer on May 16, 1984, at the age of 35.[7] As pranks and elaborate ruses were major elements of his career, persistent rumors have circulated that Kaufman faked his own death as a grand hoax.[6][8] He continues to be respected for the variety of his characters, his uniquely counterintuitive approach to comedy, and his willingness to provoke negative and confused reactions from audiences.[6][9]

Comedian Richard Lewis in A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman said of him: "No one has ever done what Andy did, and did it as well, and no one will ever. Because he did it first. So did Buster Keaton, so did Andy."[96] Carl Reiner recalled his distinction in the comedy world:

Did Andy influence comedy? No. Because nobody's doing what he did. Jim Carrey was influenced—not to do what Andy did, but to follow his own drummer. I think Andy did that for a lot of people. Follow your own drumbeat. You didn't have to go up there and say 'take my wife, please.'[97] You could do anything that struck you as entertaining. It gave people freedom to be themselves.[98]

Reiner also said of Kaufman: "Nobody can see past the edges, where the character begins and he ends."[99]

Kaufman made people laugh, get angry with him, and even physically attack him by playacting at different roles so successfully than people couldn’t tell where the sincere Kaufman stopped and the characters began. When I watch Dylan Mulvaney advertise native-scented deodorant, I don’t see someone that’s genuinely trying to be a woman. I see someone that’s clowning the concept, mocking women, mocking trans people, and exploiting the clicks for fun and profit.

I wasn’t around for Kaufman, so this comparison is likely imperfect. Nonetheless, watching people react to what sure looks to me like a running joke as though it’s perfectly sincere has been entirely surreal. I see people on the pro-trans side treating Mulvaney as sincere. If I’m right and this is a running joke, Joe Biden sure didn’t get the word. My inclination has been to chalk this up to people becoming sufficiently accustomed to never question claims from trans people that playing along with Dylan Mulvaney is no different than the rest of it, and even if they have doubts, they’re surely not going to look at Dylan and saying, “oh, come the fuck on”. So even though this was weird, it wasn’t until the Bud Light thing that it began to really seem hyperreal to me.

Here, watch this 35 second reaction video from Kid Rock. What’s going on here? Is Kid Rock sincerely pissed off at Bud Light, so pissed off that the only way to express it is with a burst of automatic weapons fire supplemented by some covering fire from a shotgun-wielding buddy? Is he basically sincere in his reaction, but strongly exaggerating the reaction because it’s funny? Is he ambivalent, but doing it for the clicks and lols? Is he part of the Bud Light advertising campaign, just driving the product into people’s mindspace? Does he agree with me that the whole thing is a big joke and he’s just rolling with his own improv? I don’t know and I don’t even know how I would know.

Vox reports that people have reacted in real life:

Don, a liquor store owner in Arkansas who requested to remain anonymous so he “doesn’t get caught up in the wokeness,” told me he’s seen a 20-25 percent dip in Bud Light sales since the controversy hit, with his admittedly small sample size of shoppers seemingly opting for Miller Lite and Coors Light instead. However, he doesn’t expect the backlash to stick. “A lot of people are talking about it, fired up about it, they’re never drinking Bud Light again, yada yada yada, but they’ll be drinking them in a month, as soon as the news cycle quits,” he said.

Well, what are those people thinking? Are they genuinely pissed, but not so pissed as to permanently give up a product that seems completely fungible with other light beers? How about Ben Shapiro:

The post started to pick up steam in conservative circles relatively quickly. Right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro decried the collaboration on his show, saying, “Well, folks, our culture has now decided men are women and women are men and you must be forced to consume products that say so.” Shapiro appears not to be much of a Bud Light fan himself, so he probably doesn’t have much to boycott. “I understand Bud Light is piss water masquerading as beer,” he said, “so I guess that, you know, it’s sort of trans beer.”

Well, I’m glad he at least kept the on-brand smugness. In fact, no one seems to be missing out on their normal branding, which lends itself to the hyperreal experience. In keeping with that, I will smugly note that I don’t drink that shit anyway and I’ll be cracking an IPA from a real industry underdog - Lagunitas(tm), a tiny subsidiary of a little-known international parent company. Thank God that I’m not getting taken in by all this hyperreal marketing.

In keeping with that, I will smugly note that I don’t drink that shit anyway and I’ll be cracking an IPA from a real industry underdog - Lagunitas(tm), a tiny subsidiary of a little-known international parent company.

I know at least a few people who actively avoid beers produced by AB InBev and Heineken (owns Lagunitas) and all their subsidiaries. This is harder than it sounds, because it's not always obvious on the packaging. I'm not going to say that I do so exclusively myself, but I do prefer locally-owned brands where possible.

This is harder than it sounds, because it's not always obvious on the packaging

Former brewery owner/operator. The Brewers Association has a campaign called Certified Independent Craft: https://www.brewersassociation.org/independent-craft-brewer-seal/

Rules are you can't be bigger than Yuengling, and you can't be more than 25% owned by a macro-brewer. https://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics-and-data/craft-brewer-definition/

Pretty much every craft brewery that puts product out in cans or bottles has adopted the logo.

So if you actually want to be certain you're not supporting AB InBev, etc., look for the Independent Craft logo.

Small breweries in the US need to sell out as their exit strategy if they want growth, due to post-prohibition regulations that severely limit interstate distribution. They go from tiny to massive in a single step, and the scaling of their recipes, methods, and processes nearly always results in a decline of quality but with a presumable increase in consistency and quality control. They’re not “bad” for being sellouts; they’re typically worse for the drinker in small but noticeable ways.

Yuengling if in your market is independent.

Hopefully it was obvious that I was being tongue in cheek! I do enjoy Lagunitas though...

Personally, I don't make much more than a token effort in that direction, but my personal preferences do tend to run me in the direction smallish breweries, including some that are very local. As a Wisconsin guy, I drink a fair bit of 3 Sheeps and Central Waters. I also enjoy the hyperlocal breweries my area that only have enough capacity to do some minimal canning. But really, there are some fantastic products that come from InBev subsidiaries and I don't see myself excluding something like Goose Island BCS on the basis of the parent company. Buying a fresh, local pale ale or lager gives me a product that I actually enjoy more than nationally distributed products, but if something is good, I'm still going to buy it.

Is it really that hard? I mean I am not drinking as much beer as I used to in my youth, but I see tons of offering from local and semi-local breweries all around. Of course, I'm not sure whether any of them may be owned by somebody who is owned by somebody who is owned by Heineken - but that's way to much effort for me anyway to figure out that. And I don't think on this stage it really matters. But I think beer is one place where one could practically shut out somebody like AB and not suffer much, in fact with almost no additional effort.

Just look for the Independent Craft seal.

It mostly depends how much beer your drink and where you are. Yuengling is local to me so I can practically ignore the whole problem. And I don't drink a lot of beer so if I took a monthly trip to the brewery up the road and bought a six pack, I'd be golden. But I think for a lot of people it presents a problem because they need a cheap local beer when most local beer is expensive.

Seconding Yuengling. It’s easier to whitelist than to blacklist when it comes to these things (or you can just not care like a normal person).

There are better beers, and there are cheaper beers, but there are no better cheep beers

Looks like Yuengling goes for about $22 for a 24 pack these days. I'd rather drink a variety pack from Oskar Blues for the $17 for 15 that I usually see locally. Maybe a buck a beer crosses out of the cheap beer range though. I think the big packs of Founders are still under a buck a beer though.

It's still $15-17 around me depending on beer distributor you go to.

Oh, nice. That's like PBR range.

A man after my own heart. Have you ever toured the brewery? It's great. Fantastic drive through the country, if you take the right route, to get there this time of year.

Is it really that hard?

Strangely, yes. They own a few random really small breweries. Wikipedia lists all of the brands they own, which includes some really small ones that appear tiny and independent at first glance.

Also they were very quiet about that ownership for non political macrobrewery vs microbrewery reasons.

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