This week, 28-year-old Los Angeles resident Bryce Dorton made sure to let his female friends know that while he wants to talk about Quentin Tarantino’s filmography, he has absolutely no interest in the conversation turning “political”.
Bryce’s friends tried to explain that it would be impossible to discuss Tarantino’s films without mentioning the extreme sexualization and violence his female characters endure or his abusive behavior towards actresses off-screen. Still, Bryce insisted Tarantino’s works should stand alone and be discussed in a vacuum.
“I get that Tarantino’s done some questionable stuff, but that doesn’t have to ruin all his movies for us,” says Bryce. “I mean, yeah he defended Harvey Weinstein after the allegations came out. But I still love his movies. Like, it’s good that people are talking about the bad stuff in Hollywood, but that doesn’t have anything to do with his work.”
“I guess I’m just sick of everything I like getting ruined because the men who made them are terrible monsters,” he added.
Despite Bryce’s attempts to keep the ‘political talk’ at bay, his friends are adamant that Tarantino’s attitude towards women is sexist and that calling it ‘political’ makes it sound like it’s not affecting their lives personally.
“Just because you, a straight man, don’t have experiences with sexism doesn’t mean other people don’t,” says Monique Gleaner. “I’m not going to spend my Friday night being triggered by ‘Kill Bill’, which depicts a woman as a sex object and was a traumatizing experience for Uma Thurman.”
“Calling it ‘political’ makes it sound like it’s something you can ignore if you don’t read the newspaper,” says Elina Garner. “Everyone’s lives are shaped by their gender identity. It dictates the way people interact with the world so it’s not something you can just avoid thinking about.
Sources confirm Bryce intends to avoid thinking about it for as long as he possibly can.
Despite his friend’s explaining why his dismissive comments were offensive, Bryce believes the art and the artist are separate even though, in this case, both the art and the artist are sexist to their core.
“‘Pulp Fiction’ is an incredible movie. Tarantino is a genius, that’s a fact,” says Bryce. “Honestly, this makes me not want to hang out with women anymore because they keep trying to politicize things I like.”
When asked what he meant by ‘politicize’, Bryce answered:
“You know, when someone tries to make something about politics, like about gender or whatever,” says Bryce. “I wish we could all get along and women could just relax about this stuff.”
Sources confirm most women want that, too.
