Lady of the Flies

Ink FB page "discussion" about a gender-flipped "Lord of the Flies" remake. Resulting Twitter storm claims, "but that won't work because girls and women are not like that." One headline calls this a "Mean Girls" remake nobody wanted. Only one commenter pointed out Mean Girls was based on a 2002 non-fiction self-help book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman about patterns of aggression in girls. The movie was directed by the brother of Daniel Waters, who wrote Heathers (great satirical movie; no comment on the TV remake I have not seen). But the first thing that came to mind was whether Stephen and Tabitha King were lying when Carrie was written. "Plug it up, plug it up." Then I see the new movie of "It" and how Beverly gets garbage literally dumped over her by girls who s**t-shame her. The dominant conceit the discussion thread is: "Because women and People of Colour (POC) are statistically disadvantaged the punching up / punching down rule is to be enforced and it is only okay to characterize white male heterosexual CIS overlords as aggressive and capable of any evil or ignorant character." This is why I belong to no socio-political tribe. There is so much jibber-jabber about gender not being binary but fluid -- until there are Optimum Points to cash in for the permanent critic-proof self-defined Victim caste. If justifies any vindictive acting-out as the result of systemic abuse. At every turn, you want to make sure you are not aiding and abetting a Heather Chandler. (And yes, someone did post one of those memes under my one post showing a cat at a typewriter - because I am a silly man-splainer with the mind of a kitty, easily dismissed.)