{"id":35788,"date":"2023-12-09T00:43:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T00:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=35788"},"modified":"2023-12-17T14:28:52","modified_gmt":"2023-12-17T14:28:52","slug":"conservatives-anti-woke-alternative-to-disney-has-finally-arrived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/conservatives-anti-woke-alternative-to-disney-has-finally-arrived\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives\u2019 \u2018anti-woke\u2019 alternative to Disney has finally\u00a0arrived"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nick Marx<\/a>, Colorado State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As fanfare blares, female sprinters at the starting line suspiciously eye a man in a wig. A hulking, goateed wrestler slams a woman half his size to the mat. An ominous voice-over intones that women\u2019s sports are being \u201ctrans-formed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, this isn\u2019t the beginning of a classic cross-dressing comedy<\/a>. It\u2019s the trailer for \u201cLady Ballers<\/a>,\u201d a new right-wing movie that farcically depicts cisgendered men claiming to be women in order to dominate women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first glance, it\u2019s easy to dismiss the movie as yet another example of the meme that conservatives only have one joke<\/a>, repeated ad nauseam, mocking liberal views on gender identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But my own research<\/a> has explored the vast network of conservative comedy that bolsters right-wing political efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, in addition to comedy, U.S. conservatives are using action films, dramas and even kids\u2019 cartoons to build their own alternative entertainment industry, one shielded from the alleged liberal biases of Hollywood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most prominent recent efforts are two streaming entertainment platforms from right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro and \u201cLady Ballers\u201d star Jeremy Boreing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DailyWire+<\/a> offers documentaries, Westerns and faith-based fantasy series. Its companion streaming platform, Bentkey<\/a>, which launched in October 2023, specializes in children\u2019s programming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be sure, these streamers have miles to go before challenging Netflix and Disney+. But by strategically targeting their politically engaged audiences, the platforms have been successful \u2013 and could have more staying power than prior attempts at making music and movies for conservatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swings, misses \u2013 and a few hits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

U.S. conservatives have successfully launched and steered a number of news outlets. They have a spottier record when it comes to entertainment, whether it\u2019s feature films, pop songs or kids\u2019 shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2013, former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum became the CEO of EchoLight Studios, which produced several faith-based films in the 2010s<\/a>. Similarly, the pundit and documentary filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza<\/a> has had a few modest box office hits centered on right-wing conspiracy theories. These efforts saw limited success because their niche political appeal was mismatched with theatrical movies\u2019 wide distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other forms of conservative entertainment have briefly gone viral, before all but disappearing \u2013 perhaps because they\u2019re too closely aligned with current events to have staying power. Kid Rock\u2019s \u201cWe the People<\/a>\u201d bemoaned COVID-19 restrictions and \u201cBidenomics,\u201d while Jason Aldean\u2019s \u201cTry That In a Small Town<\/a>\u201d tried to harness conservative resentment toward Black Lives Matter protests a few years too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One notable conservative entertainment hit is the 2023 thriller \u201cThe Sound of Freedom.\u201d The movie\u2019s surprise success had as much to do with its subject matter \u2013 child trafficking, which is catnip for right-wing conspiracists<\/a> \u2013 as it did with its unique financing. The film\u2019s producer, Angel Studios, used an equity crowdfunding model<\/a> that gave 100,000 individual investors a say in creative and marketing decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then \u201cThe Sound of Freedom\u201d used a \u201cpay it forward\u201d marketing scheme that encouraged the film\u2019s fans to buy tickets for like-minded friends and family. Although Angel Studios won\u2019t disclose how much revenue \u201cpay it forward\u201d generated<\/a>, the movie has an overall gross<\/a> of nearly US$250 million against a $14.5 million budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Sound of Freedom\u201d allowed audiences literally to buy into the film\u2019s success, which its marketing campaign equated with actively rejecting Hollywood\u2019s liberal agenda. A similar dynamic informed the launch \u2013 and will likely determine the future \u2013 of DailyWire+ and Bentkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Packaging conservatism for kids<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Shapiro is among the most vocal backers<\/a> of Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. Both are deeply hostile to LGBTQ+ rights<\/a>. They\u2019ve also routinely claimed that supporters of \u201cwoke gender ideology<\/a>\u201d like Disney are \u201cgrooming<\/a>\u201d children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late 2022, DailyWire+ surpassed 1 million subscribers<\/a> by releasing programming that stoked these culture war concerns. Among the platform\u2019s hits were right-wing commentator Matt Walsh\u2019s anti-trans documentary \u201cWhat Is A Woman?<\/a>\u201d and PragerU\u2019s video shorts that advocate for conservative pet issues through sober, educational-sounding explainers. Then, of course, there are comedies like \u201cLady Ballers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boreing has explicitly highlighted the disconnect between viewers\u2019 politics and their entertainment options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Americans are] tired of giving their money to woke media companies who want to indoctrinate their children with radical race and gender theory,\u201d he told The Washington Post ahead of Bentkey\u2019s recent launch<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bentkey strives to directly counterprogram Disney with its own conservative family programming. \u201cChip Chilla,\u201d for instance, is a fairly transparent rip-off of the Disney+-distributed hit \u201cBluey<\/a>,\u201d a cartoon about the hijinks of a family of Australian dogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The creators of \u201cChip Chilla\u201d include \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d alumnus-turned-anti-vaxxer<\/a> Rob Schneider and Ethan Nicolle, the former creative director of the right-wing satire website The Babylon Bee<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The platform also aims to challenge Disney\u2019s dominance in the princess realm. Bentkey\u2019s forthcoming fantasy film \u201cSnow White and The Evil Queen\u201d stars the popular conservative YouTuber Brett Cooper and purports to emphasize the fairy tale\u2019s traditional social values<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If politics is downstream from culture \u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As media grapple with declining advertising revenue<\/a>, DailyWire+ and Bentkey are betting that loyal, politically engaged subscribers will drive their growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shapiro\u2019s strategy aligns with that of X, which is backing into a subscription model<\/a> as chairman Elon Musk\u2019s impulsive tweets alienate advertisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a move away from the ad-supported YouTube, Shapiro struck a deal with Musk<\/a> for X to host The Daily Wire\u2019s podcasts. Like Shapiro, Musk is a supporter of DeSantis<\/a>, with X \u2013 then known as Twitter \u2013 infamously hosting the candidate\u2019s disastrous campaign launch<\/a> in May 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Backed by this confluence of powerful right-wing voices, conservative entertainment can engage the Republican electorate in new ways. Liberals would do well not to dismiss<\/a> its potentially galvanizing effects before the 2024 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The late right-wing muckraker Andrew Breitbart \u2013 a mentor of Shapiro \u2013 famously asserted<\/a> that politics is downstream from culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this is, in fact, the case, slapstick comedy and children\u2019s animation just might buoy the next wave of conservative activism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick Marx<\/a>, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, Colorado State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nick Marx, Colorado State University As fanfare blares, female sprinters at the starting line suspiciously eye a man in a wig. A hulking, goateed wrestler slams a woman half his size to the mat. An ominous voice-over intones that women\u2019s sports are being \u201ctrans-formed.\u201d No, this isn\u2019t the beginning of a classic cross-dressing comedy. It\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":35789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8025],"tags":[13354,787,2674,4694,15,335,5456,13076,308,652,593,536,13356,14938],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35788"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35790,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35788\/revisions\/35790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}