Re: Peter Hauer’s Letter

Reading Peter Hauer’s letter in the Forum was like reading an essay from the 1950’s, or even an episode of Archie Bunker. It was filled with sexist presumptions, overreaching ideas, and ironic concerns. Mr. Hauer doesn’t understand that many of the action films he talked about have been created by queer people not for sexual adulation, but allegories of self-empowerment. All super heroes have a queer aspect to them that ALL people can identify with. Also, what no one ever says is that often bad movies make less money, which is important. Why is Barbie doing well? It is a great commentary on the expectations of women. Ironman made money because it was good, Black Panther made money because it was good (and they had messages as well). It is unfortunate that people like Mr. Hauer continue to believe in old misguided ideas which perpetuate sexual stereotypes. It is also important that the word masculine with Mr. Hauer means strong, brave or athletic. That is not the definition of masculine. Woman can be beautiful and brave, beautiful and strong. “Woke” means empathy for others and understanding their experience. Yes, as a white cisgender male I am “woke.” White men have been ruling the better part of the world for most of the last 500 years. We have not done a very good job, between climate problems, poisoning our waters, discriminating against women and people of color etc. Let’s not even get started on Boy Scouts, banking schemes and bailouts, priests, policemen, etc. It is time we share the stage with everyone, this is the best way to address fairness and equity. With everyone’s voices we all benefit. It’s not about sexual roles or old ideas of masculine or feminine. Those have proven to be false and inaccurate and there are thousands of years where other cultures do not have these strict rules of masculine/feminine like Eskimos, American Indians, Indonesians, Aboriginal tribes, etc. It was once again white men who decided these were not “appropriate.”

–Stephen Altbaum, Castro Valley