Netflix: The Making of a Bully
On the culture page of Netflix Careers, they say, “The real values of a firm are shown by who gets rewarded or let go.” It then goes on to list its real values, and right in the middle of the list is the word in question — Inclusion.
But what does inclusion really mean for Netflix? In their own explanation, they continue,“You intervene if someone else is being marginalized.”
And it breaks my heart to see how those words have taken a backseat and become obscure to the blinding allure of fame, popularity, and perhaps even controversy.
Because while Netflix says its values are to intervene when someone is being marginalized, its actions in this case are diametrically opposite — it seems to be enabling someone who is perpetuating the marginalizing.
And from where most of the LGBTQ+ community sees it, the stand of Netflix’s executives is pretty clear — they think that mocking and ridiculing the genitals of trans women isn’t hate enough for them to have to take any action.
“Wait what? What happened?”
Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? It all started with a special. Netflix released a stand up special by Dave Chappelle called “The Closer” earlier this month on October 5.
Now I know, comedy is an art form, it’s a way of expressing. Free speech and everything. I respect that. What I can’t and won’t respect is when you abuse your free speech enough to incite people into putting a knife down my throat and slitting it through — because then it is hate speech, which is wrong on all levels of its existence.
And that is what’s happening here. But don’t take my word for it. Look up what all the special entailed and why it is problematic. Look up why we are saying that the special is full of transphobia and incites hatred. Look up at the historical evidence as to how this kind of hate speech translates into real-world hatred. I’ll give you a starting point: This twitter thread of Terry Field, a trans employee at Netflix, who voiced her opinion as to why the special is problematic.
It’s a carefully crafted special. Chappelle tries to pit the Black community against the LGBT+ community in order to add complexity to his arguments. And once he has set up this firewall, he goes on to utterly ridicule, invalidate, and mock the trans community — acting completely oblivious of the fact that most of the brutal hate crimes that happen against trans people, happen against trans people of color (look it up people). He is hurting the very people he claims to represent, and making money while the world figures it out.
And that is exactly what Netflix is doing as well — hurting the very people they claim to represent. In their internal memo, Netflix’s CEO, Ted Sarandos, gave pointers about why he thinks the special needs to be kept on their platform:
“Chappelle is one of the most popular comedians today, and we have a long-standing deal with him. His latest ‘Sticks & Stones’ special, also controversial, is our most watched, most tacky and most award-winning yet”
My interpretation: Oh yeah, we know how controversial he is. How won’t we? We’ve been producing his transphobic specials for a long time. Look at all the backlash his older specials got and how gracefully we ignored everything then as well. Because that’s the thing —people watch him, and as long as we got eyeballs, what else do we really care about? /s
The Memo continues, “Several of you have also asked where we draw the line on hate. We don’t allow titles Netflix that are designed to incite hate or violence, and we don’t believe The Closer crosses that line.”
My interpretation: Ohkay guys, listen to this arbitrary policy of ours we made for these situations. As we don’t think that “The Closer” is transphobic, we can go out on a limb here and give the verdict that it isn’t, even though our own employees are telling us that it is. That was a close call, glad we got it out of the way, amirite? /s
He then uses the firewall of “Queer content” present on Netflix as an excuse to provide a platform to Chhapelle’s special. He goes on to say that Netflix is inclusive because it has titles like “Sex Education,” “Orange is the New Black”, “Control Z”, and queer artists like Hannah Gadsby.
To which Dr. Hannah Gadsby replied, and I quote:
“Hey Ted Sarandos! Just a quick note to let you know that I would prefer if you didn’t drag my name into your mess. Now I have to deal with even more of the hate and anger that Dave Chappelle’s fans like to unleash on me every time Dave gets 20 million dollars to process his emotionally stunted partial word view.
You didn’t pay me nearly enough to deal with the real world consequences of the hate speech dog whistling you refuse to acknowledge, Ted. F**k you and your amoral algorithm cult… I do sh*ts with more back bone than you. That’s just a joke! I definitely didn’t cross a line because you just told the world there isn’t one.”
(Author’s note: Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette is one of the most heartbreaking and truest content representation that you can watch on the LGBT experience. If you can, give it a watch. It will help you understand the context of everything better.)
I have been a firm believer that the purpose of art is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Why? Because expression through any artistic medium has the power to reach the depths of people’s hearts. Because art has always been and will always be consequential. Because when all else fades, the impact of art remains.
So when Dave Chappelle gets on a stage, invalidates the trans community and repeatedly calls them transphobic slurs (slurs that have been used for centuries to humiliate and degrade transgender individuals), and the audience laughs along, then that remains in people’s minds.
That is exactly how hatred gets normalized. That is how oppression gets validated. That is how genocide starts.
Someone I revere once told me that a lot of people cover up their comments behind the veil of jokes so that they can mask just how condescending they are being, so that they can get away with wronging someone, so that their cruelty becomes acceptable.
And that is what this is.
Chappelle says he is a part of the Team TERF, which is mostly a shorthand for transphobic people pretending to be feminists. (No, that’s not something that I say. It’s a term popularized by the feminist blogger Viv Smythe, and the TERF ideology is something that the majority of the feminists disagree with).
Team TERF believe and propagate the idea that transwomen aren’t real women (and hence don’t deserve to not be oppressed), and let’s just say that Dave Chhappelle got lots of hootings and claps from the audience when he implied that he believes so too.
When someone normalizes the mistreatment of a community, that’s the literal definition of inciting hate. But not in the dictionary of Netflix’s CEO, who thinks that this sort of content “doesn’t translate to real-world harm”.
The statistics of how many trans people attempt suicide is over 40%. 2 out of every 5 attempt to take their lives[Ref 1, Ref 2]. Many more don’t get a choice because they are killed. Why? Because this is a horrible world for most of them to live in, and Netflix is okay with being one of those who profit from letting it continue to be that way.
The statistics over the murder and oppression of trans individuals are equally heartwreching. Again, don’t take my word for it, look it up [Ref 1, Ref 2].
“How is Netflix related to high trans suicide rates?”
I never said that they are. Don’t misquote me. I said that the society is. Most of the world is already filled with so much internalized transphobia that when people like Dave Chappelle say transphobic content on platforms like Netflix, then they strengthen the already existing hatred against the trans community.
What’s wrong with Netflix is that they are okay with capitalising on this vicious cycle of perpetuating hatred against a marginalized community. And the act of enabling a transphobic, that is what makes Netflix a bully in this scenario.
You know that the Nazis systematically prosecuted the Jews? They also prosecuted some other communities like Gypsies, Polish, and the LGBTQ community. When the Allied forces liberated people from the concentration camps after World War — II, the ones belonging to the LGBTQ community were put back into prison.
How come most of the people don’t know about this? Because it is only fairly recently that the stories of the LGBTQ holocaust survivors are making their way to the mainstream media [Ref 1, Ref 2]. Because this is a group which has withstood such hatred, that there have been many attempts time and again to erase the very history of their existence.
As for the trans community, they have withered hatred, disgust, and shaming for centuries. They have been objectified, dehumanized, and subjected to inhuman treatment for the mere sin of existence. I won’t add links here. I know you know it. I know you’ve seen the tip of this iceberg with your very own eyes.
And at the end of the day, their trauma is being treated as just another controversial topic to profit from. What a shame. What an injustice.
P.S: Notice how I have used the correct pronouns all through the post? Notice how I haven’t misgendered Dave Chappelle and called it “creative liberty”? No no, I don’t expect praises for this, because it is the most basic decent thing to do. Because this is the bare f*cking minimum.
And every trans person has the right to be recognized as their self-perceived gender identity (just like everyone else). That is what we mean when we say “Trans rights are human rights”. It’s a basic human dignity that everyone deserves.
But Dave Chappelle and the executives of Netflix disagree. When Dave Chappelle repeatedly misgenders trans folks and looks up at Netflix, Netflix says it’s okay. Netflix says it’s quite alright. Netflix says it doesn’t cross any lines. /s
However, when Terra Field (the trans employee who works at Netflix and wrote the above mentioned twitter thread) voiced her opinion against the special and decided to attend a virtual director-level meeting (from a link she had been given access to), then that was “crossing a boundary” enough for Netflix to suspend her.
[She has been reinstated since after an “internal investigation”. But I wonder if the reinstatement had anything to do with the backlash Netflix is receiving from the LGBTQ+ community and the allies].
In order to protest against the stance of Netflix for supporting the special, the trans employees and their allies within Netflix decided to stage a walkout today — on 20th October. The organizer of the walkout, a Black and Pregnant employee, got fired even before the walkout could happen (Netflix says it’s because she’s responsible for leaking some internal metrics about Dave Chappelle’s shows to Bloomberg).
Remember what Netflix said on their culture page? That the real values of a firm are shown by who gets rewarded or let go?
And isn’t Netflix’s first stance here to defend Chappelle’s transphobic content, but to suspend and fire the employees speaking against it just as soon as it can?
Makes sense. Netflix talks about equality, and nothing says equality quite like double standards, right? /s
I hope the walkout happens. I hope there is a consequence to this conversation. I hope that if Netflix doesn’t do anything to redeem itself and still has the audacity to say “Happy Pride” next June, then we all remember to say, “Nah, damn you. You only pretend to care.”
I hope Netflix changes its ways. I hope there is a redemption story coming here for me to append, but if not, I’ll be just as glad to document a demise one.
Sincerely,
An ally.
