Has anyone ever noticed that in the movies, hackers and computer professionals are always shown hacking away on their Macintosh powerbooks? How realistic is this? I'm not speaking against the Mac, mind you, I'm just pointing out what a small percentage of computer people use them. And did you notice that, in The Net, Sandra Bullock loaded an "internet web page" from a floppy diskette (referred to on the movie box as a CD) that with one click launched her into some of the most secure computer networks on earth? This is not an isolated example; the stupidity ranges all the way back to WarGames, which shows Matthew Broderick getting complicated graphical and voice data over an acoustic modem, which topped out at about 300 baud.

These are indisputable facts. The only logical conclusion is that the predjudiced motion picture industry has it in for the computer industry.

Isn't that just the stupidest thing you've ever heard?

I work in the computer industry, and I see a lot more technical inaccuracy than your average computer user will spot. I've also worked in the medical industry, and a lot of the crap you see on TV or in the movies is just somebody grabbing buzzwords and throwing them in. (I won't give details; but suffice it to say that I have seen many supposedly brilliant doctors casually rattle off cures that would kill their particular patient.) The bottom line is that the movie industry, the television industry, and advertising agencies aren't there to educate the public on computers or medicine.

We know this; this is why nobody pays any attention when a group of cyberpunks in the movie Hackers stand around talking about how great it is that this laptop has a "28,800 bps" modem and discussing the "killer refresh rate" of the display. (Laptop displays don't have refresh rates, and if you ever hear someone claiming to be a hacker who actually pronounces "28,800" and the letters "bps" out loud, rather than saying "a twenty-eight eight modem", they're trying to sound a lot smarter than they really are. It's one thing written down, but nobody says it aloud. It's not forbidden or uncool, it's just a waste of breath.)

So what makes pagans so damned special? Why do we expect Hollywood, which rewrites history and the laws of physics regularly to suit its needs, to suddenly develop a desire to get the facts right for paganism, when it's never exactly flattered the Jews and the Christians, either?

Look at the fuss we kicked up over The Craft. We were rabid! I've talked to lots of pagans, both online and in person, and I got some scary reactions-- in some cases, from people who hadn't even seen the movie. And let me tell you something, I own a copy of this movie. I replaced the copy I bought before with a widescreen copy. I've seen it about thirty times and I still find it quite enjoyable. And you gotta remember, I'm the kind of Wiccan Militant who builds an entire website out of his religious opinions so he can force them on everyone else.

Let's actually look at this movie for a moment to analyse why it's so offensive. A bunch of rebellious teenage girls start playing with powers they cannot comprehend, worshipping a god I've never heard of (although "Manon" has since appeared in other places; very amusing), acting with the morality of a lot of punk teenagers, and being warned by the real witch in the movie, the proprietor of the store, that their actions are wrong and just a wee bit stupid. The lead character (the one with the real power; the other ones were powerless until she showed up), starts protesting that maybe this isn't right, a huge power play erupts, but good triumphs over evil and the bad guys lose all their power.

This is offensive? HOW?!! I don't know about the people who are getting upset about this, but I've seen this sort of thing happen with a bunch of people in their late teens and early twenties. And all of this is certainly a lot less unlikely and offensive than the concept of Sandra Bullock being a computer geek who's so socially isolated that she has to go to a psychiatrist to get laid.

I can make a similar comment to the recent flap over the appearance of Silver Ravenwolf's book in a Camel Cigarette advertisement depicting three young women sticking pins in a doll. Now I'll grant you that Silver Ravenwolf has a right to be completely livid. This could legitimately be seen to be a direct statement about her, and the book, after all, is copyrighted material. But you the reader have nothing really to take personally. (Unless you're Silver Ravenwolf. And somehow I have a hard time believing that Silver Ravenwolf is reading my web page.) Someone who doesn't know anything about Wicca is not going to know that Silver's book is about Wicca and make a connection. This isn't perpetuating any stereotypes-- it was simply a poor choice of set dressing.

But we raise a huge stink anyway. And we look like spoiled children. And when we have a legitimate complaint-- like when the governer of Massachusetts describes the Attorney General's actions to protect our rights as a misplaced priority and uses it as a point in one of his ads-- it gets lumped in with the rest of our complaints and given less attention than it truly deserves.

Think about it. If anything, The Craft, the Camel ad, and many of the other things that are going on today are good things! We're a market now-- business are recognizing that we're a large enough group that they want to make friends with us. The Attorney General mentioned above chose to fight the governer's comments; while I'm sure his primary motive was simple human decency, I doubt it bothered him that every voting witch in the state is going to be right behind him on election day. (Not to mention the ACLU supporters, the libertarians, and all the other folks who understand that civil rights are not a religious issue....)

So let's recognize good things. Now there's a show called "Charmed" and the book Practical Magic is a movie starring Sandra "I'm way too good looking and popular to play a lonely geek" Bullock and Nicole Kidman. They may not be totally accurate. They may not be totally flattering. But they're a good sign that, although we're on a long road to acceptance, we're not back at the beginning.

Think of the "Blaxploitation" flicks of the 70's and the legitimacy of black cinema now. Think of the prissy gay characters in movies of the eighties and the legitimacy of gay cinema now. And hell, even after the cheesy internet movies like "The Net" and "Hackers", you'll notice that laptops and e-mail are starting to be common fixtures in the movies.

Even if they are all still using Macs.

© 1998 by Cather "Catalyst" Steincamp