I’ve had a bad attitude about pop culture for a while now, ever since 2007, when they released Hairspray, a movie based on a Broadway musical that was based on a movie. Don’t get me wrong, I love pop culture. I love(d) Marvel movies and TV shows. I learned how to read from comics, along with some very patient teachers. I even bought and assembled a (very inexpensive) Short Circuit MOC Lego set. On the other hand, there are other things going on.

I get it, though. I barely read the news because it’s infuriating. I’ve gotten into shouting matches with people because of the news, and these are people who agree with me. But when I scroll down Facebook, 75-80 percent of the posts are related to pop culture somehow. And they are extremely popular posts. When I post art of a character I conceived and developed and painstakingly drew and colored, I consider it a raging success if it breaks six likes. When I posted pictures of the aforementioned Johnny 5, a character whose only connection to me was that I saw the movie a bunch when I was a kid and I spent less than an hour putting it together via detailed instruction, I got dozens of likes.

While that sticks in my craw on principle, the fact is, I write and draw to impress myself. Do I want more people to appreciate my forms of expression? Of course I do. Can I live without it? Half of the six likes I’ll get are regulars, so I know I have fans. And I know for certain that a number of my friends and family see and appreciate my posts without saying anything. (It’s not like I’m consistent about visibly appreciating others’ posts.) Besides, since I found out how bad writers have it, from novelists, to TV and screenwriters, to comic book writers, I’m perfectly content with a Dropbox full of unread manuscripts.

In my last sentence, I used the word content, but pronounce it differently, and it’s content. Content is what you get on streaming services and YouTube. It’s art as a commodity that can be bought and sold, but most importantly, it’s disposable. Last year, I complained about the Willow TV show on Disney+. Well, it’s gone. If you enjoyed it, tough, because Disney pulled it, and physical media is obsolete. The actors, writers, and directors will never be paid again for all the work they put into it, and the worst part is it’s not because the show was bad (I mean, it was), but because pulling it saved Disney a bundle on taxes. Since art is disposable, there’s no point in paying the “content creators” decently, or at all, for their work. How do you think YouTube got so successful? But that’s okay, if you don’t want to create for pennies, they’ll just find someone else who will. That’s why this strike is so important.

With art as a commodity, you’ve got CEOs and presidents of a rapidly shrinking number of entertainment conglomerates saying that they won’t even consider a work if it doesn’t represent an existing intellectual property. That’s how you get the Fatal Attraction streaming TV show, which was delightful trash to be sure, but it had all the soul of worn-through shoe. Meanwhile, as I’m walking out of the Metro, I see posters of Moulin Rouge the stage musical, based on a movie musical which was based on previously recorded music. There’s a True Lies series. What the hell is the point of True Lies without Arnold and Jamie Lee, but instead a generically attractive couple in just another generic spy show.

Meanwhile, a genius like Greta Gerwig has to make a movie about a doll to get the recognition she deserves. Yes, it was a very good movie, and there were more layers to it than any of her previous movies, but it was fucking Barbie. Naturally, the studio response to this is not to make more deep movies with important social messages but to make more movies about toys. There are seven Transformers movies, and only one of them is good (Bumblebee) and two terrible GI Joe movies. The Lego Movie was amusing and meta, but had no substance at all.

*deep breath*

I’ve been meaning to rant about this for a while, but I still haven’t formed any really coherent thoughts about it. The reason I had to say something about it now is because I had indulged in some McDonald’s, and I was sitting outside, watching Newcastle creep around our backyard, and I saw written on my iced tea, “The McDonald’s Cup, as seen on” and then it listed over a dozen TV shows and music videos and movies, going back as far as Coming to America, up to Loki, season two, which isn’t even out yet.

What. The actual. Fuck.