I Am He

The worst part about online incel culture is its “scandals”. Take Masters of the Universe, which is set to debut this year. The first trailer was released recently, and while it didn’t wow me, it gave me an idea of expectations. Unfortunately, the conversation has been drowned out by complaints about a brief clip in it. It’s blink-and-you-miss-it, but there’s an image of Prince Adam at an office job with a plaque that has a “He/Him” identifier. It’s not worth getting worked up, but many individuals were outraged anyway.

I don’t get it.

Actually, I do get it. This is the internet being the internet, obsessing over nothing as usual. What I don’t get is why this is a big ordeal. I know outrage nets clicks, but isn’t it exhausting? How is a name plaque ruining your life?

I think anyone with decency already knows the answer: it won’t ruin your life. Corporate culture uses pronouns all the time nowadays, it’s practically background noise. It might seem like “capitulation to trans folk”, but it’s not. Pronouns are a part of language, and we use them all the time. Even before becoming commonplace, government and health forms used them. After all, many names are unisex! Why make mistake calling someone named “Sam” the wrong pronoun, especially when that’s short for “Samuel” or “Samantha”?

This being a controversy detracts from real complaints. Like how the movie looks like a rip-off of Thor’s origin from Marvel Comics. Or how the vibe isn’t engaging so far. Or how Jared Leto, a man with many scandals to his name, is playing Skeletor. These are all legitimate issues. Complaining that the protagonist goes by He/Him, especially when many people do in real life, isn’t, and it’s sad to have to remind everyone of that.

Ignoring that, He-Man has always been flamboyant. As far back as the 80s, the characters have all had bulging muscles and scantily-clad outfits. The franchise oozes gay testosterone, so having pronoun identifiers makes sense. If anything, the joke, and let’s not pretend it isn’t one, doesn’t go far enough! If it wanted the desired effect, it should’ve said “He/Man”! But I’m being too clever for Hollywood…

I wouldn’t be so frustrated if this wasn’t a recurring pattern online. But it is. Between people complaining about Kathleen Kennedy “ruining Star Wars” and getting mad over this, I’m convinced there’s a Venn Diagram with plenty of overlap. After all, the people who claim that “woke is killing He-Man” are the same people who celebrated when Kennedy stepped down. Never mind that her tenure at Disney, while fraught with issues, brought interesting and ambitious works of Star Wars television to Disney+. You really thought Andor was primarily Tony Gilroy’s idea? Guess again.

It’s tiresome when the internet throws fits over nothing. Yes, this movie has a He/Him reference. No, it’s not the end of the world. One of my real life jobs requires pronouns, it has for years. But I’m used to it. And it’s never bothered me, despite most of my colleagues being male. I simply accept it, and that’s okay.

By making a He/Him joke, and a half-baked one, into a scandal, the internet is guilty of two problems. The first, which is more superficial, is ignoring how languages actually work. Specifically, the English language. Pronouns are a vital part of communication, with something like “I” qualifying. A pronoun is an abbreviation of the words “proper noun”, essentially any noun that’s a name.

The second of the two problems is gender gatekeeping. As I’ve mentioned in a previous piece, trans people, or those who don’t identify as their assigned gender, have received plenty of flak from reactionaries for existing, with politicians attempting to silence them through removals of rights and freedoms. It’s scary, with one of the key ways this has happened involving denying pronoun identifiers for those who want them. Essentially, the “pronouns in bio” crowd is making a basic part of communication into a social taboo.

I know change is scary. I know different is also scary. But this isn’t about that. This is about denying or invalidating basic language, and it’s not worth over-fixating on it. Especially since, at the end of the day, it has little-to-no impact on the actual film. Nor, for that matter, does it have an impact on those complaining.

Anyone complaining about this needs to reevaluate their priorities. Will this movie be good? I don’t know! But a half-baked pronoun joke that doesn’t take full advantage of what it could be isn’t worth the ire. That there are other, more pressing issues, like how Leto has a major role, being overlooked is kind of sad. Because it’s a waste of time, and the internet needs to do better.

Additionally, the internet needs to think of the bigger picture. This movie could end up being bad, but “pronoun culture” isn’t the evil it’s being made out as. Nor is it going away, for that matter. There are many problems in Hollywood worth addressing, but when those are sidelined due to pronoun jokes, what does that say about the internet? Better yet, what does that say about our priorities? And is this worth stressing over?