What If Scott Pilgrim Wasn’t A Straight White Male?
So with the Scott Pilgrim movie out in theaters this weekend, there’s been a lot of discussion on the story, particularly the merits (or lack thereof) of Scott Pilgrim as a character. I’ve been sitting here shaking my head and LOL at all of these Pilgrim apologists who are defending every heinous thing Pilgrim has done and want to prop him up as a champion who is fighting for love.
In fact a lot of the same tired arguments defending Pilgrim are the ones that were used to defend Bella Swann and Edward Cullen.
To put my opinion of the Scott Pilgrim series in perspective, I’ve read all six graphic novels, seen the movie, own the soundtracks (I’m listening to it while composing this post) and consider myself a Scott Pilgrim fan. That said, Scott Pilgrim is a douchebag. He’s a trifling, shiftless, broke sad excuse of a manchild. A grown ass manchild who preys on and exploits high school girls like a true predator. Just because he’s the titular character does not make him a good person.
Make no mistake, Scott Pilgrim is the male answer to Bella Swann. The only difference between Pilgrim and Swann is at least Pilgrim gets called out on his BS and isn’t treated as a Mary Sue and he actually evolves by the end of the story and said redemption is improved immensely in the film.
As I alluded to in the discussion of my movie review, the real question I’d like to have answered, is how many Scott Pilgrim apologists would be defending his douchebaggery if he wasn’t a straight white male.
What if Scott was a man of color and treated Knives the way he did, especially if she had been a white girl? I can’t even begin to count how many people would be screaming misogynist at the EVIL POC.
What if Scott was a POC that was broke, jobless and leeching off the people in his life? Would he be a slacker that’s just hit a dark place and not living up to his full potential or would he be a statistic, another example of how ALL OF US POCs are just looking for a handout?
What if Scott was a gay man, scamming on high school boys, and emotionally manipulating and using them in the same manner he used Knives? Would people be defending his bullshit then or would he propped up as another example of how us evil homos have an agenda to bag some mythical straight boy ass and to recruit and convert them into our evil collective.
If Scott Pilgrim was anything other than a straight white male, we would be having a completely different conversation.
Privilege, it’s a hell of a thing.
