Emerald Fennell’s take on the beloved classic “‘Wuthering Heights’” released on Feb. 13 to mixed reviews.
Some of the main issues people take to the film are the lack of accuracy to the book to the point of bastardization. Race, a central theme in Emily Brontë’s story, plays no role in the film. The character Heathcliff, a person of color in the books, is played by a white man.
What’s shocking isn’t just that the director would whitewash a role that was meant for someone else to project her own fantasies, it’s that people are actively supporting her in doing so.
Online, people have taken to TikTok to share how much they love the film, especially when there isn’t a “pretentious English major” in their ear telling them it sucks.
This took me aback a bit. As an English major, I hated the movie. But what I know about being pretentious is completely different to the online discourse’s definitions of it.
TikTok seems to think that anything challenging anti-intellectualism is “pretentious” when it’s not.
In English classes, there is always the occasional student or professor who thinks anything that isn’t Shakespeare or white, European and male, isn’t to be taken seriously.
We all know the type of guy to tell you he “only reads the classics” and recommend “Crime and Punishment.”
When I was a freshman, I had this kind of idea in my head, too. It wasn’t until I took classes on de-colonialism and read books and theory centering minorities that I was able to deconstruct this concept in my head.
What Fennell did was the exact type of thing that the “pretentious” English major these people are discussing online would do. Taking a narrative and restructuring it without paying any respect to the central ideas of the text.
To make a long story short, it lacks respect.
You can love the new movie, or any form of media. Personally, I love “Vanderpump Rules” and I’m the last person to hate on someone for enjoying something, that’s totally fine! But it gets concerning when we turn against genuine criticisms from people who are getting degrees that teach them how to engage critically with literature and media.
One of my favorite things to do is “be trashy” and like silly and trashy things. Beyond “Vanderpump Rules,” I also watch “Below Deck” and spend most of my time listening to music you’d find at a club. But I do that with a critical eye and an awareness that all media, no matter how smutty or camp, is sending a message.
