Act Four: The life cycle of a cultural controversy

News moves too fast for us to have the conversations we need.   Alyssa Rosenberg on culture and politics   Tom Ford at the dinner to celebrate the Tom Ford AW16 Collections (Photo by Angela Pham/BFA.com) Lately, I’ve been spending a bit more of my time on a big project, to be published next month. And while on a practical level, that means I’ve been cutting back on daily writing some, it’s also been an interesting philosophical experience. Since I became a full-time critic in 2011, I’ve spent a great deal of my time chasing various cultural controversies, whether someone is saying something dumb about women and comics on the stage of New York Comic-Con; a television executive is claiming that “Anger Management” is a way for Charlie Sheen to exorcise his issues; “The Birth of a Nation” is coming up against college-era rape allegations against director Nate Parker; or whatever most recent Lena Dunham-gate is currently unfolding. I’ve taken breaks from the entertainment news cycle, of course, usually when I was on some long trip and off the Internet, or on an entirely different time zone, or both. But while in those cases, entire kerfuffles could arise and pass out of the news cycle without me being aware of them, now I’m observing a lot of these stories rise and linger for a few days. The difference is I’m just choosing not to write about some of them. Take, for example, the response to the opening of Tom Ford’s new movie, “Nocturnal Animals,” which treats the nude bodies of heavier women like abstract art objects. There was the initial response of critics who saw the movie at the Toronto International Film Festival and then the reaction to comments Ford made about how he originally intended to shoot the women. And now, as far as I can tell, the story is sinking below the waves of the news cycle. None of this is to say that the critiques of “Nocturnal Animals,” or the pushback against treating women as representatives of an America that’s “gluttonous, overfed, aging, sad, tired,” as Ford put it, won’t have an impact. But it did strike me that our news cycle is such that it’s difficult for us to absorb the implications of a story like this, much less have an actual conversation about it, in the time we’re allotted before the next big story hits social media. I don’t necessarily have a solution for this problem. But as I get through the writing for this project and get back on a more regular schedule, it’s going to be something I try to think about. ADVERTISEMENT   ‘The Good Place’ is goofy and bracing at a moment when we need both Kristen Bell plays a woman who landed in a heaven she doesn't deserve to occupy. By Alyssa Rosenberg  •  Read more »   The Brangelina divorce and Hollywood’s ‘marriage of equals’ fantasy Hollywood peddles lots of nasty fantasies, but the dream of marriages between equally talented, hardworking people is one worth having. By Alyssa Rosenberg  •  Read more »   ‘Defying the Nazis’ is a different kind of Ken Burns movie Burns came late to this film about a couple who helped Jews escape the Nazis, but it expresses themes that have defined his work for years. By Alyssa Rosenberg  •  Read more »   At the Emmys, echoes of Hillary Clinton’s convention Questions of likability and equality of opportunity, plus "Game of Thrones," win big at the Emmys. By Alyssa Rosenberg  •  Read more »   In ‘Snowden,’ Oliver Stone makes international intrigue amazingly boring Whether you think Edward Snowden is a saint or a traitor, Stone's new movie is agonizingly dull and embarrassingly obvious. By Alyssa Rosenberg  •  Read more »   ADVERTISEMENT   Recommended for you   Intersect The corner of the Internet and interesting, in your inbox weekly. Sign Up »         Share Act Four:       Twitter      Facebook Trouble reading? Click here to view in your browser. You received this email because you signed up for Act Four. For additional free newsletters or to manage your newsletters, click here. We respect your privacy. If you believe that this email has been sent to you in error or you no longer wish to receive email from The Washington Post, click here. Contact us for help. ©2016 The Washington Post, 1301 K St NW, Washington DC 20071