In today’s age of rapidly occurring advancements in technology, it becomes next to impossible to keep secrets hidden. As shown in Black Mirror’s season three episode “Shut Up and Dance”, one of the strongest forms of punishment can be through the exploitation of the skeletons in our closets. In traditional Black Mirror fashion, there is a redefining moment in the last five minutes of the episode that causes the viewer to rethink everything they have seen up until that point. The revelation that these people were not chosen at random and that they all have secrets which are revealed to be much darker than originally thought causes the viewer to questions everything they have thought throughout the course of the episode. The most shocking being the discovery about why Kenny is so ashamed of his masturbation video and why he will go to such lengths to hide it.
So why is discovering that Kenny watches child pornography so shocking? It is because the episode presents a sympathetic character who is seemingly being punished for a common activity in which many people partake. Looking back there where subtle signs, such as the way Kenny takes a special interest in the little girl at the beginning of the show, but these are offset by the assumptions that we as viewers make about him. In a way, this episode is very reminiscent of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, only in this situation the viewers of the episode are the prisoners who develop an inability to see the world as it is. Like the prisoners we see in shadows. These shadows being the result of the punishment the characters are undertaking rather than the reality of the purpose behind their punishment. Time and time again Kenny proves to be a sympathetic character, from wetting his pants during the bank robbing scene to being willing to kill himself so he does not have to kill another person, Kenny becomes someone you start to think doesn’t deserve this torture. I found myself as a viewer rooting for Kenny up until the moment his mother reveals that his secret isn’t just a video of him masturbating. After that, I was as disgusted and disappointed as his mother. It amazes me how quickly I can go from being disturbed that someone can put other people through these situations to happy that they received their punishment.
Unlike Plato’s prisoners, I cannot return to the cave. I just have to face the fact that sometimes when the shade over reality is uncovered, the truth is so much worse.
I really enjoyed reading your post and definitely agree that sometimes, though difficult, people have to face the fact that not everything is what it seems. Though people may perceive one thing, something else could be true. I think your post raises the important point that being closed-minded to something can prohibit individuals from seeing reality. In the case of Kenny, his sympathetic, very "nice guy" persona makes the thought of him watching child pornography seem unthinkable. The immediate idea of a person who partakes in something as disgusting as child pornography is a terrible, mean, and possibly creepy individual. Kenny does not fall into any of these categories, so it is hard to visualize. I think your post displays how difficult it is to keep an open mind. What you see may not always be the whole truth. Just as the Allegory of the Cave presents, people are drawn to what they know. However, to truly see the world as it is, you must be open to different and new possibilities.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to what Teresa said, I also really enjoyed your post. It amazes me how relevant Plato's Allegory of the Cave is today. It made me reflect on how often are we the prisoners in Plato's allegory. It is truly difficult to keep an open-mind like Teresa said. It seems nowadays we are always being pushed to one extreme, especially by the corporate media. We are fed all kinds of information, which I feel (unfortunately) is usually stained with bias. Consequently, it is important to be mindful of the fact that what we perceive to be true (based on our own assumptions) might not always be true. I mean who seriously would have thought that Kenny was hiding looking at child pornography? I think this episode, along with Plato's allegory, serves as an important reminder of how we should seek the truth for ourselves, as opposed to merely just accepting what we are told (or shown) to be true.
ReplyDeleteI also watched Shut Up and Dance and have very similar thoughts to it as you do. Until the very end I wasn't sure how the reading related to the episode but then that quickly changed. What do you think the writers of the episode wanted us to feel after finishing it? I felt somewhat betrayed by Kenny. We were so blind to the full situation.
ReplyDeleteI have not watched this episode but I think the idea that we don't really know what people are hiding is very interesting. In our society, there is always the stories of the murderer's family or rapist's family who had no idea. We always claim we would know but without being in that situation, how do you really know? There is no real way of knowing of what people are hiding.
ReplyDeleteI want to start off by saying I really hate this episode, or at least, I did before reading your post. To me, the reveal that a sympathetic character is really evil seemed a tacky twist that only made me disgusted. But you pointed out that rather than a twist, this shows us that our own narrative is unreliable, and our own biases play into how we view our protagonists--and begrudgingly, I can admit that was a clever move by the show. Especially as we really consider why Kenny was white, young, and male--why that helped him seem so much more sympathetic, just as we consider in our media how young white criminals are portrayed versus young black criminals. The difference is stark once examined, but without examination, it is easy to consume those biases in ignorance. To see how implicit bias affects our perspective, we can look at this article by The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/08/across-america-whites-are-biased-and-they-dont-even-know-it/?utm_term=.83c6505567a2.
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