Critics have lambasted the Heathers reboot for its inverted take on the 1988 cult classic, which imagines a world where the popular bullies are queer and the jocks are victimized losers. But there’s one group that’s absolutely licking it up: the alt-right.
The pilot for the Paramount anthology series dropped on Friday to immediate salivation from nü conservative Twitter. In the peak TV reimagining, the Heathers aren’t skinny airheads. Heather Chandler (Melanie Field) is a plus-size sociopath who thinks losing weight would ruin her image. Heather Duke (Brendan Scannell) is genderqueer. Heather McNamara (Jasmine Matthews) is a black lesbian.
After watching the first episode (which is currently available on the upstart network’s website), @Audacious_Leaf predicted liberals would “collectively lose their shit.”
I started watching the reboot of Heathers (Thanks @stillgray for making me aware the reboot was happening) and I already know SJWS are going to collectively lose their shit. (More than they already have) pic.twitter.com/UyqQVstokZ
— 🍁The Unapologetic Canadian🍁 (@Audacious_Leaf) February 20, 2018
“The SJWS are the bad guys in this show,” he noted.
The user, who recently referred to student survivors of the Parkland shooting as “fame and money-hungry brats,” particularly delighted in a scene where Reboot Veronica Sawyer (Grace Cox)a defanged Betty Cooper-esque good girlspills over a sculpture filled with drain cleaner all over Heather Chandler at a college art show.
After Heather Chandler has a meltdown, accusing her best frenemy of spilling “art all over [her] brand new pussy skirt,” Veronica repurposes a famous line from the revered original, now with a fat-shaming twist: “Well, then lick it up, fatty. Lick it up.”
Anticipating the criticism from a left-leaning target audience likely confused about what fresh hell hath been wrought, Heather squeals: “Did you just fat shame me… in public?”
The alt-right liked that.
Heather: “YOU SPILLED ART ALL OVER MY BRAND NEW PUSSY SKIRT”
Veronica: “Well then lick it up, fatty. Lick. It. Up.”
Heather: “Did you just fatshame me….in public?”
This is such an accurate portrayal of how they are lmfao pic.twitter.com/zmaHRK3orm
— 🍁The Unapologetic Canadian🍁 (@Audacious_Leaf) February 20, 2018
“This is such an accurate portrayal of how they are lmfao,” claimed @Audacious_Leaf, who is a moderator at the alt-right website WrongThink and credits himself as an “alleged cyber rapist” in his Twitter bio.
The little-known social media user may command a modest amount of followers, but the tweetstorm in praise of Heathers’ alleged anti-queer undercurrent was quickly picked up by Cassandra Fairbanks and Ian Miles Cheong, two journalists influential among the Young Trumps. Fairbanks writes for The Gateway Pundit, a conspiracy theory website run by homocon Jim Toth, while Cheong is a contributor at Milo Yiannopoulos’ Dangerous.com.
“I just watched the pilot and I kind of love it,” claimed Fairbanks, a fervent Trump supporter who commands 130,000 followers on her Twitter page.
I just watched the pilot and I kind of love it
— Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) February 21, 2018
Cheong agreed.
“I absolutely love the new Heathers,” he wrote in a series of Feb. 21 tweets. “The new Heathers completely wrecks SJWs and makes fun of their sensibilities and virtue signaling. It’s great. Watch it when you can.”
I absolutely love the new Heathers.
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 21, 2018
Around the same time these tweets went live, writer Samantha Allen called attention to the show’s allegedly Trumpian leanings in an article for The Daily Beast. Allen argued the show’s premise is not only inaccurate but dangerous given America’s current cultural climate.
“Younger viewersand anyone else who inhabits a real, fact-based worldwill know that LGBTQ and gender non-conforming kids still face disproportionate rates of bullying in school and have a greater likelihood of self-harm,” Allen wrote in a Feb. 23 op-ed. “It simply is not true that the tables have turned and the marginalized kids are now in charge.”
“Are there some mean genderqueer people and hurtful art geeks out there?” she added. “Absolutely. But the Heathers of 2018 acts as if it is now universally the case that these groups can access social capital.”
Staff writers for the show swiftly quote tweeted Allen’s piece and dismissed the critiques as missing the point.
“I love a bad-faith think piece as much as the next blogger, but if you’re completely blind to irony and satire, there’s not much left to say,” said Heathers writer Price Peterson, in a tweet which has since been deleted. Creator Jason Micallef added, “We get a lot of dumb ‘hot takes,’ but this one takes the cake.”
We get a lot of dumb ‘hot takes’ but this one takes the cake. I think I speak for the mostly queer staff when I say ‘YOU KNOW YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO THINK THE ADULTS/TEACHERS ARE IDIOTS, RIGHT???’ https://t.co/zJJyijWZA3
— Jason Micallef (@MicallefJason) February 23, 2018
Its crew has asserted the production team is mostly made up of LGBTQ people.
Watch the pilot and judge for yourself, but here’s our two cents: If the only people who like the Heathers redux is the crowd who wants to take the lead characters’ rights away, maybe the “satire” isn’t as effective as its writers think.
Photo via YouTube
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