Netflix vs. Pentagon: the boots controversy
Sara Polster, Artist
The show Boots, released on Netflix this October, is an adaptation of the memoir “The Pink Marine” by Greg Cope White. The eight-episode show, set in the ’90s, follows the journey of Cameron Cope (Miles Heizer), a gay 18-year-old who joins the Marine Corps boot camp with his best friend, Ray McAlfey (Liam Oh).
This feel-good show has received an immense amount of pushback from the general population, with many posting criticism online. Jackson McHenry, a writer on Vulture, critiqued parts of the show which he felt were historically inaccurate.
“The show is happy to make winking jokes about how gay boot camp is…but plugs its ears to larger historical context. Wouldn’t a lot of casual homophobia in 1990 be rooted in the terror of AIDS?” McHenry wrote. “Boots seems to exist in 1990 primarily for the needledrops.”
During the time in which ‘Boots’ is set, there was an abundance of discrimination towards the gay community that came with the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) crisis. McHenry criticised the show for not mentioning the very concept that stirred up the homophobia that existed, acknowledging the hatefulness and not its exigence.
Even the Pentagon decided to use this moment to solidify their social media presence as a major influencer. The phrases ‘Netflix TV show’ and ‘The Pentagon’ should never exist in the same sentence… and yet here we are. Following the release of the series, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson gave a public statement claiming that the show was made solely to attack the Pentagon’s claimed standard of diversity.
“Our standards across the board are elite, uniform and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man, a woman, gay or straight,” Wilson said. “We will not compromise our standards to satisfy an ideological agenda, unlike Netflix whose leadership consistently produces and feeds woke garbage to their audience and children.”
Ironically, Wilson’s statement is entirely invalidated by almost everything the Pentagon has done in the past year. Transgender people are now prohibited from participating in the U.S. military and are condemned as mentally ill for believing they are of a ‘false’ gender… as stated in the Presidential Action titled ‘Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness.’
“Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved [in transitioning], adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life,” the action states. “A man’s assertion that he is a woman and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.”
The show’s creator and director, Andy Parker, spoke out about the Pentagon's call-out of his show.
“I would be very surprised if the Pentagon actually watched the show,” Parker said in an interview with Vanity Fair. “The premise itself instigates or incites some kind of reaction or assumptions. What I would invite people to do is to watch the show and see how they feel about the questions the show is trying to provoke.”
Criticism or not, the federal government shouldn’t have the authority to be stating opinions about the TV shows that are being released. A government has no responsibility to influence what citizens want to watch. This level of involvement from the federal government is against what Republicans are supposed to stand for. It’s completely outlandish to have a federal agency openly push against a show just because they took offense to it.
Regardless, the Pentagon’s purpose was left miserably unaccomplished. Following their public comment with implied anger towards the show, it began to rise in Netflix charts. ‘Boots’ even reached the second most viewed show after Wilson’s post.
This has led many citizens to the conclusion that the Pentagon doesn't have enough media literacy to accurately interpret the show; they believed it was coming down on the Marine Corps or speaking badly about the current administration, which was not at all present. All of the struggles documented during the show were factually accurate and the show wasn’t centered on how discriminatory the military was. It was the story of a group of lost kids who joined the Marine Corps and gained confidence, a sense of identity and community. If anything, Boots praises the military for the camaraderie it allows soldiers to feel towards themselves and one another.
Although the Pentagon came out quickly with a strong claim on the show, they have now stopped commenting on it because of the backlash they received from many Americans. Following the criticism, Parker shared the purpose of the show in today’s society.
“What our show shines the light on is, what is the cost of [minorities being removed from the military]? What’s the cost to the people who are affected by those policies? What is the cost to the institution itself, when they have to inflict that on service members who want to serve honorably and with dignity?” Parker said.