As to why, sure it’s patriarchy, but they keep putting out duds and using it essentially say “audiences don’t want female-led content”…
You've answered you're own question - they put it out there so they can say they tried, people didn't like it, so we'll continue as we were, with them (patriarchal entertainment execs and the patriarchal capitalists who fund them) maintaining their positions.
The people who complain about this shit are running governments and corporations and controlling society, wtf are you talking about?
You're really narrowing down a much much bigger issue to try and make it digestible. But the patriarchy is systemic. Misogyny is systemic. Male privilege is systemic. Gamergate is a symptom, and honestly, a mild one at that.
Patriarchy.
Privilege and with it an overinflated sense of entitlement, which result in the most fragile of egos (E: see downvote ration lmao).
That's at best.
At worst, and on top of the above, is conscious and deliberate misogyny and the unwillingness to give the privileges up.
This is the teeny-tiniest tip of the iceberg, but it sounds like you are willing to challenge your views and perceptions, so jump in, it (E: patriarchy, misogyny, feminism, intersectionality, and on and on..) is a terrifying, but also extremely well documented rabbit hole, just start looking..
With regard to the astroturfing, are you saying that the sources people might find are AI? Sure, that's definitely a thing that is happening, but I'm not sure what I'm meant to do about that? I'm no better than the next person at recognising AI and would need to read through and make a call just like anyone else (and then we open a whole other can of worms of rating the writing and or expression levels, and potential use of assistive tools of, especially in this case, fellow disabled people, which can become really problematic, really fast).
Like I say, I'm perfectly happy to help, especially those who have shown even a bit of initiative, but there's only so much I can do, and really, the burden shouldn't be falling on us to not only educate those with more privilege, but also become expert at deciphering AI use (and within that, legitimate vs intentionally manipulative).
Na, it's perfectly reasonable to expect people who claim to care and genuinely want to know, to make a minimal effort.
"I tried looking it up but couldn't find an answer, do you mind helping me out"? Sure, no issue here, wouldn't have even mentioned it. But to drop in to a conversation without knowing anything about the topic, and expect disabled (or otherwise marginalised) people who are personally impacted (and therefore constantly having to have the same emotionally laborious conversations over and over and over) to do the work for you before you've even tried? That's going to get (seriously fucking gently) called out every time.
I have the same poor quality search engines at my disposal, and have to sift through similar results.
There is also an easy way to recognise actual advocacy sources vs industry publications - is a disabled person writing from their personal experience? Advocacy. Is the article written by someone who isn't personally impacted? Irrelevant. Simple.
E: The fact that I went ahead and did the work for them anyway despite all of that (with, again, the gentlest of reminders that they could be doing it themselves), and people still find a way to complain about how supposedly unaccommodating I'm being is fucking wild..
It's almost as if there is no ethical consumption under capitalism... 🤔
And I'm not trying to be an ass, but in the same way I've just had to look up "paper straws unsuitable for disabled people" to provide you with the answer, you could have just done so yourself and come across one of tens of thousand of articles, videos, podcasts, and images addressing this specific topic.
https://www.eater.com/2018/7/19/17586742/plastic-straw-ban-disabilities
https://creakyjoints.org/advocacy/plastic-straw-bans-bad-for-people-with-disabilities/
https://www.a-zine.net/blog/2018/7/31/straws-are-not-the-issue
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/09/disabled-person-plastic-straws-baby-wipes
TL;DR:
(ID: 2 tables breaking down why each type of alternative straw might be unsuitable for different disabled people. If someone needs a more in depth description, please ask)
E: just for context
(ID: image of an old informational leaflet detailing the medical and accessibility benefits of single use bendy straws, which were invented for that specific use in the first place)
And the disabled people who have lost access don't.
For the sake of an item that constituted 0.003% of ocean plastics, and giving you a "win" you're further supporting the exclusion and marginalisation of disabled people.
Banning plastic straws did less than nothing to improve the environment (less than, because it made people like you think they've done their part, and focus less on the actual problem), and worse, it sprung up an entire multi billion dollar industry that makes and sells reusable straws that end up in landfill just as often, and will be staying there for significantly longer.
You getting a dopamine hit doesn't make something good or right.
The thing though is they replaced polluting single use straws with less polluting single use straws.
Single use straws only ever constituted 0.003% of ocean plastics, they were already less polluting than pretty much any other plastic in use today, and the alternatives are not suitable for many disabled people for many different reasons. The ban also removed accessibility, and put the burden on disabled people (and on retail staff to gatekeep us, which more often than not resulted in service being denied).
If they actually wanted to do something useful it would have been nice to have multi-use straws ie. metal/wood/or even hardened plastic. But I guess that wouldn’t be as suitable a source of income, and wouldn’t fit well with american consumerism and fast food culture, so here we are debating on the best type of single use straws.
They did, they literally created an entire multi billion dollar industry to make money off of the problem they created, and the virtue signalers flocked to buy reusable straws, which again, are not suitable for many disabled people who depend on single use bendy straws for literal survival.
As you said, the base problem comes from capitalism.
It is, stop getting distracted by the bullshit capitalists tell you so that they can sell you more shit.
The attack on single use straws was entirely symbolic (end completely useless) in the first place, and harmful for disabled people.
The problem was never straws, it was, and is, capitalism.
Focus on that, don't get drawn in to the superficial virtue signalling divisive and harmful distractions.
ID: A snippet from an old newspaper:
DANES SEE HITLER WAGING TARIFF WAR
Increases Virtually Ban Their Cattle-Scandinavian Papers Call for Reprisals.
Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES. COPENHAGEN, Feb. 10.-The recent cancellation of the Swedish- German trade treaty, with the resultant voiding of the most-favored-nation clause, has seemingly been used by the Hitler government as an opportunity to open a tariff war on the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands.
ID: drawing of a mantis in a pastoral scene, above it is text: "Bite some heads off if you need"
Credit: @Radicallysunny
ID: In each of the 4 corners of the image is a drawing of an open matchbook, on the inside is a heart, and one of the matches' heads is heart shaped, in the centre is text: "IF STANDING UP FOR HUMAN RIGHTS BURNS A BRIDGE, I HAVE MATCHES."
Credit: @sheislimitless
ID: A scene from Legally Blonde of a conversation between Warner and Elle in the corridor at Harvard, in 4 panels:
Warner asks “Are you a man or a woman?”
Elle replies, smiling “I'm a communist”
Warner continues “No, I mean, what's in your pants?”
Elle looks confused “revolution.”
ID: Is this a pigeon meme where the person is tagged "cis society", the butterfly in their hand is tagged "trans people having a backbone about anything at all", and they are asking "is this destroying my free speech?"
Obviously reporting transphobic comments to a transphobic mod isn't going to result in any action, so I'm wondering if the admins are going to do anything about it?
(if someone needs an image description, please ask)
ID: title in Microsoft Word Art says "yeah I'm TRANS" bellow, the word trans is broken down by letter:
"T - terribly tired"
"R - really tired"
"A - absolutely tired"
"N - not identifying with my gender assigned at birth also I'm tired"
"S - super tired"
To the right of the text are two pictures of a turtle and a snail each on their own skateboard
ID: top text "Don't like seeing us?" bottom text "PLUCK YOUR EYES OUT!". In between is a transgender symbol in the colours of the trans flag, but the circle in the centre is replaced by an eyeball
credit: @TRANSFURY
ID: Sepia photo of a person dressed as a fairy with a long pair of dragonfly-like wings and a flowy knee length dress, they're in a ballet pose looking directly at the camera, standing on point on one leg, their other leg pointing back and their back and neck arched back too, their arms crossed and hands gently resting near their shoulders. At the top is text "Oh my! I've lost my ability to conform..."
ID: white text in a black circle surrounded by drawings of purple and pink flowers: "It is not my responsibility to be beautiful. I am not alive for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me." -Warsan Shire-
ID: photo of a Barbie doll looking cute on a glittery rainbow background, next to it in the Barbie font it says "Capitalism is a death cult we must destroy before it kills us"
ID: 3 images from a cage fight.
In the top image there is a fight going on inside the cage which is tagged "LGBT+ spaces", outside of the cage is a fighter looking in, tagged "bigot".
In the middle image we see the outside fighter hanging off of the gate to the cage, trying to break the chains keeping it locked.
In the bottom image the outside fighter has got in to the cage, where another fighter is on their knees leaning on one hand, the bigot is shouting at them "STOP FORCING YOUR VIEWS ON TO ME!"
And also, the burden of the constant demand to teach people about your lived experience, even though thousands of others who share it have already wilfully taken the time to document it extensively. We're not talking about individual experiences, but about well establish and deep rooted systemic oppression.
At the end of the day, expecting marginalised people, especially random ones you "happen upon" (would they even be asking if I wasn't here?), to be the ones constantly doing the work is an unearned entitlement that comes with privilege, and what those with that privilege should be doing instead is using it to lessen the burden on marginalised people, not increase it. Step one is learning to invest their own time and energy instead of demanding or even just expecting it from others.