Rumours and Realities: The Role of Satire in Navigating the Blah Blah Blah of Environmental Politics

Résumé

Examining the film Rumours (2024), this paper explores the affordances of satire in advancing systemic critique and navigating beyond apocalyptic narratives in environmental advocacy. Rumours employs satire to expose the ineptitude of world leaders and neoliberalism in addressing climate urgency, while concurrently examining the intersections of gender, capitalism, and environmental justice. The film critiques the superficiality and inefficacy of leadership, emphasizing the need to shift responsibility from individuals to broader systems. It challenges the misplaced reliance on ecomodernism and technofixes, which fail to address underlying socio-political issues. By highlighting persistent gender biases and socio-economic disparities, Rumours connects environmental concerns with social justice, urging audiences to reconsider traditional power dynamics and advocate for transformative change. However, it remains largely within the realm of criticism without offering alternative visions for collective action. Despite its entanglement within the market structures it critiques, Rumours surpasses apocalyptic narratives by invoking dis-hoping and ambivalence, offering a complicitous critique, and challenging audiences to reflect on the absurdity of fear-based narratives.