A new Netflix documentary drama has been criticized for ‘woke washing’ as viewers bomb the show.
The six-part documentary Alexander: The Making Of A God has an average Google review score of just 2.5 stars, with some viewers complaining about the focus on the historical ruler’s sexuality.
Alexander the Great is known as one of the most successful military men of all time. He amassed an empire from his native Macedonia to India, as well as Egypt, in the fourth century BC before dying at just 32 years old.
But with the help of experts, Alexander: The Making Of A God aims to tell his conquest through a new lens, including by exploring his relationships.
An They made him gay within the first eight minutes.”
Netflix’s Alexander: The Making Of A God has been criticized for being ‘woke’ for its emphasis on the ancient ruler’s same-sex relationships
However, a post on
Despite the tumult, same-sex relationships were a feature of ancient Greek life, especially for powerful men
A number of negative reviews for the six-part series cited “wokeness” while slamming it, but many also offered more general criticism of the acting, casting and storytelling.
However, that post was soon hit by a community note explaining that scholars widely believe the Macedonian king, born in 356 BC, had sexual relations with other men.
One commenter on the post said: ‘I don’t think it was Netflix that made him gay.’
In fact, men having sexual relations with each other was common in ancient Greece.
In the first episode, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, a professor at Cardiff University, explained that “same-sex relationships were quite normal in the Greek world.”
He added: ‘The Greeks had no word for homosexuality, or being gay. It just wasn’t in their vocabulary at all. There was just being sexual.”
Alexandra Birch, a history graduate from the University of Manchester in England, previously wrote about the era for The Manchester Historian: ‘Sexual orientation was not the determining factor in sex, but rather the role each participant played: the dominant, older partner of higher class. an active role, and the younger lower-class partner played a passive role.
‘Yet gay men from the same class experienced social stigma because the passive role was effeminate. As Macedonian king, Alexander could have sexual relations with anyone, as long as he retained the dominant role.’
Despite the early explanation, a number of other viewers were also left dissatisfied.
One posted a one-star review on Google: ‘The show starts off full of homoerotic, because according to Netflix, everyone is gay. 30 minutes of skippable scenes later, the show is all about Woke Washing.
‘What is that? Every piece of history has been made as ‘safe and harmless (sic)’ as possible. Even the so-called ‘experts’ choked on their sanitized descriptions.
‘The dialogue and lines seem written by a child who grew up with memes. The video game series ‘Total War’ had better motivational ‘pre-war’ speeches than this show of charged positivity.
WHO WAS ALEXANDER THE GREAT?
Alexander III of Macedon was born in July 356 BC in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia.
He died of fever in Babylon at the age of 32.
As king of Macedonia, he led an army through the Persian territories of Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt, claiming the land as he went.
His greatest victory came at the Battle of Gaugamela, now northern Iraq, in 331 BC, and he never suffered defeat during his journey through these Persian territories, earning him his nickname.
His eventual empire spanned three continents, from Greece in the west to Egypt in the south, the Danube in the north and India in the east.
Alexander was buried in Egypt, but it is believed that his body was moved to avoid looting.
A bust of the ruler from the fourth century BC
‘Both kings, Alexander and Darius (Alexander’s Persian opponent) were depicted as weak and obsequious. Not the words and behavior you would expect from warlords. The show seemed to lean more towards a pity show for Darius than a documentary about Alexander.
‘It was horrible. Netflix needs to stop making shows and go back to being a streaming service.”
Although Alexander the Great had at least two children and three marriages, literature about him also notes that his most prominent companion was his general and bodyguard Hephaestion.
Moreover, after conquering Persia from King Darius, Alexander is said to have taken the former king’s eunuch Bagoas as a lover.
But his apparent love for Hephaestion continued until the death of the bodyguard, when Alexander was said to have “lain weeping with his comrade for a day and a night before he was torn away.”
Elaborate funeral games were held in Babylon in Hephaestion’s honor, and Alexander died a year later at the age of only 32.
An unconvinced, self-proclaimed “history buff” insisted that “I can say with certainty that there is no evidence whatsoever that Alexander was homosexual,” as they left a two-star review.
A major reason why people believe that Alexander the Great’s sexuality is not entirely clear is due to the fact that previous scholars have erased LGBTQ references from earlier eras, including the Byzantine and Victorian periods.
Professor Athena Richardson of George Washington University wrote, “Even in a culture that accepted bisexuality, Alexander and Hephaestion’s relationship was an outlier and thus treated differently.
‘My research shows how this same-sex relationship was erased, censored and adapted to the norms of subsequent cultures.
‘Ancient biographers may have employed censorship to conceal any implication of femininity or submissiveness in Alexander that this relationship dynamic might suggest. As a result, later cultures would also have kept the relationship hidden.”
But with one star being the most popular score among docudrama reviewers, there were many who criticized the series regardless of its presentation of sexuality.
One read: ‘Terrible. Historically inaccurate, it misses the most interesting parts of Alexander’s political and military life, and barely even shows him as gay.
‘There are reviews that say this show is somehow “woke” (as if that’s a bad thing?), but it’s not, it’s much worse.’
A major reason why people believe that Alexander the Great’s sexuality is not entirely clear is due to the fact that previous scholars have erased LGBTQ references from earlier eras, including the Byzantine and Victorian periods.
However, there was some positivity surrounding the series, with some viewers calling for the series to continue
Many reviews cited the acting, casting and storytelling as reasons for leaving a negative review rather than any political or social agenda.
But it wasn’t all bad for the streaming giant.
One of the five-star reviews of the series reads: “I enjoyed watching the documentary/movie. It is interesting to hear experts explain events based on the small traces left from Alexander’s time.
‘I’ve read the reviews here, and I don’t understand why people are too critical of the acts or the production. I think some people need to see the blood splattered on their screen to enjoy watching. I hope Netflix continues the series.’
