There are no words. Okay, there are some, but they're not in this subject line.
"In fact, all marketing slogans around the world for this product aimed at young children revolved around the word 'touch.' There’s something seriously wrong here."
...because, yanno, human contact is such an evil, demonic thing. When was the last time you hugged your kids, or brushed the hair out of their eyes when they were crying, or kissed their cheeks or foreheads? Or are you so paranoid about showing them any affection (in case it makes you a paedophile, or perhaps because they need to learn that the Big Wide World Is An Awful Place. Well, guess what, it'd be a lot less awful of a place if people were actually unafraid to care.) that they'll grow up emotionally stunted?
I can't believe someone actually wrote this entry and meant it seriously. I mean, "Devil Screen". What kind of crack, smoking, can I have some actually I seriously do not want any of whatever inspired this article, etc.
In other news, I did indeed see Stardust. There's a lot I could say about it that I won't due to sleepy-incoherence (summed up: it's a rollicking action-adventure romp, the slick plot twists and turns will make you ooh and aah even more than in the book, and it's pretty nicely CGed on what was probably a low-end-ish budget, but I found it hard to take seriously as a fantasy. As a comedy adventure it's enjoyable, but don't expect deep messages or paragons of morality for your heroes; sorry, Suikoden fans, we're still operating on "even if you say outright you're averse to killing, it's fine if they're the bad guys!" logic over in Hollywoodworldland), but one thing about it I just couldn't get over, and needed to voice in some way.
Okay, so in one of the scenes (which, according to Nall, is a complete invention for the book; I'm re-reading the book at current, but I haven't got up to where that part would have been if it was there, so I can't say for sure, as it's been a few years) there is the most cringeworthily, mockingly stereotyped representation of a gay/transvestite character I have seen in a movie for a very long time. The beginning of the scene was actually well-done; I was like, oh, yay, here's a non-traditional character with some actual ethics.... and then it descends into outright grotesque parody. And when you think you've seen the worst of it, it gets worse, much worse.
Yes, it was intended to be comedic. But this was about as tactful as getting your comedic moments out of a black slave chain-gang bursting into a joyous song-and-dance number out on the cotton plantation. And as such, it wasn't even remotely funny; it was just winceworthy. I couldn't believe that in 2007, something this crudely stereotyped could get past whatever film approval boards monitor these things.
And then I realised something. If a scene this devoid of respect had been done featuring a racial minority group, it would have hit the cutting room floor faster than a falling star. That, of course, is as it should be. But when gender issues are involved - and even, in some cases, still, the basic issue of stereotyping women; not even getting into non-standard gender identity and sexuality here - it's still A-okay, here in this day and age, to concoct abysmal parodies with absolutely no respect for the groups involved whatsoever. Broadcasters have hunted down and excised every last scene of Mammy Two Shoes from the Tom and Jerry cartoons, but we're still perfectly within our rights to laugh at men who are, as the movie so wonderfully puts it, "whoopsies". (Oh, and equating being gay with dressing in women's clothing is, apparently, still so in.)
I wonder how this will look to the mainstream forty, maybe even thirty, twenty years from now. Will Stardust get rated up or cut for use of inapproproate stereotypes? I am not, for the record, condoning censorship; I dislike the idea of a self-ordained moral authority deciding what we should be uncomfortable with and then removing it before we've had a chance to make up our own minds as to what we feel about it. Even if we end up deciding we do feel uncomfortable about it, that's worth something. I just think this movie should have been made with more sensitivity in the first place.
...Okay, so I was outraged. I didn't expect to be, but then I didn't expect it to be this blatant.
...because, yanno, human contact is such an evil, demonic thing. When was the last time you hugged your kids, or brushed the hair out of their eyes when they were crying, or kissed their cheeks or foreheads? Or are you so paranoid about showing them any affection (in case it makes you a paedophile, or perhaps because they need to learn that the Big Wide World Is An Awful Place. Well, guess what, it'd be a lot less awful of a place if people were actually unafraid to care.) that they'll grow up emotionally stunted?
I can't believe someone actually wrote this entry and meant it seriously. I mean, "Devil Screen". What kind of crack, smoking, can I have some actually I seriously do not want any of whatever inspired this article, etc.
In other news, I did indeed see Stardust. There's a lot I could say about it that I won't due to sleepy-incoherence (summed up: it's a rollicking action-adventure romp, the slick plot twists and turns will make you ooh and aah even more than in the book, and it's pretty nicely CGed on what was probably a low-end-ish budget, but I found it hard to take seriously as a fantasy. As a comedy adventure it's enjoyable, but don't expect deep messages or paragons of morality for your heroes; sorry, Suikoden fans, we're still operating on "even if you say outright you're averse to killing, it's fine if they're the bad guys!" logic over in Hollywoodworldland), but one thing about it I just couldn't get over, and needed to voice in some way.
Okay, so in one of the scenes (which, according to Nall, is a complete invention for the book; I'm re-reading the book at current, but I haven't got up to where that part would have been if it was there, so I can't say for sure, as it's been a few years) there is the most cringeworthily, mockingly stereotyped representation of a gay/transvestite character I have seen in a movie for a very long time. The beginning of the scene was actually well-done; I was like, oh, yay, here's a non-traditional character with some actual ethics.... and then it descends into outright grotesque parody. And when you think you've seen the worst of it, it gets worse, much worse.
Yes, it was intended to be comedic. But this was about as tactful as getting your comedic moments out of a black slave chain-gang bursting into a joyous song-and-dance number out on the cotton plantation. And as such, it wasn't even remotely funny; it was just winceworthy. I couldn't believe that in 2007, something this crudely stereotyped could get past whatever film approval boards monitor these things.
And then I realised something. If a scene this devoid of respect had been done featuring a racial minority group, it would have hit the cutting room floor faster than a falling star. That, of course, is as it should be. But when gender issues are involved - and even, in some cases, still, the basic issue of stereotyping women; not even getting into non-standard gender identity and sexuality here - it's still A-okay, here in this day and age, to concoct abysmal parodies with absolutely no respect for the groups involved whatsoever. Broadcasters have hunted down and excised every last scene of Mammy Two Shoes from the Tom and Jerry cartoons, but we're still perfectly within our rights to laugh at men who are, as the movie so wonderfully puts it, "whoopsies". (Oh, and equating being gay with dressing in women's clothing is, apparently, still so in.)
I wonder how this will look to the mainstream forty, maybe even thirty, twenty years from now. Will Stardust get rated up or cut for use of inapproproate stereotypes? I am not, for the record, condoning censorship; I dislike the idea of a self-ordained moral authority deciding what we should be uncomfortable with and then removing it before we've had a chance to make up our own minds as to what we feel about it. Even if we end up deciding we do feel uncomfortable about it, that's worth something. I just think this movie should have been made with more sensitivity in the first place.
...Okay, so I was outraged. I didn't expect to be, but then I didn't expect it to be this blatant.