Liberal Debutante

But this time it’s not from me. Its about the newest environmental movie, only this one is for kids.
I have yet to see it, but I will eventually get around to it… It apparently gets the environmental message right, but doesn’t even come close to getting every other message in the world right.

Here’s my Happy Feet genesis theory: A bunch of movie
executives got together and decided that if they dumped every cartoon
convention into a Big Movie grinder, they might end up with a hit.

Judging from the last couple of weeks’ box office totals,
they were right. Alas, their cookie-cutter
cartoon-with-an-environmental-message also comes with a few
unadvertised messages — and socially irresponsible ones at that.
Apparently, all females in the South Pole are hip-swaying,
breathy-voiced, man-crazed pushovers, all Mexicans are short, and all
African-Americans are superfly playas. It seems Antarctica is a land of
overwrought stereotypes as well as overwrought singing.

It seems like the easiest way to get laughs and applauds out of people these days is to make fun of someone else. To push a stereotype to its limit. Apparently, its true even for kids movies. …So we’re starting this crude and unethical humor at a younger age … That’s just great. I think the best way to tackle racism and sexism is to actually expose the kids to it as humor in a fun loving movie! I’m sure this is also a really great way to get them to see environmental issues seriously as well… /saracasm.

Now… It would be different if parents would sit down wtih their kids and explain things to them but in this world of go-go-go mentality that never happens. It’s a lot easier to stick the kids in front of a screen for an hour and a half while yuo get supper ready and then shove KD down their throats so that you can go and finishing refinishing the bathroom while they’re stuck infront of the TV again than to have a sort of crummy looking bathroom and a real relationship with your children.

How are people suppose to learn that the most recent form of humor is hurtful and dangerous when its simply being normalized. The majority of people aren’t going to step back out of a social setting for a moment and really think "hmm, did that joke have any racial stereotyping in it?" …no. They’re going to laugh. And at some point, its going to happen when someone of that stereotype is around… and its hurtful.

And from there it just gets worse. …Everything starts as a joke. Like when two kids are play fighting and then one of them actually gets hurt so the lash out and then it turns into real fighting.

Sorry, I haven’t even seen the movie… I will eventually I’m guessing, I can’t even imagine how much I’ll rant about the movie if this is how much I’m ranting before even seeing it.