Author Topic: Wonder Woman  (Read 2237 times)

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Offline kimmy

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Re: Wonder Woman
« on: June 10, 2017, 08:37:05 am »
Ok.  So this is a signifier then.  Mass Culture and the Culture of the Moralist are melting in I guess.

I guess these movies are more important than I give them credit for.

I'm of the belief that the Will & Grace sitcom and Ellen DeGeneres sitcom and talk show have done more to change attitudes towards gay people than Pride parades have done.   It's before my time, but perhaps the Mary Tyler Moore show was similarly important for working women. 

I also agree with what Moonlight just wrote:
Quote
If society, including both men and women, and especially middle-aged men in board rooms etc, has a more normalized belief that women too can save the world and be strong leaders etc. just as much as men, then that's something to root for in our culture.  People seeing & believing that women can be Wonder Woman instead of just Ariel The Little Mermaid or Barbie or a dainty princess that needs to be saved will help break glass ceilings.

It might be a little late for middle-aged men in boardrooms.  But it's not too late to offer girls stories about women who make their own way instead of being passive figures who wait for others to take care of them and define them and validate them.

Your attitude seems to be that since it's a silly genre it's unimportant and has no impact.  I don't think a story's value or impact depends on its genre.  Some of our oldest and most enduring and most culturally important stories use fantastical story elements and plot devices to make their point. We see this in the Bible and in the ancient myths of just about every culture.

If you showed people "Sleepless in Seattle" and "Gattaca", I think a lot of them would say that "Sleepless in Seattle" is realistic and "Gattaca" is just sci-fi.   But personally I think that "Sleepless in Seattle" is one of the most unrealistic, fake things I've ever seen, while the possibilities and perils depicted in "Gattaca" become more and more relevant with each advance in the field of genetics.

"Sleepless in Seattle" is set in a real place and has a realistic premise and has no super-powers or special effects. So it's realistic, right?  Well, no. It's sheer fantasy drivel. It's one writer's fantasy of a beautiful love story, and it's just as escapist as anything involving unicorns or light-sabers or space-ships.

As an aside, I think it's actually harder to tell a "real" story in a real setting than in a fantastical setting. Your reader or viewer is completely willing to suspend disbelief for the unicorns and lightsabers and spaceships, but won't be able to get past details that he or she relates to personally.  Even details like "he can't park there!" or "how the **** can she afford that apartment?" break the illusion if you get them wrong, to say nothing of bigger annoyances like "who in the **** blazes would actually drop everything and travel across the country to meet somebody they heard on a radio show?"


Have you seen Amour ?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1602620/


That's exactly the kind of movie I avoid. Judging from the synopsis it sounds terribly depressing.  I have seen "real" movies that I found very powerful and deeply affecting, and I'm sure Amour is very good. But I don't want to be reminded of human frailty and mortality ... when I watch a movie I want to forget about that stuff for a couple of hours.

I'm an enthusiastic fan of escapist fare.

Yes, Toronto is amazing I agree.  Would you say that it's the ultimate evolution of the perfect human gathering or just simply the best one there currently is ?

I've never been *to* Toronto.  I've been *through* Toronto many times.  My first instinct when I get into Toronto is to get out of Toronto as quickly as possible.

 -k
Paris - London - New York - Kim City