BFR 753 – Black Biretta
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Captain America is a good guy; filming in a Royal backyard; Rapunzel; Tangled; gender roles in Disney movies; the Motu Proprio about New Evangelization.Links:
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Fr. Roderick
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Aubrey, 
w and 7 others are discussing.
pat 10:17 pm on October 13, 2010 Permalink |
I think the Disney role reversal is just a reaction to all the years when the men were portrayed as strong and the women as weak. I think that often trends go to the opposite extreme before they come back to the a middle area. Remember tho we have a history of many many years of women being portrayed negatively.
Mark Leroux 1:59 am on October 14, 2010 Permalink |
You’ve touched on one of the major concepts proposed by the post-modern world we live in. The role-reversal you describe in current Disney movies is intentional. Girls are now taught that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that they cannot do or become (including becoming a Catholic priest). And Disney will try very, very hard to appeal to modern movie watchers. What worries me is the effect this has on boys. In the U.S. we are already seeing a trend among young men in which they live in an extended adolescence that lasts into adulthood. Boys often wait until they turn 30 years of age or older, until they feel a sense of responsibility and choose married life or identify themselves as a adult.
Christian 8:26 am on October 14, 2010 Permalink |
I am not sure about the Disney role reversal topic. I think, it is a lame part of the “Zeitgeist”. And it astonishes me that we apparently are not able to really get that men and women have equal rights. And that’s it. Done. There was a Catholic Weekend episode some weeks or month ago, where Captain Jeff and his crew
discussed this whole role model topic. Have a listen. It is worth it: http://catholicweekend.sqpn.com/2010/08/22/cw-38-and-with-your-spirit/
It is ridiculous to feminize men. And it is ridiculous to masculinize women. That’s all I have to say about that.
Ok, on a little different note: I think, Disney should leave those fairy tales alone. If they want to use them, then they should stick to them. Otherwise, they really should leave those fairy tales alone.
Just don’t watch the movie. Read the fairy tales and talk about them with your kids. To my mind, this is the way to go.
Jeffrey L Miller 4:51 pm on October 15, 2010 Permalink |
Agree about the whole role-revesal switch and the stupidity of the strong women with the less than manly man. To many movies turn women into a view of femininity in a highly individualist modern feminist light. They did that to Alice in the new Alice and Wonderland and what they did to Joan of Arc in the last movie on her was beyond silly. The trend is also that strong women can never be “just housewives”, they must have a career to be so.
Though the other long time trend is to show dads as weak or just plain not very sharp and almost always the women is the strong intelligent figure. Sitcoms have been doing this for quite a while and the same goes for movies. In hero roles men are allowed to be strong, but when it comes to dads they are portrayed a barely being able to tie their shoes without their wife’s help.
Catholic film critic Steven D. Greydanus has a very good article on this subject that shows just how pervasive this trend is. http://www.decentfilms.com/articles/fatherhood
Only Pixar seems to buck this trend and movies such as The Incredibles and of course Finding Nemo are positive examples.
I would give another example: The film Blind Side which is fairly good with Christian themes based on a true story shows the wife as the Christian example and the husband, basically being persuaded to go along with her ideas and not really a strong character in his own right.
The real life father the story is based on seems to me quite a holy man from when I heard him interviewed who truly tries to live a Christian life and being Christ to others. The same is true of the wife and the charity they exhibited to the boy they adopted was something they were both shared. Yet of course the film gives you no idea that this was true. Though also the films presents a Christian family that really never mentions Jesus and is never shown going to church..
John 4:46 am on October 17, 2010 Permalink |
Father
Good show as always. In your show you mentioned you did a TV Show on the Rosary, does the TV production company ever post the shows you do in Youtube? (with subtites I assume they are produce in Dutch)? I would love to see the shows you are doing they sound so interesting.
JJ
Veronica 10:07 pm on October 17, 2010 Permalink |
I had watched the trailer for Tangled before listening to the show and thought it looked like a cute and modern Disney take on the fairy tale. I liked the girl power twist. Then I listened to the show.
It was an eye opener.
Modern romantic relationships in media tend to show women as witty, sharp and capable while men are thick skulled thoughtless Neanderthals. I think this is totally a post-feminist movement reaction to the 1950s portrayal of men as tough and controlling leaders while the women were portrayed as simpering ditsy followers.
I totally agree with your opinion about the trailer. You can have girl and guy power at the same time! Women are not ditsy and men are not Neanderthals, but, when either of those demeaning archetypes is all that one sees, people start to think that they should be more like the archetype and thus they change their behavior accordingly. This is especially dangerous for kids movies, since they are still forming their world views.
I am so sick of this fight between the sexes…or rather, the beat down that women are giving men. Why can’t we just treat people as individuals?
FanofSaintMary 2:49 pm on October 19, 2010 Permalink |
I don’t think men should feel threatened by the fact that women now know that can actually have a life and an education. I find it extremely offensive when people say it’s un-Christian to wear a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt when other women are wearing dresses, even on cold days.
We live in an age where so long as people are kind and decent and dress modestly there should not be such a “role-reversal” so to speak so much as an equality which has been lacking for years.
I mean no offence to any men out there but you are not the gender that has been victimized for centuries based on gender alone. Women still don’t get equal pay, even when doing the same hours in the same job for the same company in western society!
I have no problem with women being portrayed as strong in films. For too long women have had to be the weak princess who gets rescued by some guy and in real life, that’s a very dangerous thing to grow up believing, especially when you are Catholic.
I prefer to use Our Lady and Saint Mary Mackillop as role models. They said “Yes” to God without feeling the need to bow down to what men were telling them to do. They knew what God wanted for their lives and that was enough for them.
Men are now starting to feel a bit threatened. Women and Men need each other and the sooner BOTH sexes realise that the better. We’re all in this together.God Bless.
w 7:32 pm on October 20, 2010 Permalink |
Hi Roderick,
Ik wilde even weten wat voor software je gebruikt voor je microfoon? of neem je clean op en bewerk je het daarna? en wat mic gebruik je.
gr W
Jim 8:11 pm on October 21, 2010 Permalink |
Hello Fr. Roderick
I recently discovered SQPN and your podcasts. I was thirsting for New Catholic Media so this is a great find. I’m about 2/3 of the way through Health and Holiness Bootcamp and am thoroughly enjoying it. This certainly is your calling (no doubt) and this ministry is really building up the body of Christ. You are energizing me to resume my own blog posting. I’m praying for you and SQPN
Peace and all good.
Jim Thomas, SFO (Secular Francscan Order)
Aubrey 10:45 pm on November 11, 2010 Permalink |
The role reversal and why it *feels* wrong touches on a few points that Fr. Roderick and Cliff Ravenscraft make in their Biggest Loser podcast. The entertainment industry feels that drama requires foils, specifically antagonistic archetypes. There has to be The Weak One and The Strong One, there has to be The Leader and The Follower. There is no Team, there is no Unit. Units and Teams are seen as boring (in the same way that Heaven is percieved as boring because there is no strife). On The Biggest Loser season 9 all Gameplay was eschewed in favor of teamwork and respect, much to the chagrin of the producers. Subsequently, season 10 emphasized Gameplay to where there are ONLY stereotypes and ONLY divisions of weak from strong.
According to modern women who are growing up strong and men who are tired of being emasculated at the expense of female emancipation, this can’t go on. Season 9 was popular on The Biggest Loser. Hope, love, friendship and GOOD can, in fact, attract numbers and audiences. A Power Couple in a fairytale or Super Hero story is gaining feasible ground with audiences. The contestants of the Biggest Loser defended their decision against gameplay by stating that they want to compete with the best, and not take the easy way out. That made the drama that much more palatable by humanizing ALL the contestants. A cast of strong characters can only improve a script.