I rented a movie last weekend from the library. As the library is free to use and I rented a little late, there weren't many good titles available. Most people had already rented the interesting stuff.
Or so I thought.
I picked up a classic movie that I had heard about, but never watched or knew the story of. The movie's name is "My Man Godfrey".
Its about Godfrey, a "forgotten man" who is hired by a young, wealthy eccentric girl as the family's new butler. Godfey brings sanity and a dose of reality to the spoiled rich Bullock family.
I had basically given up on movies and TV. With serials like King of Queens and movies like My Super Ex-Girlfriend, turning on the TV felt like kicking myself in the balls repeatedly.
But not so with this movie. There were actually men portrayed as sane, loving and honorable people! Not one step removed from the family pet, a la Tim Allen in Shaggy Dog.
The men were portrayed as having a variety of emotions and reactions, and the women were portrayed the same way! Imagine that, equality before the ERA, before the female supremacy movement.
While watching it, you didn't get the overwhelming feeling of superciliousness that just drips from the TV nowadays. I rather enjoyed the mother's airheadedness and the sister's false sense of superiority that crumbled at the end of the movie.
Its telling that women were never exclusively portrayed as the dumb buffoons men are portrayed as today, while some people blow it off by saying, "Oh well, the pendulum has swung too far." Bull fucking shit! Women were always on top. Just because washing machines and electricity hadn't been invented by oppressive men in the 1800s doesn't mean that men were off hobnobbing and smoking cigars while the women slaved.
No! It was the exact opposite!
But revisionist history ensures that every movie coming out has to have man-hating baked into it, and nowhere is it more obvious than in the remakes and sequels. Disney is especially guilty of twisting and turning classic plots to make men always the evil ones.
Yeah, I think of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, where the man trying to commit suicide, is shown what life would be like without him.
ReplyDeleteThe character Donna Reed plays is not shown as a weak, oppressed bimbo. She has a different role than a man, but she is shown as a strong, important character in her own right.
Anonymous age 65
My Man Godfrey is a corker of a film. It's pretty sad that to find movies which aren't dripping with misandry that you have to go back decades.
ReplyDeleteIf you're looking for some lists of best movies, check out filmsite.org. He's included Thelma and Louise on his own Top 300 list, but otherwise it's a pretty solid list.
I had a similar reaction to you when I recently discovered You Rang M'Lord?. A Pommy show from 1988. Set in 1927, a comedy which deals with both the masters and the servants. One of the funniest shows I've seen.
What shocked me was one of the daughters of the master of the house. Cissy, dresses like a male and is a lesbian. But she's not used as a cipher for a male bashing agenda. She's actually, shock horror, a human being. As are all the characters.
Anyway, if you can track it down and you're a fan of British comedies, you deserve to watch this series. After watching one episode I've gone and bought the entire series.
Thanks for the recommendations guys. I do indeed love British comedies. I was a big fan of PG Wodehouse's books and later, the movies.
ReplyDeleteCheck this out, pete:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/2ygrsg
'Schumacher's mother worked full time, without such an option, she said. A generation later, "we have the luxury of making these choices because of all the blood, sweat and tears our mothers put in," she said.'
I would actually wager a guess to say that the majority of the mothers that have the ability to work part-time don't have their mothers to thank, but their hard-working husband who they've probably never asked whether or not they wanted to try staying home with the kids for a change or simply work 'part-time'.
I'm personally sick of this shit where men are treated like pack mules meant to serve.
The more they do it, the worse it gets...
ReplyDeleteI haven't noticed much change as yet except maybe a slight increase in single men.