Even heroes have the right to bleed

[shamanicshaymin]

Taken Jeshi's comment from Blue's journal:



Oh no, dear! Your argument that children's movies have taken a downfall...and childhood in general...is entirely understandable! In fact, childhood as a whole has been sliding downhill! I am reminded of that many, many, many times in my classes. You should take Arts Education like me lalala

The children's movies today are terrible as they are unoriginal 'sequels'. They tell the story all over again but throw in random jokes that aren't even funny. Society today is horrifically naive, thinking that they are doing good for their children when really, they're doing the complete opposite. People will have their children watch endless television all day on "safe channels" which, no, may not have sex and violence in them, but they are induced with toy ads and other mindless commercials about what shows/fashions/products are "hot" and give the message to children that quantity > quality, and they become commodity dependent. The top consumers in the world today are, sadly, children.

And the movies don't have issues where children question anything anymore. Death, for example--no one dies in children's movies anymore. Bambi was absolutely beautiful for that, as well as Cinderella, as they touched on the "broken family" issue where the child loses a parent and they have to cope with that and grow from it. Those movies gave positive messages to children, but parents today think it's terrible because "Oh, children shouldn't have to see such terrible things!"
Well.....no...children shouldn't have to see anything like that, but it happens, and way too often. And because it happens often, why should we lie and shelter the children from the truth?

An issue raised in my ELIT class the other day was homosexuality. Most of the people in my class don't have a problem with it, which is good. Is it a good thing to talk about to students? Absolutely! There are wayyyyy too many books today that still promote the traditional "nuclear family" but in actuality there ARE no families quite like that anymore. And in the classrooms, there are people who divorce and re-marry with a same-sex partner and the children don't understand...in fact, society still encourages the need to detest homosexuals and for what? Who knows. However, because of that it hurts children with same-sex parents and they shouldn't have to feel like that, which is why teaching about it is absolutely a priority.

However...back to the parents who think they know everything--depending on the area, there are parents who will raise hell to no end because "No way, you're not teaching my kid how to be gay"--um...what, right? Parents get the wrong idea too quickly, or they just want to, again, shelter their children from the truth.

But touching on "fond memories of the 80's and 90's"--I totally agree. When you were, say...six years old, what did you do when you had no schoolwork? When you went outside for recess with your friends, what did you do? Did you play games, and if so, what were they? When I was younger, we would make-believe and pretend we were Power Rangers and Sailor Moon characters. We played tag and the millions of variations of tag (TV tag, movie tag, "boys chase girls" and "girls chase boys", dragons and monkeys [yeah, I know, wtf], shadow tag, etc.), and we would sit at the top of a huge monkeybar dome playing a game we made up called "Monkey down the Toilet" (fun, actually--someone "fell in the toilet" and turned into an alligator who would try to eat the monkeys dancing on the edge...yeah, again, wtf my school was creative).

I don't know about you, but I don't see many kids doing that kind of stuff anymore. When they're asked to come up with a game, they can't seem to figure out anything as there's technology that does it for them. It's terrible, they sit around like fragile porcelain dolls and can't even do anything active because they get hurt way too easily now, and that's because they're never outside anymore. Which is why my job will be to hopefully teach kids to think for themselves again >>;

That was a good rant. Time for me to go now xD;;;



The fact we still talk about Bambi's mom today says a lot about its impact.

Have we gone that low to truly oppress ourselves? To censor death, special meaning, and that these characters are human like anyone else? Are we that spoiled that we can't afford risks anymore? That we sugarcoat life for the "good" of the children?

I miss the days when villains win, but hope still lies in a band of freedom fighters who never give up despite all odds. What happened to the mouse trying to rescue her family and sick son from the farmer's plow? Hell, as much as I hated Cinderella and as much as I bawled to death when the stepsisters ripped her dress apart while Lady Tremaine watched with a cruel smirk, I'd rather have my emotions played with and challenged then let my brain turn to mush by some forgettable movie that doesn't let me think. That's it's always comfortable, always "something for the kids to like." Just because the target audience is children doesn't mean dumbing down the story itself. Children have another sense of understanding, children listen. They soak up anything and root for their heroes--who didn't play as their favorite character when they were younger? Hell knows I've played with my Polly Pockets and wished I was Belle.

Nowadays, it's like the Disney Princesses are just glamour figures on a poster or whatever. It's about marketing and well... they feel empty. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad they're still around--hell, Aurora and Jasmine's a better role model than Bratz anyday. XDDD! It's... I don't know. Whenever I pass by birthday cards, birthday party supplies, etc. it's like the number of kids series provided gets smaller and less varient, or recycle the same stuff over and over. Back then, we must've had Pokémon, Transformers, Latest Disney, Barbie, TMNT, etc. now we've got... what? Shrek, Dora the Explorer, PotC, ancient Chicken Little stuff?

Not saying stuff like Pirates is bad or anything. I just miss when we had adventure. We're locked inside our houses now, and we're taught it's bad to be a kid--I mean, look at the 5-year-old that dresses like Paris Hilton and wears her mom's makeup. The racial slurs and misogyny that reigns the rap music teens listen to. It's bad to imagine, it's bad to think, it's bad to know the truth--it's bad to be you.

There's a big difference between being responsible for your kid or sheltering them. Being responsible is not letting your 6-year-old watch "Dawn of the Dead" 'cause the zombies and blood and gore are gonna give her nightmares and traumatize her and she wouldn't understand the humor of some dark jokes. Sheltering your kid is suing Disney because "OMG I JUZT RENT3d DIS MOVIE NOW MAI KIDZ CRYIN' KUZ BAMBI'S MOM DIED. U SHUDVE HAD A WARNIGN IMA GONNA SUE!111!11!1" I watched movies with death in them all the time. Did I cry? Yes. Sometimes. But I understood that it's a part of life. How are these kids, when sheltered from larger issues such as death, going to handle the real world, where people's heads are being blown off in Iraq? Is it an illusion to them? That it's something that happens to "someone else"?

I seriously worry about our future. Kids's future. I mean, really.