Comments on: When the status quo is threatened

By: Stinger503

Stinger503 — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:36:39 +0000

I think your arguement falls flat. To say that since men have been killing women in horror movies is sexist towards women is completely wrong, it’s more sexist that men are constantly portrayed as murderous monsters. Also when these women are killed the men are the bad guys. In this movie it seems the woman is actually the hero of the movie because she mutilates men.

By: Pumpkin

Pumpkin — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:25:56 +0000

I totally agree with notJoeKing. Setting aside a special month for black people only reinforces the us vs them mindset. People need to quit being so obsessed with race and just live as humans on planet earth. I hate Affirmative Action and all those other programs that tell minorities that they don’t have to actually be good at anything or do their jobs well because their race will ensure them a job or a spot in a university, etc. Everyone should try as hard as they can to have a good life, and minorities shouldn’t get special priviledges just for being minorities. A small part of me hopes that Obama will win the presidency just so black people can’t pull the race card anymore.
And to comment about the movie that started this post, people should quit their whining. I don’t whine every time a film that is degrading to women comes out, so those men crying “Sexism!” need to grow a pair. They’re just freaking movies, for crying out loud. From a psychology point of view, the men who complain about a movie about having boy parts bitten off by a monster vagina obviously have some deep-seated insecurites about their manhood, or hidden hostilities toward women, or maybe even an Oedipal complex.

By: darkcrystal

darkcrystal — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:46:30 +0000

fgsfds -

Your comment was definitely one of the most thoughtful I’ve read here, thanks for that response. I have to say that though I can’t say whether I agree more with you or with Eric’s initial entry, you both make very interesting and valid points that, I think, all hold water in my book.

to those who argue with Eric’s non-movie related thoughts -

I am tempted to comment that if you can’t appreciate the wonder that is blogging and free expression on the internet, then you should stick to solitaire on your computer and leave the scary internet full of opinions to those more mature … but then I would be a horrible hypocrite (oh fiddlesticks, seems I already am … oops)

By: Ampersand

Ampersand — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:28:44 +0000

I agree with everything Eric says. And may I add, in a non-bra-burning-feminist way, it’s nice to see a man sticking up for us women-folk.

By: Kourtney

Kourtney — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:46:02 +0000

Uh oh. The only reason I come to this site is for Eric’s review of “Big Momma’s House.” NOW WHAT?!?!?

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:14:22 +0000

The fact that the vagina dentata motif shows up in virtually every culture’s ancient mythology 1.) says something about man’s primal fear of castration by woman, and 2.) makes the people complaining about a movie based on it seem all the more retarded.

By: smacky

smacky — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:21:48 +0000

I’d like to also concur with Savvy and Shaned and add that Eric didn’t need to do research on Black History Month because it had nothing to do with his primary point, which was … So what if there’s a Black History Month? It’s not hurting you any. Its existence is a dumb thing to be bothered by.

By: shaned

shaned — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:59:14 +0000

Card,

I like that you stick to your guns. I agree that it is not necessary to champion every vice equally. I’d get exhausted.

And to some of the last posters, I tend to disagree that he sets up strawmen arguments except for those with particularly bad grammar and rather faulty assumptions. And I think he tends to do that because bad grammar and atrocious logic are 1. fun to make fun of, and 2. really annoying.

By: Savvy Veteran

Savvy Veteran — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:04:25 +0000

FinalElysium, It seems that you took Eric’s tongue-in-cheek (and very valid, might I add) example completely out of context. In no place in the post did he ever say that we should recognize events “solely on the fact that a black, hispanic, asian, martian person did it,” something that you spend the majority of your post refuting. In fact, the only part of his post that you could possibly be referencing is this: “Taking a few weeks out of the year to recognize the accomplishments of a minority population is not a threat to your power!” And even this is not a sociological statement, as it is really just a real-world parallel to the cinematic-world problem of people crying “sexism!” when it isn’t important to do so. The fact that you think Eric was being self righteous in his post is baffling considering how well written your comment was.

And might I mention that I just HATE it when Eric posts something not inherently related to humor and/or movies and people tell him that “they didn’t come here for his politics/serious stuff/etc.” People, even movie critics, are allowed to have opinions! Just because it doesn’t mesh perfectly with your own doesn’t render it invalid, and playing the”I should stress is that Eric is a movie critic, not a sociologist or historian” card is hypocritical, as I’m guessing that you’re not either.

By: FinalElysium

FinalElysium — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:46:31 +0000

Applying importance to history based on the race of the person that did the action is dumb.

If the event can’t stand on it’s own merits then it shouldn’t be mentioned solely on the fact that a black, hispanic, asian, martian person did it. To the cop-out, “The other 11 months are WHITE history month, you’re just racist” I call BS. There are many historical moments that get recognized outside of black history month because, hey here’s a concept, they were really important to history. Where is this mythical world where MLK, Civil rights movements, abolition are all ferreted in a corner until Feburary? It doesn’t happen. You talk about it all the time cause they are important events in history. The inventions of the stoplight and the pencil sharpener are not an important moments in history. The reason I know they were invented by black people? Cause I would be a bad, evil person if I didn’t respect BHM and watch all the specials that tell me how important comparibly insignificant inventions are because the inventor has a dark complexion.

Eric, I think one you least endearing traits is how you scour your comments looking for the easiest strawmen comments and then beat them down. Then your write blog posts showing how open minded you are by arguing with an imaginary, demoinzed person who one-dimensionally argues against something that most of society inherently supports. You gave no respect to the issue at all (the fact that the creator of the precursor to BLM himself wanted the practice eventually removed after black history was integrated part of general history you probably didn’t research) and just throw out imflamatory rhetoric that does nothing but keeps us trapped in political correctness that makes you feel self-righteous in the present instead of moving to a future where actually integration is a reality, not something you hold over people by claiming you’re more open-minded then others.

The most important thing I should stress is that Eric is a movie critic, not a sociologist or historian. While I respect that he should have an opinion and that his blog he can express it, giving his opinion undo-weigh cause he wrote a funny review about “Big Momma’s House” is ridiculous. And Eric while you’re crusading to be socially responsible, you should respect that holding a public venue people can measure your opinion as more important, so you should at the very least carefully consider what you are going to say before posting on such charged issues.