Kevin Swanson, professional lunatic, was recently ranting about the absolute horror of The Shape of Water, a movie which spelled the end of civilisation as we know it. It seems that wasn’t emphatic enough for Mr. Swanson. There’s another civilisation ender: The Last Jedi. I haven’t seen it, because SW isn’t my thing, but I’ve certainly read enough about it, and I was pleased that at least in this installment, there were women who did more than run after some dude, or end up chained in a bikini. Good for them. That is decidedly not Mr. Swanson’s viewpoint.
“The feminists are head over heels in love with this one,” Swanson lamented. “It’s a bit of a feminist fest with very little artistic story telling involved … It was a great vehicle to continue to educate the world towards feminism, and feminism is ultimately the individuation of the family, the destruction of the family, and the violation of the biblical ordinance that the husband is head of the wife. So that is fundamentally being eroded in the minds of our 13-and 14-year-old girls as they watch these movies.”
Yeah, no. It’s not at all a bad thing, recognizing that the people who make up a family are all individuals, with their own minds and personalities. That’s a healthy thing, because thinking that a ‘family’ is the property of a man is not at all a good thing, and that kind of thinking generally leads to bad acts and a hell of a lot of dysfunction. As for artistic story telling, you think “hey, man owns everyone” is good storytelling, and boy, do I have news for you, Mr. Swanson, that’s a bad story. We’ve had centuries of that plot, and some of humans who happen to be women, we’re damn tired of the same old song.
Who gives a shit if it “violates” a biblical ordinance? That’s only so to a percentage of christians, and as I’m not christian, why would that bit of idiocy matter to me? The bible is one very bad pastiche of very bad stories, many of them stolen and mangled, and I find it beyond silly that I’m supposed to care about anything it contains. All young women do not belong to you, Mr. Swanson, and it’s beyond creepy, this sense of ownership you put out. If you have 13 or 14 year old daughters, then you can use “our”. If they aren’t your children, then no, they are nothing to do with you.
“You can thoroughly expect the unraveling of the Christian family in the years to come if the Christian family is sitting their children at the feet of feminists and receiving the messages,” Swanson said, as he railed against the film for featuring several female characters in lead roles “defending the universe from the bad guys.”
“Friends,” he said, “this is what the last movies produced by a dying civilization look like.”
Hmmm. So it’s much better for the universe to go to utter hell and misery than to have women save the day. That’s ever so nice, Mr. Swanson. What a lovely message you’re sending to young women: you’re good for absolutely nothing except being a baby bakery and obeying a man. Why you’re surprised a lot of young women aren’t interested in that little message, I don’t know. A movie which features women as full human beings does not spell ‘dying civilisation’. It spells growth and progress, and those are good things, Mr. Swanson, in spite of your desire to regress back centuries in time. We’re moving right past your anachronistic ass, and can barely bother to spare a glance at you.
The full mess is at RWW.
Maybe it’s too many churches that are the sign.
All I could think when I read that was “Fuck you, asshole.”
There are more coffee shops than churches.
just sayin’….
He goes right from talking about “the husband is head of the wife” (I’m picturing a human centipede built for two there) to talking about 13- and 14-year-old girls. Huh. That’s not creepy at all.
You know, I was watching the first episode of Blue Planet II this evening and thinking about all that might soon be lost, largely thanks to “civilization.” It made for a rather melancholy viewing.
If civilization dies, and it might well do so in the very near future, it won’t be because of feminism. It’ll be because a bunch of chest-beating losers like Swanson are having a huge tantrum over not having exclusive access to the reins of power, and have decided to ruin the planet for everyone.
The thing I find so strange about ask this howling about TLJ is: have they not watched ANH? (The first one, from 1977, for those not up on the lingo.) You know, the one where the princess is the toughest and most competent character, and ends up taking charge of her own rescue after the heroes screw it up?
See also all those dumb fucks complaining about diversity in Star Trek…
To be fair, even though it’s arguably the most famous example of the trope, Leia being chained in that bikini was actually a DECONSTRUCTION of the damsel-in-distress trope: Leia was not rescued by some hero man, she killed her captor herself and used the chains to do it.
Classic SW does have something of a feminism problem, but Leia was always a badass.
“Friends,” he said, “this is what the last movies produced by a dying civilization look like.”
it’s just like the movies produced by previous dying civilizations! This is totally like the movies playing in Rome when the Vandals sacked the city, and totally something that would have been in the ancient Mayan cineplex. In fact, I think I recall some ancient Etruscan films that were just like The Last Jedi…