“An American Crime”
[Warning: Potential rape and sexual assault triggers within links]
I recently watched Hard Candy and without getting completely into it, it was pretty good. Ellen Page (who identifies as a feminist!) makes the film and I saw that she’s in another upcoming movie that (once you read what it’s about), well, it just crushes you. On one hand I almost wish I had never read about it because Jesus Christ, that’s gotta be one of the worst most awful fuckin things. On the other hand, it seems like an important movie and statement to make because despite some serious but inevitable-given-the-characters-involved mother-blaming, the horrific real-life events reflect our culture’s complete hatred and physical and sexual violence against women. I haven’t talked about VT (and I don’t know if i’m ever going to talk about it here) but along the same thread the acts of the VT shooter and those like Gertrude Baniszewski are all too quickly and wrongly dismissed as one-dimensional, static “evil monsters”…extreme anomalies of the social pool who just couldn’t possibly have been informed by any of our own culture’s (in Gertrude’s case, at least) sexist, women hating, women blaming, eve-was-weak ways.
Honestly, I don’t know if i’m going to watch this movie if I get the chance but in many ways, i’m glad it’s being brought to light because folks forget (and I don’t know the exact quote or who to accredit it to) “just how much they hate [women].”
Crabbers said,
April 30, 2007 @ 8:22 am
I had never heard of this case in Indiana before, and like you, in a way I wish I had not followed the link and read what happened - and like you, I agree that it is important to raise awareness of just how easily, frighteningly and shockingly these sorts of events are either swept under the carpet or ignored/mis represented in the Media. I only hope that they do justice to the severity of the case and that they set up some sort of fund to allow the inevitable shit loads of money that the film makes to be poured into charities and organisations that help victims of abuse or assists in cases being investigated properly and the perpetrators dealt with properly by the law.
Im at work and I really dont know if I can return to doing the job as a result of reading that link.
Furthermore, I have a friend that is interested in setting up a mailing list for male feminists here in the UK, I wonder if you might be interested to share views/thoughts etc?
Thanks and well done on having a good blog.
admin said,
April 30, 2007 @ 11:38 am
Crabbers: I really hope that the film does raise that sort of awareness because it’s just too much to even make a movie like that without exposing the culture or worse yet, chalking it up to a “crazy woman.” and even though i’m not in the UK, i’d absolutely be interested in a mailing list like that..always nice to hear other male feminists
. thanks
The Old School Lunch » An American Crime, Part II said,
May 18, 2007 @ 3:12 am
[…] Earlier I posted about an upcoming movie called An American Crime which is, most depressing of all, based on an entirely true story. […]