Just Ramblin'
I'm not going to bother to tweet this one - nothing to do with SVM or Sookie or anything. But the swirling thoughts thing again, and this is the easiest and most convenient place to chat about such things. Immediately after, I'm going to post something I facepalmed myself about yesterday related to SVM.
Recently, my pay TV company has rearranged their movie channels - and it's been both good and bad. Good because they divided into genres. Bad because now I have a whole heap of movies I want to watch all conveniently put in the same channel. It's not good for getting things done, because you inevitably see the ad for the next movie, and want to watch that one too. Sigh.
As an aside, I find the new movie channel ads a little bit funny - because whoever made them up has a hate-boner for Askars. It doesn't matter what the ad is for - even if it has one single clip of the movies in it, it's always a clip of the scene where Askars gets his face shredded off with glass.
I think perhaps whoever made it hates the guy and wishes his face was shredded off and likes to show it repeatedly. Lol. I watched that movie by the way - and I liked it - but then I am a fan of KRAH movies. Mr. Minty jokes that I would be the only fan of Terminator vs. the Transformers. And to my shame, he's right. I just love those mechanical sounds and blowing shit up that features in KRAH. But I don't only like KRAH movies.
One of the movie channels they have is Masterpiece which is basically all the movies that are cult classics and have depth. So for example, The Big Lebowski and Garden State are on there. It's nice to have re-runs of the Dude, not so nice to watch Naked Lunch and think 'What the fuck is going on here?!?!?!'. I've seen three movies on the new channel recently, which just got in my head.
The first one is The Skin I Live In by director Pedro Almodovar. Can I say, I've loved Almodovar since I saw his first movie at 15 - Atame! Atame! (translation Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! ) and I've loved him ever since. He pushes boundaries - and I love it. I also love the fact that he's dealt with trans* issues recently too. I found The Skin I Live In pretty horrifying because as a modern day Frankenstein, it's pretty horrific. Antonio Banderas does exceptionally well as the control freak, sick, twisted fuck. I can see why Almodovar is in love with him. Elena Anaya is also stunningly gorgeous - and always does such excellent conflict characters and she is the mistress of sad eyes.
For those of you who haven't seen it, and want to, I'm going to put the spoilers here behind a spoiler tag to discuss what I want to get off my mind. Beware the comments (if there are any, which I doubt) that might spoil you.
[Spoiler (click to open)]The idea of switching your sexual organs around, against your will is absolutely horrific to me. I think it's an excellent opportunity to really think about - as an audience member - the fact of transsexual and transgender people's lives. Even though I would love the privileges that comes along with being male, I would be horrified at the idea of being put into a man's body in order to get those privileges. What's worse for Vincent/Vera is that it's all against his will. The scene where he is given dilators is awful - and how humiliating the process must be for trans* people.
In classic Almodovar style, he has made me feel sympathy for a rapist, and horrified for the rapist's father who now wants to fuck his daughter's rapist. It's so deliciously fucked up, with all the ickiness that you hope for. I personally, will never forget the scene where Pablo's cum falls onto Andrea's face in Kika. There's definitely no shortage of fucked up relationships in the movie itself - with the housekeeper Marilia and her son Zeca. Zeca made me giggle when I first saw him because he was dressed as a tiger. A little bit fruity - but strong and muscular - and I imagined Quinn.
But I love that he's really given me an insight into myself - how horrifying it would be to be abducted and then operated on to be turned into a man. That's when I feel that I can really differentiate what it is like to be born a woman, and feel like a woman. I can't image how difficult it is to be born the opposite sex to what you believe your gender is. But this plotline gives me a damn fine insight into what I think it would be like.
The second movie that's been sticking with me is one that I saw completely accidentally. I was waiting for the next movie I'm going to chat about, I was with Mr. Minty, we had an hour or so to spare, sitting in front of the television. And boy I'm glad I chose to watch this movie while waiting. That would be Shame which stars Michael Fassbender. It's about a sex addict.
I don't tend to actually deal with sex addicts in criminology. To my knowledge, they've never killed anyone in motivation, so I don't tend to see, hear or think about it. And while it's something that often demeans people, it's not criminal to have sex (as opposed to rape). So I loved the movie for its insight into what a dreadful addiction it actually is. I had to go and research the causes of sex addiction after the movie, because the tantilising hints we're given to the causes we're enough. I loved the line by his sister "We're not bad people. We just come from a bad place."
I was disappointed when I came online to find that most of the fan chats about the movie were about Fassbender peen. It's kinda depressing that such a brilliant performance would be overshadowed by prudish and prurient squealing that you get to see peen. I don't really understand in a world full of internet porn why someone is shocked and scandalised that Michael Fassbender has a penis, and he showed it on screen. Sigh.
On top of that, it was the most unsexy movie one could think about.
[More spoilers!]Brandon's sex addiction takes up so much of his time. It must cost him an absolute packet. The porn all over his computer - and being in that sick relationship with his boss. Looking the other way that his boss can score chicks - who, by the way, gave me a good insight into how Shia La Boeuf would pick up women, just by never.fucking.shutting.up. - so that he can do what he likes at work. His boss was just a gross, gross tool. While his sister might have no concept of boundaries, did his boss really think Brandon would be fine locked out of his own bedroom to fuck his sister. Yuck. You can tell that the relationship is truly shallow - Brandon doesn't like or respect his boss, and his boss is too busy getting his horn on to think about Brandon. It's a sick relationship, and the entitlement of Brandon's boss is just gross.
I felt for Sissy too - she showed just another way that child abuse can come out. And of course, she was far more up my alley, because women like that come into criminology for domestic violence and rape. They get used and abused by men, because their parents already showed them the pattern. So I understood her, while Brandon was a bit of a mystery to me - hence the research.
The looks on Brandon's face when he was orgasming - ugh. Made sex look as unfun as it could ever be. Rage and weeping - it was a brilliant performance by Fassbender, and it makes me sad that people ooh and aah over his peen rather than the depth he played for the character. I really felt for him that when a woman cared for him, he suffered from impotence, as opposed to being able to perform when it was just a transaction.
I was left thinking for days about whether he could ever get help barring through therapy. Because I can't see that he'd be able to handle enough intimacy before either the girl ditched him, or he got too close and couldn't perform. I suspect that men like Brandon end up with women with the same sort of damage. But you'd be hard pressed to make a relationship like that work.
The movie itself was really one of a kind - I've only watched one movie where a husband had sex addiction - and the matter was glossed over and made sordid like "I've been sleeping with my boss's wife and I want to stop" - picking the most degrading thing and then just fucking summarising it. It didn't make me feel any empathy for the sex addict in that case. Shame made feel fucking awful for Brandon - that he just can't connect with anyone.
And the third movie I've been thinking about is The Woodsman. Powerful performances all around - and as a criminologist, I was desperate to see it, to see if it's any good. I must say - I know child protection workers. I don't know any that would behave in such a Mary Poppins fluffy way as stupid Renee Zellweger did in Case 39. All the ones I know, know full well that making excuses for damaged kids and trying to fool yourself it's all cool is a giant fucking mistake. You get hurt, the kid doesn't get help. So sometimes movies are really great, and sometimes they just piss me right off.
The Woodsman however, was clearly painstakingly researched. It's about a paedophile who has just been released from prison after 12 years, and trying to resist the urge to reoffend, and to rebuild his life. It really stuck with me, because it wasn't clumsy about the information. There was obviously stacks of research behind it, and it didn't dumb it down and dump it into your lap.
[Oh yeah baby. Click me to open. ]One of my favourite bits of the movie was where in the beginning, Walter says that he never hurt his victims, that children wanted to go with paedophiles. It's pretty perfect, because this is shit paedophiles actually believe. It's called cognitive dissonance. You and I see a child freezing in terror and wanting to be polite, or see a young child doing as he's told, and a paedophile sees someone who wants to be touched, who wants to go with him.
Later on, when he talks to the girl being abused by her father in the same way he used to abuse girls, he really gets some insight that he did hurt those girls. Just because they weren't bruised and bloody doesn't mean that they weren't hurt and crying after he was finished abusing them. That it didn't make them feel bad. And I love the delicacy of that scene - showing that the girl doesn't really want to sit on his lap, but she will to make him happy.
I loved the way that Walter got insight into what his victims looked like when he was out of the room - their tears, and their feeling bad. It's hard to say in that situation that you didn't hurt them, and of course that all comes out when Walter beats the living shit out of the paedophile he's been watching out his window. I loved the fact that they had Walter confusing his brother-in-law's love for his daughter with his own urge to molest children - many paedophiles believe that what they're doing is loving - when in fact, it isn't. I love that Carlos makes it clear that whatever Walter does is not similar to what he does. Walter missed those finer points of interaction.
I also liked the fact that they included the sex offender registry in there. It's one piece of legislation I desperately disagree with. Yes, I know, it's made to protect children. But that's not in fact, what it does. It's all too easy for someone with an axe to grind to get their hands on information and continue to push paedophiles. While their crimes are without doubt loathsome, and what they do, awful, the fact of the matter is that only 1 in 6 paedophiles have ever been arrested. You can warn your kids about Walter, but what's to stop the blond offender who's talking to children? He's going around offending, and the population is lulled into a false sense of security that Walter is the bigger danger, when he's the one in therapy, with the police jumping down his throat.
If we really wanted to protect children, the best thing we could do is stop forcing politeness and unthinking obedience to adults. You know - all those kids who are told to kiss Grandma when they don't want to? They're the ones you're making vulnerable. I never taught my kids this crap. They don't have to revere authority. They have to be nice and respectful, but if something makes them feel not right, or doesn't go through popular channels, I've always let them know it's okay to tell an adult to fuck right off. It worked too, because a guy came up to our fence when they were 6 and 8 and offered them lollies to come to his place, and they told him to fuck off, and ran to tell me. I rewarded them with marshmallows.
And the other thing that the sex offender registry does is drives people out of the community in general. There's no reason to try to be a law abiding citizen if you're going to be punished no matter what. Part of the therapy that's most effective for treating paedophiles (and it's only been tried in New Zealand so far) is to bring them in to talk openly about it, to be inclusive in a community and not alienate them. It's unfortunate that it has no political sway like registries - because it got the recidivist rate down to 2%. No, let's go with the method of alienating them and treating them badly so they have no reason to turn their behaviour around, and stick with the 35% recidivist rate. I mean, that won't ultimately hurt kids, amirite? The registry system sets them up to fail, which is fine, but kids get hurt in the meanwhile.
It also got in my brain in another way. Unlike my children, I was always told to be polite. I think it's possibly worse since I'm a girl, and we're pretty much indoctrinated into being nice. I still struggle with it, except online, where I say what I think in hopes that I can train myself out of this. I really got stuck thinking about Walter's sister, and how angry she was, when it's never disclosed that Walter offended against her, and contrasting that with Walter's girlfriend and her brothers, who abused her. I think so many victims, keep quiet under the idea that it's a compact - I won't expose you if you just offend against me and never do it to anyone else. I think that explains his sister's anger - she kept silent for years, and feels to blame for not reporting Walter, not watching him carefully enough.
In Vicki's case, she kept silent and her brothers grew up to be the sorts of guys who take umbrage at the idea that they are sex offenders, even though they are. Vicki kept to her compact and her brothers didn't take it further than her (at least as far as she knows). In Walter's sister's case, he broke that compact. It makes me think of all the victims who stay silent thinking they're the only one. Vicki shows quite well just how the idea that "all men are sex fiends" gets around - that with enough silence, it's easy to believe that all men are like that, and everybody is really great at hiding it.
And after seeing The Hunger Games, I read the trilogy. My son is pissed that it took me less than 24 hours, and accused me of skimming. He doesn't understand that practice makes you faster, as he's not much of a reader. I really liked the books - very dark though. Not that I object to dark material at all. But I expected them to be a little more upbeat than that because it's included in my kids' curriculum - and high schools usually go for safe material. I cried from about the [Hidden for spoilers] !death of Finnick! to the end. It was all so sad.
One thing I do think is that for kids, it's not quite as dark. They have little experience with severe PTSD - which Katniss and Peeta certainly suffered from, and don't really see how that would affect their lives. That Katniss would always be flinching, much like Haymitch does. That she would be weird and disconnected her whole life - and that after doing so much to further everyone's cause, she was ditched as damaged.
I also think that the real life parallels - that we use the children of other people against them. One can easily liken Panem to New York City, using up the resources and being wasteful when others are below the poverty line in places like Idaho. Or we can liken Panem to the First World Countries - happily using up Indian children to make textiles for our benefit, and not really giving a shit if they starve to death or grow up strong.
Part of me wonders how much shit Katniss got for being "damaged" and needing to shape up for Peeta or Gale, that Peeta and Gale didn't get. That she needed to shape up and show her love. I wonder if she got as much hate as Sookie does. Having a cursory look at the reviews around, it seems that she did. Apparently, all the readers in Panem Western countries would be totally kick arse and fine after being victimised by the state. They'd be happy, and ready to change things. I can't wait to see the real life activism they do....but I won't be holding my breath. I wonder how many of them are giving Vietnam Vets discussions about how they should be Kings of the World, and power through the damage.
That's what's most depressing about all this - that the people of Panem book-reading-internet seemingly have no idea of hardship, and so they can't sympathise at all with those who do. That's why stories like this will continue to happen. That's why there'll always be homeless people and mentally ill people and poor people cast aside. Because those who should feel sorry for them are too fucking busy wanting MOAR out of them, and giving them chats about bootstraps. They want to know why people can't just be happy and fall in love and kick arse. They're not real interested in those who fall down and can't get up. No empathy - just more shoving them down. Sigh.
Oh, and one other thing. I watched The Usual Suspects. I was severely disappointed that I guessed who Keyser Söze was within like 5 minutes, and then confirmed it about 30 minutes into the film. I hate that this happens. It's all a big plot twist and mystery to everyone else, and I can't even enjoy the movie because I know already. Mr. Minty didn't know until the reveal. Damn his non-analytical hide. It didn't really obsess me at all - which is depressing. I wanted more and I should have just sat back for the ride.
Recently, my pay TV company has rearranged their movie channels - and it's been both good and bad. Good because they divided into genres. Bad because now I have a whole heap of movies I want to watch all conveniently put in the same channel. It's not good for getting things done, because you inevitably see the ad for the next movie, and want to watch that one too. Sigh.
As an aside, I find the new movie channel ads a little bit funny - because whoever made them up has a hate-boner for Askars. It doesn't matter what the ad is for - even if it has one single clip of the movies in it, it's always a clip of the scene where Askars gets his face shredded off with glass.
I think perhaps whoever made it hates the guy and wishes his face was shredded off and likes to show it repeatedly. Lol. I watched that movie by the way - and I liked it - but then I am a fan of KRAH movies. Mr. Minty jokes that I would be the only fan of Terminator vs. the Transformers. And to my shame, he's right. I just love those mechanical sounds and blowing shit up that features in KRAH. But I don't only like KRAH movies.
One of the movie channels they have is Masterpiece which is basically all the movies that are cult classics and have depth. So for example, The Big Lebowski and Garden State are on there. It's nice to have re-runs of the Dude, not so nice to watch Naked Lunch and think 'What the fuck is going on here?!?!?!'. I've seen three movies on the new channel recently, which just got in my head.
The first one is The Skin I Live In by director Pedro Almodovar. Can I say, I've loved Almodovar since I saw his first movie at 15 - Atame! Atame! (translation Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! ) and I've loved him ever since. He pushes boundaries - and I love it. I also love the fact that he's dealt with trans* issues recently too. I found The Skin I Live In pretty horrifying because as a modern day Frankenstein, it's pretty horrific. Antonio Banderas does exceptionally well as the control freak, sick, twisted fuck. I can see why Almodovar is in love with him. Elena Anaya is also stunningly gorgeous - and always does such excellent conflict characters and she is the mistress of sad eyes.
For those of you who haven't seen it, and want to, I'm going to put the spoilers here behind a spoiler tag to discuss what I want to get off my mind. Beware the comments (if there are any, which I doubt) that might spoil you.
[Spoiler (click to open)]The idea of switching your sexual organs around, against your will is absolutely horrific to me. I think it's an excellent opportunity to really think about - as an audience member - the fact of transsexual and transgender people's lives. Even though I would love the privileges that comes along with being male, I would be horrified at the idea of being put into a man's body in order to get those privileges. What's worse for Vincent/Vera is that it's all against his will. The scene where he is given dilators is awful - and how humiliating the process must be for trans* people.
In classic Almodovar style, he has made me feel sympathy for a rapist, and horrified for the rapist's father who now wants to fuck his daughter's rapist. It's so deliciously fucked up, with all the ickiness that you hope for. I personally, will never forget the scene where Pablo's cum falls onto Andrea's face in Kika. There's definitely no shortage of fucked up relationships in the movie itself - with the housekeeper Marilia and her son Zeca. Zeca made me giggle when I first saw him because he was dressed as a tiger. A little bit fruity - but strong and muscular - and I imagined Quinn.
But I love that he's really given me an insight into myself - how horrifying it would be to be abducted and then operated on to be turned into a man. That's when I feel that I can really differentiate what it is like to be born a woman, and feel like a woman. I can't image how difficult it is to be born the opposite sex to what you believe your gender is. But this plotline gives me a damn fine insight into what I think it would be like.
The second movie that's been sticking with me is one that I saw completely accidentally. I was waiting for the next movie I'm going to chat about, I was with Mr. Minty, we had an hour or so to spare, sitting in front of the television. And boy I'm glad I chose to watch this movie while waiting. That would be Shame which stars Michael Fassbender. It's about a sex addict.
I don't tend to actually deal with sex addicts in criminology. To my knowledge, they've never killed anyone in motivation, so I don't tend to see, hear or think about it. And while it's something that often demeans people, it's not criminal to have sex (as opposed to rape). So I loved the movie for its insight into what a dreadful addiction it actually is. I had to go and research the causes of sex addiction after the movie, because the tantilising hints we're given to the causes we're enough. I loved the line by his sister "We're not bad people. We just come from a bad place."
I was disappointed when I came online to find that most of the fan chats about the movie were about Fassbender peen. It's kinda depressing that such a brilliant performance would be overshadowed by prudish and prurient squealing that you get to see peen. I don't really understand in a world full of internet porn why someone is shocked and scandalised that Michael Fassbender has a penis, and he showed it on screen. Sigh.
On top of that, it was the most unsexy movie one could think about.
[More spoilers!]Brandon's sex addiction takes up so much of his time. It must cost him an absolute packet. The porn all over his computer - and being in that sick relationship with his boss. Looking the other way that his boss can score chicks - who, by the way, gave me a good insight into how Shia La Boeuf would pick up women, just by never.fucking.shutting.up. - so that he can do what he likes at work. His boss was just a gross, gross tool. While his sister might have no concept of boundaries, did his boss really think Brandon would be fine locked out of his own bedroom to fuck his sister. Yuck. You can tell that the relationship is truly shallow - Brandon doesn't like or respect his boss, and his boss is too busy getting his horn on to think about Brandon. It's a sick relationship, and the entitlement of Brandon's boss is just gross.
I felt for Sissy too - she showed just another way that child abuse can come out. And of course, she was far more up my alley, because women like that come into criminology for domestic violence and rape. They get used and abused by men, because their parents already showed them the pattern. So I understood her, while Brandon was a bit of a mystery to me - hence the research.
The looks on Brandon's face when he was orgasming - ugh. Made sex look as unfun as it could ever be. Rage and weeping - it was a brilliant performance by Fassbender, and it makes me sad that people ooh and aah over his peen rather than the depth he played for the character. I really felt for him that when a woman cared for him, he suffered from impotence, as opposed to being able to perform when it was just a transaction.
I was left thinking for days about whether he could ever get help barring through therapy. Because I can't see that he'd be able to handle enough intimacy before either the girl ditched him, or he got too close and couldn't perform. I suspect that men like Brandon end up with women with the same sort of damage. But you'd be hard pressed to make a relationship like that work.
The movie itself was really one of a kind - I've only watched one movie where a husband had sex addiction - and the matter was glossed over and made sordid like "I've been sleeping with my boss's wife and I want to stop" - picking the most degrading thing and then just fucking summarising it. It didn't make me feel any empathy for the sex addict in that case. Shame made feel fucking awful for Brandon - that he just can't connect with anyone.
And the third movie I've been thinking about is The Woodsman. Powerful performances all around - and as a criminologist, I was desperate to see it, to see if it's any good. I must say - I know child protection workers. I don't know any that would behave in such a Mary Poppins fluffy way as stupid Renee Zellweger did in Case 39. All the ones I know, know full well that making excuses for damaged kids and trying to fool yourself it's all cool is a giant fucking mistake. You get hurt, the kid doesn't get help. So sometimes movies are really great, and sometimes they just piss me right off.
The Woodsman however, was clearly painstakingly researched. It's about a paedophile who has just been released from prison after 12 years, and trying to resist the urge to reoffend, and to rebuild his life. It really stuck with me, because it wasn't clumsy about the information. There was obviously stacks of research behind it, and it didn't dumb it down and dump it into your lap.
[Oh yeah baby. Click me to open. ]One of my favourite bits of the movie was where in the beginning, Walter says that he never hurt his victims, that children wanted to go with paedophiles. It's pretty perfect, because this is shit paedophiles actually believe. It's called cognitive dissonance. You and I see a child freezing in terror and wanting to be polite, or see a young child doing as he's told, and a paedophile sees someone who wants to be touched, who wants to go with him.
Later on, when he talks to the girl being abused by her father in the same way he used to abuse girls, he really gets some insight that he did hurt those girls. Just because they weren't bruised and bloody doesn't mean that they weren't hurt and crying after he was finished abusing them. That it didn't make them feel bad. And I love the delicacy of that scene - showing that the girl doesn't really want to sit on his lap, but she will to make him happy.
I loved the way that Walter got insight into what his victims looked like when he was out of the room - their tears, and their feeling bad. It's hard to say in that situation that you didn't hurt them, and of course that all comes out when Walter beats the living shit out of the paedophile he's been watching out his window. I loved the fact that they had Walter confusing his brother-in-law's love for his daughter with his own urge to molest children - many paedophiles believe that what they're doing is loving - when in fact, it isn't. I love that Carlos makes it clear that whatever Walter does is not similar to what he does. Walter missed those finer points of interaction.
I also liked the fact that they included the sex offender registry in there. It's one piece of legislation I desperately disagree with. Yes, I know, it's made to protect children. But that's not in fact, what it does. It's all too easy for someone with an axe to grind to get their hands on information and continue to push paedophiles. While their crimes are without doubt loathsome, and what they do, awful, the fact of the matter is that only 1 in 6 paedophiles have ever been arrested. You can warn your kids about Walter, but what's to stop the blond offender who's talking to children? He's going around offending, and the population is lulled into a false sense of security that Walter is the bigger danger, when he's the one in therapy, with the police jumping down his throat.
If we really wanted to protect children, the best thing we could do is stop forcing politeness and unthinking obedience to adults. You know - all those kids who are told to kiss Grandma when they don't want to? They're the ones you're making vulnerable. I never taught my kids this crap. They don't have to revere authority. They have to be nice and respectful, but if something makes them feel not right, or doesn't go through popular channels, I've always let them know it's okay to tell an adult to fuck right off. It worked too, because a guy came up to our fence when they were 6 and 8 and offered them lollies to come to his place, and they told him to fuck off, and ran to tell me. I rewarded them with marshmallows.
And the other thing that the sex offender registry does is drives people out of the community in general. There's no reason to try to be a law abiding citizen if you're going to be punished no matter what. Part of the therapy that's most effective for treating paedophiles (and it's only been tried in New Zealand so far) is to bring them in to talk openly about it, to be inclusive in a community and not alienate them. It's unfortunate that it has no political sway like registries - because it got the recidivist rate down to 2%. No, let's go with the method of alienating them and treating them badly so they have no reason to turn their behaviour around, and stick with the 35% recidivist rate. I mean, that won't ultimately hurt kids, amirite? The registry system sets them up to fail, which is fine, but kids get hurt in the meanwhile.
It also got in my brain in another way. Unlike my children, I was always told to be polite. I think it's possibly worse since I'm a girl, and we're pretty much indoctrinated into being nice. I still struggle with it, except online, where I say what I think in hopes that I can train myself out of this. I really got stuck thinking about Walter's sister, and how angry she was, when it's never disclosed that Walter offended against her, and contrasting that with Walter's girlfriend and her brothers, who abused her. I think so many victims, keep quiet under the idea that it's a compact - I won't expose you if you just offend against me and never do it to anyone else. I think that explains his sister's anger - she kept silent for years, and feels to blame for not reporting Walter, not watching him carefully enough.
In Vicki's case, she kept silent and her brothers grew up to be the sorts of guys who take umbrage at the idea that they are sex offenders, even though they are. Vicki kept to her compact and her brothers didn't take it further than her (at least as far as she knows). In Walter's sister's case, he broke that compact. It makes me think of all the victims who stay silent thinking they're the only one. Vicki shows quite well just how the idea that "all men are sex fiends" gets around - that with enough silence, it's easy to believe that all men are like that, and everybody is really great at hiding it.
And after seeing The Hunger Games, I read the trilogy. My son is pissed that it took me less than 24 hours, and accused me of skimming. He doesn't understand that practice makes you faster, as he's not much of a reader. I really liked the books - very dark though. Not that I object to dark material at all. But I expected them to be a little more upbeat than that because it's included in my kids' curriculum - and high schools usually go for safe material. I cried from about the [Hidden for spoilers] !death of Finnick! to the end. It was all so sad.
One thing I do think is that for kids, it's not quite as dark. They have little experience with severe PTSD - which Katniss and Peeta certainly suffered from, and don't really see how that would affect their lives. That Katniss would always be flinching, much like Haymitch does. That she would be weird and disconnected her whole life - and that after doing so much to further everyone's cause, she was ditched as damaged.
I also think that the real life parallels - that we use the children of other people against them. One can easily liken Panem to New York City, using up the resources and being wasteful when others are below the poverty line in places like Idaho. Or we can liken Panem to the First World Countries - happily using up Indian children to make textiles for our benefit, and not really giving a shit if they starve to death or grow up strong.
Part of me wonders how much shit Katniss got for being "damaged" and needing to shape up for Peeta or Gale, that Peeta and Gale didn't get. That she needed to shape up and show her love. I wonder if she got as much hate as Sookie does. Having a cursory look at the reviews around, it seems that she did. Apparently, all the readers in Panem Western countries would be totally kick arse and fine after being victimised by the state. They'd be happy, and ready to change things. I can't wait to see the real life activism they do....but I won't be holding my breath. I wonder how many of them are giving Vietnam Vets discussions about how they should be Kings of the World, and power through the damage.
That's what's most depressing about all this - that the people of Panem book-reading-internet seemingly have no idea of hardship, and so they can't sympathise at all with those who do. That's why stories like this will continue to happen. That's why there'll always be homeless people and mentally ill people and poor people cast aside. Because those who should feel sorry for them are too fucking busy wanting MOAR out of them, and giving them chats about bootstraps. They want to know why people can't just be happy and fall in love and kick arse. They're not real interested in those who fall down and can't get up. No empathy - just more shoving them down. Sigh.
Oh, and one other thing. I watched The Usual Suspects. I was severely disappointed that I guessed who Keyser Söze was within like 5 minutes, and then confirmed it about 30 minutes into the film. I hate that this happens. It's all a big plot twist and mystery to everyone else, and I can't even enjoy the movie because I know already. Mr. Minty didn't know until the reveal. Damn his non-analytical hide. It didn't really obsess me at all - which is depressing. I wanted more and I should have just sat back for the ride.