Incredibles 2, Equality, and Fathers
“[M]any movies will express the importance of women being treated as equals but do so by making the men look foolish.” AiG
I saw the movie last night, and am somewhat baffled at Ham’s response to it. I do remember with each of my six children that my wife had a huge advantage over me in getting sleep when the kids were up at night—she could nurse them to sleep. She was also used to dealing with them at odd hours.
There is some very real feminism of various kinds out there, but I don’t believe that Incredibles 2 shows it. Same thing with making fun of dads—keep in mind that the movie makes fun of Helen as well as she revels in her crime-fighting while totally glossing over her husband’s difficulties and completely missing who the real crook is despite getting a ton of hints. It simply shows human weakness.
There is also a scene which might infuriate many feminists when the maker of super-suits has her maternal instincts excited by the baby.
My review; not as good as the original, but no bad language, violence is only cartoonish, not many suspenseful scenes, but bad on Disney and Pixar for not understanding what I learned in an early EE class; flashing lights at a frequency lower than about 50Hz can cause epileptic and other seizures. That’s one big reason why early EEs learned that AC power ought to be done at 50-60Hz, actually. It’s been known for over a century.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
I remember when the same kinds of things were being said about the Berenstain Bears. If I recall they did have a point as in some of the books Papa Bear would do something dumb and Mama Bear would have to correct his mistakes––-kind of like my real married life.
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
Way down deep in Bear Country … lives the Berenstain Bears family …
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
- Nice gig … Ken’s son now the AIG movie critic. Too much “fat” at the top
- Kids are more imprinted by time spent with family than by a movie that will be forgotten.
- Dissing movies makes fundies look silly … as remember who said what about this …
It strikes me that a lot of people look for trouble in all the wrong places—they count objectionable things like violence, sexual content/nudity, bad words, Tinky-winky, and the like, but I’ve got to admit that the younger (uncured?) Ham has a point in looking at the societal attitudes implicit in a film, even if I think he’s wrong in this case.
To draw a picture, one of the things that drives me NUTS in older films (which I love in general) is that all too often, the theme of the movie is that the ne’er-do-well man—gambler, shyster, whatever—is portrayed as inevitably redeemed by the love of the pure young lady who instantly falls for him. Thankfully, my kids see through it for the most part (even detesting Errol Flynn and John Wayne movies for that reason), but look around your church; you will likely see a number of women who married foolishly under the impression that their love would make the rogue settle down and do right.
Along these lines, about 15 years back, Andree Seu Peterson (of World Magazine) wrote a column noting that it wasn’t the overt nastiness that caused problems as much as the more subtle assumptions in movies and music. It’s obvious when, say, AC/DC sings one of their nastier songs, but what about when the pure-looking young starlet sings that love song? Her thesis was that the latter can actually be more dangerous simply because it follows some of our rules.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Of course, with any film, each moviegoer can view it with a different interpretation, and one could argue that the movie redeemed each character by the conclusion.
Are Men (Fathers) Being Foolish in Our Culture?
I would venture to say that many men (more specifically fathers) are being foolish in our culture, but not because they’re unintelligent. Christianity no longer has the influence on our culture it once did. America is becoming less Christian with each day, and I would place a significant part of the blame on fathers.
It’s not really a movie review. It’s “movie as springboard for addressing a problem in our culture.” I appreciate the article. We have, for some time, as a culture, been trying to lift women up by tearing men down. Lacking a foundation in revealed truth maybe accounts partly for why we’re not seeing what should be obvious: this isn’t good for either men or women.
But the point of the piece isn’t that Inc2 is a particularly strong example of this.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
Bring back “Father Knows Best”, “My Three Sons”, “Ozzie and Harriet”, and “Leave it to Beaver” …
Reboot these …. no one would watch.
By the way … “Beaver” reruns are kind of cute
(I always eat dinner in a dress suit and my wife always wears pearls in the house”!)
(Right Ron Bean!)
That picture would also be applicable in the “How Did America Become a Nation of Slobs?” thread.
Ward is actually very relaxed in the photo: tie loose, coat off. Different times. But most significant: kids dressed one way, dads another way.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
[Bert Perry]I saw the movie last night, and am somewhat baffled at Ham’s response to it.
There is some very real feminism of various kinds out there, but I don’t believe that Incredibles 2 shows it.
I’ve only seen the trailer and it was enough for me to see that this is yet another Disney “empowering women” movie made to brainwash our kids (and adults) into accepting the feminist agenda of egalitarianism//and eventually female superiority and dominance. ( #thefutureisfemale ). Just about everything that Disney cranks out these days is the same thing…
Star Wars the Force Awakens - the lead hero is a female, the leader of the Rebellion is a female
Star Wars the Last Jedi - All the leaders of the rebellion are female.
Moana - female hero, Father is stuck in tradition and she and grandma save the day..the little girl even psycoanalyzes and fixes the male co-hero
Cars 3 - The hero can’t win races, so he teaches a female and she replaces him as the new hero
You can go on and on….it get’s wearisome.
Maybe you need to see the movie, William. The “feminism” of the movie includes:
1. The costume maker going completely maternal when she meets the baby and he imitates her
2. Helen completely misses obvious hints about who the actual villian is.
3. She also gets captured by the actual villian
4. And gets rescued due to the actions of her decidedly male baby
5. And the villian is a girl
6. Helen’s husband is moreover a picture of 1960s “Toxic Masculinity”, too.
7. Her daughter is a classic teenager needing comfort from dad. And who gets it.
With all that, it’s a lot more complex than Anything you can do, I can do better, to put it mildly. The family isn’t shown going to church, but for family values, it’s otherwise really, really good.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Discussion