Little Miss Sunshine
Warmly recommended. One of the most seminal, funny, and quirky films I've seen in years.
It also has, if you care to look for them, many good points to make. For instance about child beauty pageants. Apparently, and I can certainly believe this, the typical parent who pushes their children in these things are the Midwestern uptight types who are so scared of sex and anything progressive that I bet they have to take a laxative every week to have any bowel movements at all.
What they naturally can't see at all is that this terror of sex is exactly what ends up creating something like child beauty pageants, where seven-year-old girls come on stage and look for all the world like walking Barbie dolls, the tan variety (due to loads of spray-on tan). Inches of make-up and dead-sexual costumes. It... is... creeeeepy!
I don't know if you have heard of the Jon Benet Ramsey sensational murder here in the USA. One of these child walking barbie doll things was killed in her home, the police got implicated in a cover-up, and no charges were ever brought against any suspect. I think. You can google it -- it's the seamier bottomside of this already seamy underside of sexlessness. I mean, if you aren't having sex with 'em, then what're your underside seams FOR? :P
ReplyDeleteThe truly creepy thing about the child beauty pageant scenes in the movie is that the contestants and the parents are not actors. They're real children and parents from the pageant circuit, and they were pleased as punch to appear in the movie, spray-on tan and all.
ReplyDelete(According to the audio commentary on the DVD.)
I would think if you just had to have a contest in which you judged children's beauty, then you should judge their beauty as children -- not as denatured miniature adults.
ReplyDeleteI loved the entire movie. Great entertainment, great points, great acting... worth seeing. :)
ReplyDelete"the contestants and the parents are not actors."
ReplyDeleteI knew it! It was just too... *fake* not to be real!
Hannah: Oh yes, the acting: spectacular. Particularly the little girl. She is just spooky good.
Paul: you said it.
That picture is creepy. Have you ever seen the movie Akira? That girl looks like one of those failures of genetic engineering.
ReplyDeleteI know. It's worship of fake reality taken to the extreme.
ReplyDelete"this terror of sex is exactly what ends up creating something like child beauty pageants"
ReplyDeleteYou're not kidding. The most sexually-repressed people are precisely those most obsessed about sex. Very little difference between the Midwest and Saudi Arabia...
I've said it before, and I'll say it again in the future: people create their own heaven and hell within their hearts. Bigots make up such a twisted version of heaven that they live themselves in hell with a lying name over the gates.
Too bad they have to drag their children in with them.
I could never tremble at the idea of meeting Satan face to face. If Satan's job is to torment evildoers, I'm not scared, I couldn't be.
But the evil that men do? This terrifies me. There's no limit to it, and it's totally undiscerning and unjust. I bet it even makes the demons sick in their stomachs. A good incentive to apply neverending torture on those deserving, if the traditional depictions are correct!
Sorry for the rant. I've received an overdose of uptightness growing up in this country, sometimes it has to come out. People who destroy the carefree happiness of childhood don't put me in a very joking mood.
People who destroy the carefree happiness of childhood don't put me in a very joking mood.
ReplyDeleteme either. too many childhoods have already been ruined by drugs, molestation, rape, physical and mental abuse. it's not fair but GOD will seek revenge on their behalf.
b.a.b. ruled: "it's not fair but GOD will seek revenge on their behalf."
ReplyDeleteGod says: Oops, I created a monster! Hmm ... I think it's the monsters fault. Therefore revenge is in order!
I don't know about you, but gods who seek revenge on their own creations put me in a joking mood. :-)
Whats wrong in making kids to look matured?!
ReplyDeleteBecause they are *not* mature. So it is fake.
ReplyDeleteWhy is fake wrong? I am not sure I can explain it, but I just have a strong negative reaction to anything fake. I think fakeness is synonymous with dishonesty.
Perhaps one way to explain it is that it's not the kid's true will. She is participating just to ensure continued acceptance and love from her mother.
ReplyDeleteNow, kids are all different. There are kids who are fascinated by the symbols and gestures of maturity and playfully want to imitate adults. In this case, though, it is not about "making kids to look matured". The kid does it on her own initiative --- regardless of whether she is beauty pageant material.
They look more like big dolls than anything. They are actually spray painting them. Living plastic dolls.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I find that fakeness is alright but with moderation. However, I am against pantyhose.
ReplyDelete▪ "you should judge their beauty as children -- not as denatured miniature adults"
ReplyDelete▪ "Because they are *not* mature. So it is fake. Why is fake wrong? I am not sure I can explain it"
▪ "It's worship of fake reality taken to the extreme."
But it's so well-established a tradition! :)
http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/ipsolgwoolpit.jpg
http://www.temperaworkshop.com/artists/cimabue-detail-madonna.jpg
http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/20703-large.jpg
http://www.danploy.com/Assets/Art_History_photos/barna_da_siena_clip_image001.jpg
However, fakeness, with moderation, is fine.
ReplyDeleteI've come to hate my own creation! Now I know how God feels!
ReplyDelete-Homer Simpson
These child pageants are a crime against childhood because they are completely fake and artificial.
ReplyDeleteChildhood is about innocence, sincerity and truth. A child is normally the exact opposite of this fakeness. These parents destroy the open and honest purity of their children.
A child playing "pretend" is straightforward about it. Not those tinsel-craving twisted parents. If they were honest with themselves, they'd realize they're using their children as tools to pursue the hollow dreams of their own frustrations and mediocrity complexes.