You Know, For Kids
Further to this Rachel Zegler interview clip, recently doing the rounds, some thoughts from another “actress/activist”:
Indeed, the other sex often seems replaceable — if you're a young, single, childless, careerist. https://t.co/sx86se38yL
— Geoffrey Miller (@primalpoly) August 13, 2023
Ms Belcamino is “an American actress, musician, writer, and social media personality based in New York City. She is best known for her political commentary and viral dances on Twitter.”
She has a degree in mental health counselling.
Update, via the comments:
Regarding this:
Mags asks,
Readers are invited to ponder the conceit that a massively expensive film based on a classic tale for children should exist chiefly to “empower our movement,” i.e., to affirm the politics of mouthy, ungifted actresses. Rather than, say, to entertain children.
Still, I suppose it’s to be expected that obnoxious, narcissistic women should want to re-write a tale that, in its various original forms, is pretty much a warning against female narcissism and spite.
Update 2:
Min points us to this video by The Critical Drinker, titled, “How To Destroy Your Own Movie.”
It is, it has to be said, a strange way to promote an upcoming remake of a children’s classic – to wheel out an actress who boasts of having “hated” the original film, made by the same studio, and who disdains much of the story on which it’s based. And who does so seemingly on-message. Especially when the future of Disney, its very existence, is looking uncertain.
And as The Drinker and others have noted, the glib and joyless ‘strong female character’ trope now sounds much more hackneyed and cringeworthy than a tale in which unlikely friends are made and love is found, and in which a malevolent, magic-wielding queen is chased by dwarves and an entire forest of critters, before being crushed under a giant boulder, rightly, and then devoured by vultures.
The merits of the remake remain to be seen, of course – though given the star’s pronouncements, and Disney’s current trajectory, hopes of a triumph, a film that will be remembered fondly for the better part of a century, seem misplaced. The 1937 animated version may, however, reward rewatching. Seen as a child, the Evil Queen’s comeuppance – very much deserved – is quite something. Not least the vultures’ look of delight as they circle down towards her crushed remains. A pointed, lingering shot that slowly fades to black – now securely lodged in the memory.
Also, open thread.
“I will try to dig up the exact quotes”
This is not from Peterson, but Rob Henderson, as quoted by Arnold Kling’s substack (since Rob’s essay is behind a paywall).
For example:
He [Rob Henderson] says that when men compete,
In Games People Play, [note: A popular self-help book from the 1970s] one of the games that a woman will allegedly play is “Let’s You and Him Fight.”
How do women compete for status? Henderson writes,
More on Mr Henderson here.
Meanwhile, back to Snow White, heh.
You bad man.
Though on the upside, I see you’ve mastered the comment box toolbar.
Aelfheld.
IMHO Gaiman’s original book of Stardust was infinitely better than the film largely due to the absence of messrs Gervais and particularly De Niro yukking it up.
Even so the film still beats any live-action Disney remake.
That Snow White trailer (to nobody’s surprise the “seven dwarfs” are confirmed as being absent from the film title for obvious reasons, thank you Peter Dinklage) is even worse than I expected.
Try this one, is same.
As far as the comment bar goes, it is not so much mastering the unmasterable, it is figuring out the workarounds to overcome what seemed logical to some millennial code monkey.
[ Writes down millennial code monkey. ]
John,
I read Stardust when it came out in print (and recommended it to many friends & acquaintances).
The movie wasn’t terrible but had a certain squeamishness regarding the bloodier aspects of the book.
It’s not even good gaslighting.
Returning to Snow White for a while at least I enjoyed the US TV series “Once Upon a Time” with its innovative premise of parallel fairy tale and real worlds with the fantasy characters having real-life counterparts. All set in a small American town naturally. The two main protagonist girl bosses, one inevitably called “Snow”, were out-acted and generally outwitted by the excellent Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin and his real world counterpart Mr Gold.
Although it eventually ran out of ideas the first 2 seasons while characters were being introduced were excellent and well enough written to take advantage of the fact that although people remember the happy endings many traditional fairy stories have deep undercurrents of cruelty and unhappiness. Some of the early episodes were far from cuddly.
This is a recurring flaw in Hollywood, where a TV series will run forever or until it becomes so bad as to lose most viewers. I like the British practice of series which are planned to run for a specified number of episodes or seasons.
in a sense, women are outsourcing the cognitive burden of mate selection onto the men. The men organize some kind of contest, the women stand back and observe, and then choose the victor, or the men the other males decide is talented.
Oh, you mean like how many other species pick mates via displays of prowess or beauty? Funny, I’ve been told by all RightThinkingPeople that all sex differences are merely social constructs and have nothing to do with our nature.
I wish someone would address the abject illiteracy of changing the original English formulation, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who in this land is fairest of all?” from being about physical beauty, to being impartial and honest.
How does this even make sense? The evil queen is bitterly jealous of Snow White for being a more honest, upright leader than she is?
Imagine the Disney writer’s room filled with a bunch of smug midwits like Rachel Zegler, chortling over how clever they were being.
The ignorance and illiteracy of today’s “educated” artists and journalists is jaw-dropping. But not completely new: Remember the sixties journalist Jimmy Breslin and his “jackal bins”?
It could be useful for people not to know what Jacobin means, the same way that Social Engineering is now apparently something someone does to steal your passwords.
obnoxious, narcissistic women should want to re-write a tale that, in its various original forms, is pretty much a warning against female narcissism and spite.
If you ignore what most Disney films are telling you to believe and instead look at what’s actually shown onscreen, you see a much more…based view of the cinematic universe.
Rather than, say, to entertain children.
I don’t think that’s the audience any more. I think that the target audience for most of these horrible movies now is Gen-X and older millennial women. And I get it; somebody has decided that they can cash in on the other 52% of that age demographic by pandering ruthlessly to their insecurities and nostalgia the same way they did with the DC, Marvel and Star Wars franchises.
Some writers are notorious for writing intimate details about family members and past lovers
You oughta know.
there are some ideas so deranged that only a psychologist could invent them
I’m old enough to remember the “Otherkin” fad in the 1990s.
women basically hate and envy each other
Don’t try to understand women, Bud. Women understand women, and they hate each other.
parallel fairy tale and real worlds with the fantasy characters having real-life counterparts.
I quite enjoyed the early seasons’ game of “guess which Disney character this real-world persona is” although to this day I don’t understand why Belle was from New Zealand.
The ignorance and illiteracy of today’s “educated” artists
I saw Hadestown this weekend, and as much as I enjoyed the music the fact that the songwriter clearly did not understand Greek mythology generally nor the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice specifically was painfully, often cringeworthily clear. The fact that Hades was costumed to look like gigachad did amuse mightily though.
Er, what?
The Alanis Morrisette hit single “You Oughta Know” is about…Dave Coulier. Uncle Joey from Full House. Who broke up with her because he wanted to settle down and start a family, and she was Alanis Morrisette.
Ah, so you were citing an example, not telling me that I oughta know.
Relationships in the entertainment industry do seem to be…problematic.
Guess who.
Respect isn’t the word that’s coming to mind.
I see our Little Miss has form.