Thanks to the end of the writers strike...the Oscars are slated to be broadcasted tonight. After perusing the nominations, I was struck by the strong films that have been released over the last year; although many films may not have been appreciated by a wide audience, the outstanding creative and aesthetic results of a myriad of actresses, actors, screenwriters, and directors are worth recognition and praise.
But I do have one problem. And yes, I am aware that my problem is probably not going to be received with much support. But I don't care.
As many people in the past few weeks have asked me about my opinion on Juno, I am going to assume that many people have also heard me rant about my distaste for the film. But for those of you who haven't, I think it might be worth repeating. I don't aspire to be a film critic, and I will be the first to admit that my knowledge is scant. So my critique has little to do with the more technical aspects of the film, the delivery of the actors or actresses, or the directorial vision. My critique rests in the ideology that undergirds the film.
Juno is about a young girl who gets pregnant by her friend/boyfriend. She is in high-school, decides to keep the baby, meets a wonderful and wealthy couple who offer to adopt the child, develops an odd relationship with both wife and husband, has the baby, gives it to the wife (the husband is immature and decides to bail out on baby and wife), makes up with her estranged boyfriend, and lives happily ever after.
This is not reality. And while I understand that movies often if not always provide an escape from reality, I strongly feel that this movie makes light of an immensely difficult scenario. Being pregnant at 15 isn't funny. Being pregnant at any time--when you're not ready--isn't funny. Women are faced with a decision with two unfavorable outcomes and the consequences from both can be life-long.
It is curious that there have been at least two widely popular films about unwanted pregnancy in the past year--Knocked Up and Juno. There has yet to be a funny film about abortion. Is getting an abortion any more painful than deciding to carry a pregnancy to term? When you're in high school? When you have to hand the child into the arms of another woman? Hollywood apparently thinks so. Considering the media coverage celebrities receive for bearing children (magazines are paying millions to get that first baby shot), babies are in.
Although the last few decades have allowed women to achieve greater reproductive freedom, the stigma against abortion is still strong. Abortion is never a decision that any woman wants to make, but then again neither is deciding to keep an unwanted fetus. There are many girls who get pregnant, like Juno, when they are still in high school, sometimes even middle school. Like Juno, these girls decide to keep their babies. But unlike Juno, there is not a plethora of young, attractive and wealthy families willing to sweep up their babies and give them a 'good' life. These young mothers often have to drop out of school, many of them cannot afford to go to college, and they are unfortunately resigned to a life-time of low paying jobs and social welfare. At the age of 15, these young girls are better suited to be gossiping with friends in the hallways of high school than sitting at home, nursing a baby. Unlike in Juno, the boy that gets the girl pregnant rarely sticks around; these young women are forced to bear the burden of unprotected sex for a lifetime.
Understandably every case of unwanted pregnancy is unique. I do not advocate that every young girl who gets pregnant should have an abortion, but I do believe that it is most often the best choice. Juno paints a very different picture--a picture that is unrealistic and in my opinion insulting to the thousands of women who are confronted with unwanted pregnancy every day.
So yes...although Juno does have some redeeming qualities, I hope it does poorly tonight--perhaps that will give Americans a more realistic picture of what happens when you get pregnant--it usually is not a winning situation.
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2 comments:
I agree about Juno. I haven't seen it but I get a feeling if I did there wouldn't be too many surprises to change my mind. I'm interested to see if Diablo Cody has any success in the future.
I love seeing the best screenplay nominees each year; without them I would've never seen Squid and the Whale or Eternal Sunshine.
I thought the movie opened a candid discussion about abortion and adoption that destigmatized both. Granted, Juno's decision was to bring the baby to term and offer it up for adoption but that decision wasn't made to disparage abortion, it simply wasn't the decision she made. Given, the dimwit working the counter of the family planning clinic was a gross exaggeration of what a young girl should expect in real life, the "finger nail" bit was far from as disturbing as the message conveyed by real pro-life groups. Young girls should expect to see 4'x8' posters of dismembered fetuses and Juno made her decision on finger nails, not on the actions of a blauze receptionist. The decision was a unique, and uncommon one, made by a unique and uncommon character in a quirky movie and abortion, as an option, was given it's day in the sun. As a whole, the movie helps to soften the hardest decision millions of young girls make each year with a universal language--humor. Just my 2 cents.
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