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Kids' movies failing to adress Bullying
Aug. 26th, 2020 06:42 pmI watched the film "Little," which is one of these age-difference body-swap films, via library DVD. It was a mediocre film: good performances, especially by the child actor Marsai Martin; good costume design; fun and colorful sets. The writing could have used some work.
The idea is that adult Jordan (Regina Hall), in an abusive boss at the tech company she owns. April (Issa Rae) is her long-suffering assistant. Jordan gets magically turned into a teenager, allowing her to reconnect with her childhood self and learn some lessons. It's not actually clear in the story what these lessons are, though, and it's got me thinking.
Having watched this and "ParaNorman" in succession, it's clear that movie writers want to address the topic of bullying, but they really don't know how to do so. I suppose this is not surprising, as bullying is just a normalized form of abuse, and dealing with abuse is a largely unaddressed challenge in our society.
In ParaNorman, our hero Norman has the ability to speak to the dead. He must deal with the spirit of a young witch, who wants violent revenge for her own murder. He achieves this by listening to her, and telling her that violent revenge makes her just as bad as her bullies. He tells her to focus on people that loved and supported her. This is not a terrible message, but it would have been nice if there had been apologies from her abusers, acknowledgment that her anger is justified, and just basically some longer process.
Norman himself is also bullied, by school peers and by his family, and this is mostly "resolved" by people being nicer to him in the end, after he saves the day. There are no apologies.
In "Little," adult-Jordan is a massive bully to everyone around her. At the end of the film, she does apologize, reluctantly, to April, and starts treating people a little bit better. Part of the problem here is that this film is supposed to be a silly comedy, not to be taken seriously, but Jordan's bullying at the beginning of the film is excessive and upsetting.
Teenage Jordan ends up going to middle school and sitting at the table with the other bullied kids. Her solution to helping them be "cool" is to throw money around: she buys them expensive, fashionable clothing, and they pose for Instagram photos to show them off. This seems to place the impetus for change onto the bullied, rather than the school bullies who reject these kids. Just be cool and have expensive clothes, and people will like you!
Teenage Jordan later supports these kids at a school talent show, where they become more cool because they can sing and dance (while wearing cool clothes). Not sure what this is supposed to be saying.
What about "bullying is wrong" (full stop) and adult intervention? What about apologies and the slow process of building up trust? We need such stories in our society, and kids and adults both need to learn such things.
The idea is that adult Jordan (Regina Hall), in an abusive boss at the tech company she owns. April (Issa Rae) is her long-suffering assistant. Jordan gets magically turned into a teenager, allowing her to reconnect with her childhood self and learn some lessons. It's not actually clear in the story what these lessons are, though, and it's got me thinking.
Having watched this and "ParaNorman" in succession, it's clear that movie writers want to address the topic of bullying, but they really don't know how to do so. I suppose this is not surprising, as bullying is just a normalized form of abuse, and dealing with abuse is a largely unaddressed challenge in our society.
In ParaNorman, our hero Norman has the ability to speak to the dead. He must deal with the spirit of a young witch, who wants violent revenge for her own murder. He achieves this by listening to her, and telling her that violent revenge makes her just as bad as her bullies. He tells her to focus on people that loved and supported her. This is not a terrible message, but it would have been nice if there had been apologies from her abusers, acknowledgment that her anger is justified, and just basically some longer process.
Norman himself is also bullied, by school peers and by his family, and this is mostly "resolved" by people being nicer to him in the end, after he saves the day. There are no apologies.
In "Little," adult-Jordan is a massive bully to everyone around her. At the end of the film, she does apologize, reluctantly, to April, and starts treating people a little bit better. Part of the problem here is that this film is supposed to be a silly comedy, not to be taken seriously, but Jordan's bullying at the beginning of the film is excessive and upsetting.
Teenage Jordan ends up going to middle school and sitting at the table with the other bullied kids. Her solution to helping them be "cool" is to throw money around: she buys them expensive, fashionable clothing, and they pose for Instagram photos to show them off. This seems to place the impetus for change onto the bullied, rather than the school bullies who reject these kids. Just be cool and have expensive clothes, and people will like you!
Teenage Jordan later supports these kids at a school talent show, where they become more cool because they can sing and dance (while wearing cool clothes). Not sure what this is supposed to be saying.
What about "bullying is wrong" (full stop) and adult intervention? What about apologies and the slow process of building up trust? We need such stories in our society, and kids and adults both need to learn such things.
