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This is my first blog entry in nearly 3 months! My last entry must have been around the time that Alice dropped her morning nap. The result was that Mommy had a lot less "Me Time" and something had to go. Since writing requires long periods of peace and quiet, it was the obvious sacrifice. The trouble is I may have forgotten how to write! That’s the way it is with writing, I think. You have to stay in practice or you get really lazy and rusty.
Well, this blog entry isn't going to be terribly deep. I tend to blog about my philosophical tirades or share my "Do It Yourself" discoveries. But I haven't felt very preachy lately, and I am still in the research phase of my current homemaking experiment. However, I have been musing a bit about the different ways we seek entertainment, especially movies. So here goes.
Clay and I watch a lot of movies. We don't make it to the theater much, but we rent a lot of movies through Netflix. Recently I noticed that my tolerance for the content of movies is much greater than it was even when Clay and I first got married. I don't know if this is good or bad. I think a lot of movies that appear to be really "rough" have powerful messages that really stick with you and make you think. Not so with most "family friendly" movies, in my opinion. So you can't always judge a movie by its rating.
When I was a kid, I didn't watch many movies at all, and I was really easy to spook/offend/scar for life. When I was in day care, my caregivers decided it was a great idea to share Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video with the kids. I think at some point Michael Jackson turned into a werewolf or some such thing. At any rate, I was so terrified by this that I had to go hang out with my infant brother in the Baby Room until the video was over. When my family took us to Disney World, we saw a 3-D movie that featured a wicked witch popping out, saying something about "I'll get you, my pretty." I thought she meant me. Again with the Robsie screaming. When I was at a friend's house, her mom rented "Elvira, Mistress of Darkness," which was both scary and offensive to me. In school, some of my teachers decided teaching was just too hard, so to fill up the hours they were responsible for us, they would often show us movies. I saw Disney's "Aladdin" at least a half a dozen times in school. But most movies I didn't care for at all. "Watcher in the Woods" caused me to scream out loud in my 4th grade classroom. I seriously distrusted the forest around my house for the next 2 years. I pursed my lips in prim disapproval at "Space Camp" and "City Slickers." I wondered what my typing teacher thought "Sister Act" had to do with learning how to use my Qwerty keyboard. But I will never forget the psychological damage I sustained from "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves."
In 7th grade, my math teacher, whose was also a coach (or perhaps I should say, he was primarily a coach) exposed me to this shocking piece of trash. I was 12. That night, I couldn't sleep. Images filled my innocent mind: Alan Rickman murdering poor Mr. Locksley while wearing a scary mask, worshipping Satan at the behest of his ghoulish godmother, and attempting to rape his unwilling bride, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. (Alan Rickman, you should be ashamed of yourself.) I ran into the dining room and told my parents everything. They were pretty incensed. After all I was a captive audience in a public school classroom, and I really needed to be learning, well, math. Shortly thereafter, movies were no longer shown in school unless they were entirely educational. The timing led me to believe that my parents kidnapped the Superintendent of Schools and threatened him with a Bowie knife until he made this proclamation.
Clay and I ware alike in many ways. As it turns out, he was also very sensitive to movies and t.v. as a child. You remember the "very special episodes" of popular t.v. shows that involved serious issues life child abuse, drugs, alcohol, divorce, handicaps and the like? Clay cried over those. Every single time. He was also easily spooked. The scary little vampire kid in "Salem’s Lot" horrified him for a good, long time. When we got married, we decided to watch some of the movies that scared or disturbed us as kids to see if they were, indeed, really scary or disturbing. Clay watched "Salem’s Lot," and I watched "Watcher in the Woods" and "Elvira, Mistress of Darkness" (the latter of which is not AT ALL appropriate for children. Lots and lots of dirty jokes) Finally, I decided to take on "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves." I was really amazed. My perception of it as a kid was that it was an incredibly dark drama with an evil act at every turn. My perception of it as an adult was that it was a fun swashbuckling movie, not unlike "The Mask of Zorro" or even "The Princess Bride." (Also, Alan Rickman was WAY hotter than Kevin Costner.) Still not appropriate to show in school, still pretty intense for sensitive little gals, but not remotely as awful as I remembered.
You know, I have some acquaintances that will not show their children any movies with witches or other types of magic, either good or evil. Of course no "Harry Potter." Not even Disney classics like "Snow White" or "Sleeping Beauty." I think this is really extreme. For one thing, when you see witches in children's movies, they are almost always depicted as people you would not want to get to know. It's not like "Hey, I'm a witch, I'm sexy and lovable." For another thing, in the real world, evil is rarely associated with magic. Therefore, evil is more subtle and not so easy to spot. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you make your children think that evil is about magic, they become blind to real evils like selfishness, lying, stealing, malice, etc. Kids are smart...give them some credit! How long are they going to shield their children from depictions of evil? What about when they get older and want to see movies like "Grease" and "Dirty Dancing," or even classics like "Casablanca" or "Wuthering Heights." Are they going to give their kids cart blanc to all movies that don't have obvious depictions of cackling magicians? Or are they going to force their children to watch "Veggie Tales" for the rest of their lives?
I really believe that children 1) Should not have a t.v. in their room and 2) Should watch t.v. and movies with their families so they can discuss them. A lot can be gained by asking, "Was Kathy/Ilsa wrong to desire Heathcliff/Rick even though she was already married? Were Sandy and Danny wrong to change themselves so the other would like them more? What was wrong with Baby defying her father's heartfelt warning to sleep with an adult man who is basically a gigolo (okay, so that was leading the witness a little bit, huh?)
Wow, that turned out to be a tirade after all! Yay, Robsie is back in the blogging business.
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