A friend and I enjoyed the fine craftsmanship and lack of exploding superheroes in the movie The Spectacular Now. If you need to be reminded about all of the space on the planet that is being unjustifiably taken up by white men, go see the film right now. The basic white guy prototype in the movie is a selfish drinker/doper who abandons his responsibilities to the wife and kids, either by running away or overdosing and dying. Younger white guys simply drink. White guys who are too young to drink sulk on a sofa and play video games. Occasionally a white guy will become financially successful, in which case he is a stuffed shirt/blowhard. A final, but rare option for a white guy is to be a failing small businessman.
Not all of the male characters are reprehensible. There is one male high school student who shows some promise; he is black. There is one male teacher who cares about the students; he is black.
Most of the women in the film are strong, smart, prudent regarding the future, and trustworthy.
I would write more about the film but a buddy of mine is coming over and I need to crack open another 6-pack and bottle of oxycodone for him…
Growing up in a mostly observant Jewish household, being a bit of a nerd, not having much interest in sports, I have never felt truly one with “American culture”.
And so, I have to thank modern feminism, thank modern writers, thank our modern culture, for helping me fit in to America. Now, as a bad white guy, incompetent father I find I am median American dude.
Thank you all!
Hmmm…it is possible I missed it but I don’t recall seeing a post wherein you critiqued media portrayals of women, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, gays, lesbians, or trans people which are mostly stereotyped and banal or downright offensive. That’s like 99% of all media. Maybe a little turnabout is fair play? 😉
Alexis: Good point! http://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2007/03/11/official-mit-opinion-on-korean-americans/ is one example. But perhaps I should write about another couple of movies for balance. Can you suggest any that have negative portrayals of the groups that you mention?
[Separately, I don’t want to carve out a niche for myself as a media critic. That seems to be the province of angry (and usually older) politicians!]
Glad you said this Philip.
Dave
@Alexis
200 years of Whites Man’s Burden is not enough for Mr. Greenspun.
James Cameron made a little movie which is filled with White Man
rescuing Blue Aliens but not one critique in America even observed
that. Whole history of 20th century is filled with these kind of references.
Even Apple puts White Boy with Asian Girl that is the most you can get
out of diversity.
When TV starts showing Asian Men with precious White Women then
it will be turn around but it will be another 100 years for Whites
to be minority and feel the sting unless they destroy the world first.
@des troy,
Several American critiques did in fact observe what you describe. You weren’t the only one to notice.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/10/avatar-critics-see-racist-theme_n_418155.html
http://io9.com/5422666/when-will-white-people-stop-making-movies-like-avatar
http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/avatar-and-the-fable-of-the-white-messiah/
I read your older post about MIT/Koreans, and noticed that the date was 2007.
A quick check confirmed my recollection. Marilee Jones, the quoted MIT Dean of admissions, is the same person who resigned for having faked credentials. It was in April 23 2007, less than two months after your posting.
It’s nice that white women can be the baddies sometimes in real life.
When I worked at a giant company, there was compulsory online corporate ethics training. If a white man appeared in a drawing, you could be 99% sure he was up to no good.
Us readers could look at this the other way and wonder why you’re not surprised at this portrayal. You have plenty of posts talking about how Japanese, Chinese, Indian, and South American peoples come to the US, get an awesome education, rock us in everything, and either go back home and make us look like bums or just stay here and make us look like bums. In this case the movie is showing us how we really are: bums.
Also remember movies, even though they try to be superior to TV, are sadly, rarely subtle. I doubt even the blacks who directed and produced many 70s blaxploitation movies really thought most white people were evil, or that almost every black person but the hero and his/her significant other were murderers, rapists, pimps, drug dealers, or prostitutes. It’s kind of a weird way to look at movies. No one in the Maltese Falcon except Humphrey Bogart has any redeemable qualities (and he doesn’t even have that many), yet you wouldn’t say that it’s a movie showing that white peoples suck, doing nothing but connive, sneak, cheat, mug, murder, swindle, or terrorize.
Well, for starters, I wonder why should anybody go and see such movie. Irrespective of how the movie portrays anyone, is it any good? On the issue of who is portrayed how, I personally find the comments above puzzling. Either we strive for a society where people are (a) judged based on what they do, or we base our judgment on (b) the group they belong to. If we strive for (a), the movie is appalling, irrespective of how media portrays anybody else in other settings. If, on the other hand, it is fair to have some sort of ‘image comeuppance’, then we are actually endorsing (b), and everything goes.