Blogs are a powerful conduit of information – and this week, bloggers from all over the world are being mobilized to spread an important message.
From October 4-11, bloggers are being asked to post about The Girl Effect – a global campaign that is raising awareness of the plight of young women in third world countries who are being sexualized and abused.
The power of the blog certainly worked in my case. I found out about The Girl Effect from reading the blog, Flying Down to Hollywood.
This particular blogger, Sally, had a unique take on the sexualisation of children – and in particular the representation of it on film:
“There is one thing that I've always had trouble with wrapping my mind around comfortably: men falling in love with girls. Not women. Girls… It's not just Hollywood. Fairy tales and legends have been doing it for ages. A girl turns 16 and suddenly she's ready for marriage and happily ever after.”
The first example that popped into my mind was Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds. I loved McCullough’s book – and I really enjoyed the mini-series version starring Richard Chamberlain and Rachel Ward. But despite how much I loved the story, I always found it icky how the old priest, Father Ralph de Bricassart, fell in love with Meggie Clearly – a young girl that he helped to raise.
So, in support of The Girl Effect, my next review will be of the mini series adaptation of The Thorn Birds and how it compares to the novel… You can also help out, by finding out more about The Girl Effect and, if you have a blog, posting about it before October 11.
Lets get the conversation going... Can you think of any more examples of books/ movies where older men have made some creepy moves toward younger girls?
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm not talking about the Sean Connery - Catherine Zeta-Jones style trysts.. I mean the real, fairytale-style stories that are covered in all sorts of icky-ness!
Great post!! Thanks for linking to my blog! I've found that there are several books/movies where an attraction between characters is there under the surface that's rather disconcerting. The 2003 version of Peter Pan comes to mind (Hook is definitely thinking Wendy is more than just adorable) and the Vesper Holly series by Lloyd Alexander (Dr. Helvitius's obsession with Vesper is pretty darn unhealthy). It's weird how these things pop up all the time in books and movies and we don't really notice them!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sally, they are two examples that I had not considered... Thanks also for reading my post about Pride and Prejudice - I'm glad you liked it.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I obviously come from the slightly biased perspective that 'books are always better', I am always interested in hearing people's differing point of views. I've found your blog particularly interesting, due to your obvious passion for film.
If you are ever interested in submitting a guest review to this blog, please feel free to let me know.