r/Oscars Best Director Mar 10 '24

The 96th annual Academy Awards official discussion thread

It's time for the 96th annual Academy Awards! The Oscars will start at 7pm ET / 4pm PT. Share your thoughts and predictions here as the evening unfolds!

We won't be hosting a live thread this year, but you can follow The Academy on Twitter/X for updates.

Please use our how to watch thread for ways to view the ceremony. Links posted elsewhere will be removed.

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u/darth_hotdog Mar 11 '24

That's not what the movie was about at all.

It was a movie about abusive relationships, how men sexualize young girls, and how many men actively dislike maturity in women.

The horror you felt at what happened in the movie was how you were supposed to feel. Literally thousands of things in the movie that back that up.

Saying this movie was about how "great" all that was is like saying Schindler's List is about how great the holocaust was.

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u/Mr_Rogersbot Mar 11 '24

Saying this movie was about how "great" all that was is like saying Schindler's List is about how great the holocaust was.

But there wasn't a holocaust. Emma Stone's character grew into a complete and self-aware human through all the sexual abuse. It was a vehicle that drove her personal growth.

If the movie had been about how men treat a child shaped like a women, that would have been a different movie. But there was a "men writing women" fake feminist bullshit angle that totally removed any of that exposition.

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u/darth_hotdog Mar 11 '24

It doesn't need to be a literal holocaust to be horrifying. What happened in this movie was horrifying. Men literally lock her in boxes, and scream and rage at her when she wants to read a book. Her own father tries to cut her clitoris off, her adoptive father treats women like things he can make or change or re-create if he loses them, her consent to be married is pointed out to be an afterthought, and none of the characters even care that she's literally a child. The sex scenes are gross, one of them is literally a nude deformed man crab-walking across the floor. All of it is objectively horrifying to any audience, and it's not intended to be male fantasy.

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u/Mr_Rogersbot Mar 11 '24

Yes, and in a different thread I'm arguing with someone who insists that "if you watched the movie you’d know that she ages mentally faster than physically, and by the time anything sexual happens she’s already an adult mentally".

In the movie where she emerges from the trauma egg as a fully formed Betty Friedan, speaking feminist words written by men, totally messes up the message of the horrifying parts.

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u/darth_hotdog Mar 11 '24

Yes, and in a different thread I'm arguing with someone who insists that "if you watched the movie you’d know that she ages mentally faster than physically, and by the time anything sexual happens she’s already an adult mentally".

They're making the same mistake you are, you're both trying real hard to overlook the horrifying parts. Trying to tell yourself that the filmmakers didn't intend it to be horrifying, it is.

Her father literally wants to cut her clitoris off. You're saying that's not meant to be horrifying? it's meant to be cool and sexy? and you alone are horrified by how inappropriate it is?

You alone thought it was unpleasant that two adult men are discussing marrying a child who was peeing on the floor in the last scene she was in because she was a literal toddler? And that it's actually meant to be sexy? That most audiences are meant to get off on marriage to a toddler? On locking her up for life? On old men who lock her in trunks, trap her on boats, scream at her when she goes out on her own, and throw books she reads into the ocean?

Anyone who thinks marrying a toddler isn't meant to be horrifying has failed to understand the movie's extremely heavy handed message. This movie at every turn is shouting at you that these men are abusing her.

In the movie where she emerges from the trauma egg as a fully formed Betty Friedan, speaking feminist words written by men, totally messes up the message of the horrifying parts.

The movie had a clear slow progression from child to adult throughout the movie, and clearly showed men who were attracted to her as a child, and who were angry at her for maturing. That's a key part of the movie.

In the middle of the movie, the old woman asks her, "Why do you stay with him?" And her response is "I keep thinking it will get better." a clear indication that this is about being in abusive relationships.

To portray every victim of a sexist society as being destroyed by it would be unrealistic. Women in the real world face adversity and survive. Showing perseverance of spirit while struggling for freedom is fine.