currently tweaking because i absolutely cannot stand how the general public cannot 1) have sympathy for children and child characters and 2) use critical thinking to understand why a child character might be portrayed as particularly difficult or irritating. i’m sooo incredibly tired of “the kid ruined the movie” “the kid should’ve died” “this movie was free birth control” ass responses instead of taking time to understand the child’s role in the film or even extending basic sympathy to them.
i just watched ‘if i had legs i’d kick you’ the other week and thought it was fantastic, only to go online and see a viral clip of that one influencer whose only thought about the film was that the child was annoying. even worse when basically every opinion i saw online shared that sentiment. even if it wasn’t their main takeaway, most of them circled back to their hatred for the child.
it made me want to rewatch the babadook which i just did, only to go on letterboxd and reddit (don’t judge me) and see everyone essentially had the same exact opinion about the samuel in that film as well. i just genuinely do not understand people’s inability to engage with point of view in film. even if the child’s overbearing personality wasn’t all just from the perception of the mother, why can’t people just like, not be assholes? i honestly don’t really care if im being too woke about that like idk it’s just genuinely so so frustrating especially when these children are are written to reflect trauma, fear, grief, etc, and in both films the kids are victims of their circumstances and are struggling just as much as their mother.
idk it’s just the combination of bad media literacy and also lack of basic sympathy and i’m tired yall