Statutory Rape & Pedophelia In Movies

[KittyWampus]

Gigi (Leslie Caron) & Gaston (Louis Jordan) with Maurice Chevalier singing the song- THANK HEAVEN FOR LITTLE GIRLS.


Here's a bit from a Jack Skinner at Hackwriters.com:

"But there is a dark side to the film. In today’s male versus female society it would probably be condemned. The opening scene depicts a ‘dirty old man’ (Chevalier) introducing us to the story as he sings a ditty about ‘little girls’ and how they grow up ‘in the most delightful way’. In the scene he is smiling lecherously at a group of them playing in the park. The character would be deemed a paedophile and taken to court in two seconds flat. On the other hand, Gaston is a typical male chauvinist pig. He is rich and has no regard for women other than as bedroom playmates to be taken in one at a time as mistresses and given the life of super luxury. That is, until the women grow old and ugly and is replaced like any other worn out machinery. Even the Madame’s left on the scrap heap accept the eventual renunciation by their male lovers and ‘retire’ gracefully to become instructors for future young female playmates. Gigi’s grandmother and aunt have been through the mill and as experts in the art of male pleasure prepare her for Gaston’s bedroom. Her mother, another has-been, is too far-gone and spends her time singing in the bath. Thank goodness, feminist societies were non-existent at the time. The film would never have been released.

[Jack Rabbit]

1. The film was made in 1958

. . . four years before Kubrick adapted Nabokov's Lolita.

Some things need to be put in the context of time. Does anyone get excited that Shakespeare mentions that Juliet is 13? Of course, we would now and rightly so. However, while Capulet objects that she is a little young, he gives his consent. He clearly doesn't think it's that unreasonable.

[KittyWampus]

2. Never Saw Lolita But Read The Book As Nabokov Is My Favorite Author

he was too much of a freaking genius.

[Jack Rabbit]

3. Of course, to be fair

In Lolita, the fact that the girl is so young is part of the issue. There's something wrong here and no one can read it (or view the film) as a heavy-handed plea to lower the age of consent.

[Mabus]

20. I quite agree

I looked at it as having the same impact as Peyton Place or the non-fiction The Feminine Mystique in that all three talked about something that occurs in the world but no one wants to talk about it. One of the big factors that all three of these works have in common is the isolation of women and all the things that spring from that especially when viewed in their time setting.

Lolita was especially interesting to me because it was in so many ways a ground-breaking book. It discussed such diverse topics as throw-away or inconvenient children, some women's reliance on men for their identity and child pornography. Everyone always points to Humbert Humpert and his obsession with Lolita and very few people talk about Claire Quilty and his parties. Few people talk about Charlotte's low-self esteem and man-hungry ways as a widow with no real skills to support herself. No one talks about the other kids that Lolita talks about at Claire's parties or the filmmaking that went on. No one ever seems to talk about Lolita's obsession with Claire.

There is so much more to the book than peering into Humbert's mind or the incestous/controlling relationship he had with Lolita. The interplay of words that Nabokov uses is extraordinary. From Vivian Darkbloom (an anagram of Vladimir Nabokov) to the Willy Loman-like descriptive name of Lo Haze for the fair Lolita. I wish I could remember more. That English class I took was 26 years ago. But thinking about this book is making me want to go pull out the copy of the book I used back then (which I should still have) and go through the notes in the margin.

[Mabus]

4. Lolita was brilliant

I studied it in freshman English from a woman who learned her interpretation of it from someone who learned from Nabokov.

My husband likes the James Mason version while I prefer the Jeremy Irons version.

[KittyWampus]

7. Did You Read Ada? Nabakov's Story About Incest Between Brother & Sister?

:D

[Mabus]

19. No I haven't

And all I ever seem to read any more are politically oriented books.

[FloridaPat]

5. As a women, I had nounderstanding why men would go to such lengths

to sleep with girls. Still don't. Lolita to me was disgusting that this girls life was sucked up with this dirty old man who knew it was wrong, but went to a lot of extremems to make is seem legal. Like marrying 12 years old to make everything ok. Of course, back in the good old days - before 1900 all the back to Christ I think - getting married at 12 or 13 was normal. I guess when you had 12-18 kids in the house, getting them out as fast as possible was ideal.

[Nikia]

9. Was it really that common for 12 year olds to marry?

I have traced back my geneology on all sides of the family for several generations, a few lines to colonial times. My mother who married at 17 was one of my youngest female ancestors to marry. Most married at 18-24 years old. If you look at when the first ladies of the U.S. married, I believe that the youngest was 17, most even before 1900 were 18-24 years old.

[u4ic]

10. My aunt was married at 13 in 1918

and had 3 kids by the age of 19. Another married at 14.

I had 3 other family members who were married by the age of 16. Mind you, they were poor rural immigrants, and in the area at the time it was common.

I think socio-economic background had a lot to do with how young a woman married.

[KittyWampus]

11. Didn't Men Go Through Wives Kinda Fast? Childbirth Being A Killer

[u4ic]

13. Yes, but men were often victims

of accidents, too, especially the 'labouring' class.

The aforementioned aunt who married at 13 - had 16 kids, and lived to the ripe old age of 94.

The ladies, in my family anyway, were tough broads. :D

[KittyWampus]

14. THIRTEEN? How Many Lived?

13 sounds like a helluva lotta work. Though you figure older kids probably helped out.

[u4ic]

15. 16 kids

and her husband was no help to her. He died in his early 50's.

Yes, in the big farm families the older ones often had to look after the younger ones - though all kids were expected to help out with chores once they were old enough (7 or so).

I just wonder how she remembered all their names!

[jmm]

12. My grandma married at 16 and grew a couple of inches after

having her first child. When she told me this I asked her if she honestly thought she was old enough to marry if she hadn't even gone through her last growth spurt yet. She's now a great-great-grandmother in her 70's. There have been a number of women in my family who married in their teens.

[Nevernose]

23. Getting married that young wasn't normal

At least not until the nineteenth century, and especially in America. It's a common misconception that has been ingrained in our collective psyches, but it's not particularly true. There's a wonderful article on this I read a few years ago entitled "The Romeo and Juliet Myth;" I'll see if I can't find it somewhere on the Internet(s).

[FloridaPat]

6. I loved this movie when it came out and when I saw it later. Viewed in

today's mindset, I can see where you come up with that. I miss the days when people actually enjoyed life and didn't look for sex in everything. Or something sinister in everything.

[Jack Rabbit]

8. The issue is raised in Woody Allen's Manhattan

Here, the issue is raised in more interesting and troubling way. The character played by Mariel Hemingway in Manhattan is seventeen. The issue is given more of a vaneer of moral ambiguity.

[-..__...]

16. "The Professional"/ "Leon: The Professional".

The original French version had a very young, scantily dressed Natalie Portman in bed with a much older man (Leon).

The US release had to tone it down a bit and cut a few scenes.

I've seen both versions. It's hard to say if it could be described as "pedophilia", but I can understand why some people could see it that way.

Just the same, it's one of my top <random number> favorite movies.

[CanuckAmok]

17. Au contraire

A true chauvanist pig wouldn't take women in "one at a time as mistresses". Two at a time is the minimum, and that's why god invented the king-size mattress.

[HeeBGBz]

18. How about Pretty Baby

Brooke Shields first movie as a child raised in a brothel, sold and deflowered at 12.

[tjdee]

21. I thought he looked like a nice fatherly/grandfatherly figure.

I think the song is cute.

I've never watched past that, LOL.

[tjdee]

22. Taxi Driver?

Looks to me like Jodie Foster is damn young in that.
Don't know the story though, so I don't know if she's a hooker, or what.

I always wonder what the parents of kids are thinking when they allow them to do certain things in films.

[Nevernose]

24. The rules against are from the actor's/director's unions

Aren't they? IIRC, the rules were passed in the early 80s. That's why they can still make versions of "Lolita" in England, for instance.

[terrya]

25. Todd Solondz' film "Happiness" tackles pedophilia head on.

It's a very...and I mean very...dark comedy. But one of the characters is a psychiatrist...and pedophile.

[SoCalDem]

26. Literature & movies target the "lizard brain" in us all..

"Nature" is all about reproduction..It's what keeps the species going. The lizard brain seeks out certain things.. Youth, reproductive "newness",over all health, and symmetry.. Young people are always seen that way.. Advertisers know this.. "Buy coca-cola, and you'll look and feel like this".."Buy this car, and your life will be that of a rich, healthy young person"..

A female's prime reproduction time is actually quite limited, and since the males can seemingly procreate "forever", it's not surprising that young women are always "in demand"..from all ages of males.

Culture and social mores dictate that men suppress their "inate" desires, and most do...but there are always the ones who don't.Those are the ones who cause lots of heartache for many years..

Childhood (carefree ones) are a recent phenomenon..In most cultures, children are workers, and eventually caretakers for their parents.

American (and some other western countries) children became "pampered pooches" with the advent of child labor laws.. The wealthy probably always "cherished and pampered" their children because they had hired help to do the dirty work. Perhaps their children married later because back then marriages between wealthy families were a way to cement alliances and for future family wealth, so naturally, the parents would have had to spend some time contemplating just who was worthy of marrying into their family..

Poor people often lived in very cramped quarters, so it made sense to marry off the daughters early. Land often was passed to sons anyway, so the thought of having spinster daugters hanging around forever was not a good idea. Bear in mind too that hard work takes a toll on people, and the best time to marry off a daughter was when she was still very young, and very healthy, and looking her best..