Are all films <5 years problematic in some way

[anon666]

I guess it might be a sign of rapid progress, but recently I've watched:

Pretty Woman
Dirty Dancing
Bend it like Beckham

All of which have a girl/woman falling for an authority figure. It really looks creepy to a modern eye. Or does it? Am I being too Gen Z about the whole thing?

Just remember that they are fiction not documentaries and you'll be fine!!

Seriously though the gen z apparent inability to see nuance or context is always tiresome.

Do you mean more than 5 years old? Because "<" means less than, ">" means more than.

Plenty of films over 5 years old don't have a female character who falls for an authority figure.

The first two are about 35 years old and even Bend it Like Beckham is about 20 years old.

Oh god you're right, I've put it the wrong way round. Yes, of course, > 5 years.

Definitely being too Gen Z.....enjoy the films and stop overthinking.

Yep I can't stand the young woman older man narrative now

I mean I'm watching the films with my Gen Z teenage daughter and it's making me see them in a different light. 😬

Finding films and tv shows to watch with my Gen Z child is next to impossible. She is absolutely insufferable about how every piece of entertainment that doesn’t conform to the current to the standards is problematic. We try to explain the context of era and she says she just can’t find it entertaining. Even recent media is difficult because sometimes standards change within a matter of months.

Why? What's your beef with age gap relationships?

Well you’ve chosen three really specific films that prove your point. In the same timeframe as Dirty Dancing you had films like The Karate Kid where a teen boy has an appropriate schoolboy crush on a teen girl, or relatively ahead of their time films like Maurice with a delicate and sensitive portrayal of the struggles of homosexual people in history.

Then in recent films you’ve got plenty of good ones that aren’t problematic then you have films like the After franchise that glamourise toxic relationships. Or even (although I thought it was a fantastic film) Call Me By Your Name which is basically the same thing as Dirty Dancing with a much older man striking up a sexual relationship with a young teen boy while working with his father academically.

Because good films reflect life, some of them will reflect problematic characters or situations. You’ll be able to find problematic films from the beginning of time until the end of time.

I felt the same about Call me by your name - very creepy.

It's not the age gap, it's the teenage with mature adult thing. Seems wrong to me.

I should say obviously in the book of CMBYN Oliver is only supposed to be early twenties, but that’s still far too old to be sleeping with a teen, then to top it off they cast a man who was over 30 to play him in the film so obviously playing into the exact same thing as you’ve said about Dirty Dancing. It’s not only films that are older!

Yes for sure. I thought it was a beautiful movie, and it’s hard to criticise it because people are very attached to it, but it is hugely problematic when you watch it with an adult eye. Especially when you realise Oliver was likely with the woman he ends up married to the whole time, and was just having his fun with Élio and the local girls.

I can’t think of a single film where a middle aged male actor is paired with a woman of the same age. I suppose in the last Top Gun there was only an 8 year gap. Watching Cobra Kai at the moment and there’s a nearly 2 decade age gap between that of the two older male leads and their female partners. Other than teen and “gritty reality” films, when are ages similar?

I have to say I watched Rocky again not long ago and I was very uncomfortable watching the (creepy?) scene where Adrian wants to leave Rocky's apartment and he holds the door shut/won't let her leave. It kind of spoiled the movie for me and I wish I never re-watched that bit now(!). 😬

For all of their failures, the fast and furious films have the men and women love interests be around the same age. Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez have only 4 years difference, and Paul Walker and Jordana Brewster were similar ages too.

Some of the movies even pass the Bechdel test too!

I've just come from the "are most men degenerate" thread and the contrast is eye opening. Criticism there of porn culture, despair that young women are conditioned to put up with it.

While here, teenagers who are very clear on noticing sexism and disliking it in entertainment are called "too gen Z" and "insufferable".

You've never seen a Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan movie?

Because good films reflect life, some of them will reflect problematic characters or situations. You’ll be able to find problematic films from the beginning of time until the end of time.

This. Probably most films feature "problematic" characters by one definition or another. Every decent human has a "problem" with crime; murder, theft, fraud etc. but it makes for good stories. Movies in which everything is wholesome and inoffensive, i.e. what your daughter seems to be looking for, are to my Gen X mind offensive in their blandness. If she's going to go seeking "problems" in films she'll find them everywhere she looks, she needs to get used to the reality that not everything has to send a righteous message to the world.

Die Hard is about as old as Dirty Dancing (1987 vs 1988). Jurassic Park is around the same age as Pretty Woman (1993 vs 1990). The Story of the Weeping Camel was made the year after Bend it like Beckham (2002 and 2003). None have a girl/woman falling for an authority figure, and I challenge you to find anything at all problematic in the camel one.

You’re being too Gen Z

Enjoy the films for what they are

YANBU for critiquing the authority figure older male + naive young female trope. That the trope is old just shows how deep-rooted sexism is.

YABU for ignoring films like Thelma And Louise and Alien that have strong female leads and don't rely on that trope at all, and Princess Bride and Labyrinth that subvert it.

I was just thinking about all the problems with my old favourite The Breakfast Club...