Looking for your thoughts - film influence

[duvet]

Okay I don't want to be flamed for being overprotective but what are your thoughts on films that have a lot of sexual humour in them and portray women as all boobs and ass, even some 12's for example Blended or others that I kind of feel are not giving a great message across. I'm a bit choosy in what dd1 watches even if she is 12 now but just wondering what others think.

One of the worst things about patriarchy/misogyny is that it has pervaded every part of our culture to such a point that we barely even notice it. I think it's very commendable to try and avoid your DD being exposed to sexual humour but you're probably fighting a losing battle. I know it would probably fall into embarrassing parent territory but maybe you could sit down with her and watch one of these films and then have a chat afterwards about which bits were misogynistic and why that's not OK even though each instance seems small in the grand scheme of things. I was sexually harassed on the street from around your daughters age (I grew D cups overnight when I was about 11) so I think you're probably better off trying to prepare her for the world she'll live in as a woman rather than trying to protect her from it.

You aren't being overprotective. I think Stromba has a good suggestion. If she and her friends find racism or homophobia more shocking than sexism, you may find useful parallels there ("what would you think of a film where a black boy was the butt of all the jokes instead of a girl?" Etc)

Yeah I have done on that on some occasions after watching some films and explained to her that that is why we don't watch some stuff, which as Dh and I don't watch it either she seemed to take on board despite peers all watching it.
I think that's a good point though that we barely notice it - it has become the norm and will continue to do so if we don't raise it in a non preachy kind of way. Thank you.

When I was quite a lot younger, my local library invested in an impressive collection of videos by the media education foundation, many of which had quite an effect on me. Especially Jean Kilbourne's excellent "Killing Us Softly" series on the depiction of women in advertising. But they've made a number of other documentaries on gender and the media as well, all of which are very well made and actually fun to watch. Perhaps you could take a look at a couple of those with your daughter?

We have a catchphrase in our house now when we see random low level sexism on TV 'and that's funny... because it's sexist'. I also shout out 'boys club' when all the guests on a TV show are male. I suspect other people might find this very annoying, good thing DH is a fully signed-up feminist ally.

I look into that uglyswan, thanks.