Knocked Up: the new Nine Months or “right wing misogyny”?
Posted
June 2, 2007 at
2:35 pm by
Prescott
The new film Knocked Up, written and directed by Judd Apatow (Freaks and Geeks, The 40-Year-Old Virgin), is getting rave reviews from movie critics but an apparent thumbs down from some in another group — feminists. Why? Because of the basic premise — a successful woman (Katherine Heigl) gets “knocked up” by a lumpy loser (Seth Rogen) during a one-night stand, and instead of rushing down to Planned Parenthood, she decides to keep the baby. That’s it, that’s the big beef, that there apparently wasn’t any lengthy discussion of abortion. Linda Z, with WBAI Radio in New York, calls Knocked Up “right wing misogyny” (wait, I thought the liberals ran Hollywood — I’m so confused!) and says it drips with “not so hidden reactionary religious tones”.
There’s a more reasoned and less emotional discourse going on by Ann at Feministing about the film, saying that leaving out the abortion option is a “glaring omission”. Why? I’m staunchly pro-choice, but I don’t see why there should be some sort of obligation. While it’s maybe a valid point to make that Rogen and Heigl are acting a bit unrealistically, is that something to get worked up about? Doesn’t almost every romantic comedy made in the last 30 years have some ridiculous plot at its core? It’s not realistic that Julia Roberts would walk into a book store and fall in love with the guy behind the counter. It’s not realistic that Meg Ryan would dump her fiancé for some dope in Seattle that she heard on the radio. Can’t a movie just be fun and not tied to political correctness?
So why did the director choose to not address abortion? My first thought was that Apatow didn’t want to bring his light-hearted movie to a screeching halt (see also, Fast Times at Ridgemont High), or worse yet, feel the need to play up an abortion plot line for yuks. But the answer turns out to be even simpler — he just didn’t want to:
“[Keeping the baby] was the story I wanted to tell,” said Apatow. “I’m sure there are fascinating stories about people having abortions — ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High,’ one of my favorites, is about a girl having sex in high school and then having an abortion. I think both points of view [approaches to an unplanned pregnancy] are valid. But I wanted to make a movie about two people trying really hard to do the right thing.”
OK, so obviously Apatow disagrees with me on Fast Times, but the bottom line is I don’t care what awful social message the film supposedly has, it’s entertainment and escapism, not government propaganda — and if the rest of it is as funny as this R-rated international trailer, it’s sure to end up on my list of favorite films.
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Tags: abortion, feminism, judd-apatow, knocked-up, movies, Social Issues |
11 Responses to “Knocked Up: the new Nine Months or “right wing misogyny”?”
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1. Allison said:
June 2, 2007 @ 3:34 pm
I am pro-life and still take issue with this movie. Maybe it’s just the title that irks the crap out of me. “Knocked-Up” I HATE that term. It’s such a loud slap.
It would be the same to me if they called the popular “Vagina Monologues” “C*nt Talk” or if they called “Amistad” “N****rs On A Boat”. Or how ’bout calling “Memoirs of a Geisha” “Chinese Hookers”.
Sorry. I cringe everytime this movie commercial comes on. I guess it’s just me.
But even if the movie is a bit masoginistic, what’s the problem? What about Sex and the City? That’s a huge example of misandry if I ever saw. I love that show, but I’m sure feminists would get their organic panties in a twist if men had an equivilant. How can we be “equal” if the other side cries foul everytime a group has their own “thing” (movie, TV series, joke, product, etc.) If men and women really want to be equal, then we just need to “let you have yours, and me have mine”. Men are from Earth, women are from Earth. Get over it.
2. SewingSiren said:
June 2, 2007 @ 4:23 pm
Well to be pro-choice is to support ones right to choose regardless of the choice that is made. So I don’t really see what the problem is(with this movie). I don’t think unplanned pregnancy is particularly funny though.
Allison, man you must really hate the term “Knocked-Up”. It is vulgar ,but also usually used in a light hearted way. Now getting to your analogies- I *have* heard feminists use the term “cunt” sort of taking it back so to speak. But your last two are so offensive it is really unbelievable “Amistad” and “Memoirs of a Geisha” aren’t comedies. The word Amistad has nothing to do with the words you replaced it with. And Chinese is not offensive at all unless of course you are using it to describe someone who is Japanese @@.
3. Allison said:
June 3, 2007 @ 12:24 am
Sewing Siren, yes, I do understand what you mean about what I said. I know the last 2 are not comedies (Amistad was a movie about slave trade, and I realized after I posted that Geishas were Japanese, not Chinese. My bad.) I was just saying there are words that can feel like a punch in the gut when you hear them. I have never found the term “knocked up” to be funny at all. Like you said, that term usually refers to an unplanned pregnancy (not a thought-out plan by a married couple) and I don’t find that funny. And I do agree with you that to choose to keep a baby is a choice, regardles, so why do pro-choice activists take issue with this. Pro-choice does not mean “must have abortion”.
4. Jessica said:
June 3, 2007 @ 10:28 am
I don’t understand why a woman who doesn’t want to consider abortion is sending out an awful social message?!? When did abortion become a social obligation?
Not all unintented pregancies are unwanted. Not all woman are comfortable with having an abortion and would never even consider it. It’s a very real situation that happens every single day.
5. mimi said:
June 5, 2007 @ 8:23 am
An unlikely couple has a one-night fling resulting in pregnancy and Apatow declares he wanted to make a movie about two people “trying really hard to do the right thing?” That’s rich. As if his judgement of what is ‘the right thing’ absolves an act of pure irresponsibility. Abracadabra. And really apropos for the times.
Just make it a comedy and we’ll all have a few laughs so we can forget about all those new prisons and nuthouses we have to keep funding to contain all those unwanted children in the real world.
6. Jessica said:
June 5, 2007 @ 11:16 am
[quote comment="88680"]An unlikely couple has a one-night fling resulting in pregnancy and Apatow declares he wanted to make a movie about two people “trying really hard to do the right thing?” That’s rich. As if his judgement of what is ‘the right thing’ absolves an act of pure irresponsibility. Abracadabra. And really apropos for the times.[/quote]
Wow.
So, it’s not just the women who don’t abort after an indiscretion who is looked down upon — it’s their children too.
7. mimi said:
June 6, 2007 @ 12:07 pm
Missed the point entirely.
Irresponsibility is a barrel of laughs.
Or maybe just a slight ‘indiscretion’, depending on your point of view.
8. Jessica said:
June 6, 2007 @ 2:33 pm
[quote comment="89176"]Missed the point entirely.
Irresponsibility is a barrel of laughs.
Or maybe just a slight ‘indiscretion’, depending on your point of view.[/quote]
Yeah, well, I tend not to look to Hollywood movies for family values.
9. Lost on Me said:
June 6, 2007 @ 3:30 pm
Why is this funny???
Let me make sure I get the story straight …
There’s 2 people who have no morals, go out and get wasted, have sex with the first available person without using protection, wind up pregnant and then they try to build a relationship? You’ve got to be kidding me!
The comedic part in all of this is that anyone thinks this is going to have a “Hollywood Happy Ending”! They fail to mention the rest of the story where they get diagnosed with STD’s! Or how about an update on this couple 5 years later where they’re in a bitter custody battle? Did anyone mention to the guy that he’ll be paying an outrageous amount in child support payments for a kid he’ll rarely see and who’ll hate his guts for the rest of his life? LMAO! Yup! this is gonna be one great comedy!
10. box said:
June 9, 2007 @ 4:06 pm
“Knocked up” is an aggressively right wing movie with malicious intent. Anyone with a working brain will agree that the movie sets a bad example. The couple did not do the “right thing” as Apathow puts it. It was clearly wrong and his justifications are sickening.
“Knocked Up” is a two-hour anti-abortion commercial.
11. mimi said:
June 13, 2007 @ 7:19 am
The media is a great tool for social engineering and there are many who profit from keeping the birth rate/crime rate high as well as competition for available jobs/education. “Illegal immigration” has been facilitated in many ways the media ’somehow’ fails to report.
Also, we are in the process of breeding ourselves out of existence as we have so far failed to colonize space or clone our planet. Those who profit are very short-sighted. To be a responsible parent is to consider what kind of world your children will have to contend with; what kind of world your decisions are creating.
Advocating choice is just that–nobody should be forced to either have the child or have an abortion. But advocating irresponsibilty in all its forms will more likely lead to forced
population control of one form or another and to not see that is very short-sighted. Some species have built-in biological mechanisms that prevent breeding when the envirionment cannot support more offspring. Humans supposedly have
superior brain power. We’ve already had a real-life, here and now example in China, whose forced-abortion policies were
approved of by none other than that great modern-day philosopher Pat Robinson, aka “God’s right-hand man”.
Which leads us to—-Religions are a great tool for social engineering—–