I like Ashleigh. She’s a funny girl and I enjoy watching her reactions to older films. She’s an easy crier and she recognizes MOST good films. She has a few questionable takes on some films, but overall I enjoy watching her.

The other day she watched the film Fried Green Tomatoes for the first time, and the result was, typically, fun:

Overall this was a good film. It had an interesting story, good acting and well done costumes. However, I do have one gripe with the movie which ties in to a comment I recently left on Wintery Knight’s recent post “Did ‘thousands of women’ die in ‘back alley abortions’ before Roe v. Wade” in which he answers his own question with a resounding, “No, they didn’t” (With proof of course. I mean, it is Wintery Knight, after all).

My comment:

Unfortunately, much like with “abuse” statistics, it seems much of this line of thinking stems from the sensationalizing of “abortion stories” through media like movies, TV and books. Its like I’ve told my wife, “Millions of women were not being abused by their husbands, but nobody wants to write a book about a wife who lived a nice, uneventful life”. Instead we get books that are written to sell either about fictional historical figures or non-fictional figures who’s lives were a hardship and make for good drama.

This, here, is my problem with Fried Green Tomatoes. If you are not familiar with it I do recommend watching it, but the gist of it is this: A woman is being abused by her cruel husband and her kick-ass, tomboy girl friend won’t have any of it.

Of course this is a very, very basic breakdown of the plot, but this is one of those films that, in my opinion, has lead to a generation, or two, of women who really, honestly believe that before VAWA laws and women’s liberation, men slapped women around for shits and giggles. Not only that, but it falls into my “Murder was the punchline” category that trains women to believe that its right and good to murder their husbands for their offenses. Don’t get me wrong, if you see a man beating a woman then violence toward that man is definitely a solution, however, the combination of “man-beats-wife-wife-and-friend-murder-husband” is such a common trope now its no surprise that a lot of women are more than happy to consider murder a solution to being slighted.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Movies, TV and country music have done a ton of damage to the relationship between men and women by programming women to believe that men are naturally wicked and want nothing more than to beat them and screw them against their will. All lies. Sensationalized lies.

They call it programming for a reason.

(This post might seem kind of disjointed, but I’m out of town for work right now and just thought I would throw this up before I forgot.)