Every Sperm is Sacred…in Hollywood Movies
Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans and Ben Stiller in "Greenberg"
Five years ago it became glaringly apparent in Hollywood movies that abortion was The Great Unmentionable, euphemized in Knocked Up as “shmasmortion,” in Waitress as “we don’t perform…um…” and in Juno as “nipped in the bud.” The heroine in each of these of these films chose to have the baby. At the time my friend Debbie observed that “It’s as if there’s an ‘every conception deserves delivery’ policy being observed.”
It’s different in Europe, where movies such as Vera Drake and Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days dramatize the peril to women in situations where abortion is not safe and legal.
And it’s different in some American indie movies. Recently Greenberg and Lebanon, PA had female characters who deliberated and chose to terminate their pregnancies. (Still, if memory serves, the “A” word isn’t mentioned in these films. Greta Gerwig’s character in Greenberg refers to a “D & C.”)
Then there’s October Baby, a pro-life indie about the survivor of a failed abortion. Reading about it made me flash back to the scene in Citizen Ruth, Alexander Payne’s equal-opportunity satire of pro-lifers and pro-choicers, where the pregnant character played by Laura Dern is used as the poster girl for Baby Savers, an organization with the logo of a fetus crouched inside a life preserver.
It’s an election year, and some Republican presidential candidates have used choice as a wedge issue. Twenty years ago GOP candidates stigmatized unwed motherhood. Now it’s become a sacrament. I believe in freedom of speech and freedom of choice. I will not see October Baby. You? Why or why not?
I have no idea whether I will or won’t. Mostly I see films my 14-year old wants to see when she doesn’t have other company, so that would probably exclude this one. Wedge issues go in both directions. To characterize “choice” as being merely (or primarily) a Republican wedge issue is inaccurate and biased. Democrats use it as a wedge issue also. N.O.W., which used to stand for (and stand up for) a number of things, now is a one-wedge-issue organization. I guess finding wedge issues is a principal key to fundraising. Curtis
My adolescent daughter and I both walked out of Juno fuming about the dominance anti-abortion films and TV shows in Hollywood (with nary a critique, other than from Carrie Rickey) October baby? I hope it bombs. Thanks for the heads-up (and the call-out:-))
Thanks for pointing this out, Carrie. JUNO should be shunned at all costs: it’s the film that made pro-life a hip position and that demonized in hipster fashion the desire for an abortion. In JUNO’s fantasy universe, everybody is supportive of a teenage girls desire to have a girl and give it up for adoption, including her parents and her maybe-boyfriend, there are no emotional or financial problems, and the world is a better place because she “had” it. Meanwhile, in the real world, newborns are tossed into dumpsters, left in toilets, pregnant teenagers are stigmatized, and meanwhile … Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody have seen their stock go up, their options widen, and as far as I know, have yet to show any remorse or even recognition that their hipster-holiday funfest has had real-world consequences. Sorry. It’s been almost five years and my blood still boils.
New typo-free version:
Thanks for pointing this out, Carrie. JUNO should be shunned at all costs: it’s the film that made pro-life a hip position and that demonized women’s desire for an abortion. In JUNO’s fantasy universe, everybody is supportive of a teenage girl’s desire to have a baby and give it up for adoption, including her parents and her maybe-boyfriend, there are no emotional or financial problems, and the world is a better place because she “had” it. Meanwhile, in the real world, newborns are tossed into dumpsters, left in toilets, pregnant teenagers are stigmatized, and meanwhile … Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody have seen their stock go up, their options widen, and as far as I know, have yet to show any remorse or recognition that their hipster-holiday fun-fest has had real-world consequences. Sorry. It’s been almost five years and my blood still boils.
Juno gave me pause, but I disagree that it demonized women’s desire for an abortion. As a pro-choice adoptive Mom, I was torn by the film. My blood boiled at the time, and then I accepted the character not having an abortion as a pro-choice option.
Interesting discussion… too much for me to dive into at the moment while on R&R in Puerto Rico, particularly since I have a piece on another film due which Im nursing along with an afternoon cigar. La vida es bonita, or however you habla that, amiga!
I will say I’m amazed your subject head with “sperm” in it made it past my Sperm Spam-a-nator filter. Which is the digital equivalent of my notebook having gotten knocked up, despite all the precautions I took. Now what do I do?
I think I’ll
keep it,,,,