Media and socialization

Hello Swans,

I made a comment on @laws post about SA women having low standards and it was:

"The greatest hoax ever played on women was the socialization through media and popular culture to substitute material well-being and true courtship with inconsistent feelings."

I'm making this post as I am surprised this has yet to come up. What films, shows or other forms of media do you now look at differently? Have you re-watched something and gone "whew, that does not sit right with my spirit" or have your perceptions of certain characters changed with time?

I'll go first (lol) baring in mind these are some of the first I thought about.

Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet - I used to think it was a romantic love story but as I've grown more educated and matured I am starting to understand the importance of clans and marrying into the "right" families.

It also raises some bigger questions around what happens when your parents and family don't like who you are with. How much are you willing to cut off for love? And finally I was touched most by the age element. The couple were young so they had not experienced life, so their "love" felt like the most significant aspect of their lives. I guarantee that had they been older or stimulated with goals or potential achievements the romance would never have been worth dying for.

Macbeth - I like everyone else made Lady Macbeth the overzealous and vicious villain who's greed killed her family. Now I know that women like Lady Macbeth, women who can pinpoint power, women with ambition are the women who progress. The problem was that she bet on the wrong horse. Her husband was too weak and lacked will. His fears and insecurities meant that she could never truly rest in her feminine, she was constantly being the masculine to supplement his lacking. Humans are not saint's. If you have the stomach for it, embrace the sinner.

Clueless - Actually, this post was inspired by this film. I remember loving the characters and thinking about the story for days after I first watched it. But now? Not so much. Dion the wealthy black girl is with a guy who does not respect her boundaries (he calls her "woman" even though she constantly tells him to stop), Cher refers to their relationship mimicking Tina and Ike, he uses words and not actions to express his love and he he's a mooch ( he asked her for $5 at school, and from the way he asked it is insinuated that this is a regular occurrence) This is mainly for minority women, but ladies, limit the media in your life that reinforces an inferiority complex.

How to lose a guy in 10 days - I used to think it was so romantic but upon a rewatch 1 big thing stood out.

1. Andy (the female protagonist) is apparently a tomboy who loves sports and eating greasy burgers. In reality she is a conventionally attractive woman, with a high level education (masters from Columbia), who is always well dressed and never without a face of makeup, like ever. She works at a thriving magazine and is one of their "it" girls. SHE IS A CATCH!!! And one of her friends (the "ugly" one) points out that Andy can afford to be a clingy, needy girlfriend because all her other qualities make up for that deficiency.

Hollywood gave with one hand and took away with the other.

She's out of my league - I used to think "OMG it's a love story about when someone loves you for you" *heart eyes* Now I watch it and see an incel fantasy, where bottom tier men get the girl everyone wants on the basis of "she just wants something different." And this is not the only film, most of Seth Rogan films, Adam Sandler's films etc are incel fantasies.

Please share your thoughts and films/shows/plays.