Love that the movie talks about sexuality but doesn't sexualize, vilify or judge the kids. They're silly for sure, but in a adorable and funny way, not in a "girls are mean and dumb and care only for superficial stuff" way. It's refreshing.
A thing I enjoyed is that the girls have crushes and are fawning over guys. We all know girls and boys have their crushes but in media it usually is the boys that are shown having crushes, so to note that girls have crushes too is amazing.
@@iantaakalla8180 Idk, Hannah Montana and iCarly both had lots of tween/teen crushes and romance. And I think Girl Meets World has some tween/teen crushes/romance, too
@K M true but when girl crushes are shown they are only shown one of two ways. Either innocent and flowery for the protagonist or absolutely skanky for the antagonist. It draws a firm line on what's seen as "acceptable" for pubescent girls to feel and experience that isn't seen with boy crushes in media. Sexual shame in women starts damn early.
@@kaiyodei Don't really understand what you're on about. When even the mainstream Heterosexuality and Allosexuality of women and teenage girls are demonised and made passive/subservient to the male gaze, what do you expect will happen to us (I'm demi)? Disney did accidental acesexual (not even aromantic) representation, not bc they respect or are interested in ppl who fall under that umbrella, but bc it has a profit incentive to pander to Christian conservatives. The message of that era can be interpreted in positive light and I'm not taking your fav couples or characters away, however it's consistently tieing our purpose and womanhood to hetero men under a sanitised lense. I thought our goals is to liberate female sexualities (no matter allo or ace, gay, bi/pan or straight) and not fight for spotlight amongst eachother?
I don't get how some folks think Turning Red was unrelatable. Sure, certain aspects like periods aren't something I experience, but a movie about growing pains, strict parents and coming to terms with yourself along your friends backing you up seems like universal human experiences regardless of gender. Don't tell me boys never write fanfics or drew embarrassing stuff in their note books, right?
Girl to women stories aren't relatable according to most men. BUT boy to man stories are applicable to EVERYONE. It is also a Red Panda, not a fox. Just nit-picking. I was looking forward to this. Also it normalizes periods, puberty. as harmless. And this this is relatable.
I feel like most of the reason that people don’t relate to this is b/c from the perspective of a first generation child. I love how they included that as part of the narrative b/c it makes the whole plot more relatable.
@@Gilded_Cage_Princess According to most men who insist in voicing their opinions loudly on the internet. That is not most men. Most men I know relate to it just fine. Most men I know is not a random sampling, but neither is the cacophony of voices online.
I find it highly distrubing that there are still so many people that convince themselves that "honoring your parents" is the same thing as "being obedient". It is egoistical or maybe just convenient from a pragmatic point of view, but most of all it is ridiculous.
Highly agree here. Yes, kids shouldn’t be downright disrespectful but parents need to allow their kids to be able to come to them and allow their kids to be a bit more free.
It's a sense of ownership! Listen to the words parents use when talking about children that they raise "Mine" "Your" "Our" etc... Parents are the modern day slave masters
Another thing I noticed on the topic of "this movie is anti-family". The movie depicts how the mother and grandmother DON'T really have a relationship, Ming Lee not even wanting to speak to her own mother on the phone. In the end, Mei Lin and Ming Lee, while growing apart as people, the daughter starting to carve an identity for herself, still have a sincere relationship. I saw this as implying that allowing for members of your family to express their true selves is the best way to actually keep a relationship with them. On the other hand, doubling down on the control and stifling their identity is gonna put a real strain on the relationship, possibly causing the child to cut ties with their parents. So, in a way, the movie is showing us that acceptance is the TRUE way of keeping families together, not control.
Exactly its about developing healthy boundaries and mutual respect. It's hard for both the child and the parents when their kids start going through puberty and wanting things like increased privacy and more independence. These people are very short sighted if all they see is some tempory (like only really a month) disobedience in a otherwise very obedient child. The movie even starts out by saying that its important to honour both your family and yourself. But the thing is if you dont let your children develop independence in a healthy way they will either fail to thrive (staying at home dependent on parents in unhealthy ways) or aggressively separate themselves. Neither version is a healthy dynamic as it involves an unhealthy relationship dynamic but at the same time the kid has been forced to have that dynamic. But by the end of the film it shows Meiling communicating with her mother and respecting each others time. Her mother accepts she wants time to herself and Mei accepts that she still needs to be respectful of her mothers time ie being on time for dinner.... Its about meeting in the middle and being able to communicate and compromise with each other.
Exactly this! I personally had a hell of a time when I was still a teen and living with my parents, but as I’ve become significantly more myself which is separate from them I’ve had a much healthier and closer relationship with them than I did when I was younger, because we have a much better understanding of each other, and yes, shockingly enough, respect for each other.
This move is painfully relatable in many Asian families. At least in my region, the concept of children honouring their parents is still the one and only way to be. We were taught to love, endure, forget and forgive anything our parents do, abuse included. If some of us grow up bitter and abusive, go have kids and pass on that trauma to them. It got to the point that my own sister is seriously afraid if her kid would grow up right if her childhood is too peaceful. Kids deserve good discipline, healthy guidance, love and much more. They don't deserve to be seen as properties of their parents.
I was literally hornier at 13 than I am now, and you're going to tell me that sexuality is an adult topic? Keeping kids ignorant about things they're currently experiencing has never ended well for anyone.
I thought I was horny but what I wanted was to escape my abusive situation and I was told only a boy could rescue me. I fetishized freedom, and it got me in a lot of trouble. I think they would have been less horrified of horny.
I'm pretty sure I was both... as well as being non-binary and bi, although I didn't really know it yet. Though I had the bi bit figured out by the time I was 15. ;)
@@darlalathan6143 Yeah, we had next to no pregnancies in my school - there was exactly one in my whole graduating class. I'm guessing the reason is that we had comprehensive sex-ed, including the embarrassing bit about putting a condom on a banana... At least the numbers seem to point to it working! Then again, this was in the early 90's in Canada, so we can't expect any American schools in the 2020's to be nearly as sensible.
@@neuralmute 00's Canada for my high school. Same. We only had 1 pregnancy the 3 years I was there. But then again, I went to an arts school where most of the student body was not straight.
seems like part of the problem with people not "getting" the movie is that they're looking for the message that makes kids more well-behaved, when the message seems to be more for parents to let their kids be their own people. the entire reason that teens rebel so strongly is because they aren't allowed to be their own person for so long, it all gets let out at once. pair that with puberty, and it just makes things more intense and confusing.
As someone with parents who were good (not perfect, but overall good) at letting me experiment with who I was and gave me age appropriate responsibility and freedom, I really didn't rebel. It's not because I was this amazing kid or anything, I just had no reason to. If you're given the ability to make your own decisions, you're actually more likely to take your parents' suggestions to heart, because you realize they're actually on your side.
@@normalgamergal yeah same! I did test boundaries not gonna lie, but I never outright rebelled. I'm very a very different person from my mother but she always let me be that person and she supported me through that. Even if she wasn't sure it was always the right thing it helped me be me and come to terms with my weird self. I'm really thankful to her for that.
@@normalgamergal me too. My mum even told me when I was like 14 that "hey, I wouldn't want you to get drunk at a party but I understand that you're young, you're curious, everyone else might be doing it and that's okay, I won't stop you." She even told me she'd be happy to buy me a drink because more than anything she preferred for my first experience with alcohol to be at home in a safe environment. I never took her up on her offer, and I never had a single drink until I turned 18.
Yeah, they look for "well behaved" not "complete people". Learning about sex and sexuality and how you feel about these things is deeply personal, and it helps to understand someone else's journey. What's the point in denying a natural part of yourself? Kids should be allowed to grow, and this should be considered growth. To me, rebellion happens when kids find outside perspectives that they resonate with, but their parents disapprove. It's them learning to not base themselves entirely on their parents, to be their own person. Rebellion would be pretty common if you're gay in a conservative family, or were attracted to a person of a different race, and your family is racist, or trans and your family is transphobic. However, these are considered "bad", but if we swap it in for "my family is full of doctors and I'm an artist", it's suddenly acceptable.
Exactly, and it's a good message not just for current parents, but also for kids who might become parents someday. It's better to teach early than too late. (Which also applies to all the complaints from parents that their kids are too young to be learning what periods are.)
Obnoxious? Disobedient? Did he even watch the movie? Mei is neither of those things She’s acting out because of her mother’s overbearing protection. She loves her parents and wants to please them, but is now becoming her own person and that created a conflict. You kinda need those to have a story.
What he said wasn't even coherent. The movie doesn't have a message, because the message is the opposite of "respect your parents". Wow. Much hot take. Very journalism.
@@pepi7404 don't you know that the only message that is every worth listening to is to blindly follow the authoritarian demand of your paternity!? Come on, what are you, a sheep?/s
Parents when Scar kills his own brother, and we see Simba beg his fathers lifeless corpse to wake up: This is fine. Parents when Turning Red discusses puberty: No, no NO! This is TOO INNAPROPRIATE!
How do you say lusting after a women to the point of killing her unless she marries you and keeping a hunchback locked up because you think a deformed person is a monster is acceptable but a girl shaking her booty and developing crushes isn’t?
@@iantaakalla8180 what's hilarious is that literally the only reason Frollo doesn't drown baby Quasimodo is because he thinks if he does he's gonna burn in hell. Frollo my guy, regardless of whether you drown baby Quasimodo you have a one-way ticket to the fiery depths of H-E double hockey sticks.
Turning Red: Showing how Mother's and Daughter's find common ground with each other, talking about their feelings and trauma, apologizing for past mistakes and stuff and having a chill Dad around that encourages his daughter to be herself. American Conservatives/Christians: This Movie is clearly Anti-Family!
My favorite part was Mei yelling "I am 13, deal with it". Partly because it's fricking hilarious, and mostly because that's the movie. Most kids going thru puberty are confused about their feelings and are trying to express them in one way or another, and when their parents won't let them, they rebel. My point is that teenage rebellion doesn't come from some "corrupted evil" but from the inability to express thoughts, emotions, and interests :] (I clearly remember drawing gay fanart at late hours and hiding it under my bed so my parents won't see it)
I remember having convos with my parents were I was like "seriously, sometimes I do stuff, and I'm internally cringing because I *know* how obnoxious it is, but I do it anyways, it's like watching a train wreck"
This movie actually shocked me a bit, being both gay and aromantic, didn't know young teens were that boy/girl crazed and haven't personally seen it, so i thought it was too much, but according to ppl i know with younger siblings it is the case o_o I think a lot of subconscious confusion came in later teen years cause I was always an odd duck, different from most others, there wasn't much diversity like there is now
Disney itself IS the "helicopter mom". This is why nearly all of Disney's content that tries to address topics like racism or sexism feels so undercooked. We sorta accept and praise it because 'hey, it's Disney, what more can you expect', but compared to other movies, even other kids movies, it just falls short. And now we know why; the creators want to properly address these topics, but Disney won't let them. Too stuck in its traditionalist ways to let its content grow up and get with the times. So hey, maybe Turning Red is actually super meta commentary on Disney itself.
Somehow, they got away with a lot - a serious talk on periods, an embarrassing helicopter mom talking about pads and also acting like a Karen, fandom (specifically furries). I guess Disney was lax this time knowing trends.
Disney a helicopter mom!? Apparently you never had one did you? If Disney is the thing that is babysitting your kids think that says more about you then Disney. A Helicopter parents is something kids can't just easily get away from or turn off. Helicopter parents will: Hover over you to make sure you're not doing anything they disapprove of, Most likely choose your friends, Tells you what to like, and what not to like, Make it difficult to spend anytime with friends, if you can even find friend's to begin with, because really? Who wants to be friends with someone they can't do anything with? They will tell you what you can watch, What to believe yes I'm also talking about religion. What they can wear, What they can listen to, And any other part of their lives that they control. That is a helicopter parents, if this sounds like you, seems more like Disney is trying to liberate your kid(s), from your chains. You can always turn off Disney, unfortunately not so easy to turn off parents. Especially when they gaslight their kids, play victim to their kids, or threaten them to kick them out or worse. Parents thinks just because they have a kid that give them the right to control them, and try to mold them into a "mini me" version of yourself. Your kids are individual people, a good parent would let them be themselves. Unless they're a lil psycho that likes to kill animals. But for some reason parents doesn't care about that, only if their kid is apart of the LGBTQIA+ A good parent will show their kid unconditional love. If I had a kid I'd show this movie. I would make sure my kids know they can come talk to me, and I will not judge them, well unless they're Christians/Reich-wing Republican, ok that was redundant. I'll still love them but I will destroy any arguments they might have because mommy don't play nice, and mommy don't hold back, and Mommy's sarcasm and cut downs are on a nother level. Lol But really a parent is there to protect and guide their kids to be the best versions of themselves. To encourage their goals and dreams, to let them know they're loved and they always have a safe place at home, in a world that just wants to see you dead. As a Trans girl myself I'd make sure my kids know they're loved and protected. And for theo's kids that had parents who discarded them, well I'll be your mom...ok maybe big sister, not to sure if I'm ready to be called mom yet? Lol
@@amehayami934 i think they meant disney is a helicopter mom to the writers and animators, since they cut a lot of stuff from movies (like priya's romantic interest in the goth girl, that got cut by disney even tho writers wanted to put it in)
Didn't Walt himself wanted to make more adult animated films after watching To Kill a Mockingbird but couldn't because of the family friendly image his company has gotten over the years?
Almost all of the disney movies with child-teen protagonist has some kind of "disobey parental figure" plot but noww when its about teen chinese girl in 2000 somehow it feels like more of a problem. Plus movie absolutely has a message of:"Communicate with your child and learn to heal your trauma not supress it(because it does no good). And also to value your friendships
Ironic that a bunch of white parents are claiming that Turning Red is "anti-family" and "anti-authority" when they literally complain about Asian parents being too strict, harsh, anti-individualism, anti-freedom, obsessed with conformity, and dictator-like on their kids (while also appropriating aspects of Asian cultures when it benefits them). [Wait 'til they find out how a lot of Asian parents view white parents, white families, and white kids.] Also, so fascinating that Mei and Penny Proud are both millennial teenage girls of color, yet Mei has real female friends while Penny only has fake female friends (basically showing how women and girls view female friendships versus how men and boys view female friendships). Apparently, genuine friendships between girls isn't considered valuable like genuine friendships between boys. 🙄
I wonder if it has to do with the framing too tho. A lot of disney stories happen in this bygone age with a lot of moral stuff we have decided are outdated, even many non radical conservatives, like arrange marriages. Also rebellion for disney princesses was done for the sake of marriage a lot when you think about it. There was this kind of protection that the kids are rebelling against some unreasonable figure. Turning red happens now and seems to be happening in a very very relatable environment, even if they don't say so. The kid is not rebelling against some undersea monarch the kid is rebelling against a parents like you. They have to grapple with the thought their innate disapproval of their daughter liking boys she CERTAINLY will never marry or loud music is unreasonable. Of course, this can just be another layer to it
But aren’t the kids usually framed as being wrong to disobey their parent(s)? I could be wrong but I feel like either the parents are framed as evil (Cinderella comes to mind) or the princess is framed as being wrong to disobey (The Little Mermaid comes to mind). In more recent films the parents aren’t framed as evil and the kids aren’t framed as being wrong to rebel. Of course the other layer is that a movie someone loved as a child might be viewed very differently through the lens of being a parent.
It's rather sad that conservatives think this movie is controversial simply because it says that parents should also respect their children. Wanting the best for your kids is truly laudable, but if that starts to interfere with their development into adulthood, then you're doing a disservice to your child and doing potentially irreparable damage to your relationship with your child. In the end, Mei was still there for her parents, still respected them, she was just also taking the steps she needed to become an adult.
Exactly! Respecting and knowing yourself doesn't mean ignoring or disrespecting your family, and that's the nuance in this film that so many ignore by getting offended and clinging to their Bibles. That steadfast grasp they have to their beliefs in spite of the pain that's causing is what causes people to have to go their own way, not the "devil". When you loosen your grasp enough to let others grow, they'll come back to you stronger.
Furthermore, even after ALL THE DAMAGE MING CAUSED BY INTERFERING WITH HER CONCERT AND DESTROYING THE STADIUM, Mei is willing to help Ming pay it off - in a different story, that could be grounds for leaving your parent behind or othering that parent. But no. Mei respects Ming and her point of view and is willing to help pay off the damages with her mom despite the fact she is not the one ruining the stadium. In fact, she still wants to be in her life and their bond is stronger. Ming is being honored really heavily here by Mei; there is no excessive calling out or ruined family or lingering tensions. The family is safe and secure and yet the conservatives and Christians think this movie is anti-family.
“… For those of us who feel physical attraction…” Oh my god, such a small little detail in your video, and while I’m not ace myself, I can just imagine everyone who IS and may not know what being asexual is reading this and going down a rabbithole, realizing that it’s completely fine to feel that way if that’s their normal state of being, and feeling relieved after years of feeling “wrong.” Sorry, I’ll keep watching cause you’re awesome, but I thought I’d share my excitement over this bit of casual and thoughtful inclusion
It's almost like Jessie is "The Queen of Nuance". I will buy any merch from her with that listed. Also, Cis-Het male here. For someone who can include Ace people while still reminding me of may insane crush on Yvonne Craig from the 67 Batman... Jessie deserves all our parasocial hugs.
Always means a lot to be seen. Personally didn't experience puberty like in the movie but I did struggle for a bit and force myself to read smut to see if I would eventually "get it." Yeah you know you're ace when your only thought during that stuff is "oh so that's how people have sex, interesting."
What annoys me is that "respect" has two completely different meanings a; respect (the conservative definition) to respect someone you must bow down to them and do everything they say b; respect someone as a human, basic respect that everyone deserve
brings to mind this tumblr post i read once, saying something along the lines of: Respect seems to have 2 definitions, 1) respect of an authority figure, and 2) respect of a fellow human, so when certain people say "If you won't respect me, then I won't respect you," what they're saying is "if you won't respect me as an authority figure, I won't respect you as a person."
I'm surprised that no one has compared Inside Out and Turning Red. Both movies are mainly about dealing with emotions and how it's terrible to keep them hidden. And Riley was also disobedient. But no one called out that part of the movie, but got mad about Joy being the "villain".
Yep I think some mental aspects are shown in the girls as well, as conflicting parts hyper Abbi is purple and quiet, conservative Priya is yellow, whereas serious Meilin is red to calm laid-back Miriam as green during the bleachers scene. Those complementary colours made me think of them as opposing and competing personalities in the friend group but also how adolescents struggle to balance those things within themselves.
riley: runs away from her home trying to go back to minnesota, stealing her mom’s credit card people: yea sure mei: “hey mom you’ve been overbearing and controlling all my life and i need you to stop” people: shes so disobedient!!
And no one called Riley cringe because she's written by a dad and has male-approved hobbies. Not disparaging Inside Out; those bad Turning Red reviews are unwilling to empathize with different, more feminine teenage girls.
I’m particularly boggled by the parents who were apoplectic that Mei rebelled against her parents/authority figures. Have… have they not seen Brave? Or Mulan? Or Luca? Or The Jungle Book (Bagheera was more of a parental figure, but still)? Or Cinderella? Or Tangled? Or Encanto? Or Finding Nemo? Or Ponyo? Or Pocahontas? Or Beauty and the Beast? Or The Incredibles? Or Coco? Or Soul?
Damnit, how DID I forget that?! That was possibly the first Disney movie I thought of that inspired me to comment this, and then I somehow forgot it as I started piecing together the list.
As a teenager, I absolutely adore this movie, and I was really surprised when all my friends said they hated it. In their opinion, mei-mei was annoying, she was too boy-crazy, and it was stupid that she wanted to go to a concert (this was amusing to me, since mei mei actually reminded me of several of them). This seemed to me like a lot of the stuff older conservative men were saying, I wonder if they actually thought that or were just trying to conform to other people's opinions.
When I was younger, I held a lot of internalized misogyny, and tended to say a lot of those kinds of things about "girl stuff". That's not to say your friends have the same issues, but it is a possibility. At the very least, most girls figure out that it doesn't matter how "pick me" they are, the kind of men they're trying to impress will never see them as an equal and they eventually grow out of it. It's also perfectly okay to just not like the movie, of course. Nothing's for everyone.
@@normalgamergal Girls are "pick me" because a woman's social worth depends on that. I was "pick me" when I was young, and I wasn't even really interested in men! 🏳️🌈
I second NormalGamerGal, if I saw this movie at 12 I would have absolutely hated the main girls. I was in a "not like other girls" phase and typical teen movies annoyed the heck out of me. Now, at 19, I can actually look back and laugh at my younger self, who was more normal than I wanted to admit.
I think I would've had the same complaints if I'd seen Turning Red as a teenager. I was totally uninterested dating and everything adjacent in my teens, and I absolutely thought it was because I was mature and too enlightened to need outside approval of my looks (lol nope, it's because I was ace). I've got a bit more perspective in my thirties, and I'm really happy to see a new generation of writers show that a strong female lead doesn't have to be 'better at guy stuff', she can also have completely different experiences and goals.
There is one vital point that everyone seems to be missing about Ming - her "hypervigilance", "helicopter parenting style", "dragon mother persona" are all driven by how she was raised. For me, it made very good sense that Ming's red panda was so enormous. Ming grew up in a time where the difference between her family expectations of females was coming into direct conflict with the Western concept that women are people and should be free to express their true selves. As much as we try to change, when push comes to shove with our children, we tend to treat them the way that we were treated.
There's a world of difference between "honor thy parents" and "obey thy parents". Like, I can respect my parents, be proud of many of the things they did (e.g. my mom using her legal skills to help AIDS patients when few others were willing to do so), think they did a lot of things right as parents, but there were lots of times when I or my sisters didn't do what they were telling us to do.
I was part of a Quiverfull and I can tell you they didn’t want an independent person. They wanted a live-in maid and breeding stock willing to be paired off for clout and not to sully themselves.
@@crazylizze98 yeah especially if they support genocide and slavery and the pro life movement then yup they do not deserve that respect but they demand it just cause they are older and do the bare minimum
As someone who grew up in a Chinese family, a large portion of things Meimei experienced in Turning Red was my experiences in puberty. I felt unnecessarily shameful about my own gender identity and sexual orientation without even knowing their existence since Chinese social norms are rather conservative that I didn't receive any sex ed. After I came to North America I was lucky enough that I got to know many accepting ppl who taught me things I needed to know so I could finally accept myself for who I am. It's really heartbreaking to see conservatism spreading everywhere in the world……
nah, it's not spreading. if anything, it's diminishing. the christian chokehold on the world is slowly being stamped out by the more and more increased/widened empathy with each new generation.
thankfully, conservatism is dying because it cannot exist in well-educated societies because it requires fear mongering and misinformation to exist and education is becoming more and more accessible.
im african american, but by what my asian peers will tell me, they live in very strict households and tends to be a common thing in asian culture. but not only in asian culture also in other POC cultures like mine. like i was so scared to tell my parents some things bc its households like mine sex, drugs, puberty, liking boys, liking girls, liking both, mental illness is very taboo and hushed. good thing my parents are breaking generational curses(as they say) and letting me talk about those types of things bc you can’t be conseritive about something you’re gonna be exposed to anyway.
Same, growing quite over sheltered from both my parents and my special needs class (as I am on the ASD spectrum) which was honestly for the worse than the better. I also struggled with my sexual orientation as I had on both boys and girls when going through puberty though many people would assume my girl curshes "just as phase", though I say that's how I knew I was pan. ironically I kind of had a compeht phase and was once infamous for being a rabid het fangirl when I first arrived on the internet as many of my fandoms liked to portray LGBT people in a predatory light which was upsetting for me. Still, I was eventually able to cope with it as I did watch some positive representations in shows like Sailor Moon and Steven Universe.
I am forever grateful that my Mom filled a drawer with every period product imaginable and put child-appropriate sex education books on my shelf long before I even entered puberty. At the time, I didn’t want to talk about it with her and thought it was “gross”. But when I got my first period around age 11, I was endlessly thankful I had all the tools and resources to navigate it myself AND that I knew I could talk to my Mom about it when I was ready.
My step mom has a cupord of pads, advil and tons of other period products (she doesn't use tampons and I haven't gotten my period yet so when I do she'll let me make the choice to use tampons). She has never thought of puberty as shameful, and has taught me that it's just a natural thing that those assigned female at birth go through. Step mom's are always portrayed as evil but GOD DAMN I've won the step mom lottery
My mom was the same way. She always explained sex and puberty calmly and pragmatically. It’s trained me to do the same with my own kid. They knew what to do when the time came.
Lucky.. my parents never explained _anything_ to me and still refuse to acknowledge anything about sex while we talk, even though I'm 26 and about to get married, for fuck's sake. It's like they wanna pretend forever that sex doesn't exist.
This is why a whole buttload of people read 'Tiger Mom' and took it as a strict instruction manual, rather than a cautionary tale, no matter how many rooftops the author shouted from, trying to correct the misconception. And I love hearing people talk crap about a movie they clearly haven't seen themselves, but have only heard about thirdhand, through a sadistic telephone game of holy rolling Karens who don't understand that they literally ARE cancel culture.
My parents read that book and thought they hadn't been strict enough! Then they wanted me to laugh with them about ways they had abused me and how it "should" have been much worse.
@@mosasaurusrex1815 I'm so sorry. I know the pain too well, of having someone(s) who abused you suddenly decide, well after the fact, that there were "plenty of good times, too," and that things couldn't possibly have been all that bad, (because then they might have to actually think about themselves or their past/present actions in a negative light.) And you're just left with your jaw on the floor, an unsaid list of dozens of legitimate reasons why they're wrong, and a big hole where your sense of familial trust used to be.
I remember seeing Reservoir Dogs, and being confused about all the talk of it being gory and glorifying violence. 1. The goriest scene with the ear cutting, the actual ear cutting happens off screen, it's purely psychological, and the blood is over the top in order to make it fake and stylized, so it's not realistic. 2. If you watch this film and it makes you want to be like them, there is something wrong with you. THEY ALL DIE!
@@NinjaMatt2201 "Context" is not a thing the outrage machine recognizes. A lone Karen (of any gender) catches their kid having watched the contraband media, demands to know the worst elements. And usually their thought processes are overwhelmed by outrage about five words in, so "cool guy cuts ear off" is all they need to spark their next crusade, to keep them feeling relevant and necessary, despite a growing mountain of evidence to the contrary. Five Karens later, and the movie is now a bloodbath orgy of severed ears and imagined depravity. Rinse and repeat.
@@NinjaMatt2201 I'm not saying you're wrong (because you're not) I just wanted to add my two cents regarding my experience with this film: 1. Quentin Tarantino managed to successfully compose the scene *so well* that I will - never - hear "Stuck In The Middle With You" without having my immediate first watch reaction of "HOLY GODS this sociopath is going to set that guy on FIRE!!!!!" / Seriously, never fails, if I hear it through someone's headphones or on a stereo somewhere in the neighborhood I'm right back it that moment. Kudos Quentin. 2. I'm not *quite* sure Mr. White actually dies, he's greviously injured yes but at that point the warehouse is surrounded by police so they *may* stabilize him (and orange) before booking White. Just a thought/theory especially since otherwise they'd come back totally empty handed.
Watching this video, it makes me think that parents in conservative Christian environments aren't allowed to make mistakes. It makes me think about my mom, where when I try to talk about the things she did that hurt me, she freaks out. I literally can't talk to my mom about anything difficult without walking on eggshells. The overbearing, limiting idea of what families are didn't just hurt me, I think it hurt my parents, too.
Yes! They base their whole identify on being a perfect guardian which makes them incapable of improving. The deeply ingrained shame (and sometimes disgust) for "imperfection" or being wrong makes them outright deny anything that will challenge the status quo of what they assert (as right). It takes a lot to break out of that...
Totally understand you. My mom pretend that My memories are wrong if i talked about something unconvenient to her. she even talked seriously about that fact that our memories are mostly wrong. Everything because on time i said that i remember her slapping My sister on the face. And the most recent one, the one that came out with this movie. She said that she remembers different the day of My first period 🙄 i was like "seriously mom You wanted to take me to the doctor"
I can t show the slightest bit of emotion without it being seen as attitude I can't even push back on things my family is wrong about it try to stand up for myself it's so stupid
The "this movie is anti-family" criticism from conservative families baffled me. Mei expresses concern, when she decides to depart from family tradition and keep access to her panda, that this decision will make her less close to her mom. Her mom shares that concern. It's realistic, and the conversation is handled in a way that's kind to both characters. Sometimes change is hard because it includes losing something you value, as well as gaining something important.
How are periods and puberty in general "not appropriate for kids" when kids literally go through it? I got my period when I was like 11. And it would have been much less scary had I heard more about it before, instead of it being all hush hush.
I know right? I was like 12 I think and it was upsetting enough when I KNEW what was happening. I can't imagine having NO IDEA it was normal or what the hell was going on, that would have been so awful.
My guess is that it’s too gross for most people to talk about, let alone depict in comfortable media. It’s kinda like how characters taking a dump or upchucking are rarely ever shown onscreen or described in literature. But yeah, if audiences are now okay with depicting stuff like farting in today’s media, you’d think there would be more ground being broken with stuff like addressing puberty and such. It’s just a bunch of double standards.
I suspect quite a good chunk of older adults aren't entirely aware of just how much earlier the younger generation is having periods. My mother and my aunt started menstruating at 14 and 17 respectively. All my female cousins (and myself) hit that milestone before we were even teenagers! Female puberty isn't a topic most grown-ups love to casually chat about, so I don't think it's much of a stretch to imagine some literally just don't know that pre-teens need pads 😂
Interesting that "relatability" has become such an important metric in movie reviews all of a sudden. I feel like it's just another way for people upholding the patriarchy to say, Stop putting non-white characters in my media, especially if they are teenage girls! Thanks Jessie for standing up for kids and for always centering marginalized voices.
I bet those same people didn't complain about lack of "relatability" when they saw The Batman - even though absolutely nobody can relate to being a billionaire, orphaned, nocturnal vigilante 😂
I just love how these people make relatability about solely the white cis hetero nt experience... How white, cis, hetero, nt of them to be able to live without acknowledging literally ANYONE ELSE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT
The funny thing is, it’s a 2000s teenage girl. Even if you were not a 2000s teenage girl, that alone should be relatable -talks about puberty, wanting to not be a squeaky-clean child upon teenagerhood and subsequently asserting your independence from your parent, the fun of seeing a concert and scrounging up money to go to the concert, the pain of having to put off your friends again and again, possibly joining the furry fandom, realizing the feature of yourself isn’t as shameful as you thought it was, and crushes although crushes aren’t universal. For parents, we have the good child wanting independence and raunchier interests, being well-meaning but overprotective and therefore leading to lashing out at your own child, being embarrassing, and if you as a parent is that extra, destroying a venue. The only thing that is not relatable is having a panda spirit come out during teenagerhood but we as a culture have been indundated with magical stories and magical realism stories, so a panda guardian being passed down is not the most insane thing to have been seen and therefore the grounded parts can hit as nicely. Turning Red is very relatable by every measure and I don’t know how a controversy formed over it.
@@JoelEmmettMcGarrity No, it's not literally what they say, but everything they do and say leads to girls feeling ashamed, scared and disgusted over their own bodies. Conservatives are anti education and health because they think teaching about biology is "sexualizing children". This conservative "logic" leads to girls suffering and I PRAY some day they realize they are harming their children and learn they don't have to. Or teachers and doctors who bully girls for having painful cramps.
"Turning Red is bad because it teaches kids to rebel!"....that is literally the plot of virtually EVERY Disney movie. WTF? Why weren't parents up in arms about Moana, Mulan, Tangled, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Encanto, Frozen, Pocahontas, etcetc? I wonder if it is because Turning Red is set in the 'real world"?
Using this as a point of culture wars nonsense is just insidious. This movie gives voice to real frustrations that kids going through puberty have and I feel like I would have felt less alone seeing it at that age. More than that, it gives kids language to speak back when parents are unintentionally hurting them. It shows you can get into a fight with your parents and have that not be the end of the world, that they won't just stop loving you. It also gives parents a window into what their kids might be dealing with, and prompts open dialogs about some necessarily difficult topics. Shutting that conversation down because it represents social impropriety will lead to exactly the kind of hurt, pain, and trauma that it is trying to get parents and their kids to avoid.
I saw a dude ranting about how "Hollywood has gone woke" citing this film in particular. What in the world was even remotely "woke" about this film? It just talks about growing up as a girl.
I’m a grown woman and I watched this movie with my mom the other day. When Ming was a giant panda yelling in Mei’s tiny face, she and I looked at each other at the same time. I was like, “tell me that’s not how it feels when Grandma (her mom) yells at you” and she was like, “THANK you!” To this day my grandma’s “tough love” helicopter parenting still feels terrifying to us both
Words can't even describe how validating this take on the backlash and movie overall is. I commented somewhere else how I firmly believed a big reason people hated this film was due to sexism and how many things associated with the teen girl experience (shipping, fanfics, and swooning over male characters) are heavily mocked and/or frowned upon, and most replies to it thought I was looking too deep into things.
@@DrawciaGleam02 you know, I agree. With both of you actually. And I think Twilight was a bad example for anyone that was impressionable and willing to take everything at face value. Twilight has nothing of value to offer and can be seen as a ‘aged-up’ and dark, supernatural Disney film. Bella waited until her ‘Prince’ came and then threw everything away (even willing to risk her life) for this guy. Unhealthy messages there for anyone. Turning Red seems worth the watch ♥️ Glad it exists
@@DrawciaGleam02 The performative hate that Twilight got was far in disproportion to the amount of fair criticism given to it, and I say that as someone who was part of that performative hate train. People aren't obligated to hate certain works of media. If it's not for you it's far better not to engage at all.
Conservatives: "Children should not be learning about periods, pads or puberty! That's for their parents to address when they are old enough." Are they aware that kids have periods? Some of my friends were as young as 10 years old when they started menstruating. I cannot imagine how terrified I would have felt if I had to discover about periods the day I had my FIRST period 😭 I was brought up fully aware of what to expect. When I asked my mother what the box of tampons in the bathroom was, she told me. I wasn't taught to feel shame, fear or confusion - and why should anybody? Absolutely some infuriating opinions on this subject circulating on twitter 👀
I had to use pantiliners as a kid because I had issues with knowing when to use the washroom (because of my neurodivergence, and I was too big for pull-ups), so I'm glad I was a bit more familiar with it, but I wish it was more common to talk about whats okay and what isn't. I didn't realize I had a hormone imbalance and that nausea and chills are not supposed to be part of PMS, until I had to miss school regularly due to it. Other girls at school had to miss days, so I thought it was normal. I'm still figuring it out, but there are things that help thankfully. But yeah, there's not a lot of discussion out there for kids and teens.
Yeah I was 9 when I first got my period.. Happy that my mom never made it a shameful thing, I knew what was happening to me and just asked her for pads..
In conservative households the mom quietly helps the girl through their menstrual cycle. Because it's not something "polite" people talk about in mixed company. It's "gross" and terrible woman stuff, so the men folks are kept blissfully unaware. It is a patriarchy. Not unlike sexuality, gender, race, income inequality, religion (or no religion), politics (except conservative politics 🙄) and anthropogenic global warming. Imho, they are insane.
@@masonguthrie1257 And what happens if you parents don't want to have that discussion? Or at least don't want to have it in a healthy way. If they instill you with so much shame you can't communicate when you need help?
As a parent: it is completely normal for, and good for their development, for kids to be rebellious. It's definitely a reality of being a parent, and a frustrating one at that, but when kids feel confident enough to rebel, that means they trust you to still love and support them. Also, kids are not our property, and they do not owe us anything.
I wish more saw that kids aren’t robotic properties to control. It’s sad people think this and sad for The kids because I’m sure the parents think that being overly strict and overbearing is OK and actually good thing. Which it obviously isn’t but yeah.
It probably shouldn't, but reading things like this statement from a parent hits different - I always realize how much I internalized the expectation and entitlement of my parents and other authority figures. Would love for this stuff to heal. Thank you for writing this, and for raising children with this mindset 💞
Thank you for being this kind of parent. My mum didn't give me any rules or guidance, so I had nothing to "rebel" against & have had to live life on hard mode by re-parenting myself. But... It would have been nice to have the best of both worlds. A reliable figure to steer me forward & the space to be myself.
What do you think of the stock PoC conservative excuse of “treating kids like property is just a part of our culture and if you hate it you’re just a spoiled white or overly westernized kid”
The internalized misogyny in that second posted review is just mind-boggling. My gradmother started menstruating at EIGHT, just a year older than the reviewer's own daughter (Also, they were waaaay further into the movie than 5 minutes if they got to the first transformation) . Got mine when I was a year younger than Meilin. The only reason my experience didn't play out like the first 5 minutes of Carrie (that timecode is correct)is because it was explained to me before when I was much younger by my mother. The controversy reminds me of another parental-generated complaint of a Pixar film which was UP. A bunch of parents was annoyed that a "kid's film" brought up the issue of death and that they (the PARENTS) had to (ugh) explain it. Never mind the fact that these people signed up to bring a fresh new human life into the world and raise it in this world. Instructions are part of the job. I get it, it's hard, but that's the job you signed up for and if you're not rich enough to raise your kid in an isolated compound where you can control all info coming in and out, you're gonna have to answer the uncomfortable facts of life to those future human adults you brought into the world bring to you one day after school. Otherwise, you leave them clueless and bereft of coping skills in that same world. No thank you, we currently have enough of those currently wrecking this one.
One thing that kept getting me throughout this video is so much of the 'criticism' was based on evangelical Christian beliefs and Mei and her family are obviously not Christian? Like when that guy said she had a 'demon spirit' inside her, it just made me feel like they were saying the quiet part out loud with "all other religions are satanic and evil", a really worrying and hateful view that I feel like was not something you used to get away with explicitly saying.
Exactly, and that’s the Other shoe drop that people need to look out for! It’s really f’ed up when you realize the hate that is going towards this movie is incredibly Anti-Semitic as well as Racist! And all because these people are filtering the hate by using religion to disguise that hate.
The only good thing is that people in general now look out for these disguisings and filtrations of hatred and bigotry, so even scandals like this are as meaningful as useless things are.
Well, I mean pretty much _everything_ is satanic and evil outside of Christianity in their view. We have to remember that it is a view that prides black and white thinking and lack of compromise as strength. It is seen as character building to be rigidly intolerant of nearly all difference, and they hope their God will hand over to Satan an enormous amount of people who fail their internalised standards. Although of course they say your "sin" really pains them. Lol.
Yeah that is how they think i should know having grown up very conservatice every fantasy show was considered demonic or every religion that wasnt ours ect glad i left that behind but im still surrounded by them
I was thinking about this exactly, like why are you quoting and giving a bible dissertation about a Chinese-American family and Chinese-American characters? It makes absolutely no sense and it's laughable at how idiotically self-centered they are on their own faith and ideology to the point of missing the clear issue with what they're preaching.
"Why are they called 4-Town when there are five of them?" *So an in-joke about the number 4 being associated with death in some Chinese cultures can be made at the climax of the film*
What people think the problem with Turning Red is: it goes too far in talking about teen sexuality! the ACTUAL problem with Turning Red: it doesn't go far ENOUGH!
I mean, it is a Disney movie at the end of the day. I'm all for discussing and representing teen sexuality, but there is a limit, especially in a film like this.
@@kaiyodei wdym the exact opposite happens, many anime are borderline creepy/pedophilic by putting literal 5 year olds in skimpy clothes calling them 1000 year old dragons and target to unsatisfied miserable people and whenever it's criticised there's a whole army of people defending it calling it "japanese culture" (essentially racism as a bonus!) Probably the most prevalent example is Sailor Moon Eternal showing literally underage characters in skimpy clothes, having a 10-year old girl be kissed by an adult (in romantic way), the little girl dreaming about having her mother's body because it's "sexy" (!!!) and there are hundreds of people that defend it as if their life depends on it (Btw I haven't watched it, I've only seen a few scenes, read a summary and watched a very detailed review) The moment anything slightly similar to that in western media it's immediately criticised and shamed to oblivion (for good reasons!)
@@kaiyodei i mean yea in south america we have things about witches turning into birds.. no llamas tho lol. and idk about inuit people... with the totem thing... i grew up loving brother bear and emperor's new groove etc before thinking about it, but its just that weird feeling, that when the main character is not white, they are made to spend a percentage of the movie as a goofy animal to be more palatable or something? idk as i see it turning red is a net good for teen girls. but the animal thing is just a subject that keeps making me uncomfy
I am a straight male (maybe bi honestly, but that's beside the point), but I tend to be more attracted to more aggressive and dominant women, and that's rather looked down upon because men are supposed to be the aggressors according to society. It's because of this that I'm super scared to express how I feel sexuality. For this movie, it's very refreshing to see a movie that doesn't look down upon displays of sexual attraction that aren't just "me man... me f*ck women... me go brrr".
There seems to be an underlying belief that blind obedience is necessary for the development of morality. There is an old philosophical debate about whether humans are inherently good but corrupted by society, or if they are inherently bad but civilized by society. Apparently this movie has reignited that feud. I suspect that even if you got them to agree that kids can be naturally gay or trans, a christian fundamentalist would say "Love the sinner hate the sin: It is okay if they are gay as long as they don't act upon it." (Some of them feel uncomfortable with heterosexual people enjoying it too much also.) The concept of damnation implies it is better to live life sad and repressed than to risk God's wrath; thus a lot of suffering gets justified by a certain belief.
Both takes are stupid because clearly, some people are good but society brings out the worst in them, and some are bad but society pushes them to at least behave benevolently, or vice versa with good being encouraged to be better and bad pushed further toward malice, some aren't bad or good but indifferent and swayed either way, and some just tell society to eff off. People need to learn to get over their discomfort and not care until it literally hurts others.
The notion of "original sin" has a lot to answer for. I've met a lot of otherwise decent christian people retain horrendously intolerant views, solely because God apparently condemns those inner expressions, so any claim that we should be accepting of them is "evil" and "earthly pride" and part of man's "sinful nature". Essentially, you must cast aside any kindness and compassion that isn't spiked with a kind of pitiful disgust when it come to gay, trans people, etc. It sad to see reason and love mutilated in service of an apparently "higher purpose".
@@neoqwerty Seriously. Bible extremists paints things super black and white which is just obviously not the whole story to anyone else but it goes against their core worldview so goodluck agreeing on anything...
People: *Upset about the movie talking about puberty* The movie: *talks about trauma and how to deal with it, how a young kid experiences puberty, and how people that you know love you, can be your friends and not your family, because that is a thing that happens. Also how respecting your ancestors and culture is important. Plus, how the protag's mom hyperfixates on controlling her out of concern, specifically out of fear and love for her daughter.* Also this is a great video to watch because I can disassociate from my bus driver trying to call me by my legal name I'm trans anyway for context to know why I'm uncomfy-
@@kaiyodei I thought it was about it his first friendship and he was being pretty clingy And to learn to let your friends be their own person apart from you and to have a life outside of that friendship. Which is very relatable to me because some people do not understand that I have a life outside of them. But I didn’t really see anything that was about him being gay? I’m a bit confused now LOL I don’t understand.😅😭
The scene where Mei’s drawings were found was my worst fear in middle/high school. I lived in fear of my mom finding my ‘sexy’ fanfiction. I didn’t breath a sigh of relief until I got my own laptop and didn’t have to type things up on the desktop in the living room lol.
I'm an adult in my thirties and was visiting my parents recently, and I switched my vpn on specifically so I could read fanfic on my phone without my parents finding out via their internet provider. It's awkward enough trying to talk about my work as an editor when one of my primary clients is an erotic romance publisher.
my hugest fear last years (2020-2021) was my family finding my "sexy" fanfictions written on paper. i destroyed them and threw them away just recently.
With me it was not the fear she could find anything "sexy" but the fear she could read scenes with a lot of curse words in it (I used my writing a lot to express my anger when I was a teen) or scenes that showed worse version of herself. ( I always had a very diffiult relationship with her.)
I'm glad Disney is touching on female puberty now, ironically they refused to dub Studio Ghibli's Only Yesterday over it mentioning periods, this was about two decades ago though. Despite being a cis male, I could strongly relate to this movie as my parents were just as over protective as the mom in the movie but to make things worse, they were like that because of conservative Christianity. So I was around a lot of sexism and homophobia growing up as well as people demonizing sex/sexuality. Well, I guess one positive would be that it drove me out of religion though. I'm asexual but I never saw them hating on that but their hatred for gays, transgenders and even women trying to have the same rights as men reminded me too much of all of the racists being mad back during the civil rights era. Also, that honouring your parents to an extreme degree can be toxic as this movie shows off. The ironic thing is that if a kid was raised by militant atheists but then became religious, these conservatives would suddenly support them rebelling and not honoring their parents.
you immediately lost me at “female puberty” (it deeply makes me uncomfortable and upsets me as a trans-masc non-binary person lol) thanks for acknowledging cis is a thing.
Man Jessi this is great. Sex education needs more support I think. In my first sex ed class in 4th grade I asked my teachers why menstal cycles are so irregular and painful and they said "just because" only to find I had PCOS and many more problems. I think you spoke about this issue perfectly.
Wow, that’s insane. Not professional should answer a serious question like ‘just because’ wow 😡 I wasn’t entirely aware how periods worked on the inside until senior year of high school, Biology class. I was 18 and my teacher explained about the shedding of the lining of the uterus and I yelled out loud, ‘WHAT!?’ I was furious I’ve never been told about what was happening in MY own body! So many mixed messages back then! People automatically assumed I was having sex but not one person actually sat me down and told what sex was! So you’re telling me kids nowadays are still going through such BS?! How stagnant. We can do better people. Do better. Nice comment 👍🏽
While this movie and its creators deserve as much applause as possible for the beautiful human story they created, more praise should be given to Pixar and its creatives as opposed to Disney or at least Disney corporate. Especially since Pixar employees have gone on record noting that Disney (sadly) cuts and trims out any noticeable LGBTQ+ content from Pixar movies. And said thing seems apparent in turning red with one of its characters at a certain party scene.
Can we talk about how amazing it is that Pixar has evolved so far beyond just being the “Middle-aged male anxieties as expressed by inanimate objects” studio in just under a decade?
Also can't forget how a lot of Tyler's scenes were cut out from the movie (which is probably why Mei forgiving Tyler in the movie seemed too quick). Disney loves removing LGBTQ+ content, so very likely most of his scenes wouldn't have been removed if Pixar portrayed Tyler as that lame trope of the cis straight guy that picks on the female protagonist because he's secretly in love with her (especially since that movie takes place in 2002). Luca might have had openly gay/bi/pan male protagonists if Disney wasn't so anti-LGBTQ+.
@@johnvinals7423 True pixar has evolved just in general, and i personally really love this new era of personalized story telling with Onward, Luca, and Turning Red. But i wouldnt say the lessons and stories of the past were only "middle aged anxieties". As with the new movies they are things that can and do relate to the human experience. And told through things that weren't always human.
@@medtle1 Interesting, i didnt really see Tyler as gay or bi. To me his character was more so meant to represent that even certain people in our lives that we dont care for have their own stories, lives and fears. Tyler (to me) was more so the "wealthy bully without anyone" archetype. I guess its possible to see him as queer coded, but the character i notice was more than likely Bi was Priya. Especially during her dance with the goth girl at Tyler's party. The cuts were too obvious on that one. Which is a shame because it would have been great a young poc as being lgbtq+ in a major animated movie.
Darryl Jack - As soon as Tyler, in the concert scene, started screaming about how he loves one or more of the band members in 4*Town, I was like “yep, he’s gay.” (Or at least not straight.) I remember looking at boy bands like that (discreetly, because that’s a *girl* thing (gag)), sneaking looks at the cute boys. I’m glad he can scream about it so openly, because that was NOT me at the time.
The only "concern" I felt watching this movie is for poor Devin. He didn't know Meimei from Eve and her mother storms into the store and scares the pants off him and he didn't even do anything wrong. Poor guy. Meimei didn't do anything wrong either, by the way. (by the way, I love your sparkly rainbow top!)
damn you're very right! I will admit if I was a parent and saw my kid drawing/obsessing over an older person near to them, I would be Vigilant for sure >
We see him at the very end in the concert having the time of his life. So I assumed that people were completely done with Ming being overbearing and exaggerating everything so absolutely no one really cared.
I felt so bad for him in that scene, because that is one thing you absolutely do NOT accuse someone of until you have a damning evidence and/or a definitive answer. I might not be male, but if I was in that situation at Devon's age, I would be panicking and probably sobbing because NOTHING HAPPENED. Not to mention having some random kid thirsting after you is all kinds of uncomfortable because no one talks about how to handle it.
@@amethyst_cat9532 Oh, yes. I mean, you can see he is very uncomfortable, and confused when Ming comes in. We know he was ok in the end not just because of the concert scene, but also because he is seen still working the next day -when Mei rans past as a Red Panda and does the wolf whistle- so yeah, things worked out, but in that moment? POOR Guy.
There were way worse relationship dynamics in media at the same time. We didn’t see the same scorn leveled at Batman for the Harley Quinn x Joker relationship. All things deserve criticism and abusive relationships are unquestionably bad, but so many people just jumped on that argument because they already hated Twilight as a popular thing for teenage girls
I'd also like to put forward that as bad as the relationship dynamics are a lot of them are meant to be a fantasy by and for women (specifically Edward/Bella/Jacob, doesn't apply to the baby imprinting lol) that a reader presumably wouldn't actually want in real life
@@birritan5479 The harley quinn x joker relationship is supposed to be seen as horrific and unhealthy, the relationships in twilight are supposed to be seen as healthy and romantic. I agree that some of the hate was due to the ludicrous hatred of whatever teen girls are into, but a lot of it, most of it even, was definitely due to the terrible writing. Your example does not support your argument.
@@morenicginiusthegreat4227We still got people who unironically shipped the Joker and Harley Quinn and even downplay the abuse. The first Suicide Squad movie is one example, as are people who compared themselves to the Joker and Harley Quinn.
The guy saying "reject what your parents say, reject what's right, go off in the woods and be some sort of WITCH" killed me, that sounds great, I aspire to be the the witch of the woods
i _am_ a witch of the woods, come join us my sister in witchery (sister is an enby term in my very queer, very witchy friend group, i am not trying to misgender you lol)
I'm excited for this. Turning red was such a good movie and I can't believe people hate it. Most kids would love to know what happens to their body and it shouldn't be something to be shamed over.
This movie was excellent 2000s nostalgia and the first coming of age film I've seen that didn't seem to hate/scorn little girls and the things lots of little girls like
This!! It made me happy that no one shamed the girls for liking boybands because that's a silly girl thing to do. I was shamed for liking One Direction soooo much in middle school. The mom obviously doesn't want Mei to like the boyband, but that's because she is overprotective and a bit too serious lol, not because she thinks girls should be made fun of for having crushes. The biggest thing that stood out to me was when they showed Tyler at the concert. It kinda solidified that hey, guys can like boybands too and there's nothing wrong with girls being obsessed with a fun boyband!
Came back to drop a hot take I dropped in a group chat I was in while inspired by this notifications: Having children and refusing to educate them or let them be educated on one of the most dangerous bodily functions we can endure (reproduction) is at least parental neglect and possibly even sexual abuse. Like if parents didn't let their kids learn language skills or learn what healthy food is we'd call it out as neglect and even abuse but for some reason this is considered a "choice"?? Not to mention shit like toxic shock syndrome *KILLS,* and that's not even a sexual thing that's just a period thing. No childbirth needed, just a tampon. Also I'm sorry but aren't more socially conservative people who go on about sexual maturity and dealing with the consequences of you actions (especially sexual ones) REGARDLESS of how uncomfortable it makes you feel, even if it kills you?? They want us to go through the trauma of having kids against our will because of "parental and sexual responsibility" but then refuse to let anyone teach any kids anything about their own bodies because they're "made uncomfortable and uneasy" by it. IMO: If you can have sex, especially sex that results in kids, you should be able to have healthy conversations about sex and especially with the kids that resulted from it. And same thing with breastfeeding, like the only reason it's "weird" is because we made it "weird" and by making it "weird" you actually do harm to others to absolutely no benefit. This is like eating your vegetables man, you just gotta do that shit sometimes even if you don't want to. (Which is again, some shit they'd tell everyone else.) There's also other stuff like how this results from patriarchy and how women are usually the main perpetrators of these more "traditional" kinds of abuse, like genital mutilation or helping push girls into marriages, but this post is long enough as it is. (Same with homophobic shit about this movie too.) Basically, people need grow tf up or at least not have/affect kids man (and if they don't have that option we need to give it to them) because this is unhealthy. *(Hopefully something like this will be addressed in the video or something because I need to hear some people's thoughts on this man, conversations like these are honestly the most inspiring/stimulating.)*
[Content Warning: _sexual abuse_ ] Couldn't agree more, very well put! Another argument: I just wanted to add the argument that many people make and I agree with: that we need to give kids the tools to have safe consensual sex (for all the reasons your comment perfectly describes!), but also the tools to determine when someone else is having nonconsensual sexual interactions with them...which unfortunately can happen to them long before they hit puberty - and start experiencing their own natural desires to have sex, etc. I mean...if kids are never told what language to use to communicate things about their genitals, from basic terminology to descriptions of actions...then how can they communicate anything about it? If they don't know that a person touching their genitals is not the same as that person touching another part of their body....then they are so much more vulnerable when it comes to being a victim of sexual abuse, unable to understand it, recognize it, and so much less able to stop it - like by starting with reporting it to a trusted adult. It's also critical that not only do adults give children the language they need, but also that they establish a list of adults who kids know they can talk to about this, who they know they can safely say _("This person has started touching my penis, etc.")_ and the adult will understand them because the adult already communicated that. But unfortunately, informing children "what people can do to have sex with you," includes descriptions & terminology that can also be painted as "what to do with another person to have consensual sex." At the end of the day, however...How can a person know what counts as non-consensual touching that is inappropriate and should be reported to a trusted adult, if they don't know what consent is? What counts as "inappropriate touching" or "sexual interactions?" etc. I don't think it's a coincidence that sooo many people who were _sexually abused_ as a kid were very sheltered when it came to sex and even when it came to the basic terms of their body, and so on. Sorry, IDK if that makes sense.
@@sorryifoldcomment8596 yeah, if you don't even know sex or sexuality exists then how can you know that sexual abuse or predators exist and whether or not you've been a victim of it/them.
I felt this movie portrayed puberty in a VERY tame and age appropriate way for young and older children, it definitely earned its PG rating. And the message was clear, it’s good to honor and respect your parents, but also remember to respect and honor yourself. As a child of immigrants myself I found this movie very relatable and it had a good message for children and parents alike. Not everyone gets that happy ending reconciliation that the characters got in the movie (I know I never got that with my parents). Children change as they grow up and both parent and child need to learn to compromise and respect each other as the relationship changes and evolves. Mei’s mom was also a good example of how NOT to act as a parent because it also showed the effect that type of helicopter parenting had on Mei.
This movie communicates a concept I’ve felt has been true for some time: The kids are alright, it’s the adults that need help. It’s why I think Encanto in particular was so great, and Turning Red is a direct follow-up to that story of generational trauma. I hope this is opening up to Disney telling more “adult” stories, and delivering lessons for the Disney adults out there who need to hear it. And hopefully they can put more mainline lgbtqia+ representation now that it’s finally bubbled over within the company. One of my favorite parts of Turning Red is how they very obviously, but wordlessly, showed us that Priya, while clearly a play on Twi-hard fandom and still interested in 4town and the mini-mart attendant, was also interested in girls and clearly crushing on that goth character who vibed with her charades. And not only that, but her friends saw that and supported it. It was super cute.
Honestly. Some adults pretend kids are mini them in all ways but still not a real human! They're flexible and curious, they can easily learn and that's why we must protect them from bad influences!!!! But they're also just won't understand anything and be so confused!
doubtful, the boycott they're experimenting by the parental rights issue makes me suspect that the lgbt+ will be sidelined if not outright expelled from their productions once the owl house ends...
1- I ain't surprised that Matt Welsh (A guy against teaching consent to children) hate a movie about children being independent person. 2- I love this movie (the animation, the realization, the message). I am really excited to see the next Domee Shi movie. 3- Great analysis and touching on a lot of interessing subject. I found kind of fascinating the accusation of the movie of being anti-parent.Mei wasn't happy, because she couldn't express yourself in the relationship with her mother. And an healthy relationship with anyone is base on being able to communicate honestly with the other one. So , I feel most of those types of critics doesn't understand the base of human relationship.
I think, that's also why the ending is pretty great. How we have a time span that happened but we didn''t see it, we see the outcome. How Mei and her mother started to have a better relationship and Mei is able to stand up to her mom and her mom accepts it, but still gives her rules to follow.
@@papus615 Look at him reading the Book "C is for consent." He basically said that his children can't say no to him (like they can't refuse to hung a family member). He said consent is just being a brat.
@@papus615 yes I remember those school videos which honestly they taught too late they should start showing his videos and in kindergarten in my opinion. But anyways. They showed videos about touching your they would call it a “bikini area“ and to show what to do if I had to do is showing any harmful and dangerous predatory behavior. And they also talked about like consent, stranger danger, and other good to know stuff. Which was great! I almost forgot that until seeing this comment wow!!!
The whole argument of "kids are too young to understand sexuality/race/etc" is so weird to me because kids are too young to understand most things but that doesn't mean we can't teach them anything. We'd never argue that kids can't learn anything about history until they are old enough to understand and emotionally process genocide, or that they can't learn the alfabet before they're old enough to read classic literature. It's just not a valid argument at all. We start by teaching them aspects of any topic that are developmentally appropriate and build up from there, that's just how learning works in general...
It really is stupid. Kids learn everything through experience as they grow up and that's a major part of them growing up, like mentally! It basically implies knowledge is bad, harmful which well... says a lot about people who complain about questioning authority and loosing control.
I hate the fact that people are sexualizing a normal body function. My mom didn’t tell me anything and in combination with my gender dysphoria i was really confused and ashamed of periods etc. Kids like I was would probably feel a lot of comfort at seeing a movie that normalizes those things. Repressing it all and not talking about it is really bad on your mental health
Something I really loved about the movie was how supportive of Priya's bisexuality her friends were. Considering it was set in 2002, it really warmed my heart.
What's ironic about claiming that the movie is anti-family because Mei decides to keep her panda spirit instead of obeying her parents and getting rid of it: the panda spirit was a gift given to the women of the family by a distant ancestor so they could protect themselves and their families. It was only after her family migrated to North America that they began hiding it. They were more than willing to give up a long-standing family tradition in order to better assimilate into a foreign culture. Personally, I find it understandable. While I'm not well-versed on the subject, I suspect this need to give up certain aspects of one's culture in order to fit into a new one, particularly one with rampant racism and prejudice. I'm just saying, Mei is in fact honoring her family by keeping the panda spirit instead of treating it like a shameful secret. She's just not doing it in the way her more immediate family wants her to.
Thank you for adding "for those of us who experience physical attraction", it was nice to have this conversation without being made to feel like I don't exist
Its disturbing to me how quickly certain people, who will remain as unnamed as their hair is unkempt, throw out the word grooming......over a movie mentioning puberty...a thing that happens. More and more I find myself asking....why EXACTLY do conservatives(who have never EVER used their strict hate filled rhetoric to hide things about themselves ever)not want kids understanding and accepting changes to their bodies...hmmmm
it is truly at best very suspicious and at worst delibarately malicious. the only way kids can protect themselves and recognise the red flags so they tell a trustworthy adult is if they learn the healthy way sexuality and relationships, of all types, work, i am thankful my mom made sure to give me sex ed at least once every year , each year adding more and more as i grew up and was ready to learn more aspects not only of sexuality but of the basic fanctions of the human body. thank you for this comment, i always wondered myself 🙂
A lot of these people are absolutely obsessed with sexuality, to the point that they see it everywhere. And more and more of them are being revealed as CSA groomers themselves. What better way to ensure a victim's compliance and silence than establishing unquestionable authority over them?
If a kid doesn't know what is happening to them is bad then they're less likely to tell anyone about it. so if a kid knows things pertaining to their body and what is good and bad to do with it then they're harder to take advantage of. it's why ACTUAL groomers and ped0s tend to gravitate towards positions within the christian religion, whether that be the role of pastor, priest, teacher, or utilizing the religion as a parent, it gives them an authority over information and for children information is really all you have to help yourself or defend yourself, as everything else is controlled by the people and environments around you. A child is less likely to tell on someone if they don't understand that what that person is doing is bad
absolutely. When I see someone jump to words like grooming/pedo while accusing others... I feel a deep distrust for them. Its a strange extreme to jump to and call others.
A lot of conservatives legit want girls to be completely sheltered so they can mold them into young brides. They legit want to groom young girls so that they'll marry the first man outside the family they interact with like child brides. It's nasty AF
Brilliant essay, Jessie! Turning Red has to be one of the most genuine depictions of puberty that I have seen on the big screen. It captured the awkwardness, joy and occasional pain of growing up. There were moments where I actually cringed, because it all felt too real at times from memories of geeking over movies with friends to feeling like I would never please my family. I adored the strong bond that Mei Lin shared with her friends and how they were her support.
I am disgusted telling young girls that they shouldn’t be disgusted in themselves and that it’s normal to not be a carbon copy of mommy and daddy! How am I supposed to give my future children a low sense of self worth.
Speaking as an aroace person, this video was really enlightening about some things that I saw around me and didn't quite understand. I realize that wasn't the focus of the video, but it's nice to finally get (to pick the most specific thing, which I understood the least) why fictional crushes are a thing.
I saw your comment while watching this video and I want to second it. Also aroace, also got some sense of what attraction feels like through the movie.
I loved Turning Red because besides the ethnicity, that was such a wonderful depiction of me when I was 12/13. Liking boy bands (ah, 90s...), developing crushes, starting puberty, drawing the exact same way (that was honestly a little freaky how accurate that was) ... but also the clashing with controlling parents. There is no easy answer to that. And to those that drone on about disobeying parents, did they miss the part where the mother hasn't talked in ages to her own mother? Where she's terrified to answer the phone of the grandmother? Because surprise, that's what happens when there's too much take and not enough give.
@@kaiyodei its awesome how we can have so many different kinds of movies for all kinds of different people to relate to :) plus its fun to use active empathy to imagine someone else's experience in the world!
The other thing to mention here is that many in trying to force their rethoric of how the film is "evil" and demonic they are low-key being racist AND sexist because the story was penned by a Chinese-Canadian woman that used her ancestry and life story to create both her short film "BAO" and this movie. Often religion and spirituality from other cultures is villified as being "evil", "worshipping bad deities" and "horrible" by the Christian -Catholic mindset. The film has no shame in portraying THAT side of Chinese-culture which often scare the Christian community. It's why so many Christian parents and experts have denounced the film as being a bad influence because in addition to promoting safe exploration of self it shows so many elements of Asian-mythology that they become legit scared of it. So in the critic's whole mantra of "SAVE THE CHILDREN" they are showing their racist, sexist ways while preaching about "unity and compassion". Turning Red is making people show their "true beast* so yo speak.
What struck me the most about this movie is just how much honoring family and respecting parents was CENTRAL to the plot of the conflict - Mei is realizing she is different than the girl her mother wants her to be and is pushed into trying to figure out who she wants to be and how to be a version of herself that she can both live with and one she hopes her mother will still approve of. It's about learning to trust herself and listen to her own voice as shaped not just by her parents but her own life & desires. If this movie was about being cavalier or being disrespectful then she wouldn't have felt the need to conform and hide herself ever. She would have used the panda to always get everything she wants. This movie is a love letter to both family and to oneself.
Kids have a lot of expectations put onto them at an early age especially how they're viewed in society. At a school I worked at multiple teachers made fun of students for crying or bringing stuffed animals to school when these were elementary school kids. The way adults can never put themselves into a kids shoes and understand this period of their life is extremely confusing and having outlets like crying or having a stuffed animal really helps.
I bring a stuff animal with me whenever I got to the dentist or the doctors. I tell them that medical stuff makes me very very nervous and the stuffy is my medical buddy.
The stigma around "childish" things, especially things that kids(even adults) use as comforts makes me really sad. Stuffed animals, cartoons, showing "childish" emotions, they can all help to comfort those going through a hard time.
I was honestly surprised that there was this much backlash. It struck me as a perfectly serviceable, if slightly hyperactive Pixar film. Are periods really controversial still in 2022?
Using the literal text of the "Don't Say Gay" bill, because puberty isn't "age appropriate" for preteens according to the Florida education curriculum, (even though periods don't relate to being gay at all) if a teacher teaches about periods (which will happen when one of the students is inconsolably upset about their spontaneously bleeding out of one of the most-sensitive parts of their body) then the teacher can be charged as a criminal and suspended/blacklisted from teaching.
I loved turning red, it was such a relatable movie to me, I appreciate how honest it was, with the periods and the drooling over boys, and just how raw it was with the realities of teenage hood. They even made the characters say “crap” multiple times. I appreciate this movie so much.
Conservatives: We will explain this stuff to our kids when we think it is time! Everyone else: So never? Conservatives: Correct. (Several years later) Conservatives: Why are our kids impregnating or getting pregnant at 16?
@Cassandra Tafoya jezuz that's horrid! Horrid that poor kid had to go through that and live with the consequence of some other human's cruelty. I would never say the baby shouldn't be taken care of now that its y'know a person, but the very fact that the parents paid to have her NOT abort is so insane. Overshadowed by the insanity of not putting her behind bars and getting their child help. I hope he is in a place with love and support now.... What a horrid "childhood" to start life with.
Funnily enough, not talking to your kids about stuff was part of the conflict of the movie. Mei was 13 that's old enough to know given she was at the age where it could happen at any time. Funnily enough it mirrors pretty closely with a review I saw where a parent complained because they felt they needed to explain periods to their 13 year old son... who should already know about puberty and just because he wont get them doesn't mean he shouldn't learn about periods. Way too many grown men uncomfortable at the idea of them because they never got taught about them.
It was so refreshing to watch! I think the important factor really is that Turning Red is sexual, but not sexualizing. I felt thrown back into my tween self, understanding how they felt toward looking for freedom and boys - but I didn't feel like I'm supposed to be attracted to these boys like so many teen shows are trying to do with explicit sex scenes by adult actors playing underage characters. It's huge, it's nostalgic and sweet and funny and emotional but I didn't leave it feeling like I had missed some wild part of my tween-hood. It's just a really satisfying watch 😌 Btw, the least realistic part is people eating TimBits for breakfast 😂 As a Canadian, I was like "Cool, Tim Horton's! Oh wait, what? Why?"
I wish I'd had the strength to rebel against my conservative religious parents as a child, they kept me under their control and in the closet almost my whole life. Kids should absolutely be able to have a voice and to be true to themselves
It pisses me off that these conservatives have no respect for Mei and her families beliefs. It literally states blatantly in the movie that they worship and honor their ancestors rather than a diety. But they criticise Mei witn Christian values that Mei doesn't even follow!! That's so fucking ignorant and just straight up Christian surprremecy. Surprise! Not everyone experiences the world the same way!! Uhghh
I'm a parent and this movie has been watched MANY times already in our house! My husband thinks the metaphor is purely about periods and only periods, because he's not that deep, but he's fine with it. I adore Turning Red! It's awakening into sexuality and identity, it's evaluating ones own family values instead of just accepting them, and it's moving forward into an era that allows us to be honestly ourselves. This is exactly the sort of film I WANT my daughter to watch.
lmao I have a partner that also watched media with a rather surface level view, so when I go into more deeper areas they tend to be a bit confused like "??? I t was about WHAT?!" I think its fine to be someone who enjoys things on that level honestly, even if I struggle wo stay in the shallow end 😂 We take turns on who gets to enjoy a movie more than the other this way!
My toxic family hated the movie because it teaches kids how to “miss-behave.” And it’s inappropriate for mentioning periods but are the same ones who never educated me on what menstrual cycles were before I had mines nor how to properly be hygienic and scolded me for crying on not knowing what was happening to me 🙂
As a Chinese-American I have so much to say but my favourite comment from bad takes is “it’s fetishizing girl puberty!” and like, it’s an all-female Pixar team (creation and development) because they wanted to show a real, girl experience with no males changing it at any point. Clearly the commentator, and every other comment on “Christian reacts to Turning Red” has not seen actual atrocities on pornhub. Biology, sexual health, and reproduction are only “awkward” because people were taught it was. My mom didn’t make it a big deal and told me at 8, and when my period came later, the nurse was like “omg you’re so brave” and I was like “lol nah this is normal” 😅 I actually called my mom after to tell her about the different pads in the scene because that was how she showed me them and I really loved that.
I'm the kind of an adult child who would really have needed to see a film like Turning Red as a kid. I was a very anxious kid, and I was ashamed of everything puberty entailed, because my assumption was always there was something wrong with me. At the same time, I had a relationship with my parents, which was tight enough for my psychiatrist to describe as symbiotic two decades later. I'm in my 40s now, and still in therapy, now knowing that I'm queer, autistic, and still struggling to have a life independent of my family. The kids' films I grew up with had a prince come and rescue the princess from a castle, and they lived happily ever after. How is that portraying family values? Stay at home with your parents, until a complete stranger shows up, kisses you once and takes you to another castle? I felt I was watching myself as a kid, watching Turning Red, only, I never told my mom I turned into a cool red panda, because I was too ashamed to say it. I'm still under that bed, not quite knowing how to get out, and quite honestly, hearing these protectors of purity culture talk about how demonic the film is, as if they never went through puperty themselves, makes me sad. Despite Disney totally effing up the Florida thing, this film at least shows that someone in that corporation knows what it's like to be a kid, and they finally have the guts to show that. Sorry for the rant. This just felt personal. 😀
I wonder how those same people going off about Turning Red feel about Encanto. It’s also about going against family hegemony and parental authority and the protagonist also defies the family’s matriarch, which is the right path for the family.
@@DrawciaGleam02 I mean, I've found like loose papers with the first chapter or so handwritten before, so technically yes! They're currently in a box somewhere. It was mostly escapist self-insert and overpowered ocs, but I had a lot of fun with it as a kid! I didn't post a lot online and the few things I did aren't up anymore.
Disney: actively supports the Dont Say Gay bill "Good" parents: this is fine also Disney: Quietly releases a movie with allegory to periods and kids' first experiences of lust "Good" parents: OMFG HOW DARE YOU SHOW THIS TO MY CHILD YOU MONSTER
When I was watching this with my dad, he complained that the party and concert scenes didn’t have adult’s supervising the children. Said it was too unrealistic. Of course, a movie about puberty that is represented by a red panda needed to be more realistic in terms of the presence of adults eventhough those scenes are focusing particularly on preteen interests and adding random adults will confuse the purpose
Even so Tyler's parents where at the house, it's his birthday after all. They just didn't need to be on scene supervising, since they're teenagers not little kids. Heck our teacher would let us 13 year olds split up in groups by ourselves on field trips.
@@StarStoneWolf exactly! Even if they should have been supervised, its a cartoon. Why would they want to waste time making adult character models when they were trying to convey that this is a “kids” party. This movie is already exaggerated enough, really not much of a leap
"Ive been told it doesnt have a message" ah, so Matt there didnt even watch the damn movie, of course. Turning Red is about a lot of things but for one it's about not repressing yourself-like...as Mei used her Panda more, it got stronger, but she ALSO had more control, enough to utilize it in a healthy way. Like a teen will hopefully learn how to properly balance their emotions with experience. Also 'honoring your parents' isnt the same as 'blind obedience.' Ming was just wrong, Mei's aunties and grandma were wrong, and they never stopped to take Mei's feelings into account until it was almost too late. Sometimes elders are wrong and kids should have the autonomy to call this out
AAAAA can't wait for this one!! so excited to see your opinion on Turning Red, I truly truly loved this movie and I'm so puzzled at the blatant hate towards it, which is really just fucking racism and misogyny clothed in 'criticism'.
I'm so glad my mum gave me the puberty talk fairly early. Not everything was handled well, but I wasn't one of the people who thought they were dying when their period arrived, and I'm glad for that.
This is coming from a girl who grew up in the 00-10s. I love how this this film captured so perfectly the imperfect elements of teenagehood. This film, even though it’s animated and there are giant pandas, it’s just so realistic. Puberty is tough, and this film tackles it so well. High school and friendships are portrayed so accurately in this movie, it doesn’t deserve the hate it gets.
The "controversy" over Turning Red makes me sad. This is a beautiful and real movie, and imminently relatable. As a parent, I had absolutely no issue watching this movie with my children, and was glad to do so. This movie's message is a good and important one, and one valuable to parents as well, to help is realize when we inadvertently stifle our children and fail to see the world through their eyes as we pass along generational trauma.
I started puberty in 3rd grade, ahead of many of my peers, some of whom were even a year or two older than me. It was mortifying and upsetting because no one told me about these things. No one thought they had to yet. Even for those who start puberty at more common ages (like 10 or 11), many of them are similarly uninformed. Even the most well-meaning of parents tend to procrastinate these discussions because they're awkward or embarrassing to have with their child. But if parents aren't doing it, then the argument that "I should decide when my child learns about it!" is null. Schools have to teach it because otherwise, nobody will.
I feel like I should watch this movie, the idea of young teen sexuality makes me so uncomfortable due to experiencing covert SA in childhood and adolescences and lack of age-appropriate, conversations around the subject as a kid/young teen, sort of reintegrating this aspect and re-parenting myself from this aspect is what we're working on in therapy. Jesse always somehow manages to speak on topics that are so timely for me :)
The reason why I was so happy with this movie was exactly the discussion of sexuality. It wasn't weird or gross or inappropriate (like a, say, cuties and similar films). This movie was the closest representation of my puberty I've seen so far. And though I don't relate to all of it (afab AAA battery and supercharged) I really felt it - the overbearing mother bit especially.
My daughters loves this movie ( I am more of an Encanto enjoyer with all the family trauma), She got the courage to ask me about periods and growing. We had a good talk about changes her body will go through and that I, her aunt, her cousins, will always be there to answer growing up questions for her and help her. We also talked about safe secrets to keep from daddy. The fact that parents are offended by this movie are the mother from Turning Red and can't see it. Parents, remember they are kids and its ok for them to know adult topics cause it makes it easier as they grow.
Despite being continually distracted by the fabulous sparkly rainbow top, there are so many good points. One great phrase is "When you raise a child, the goal is to end up with an adult." In order to do that, a parent has to let their children have some freedom and make their own mistakes. You can't shelter them for 18 years and expect them to be able to function in society. It's a hard thing to do, but parents need to let go.
Turning Red and She-Ra are 2 properties I'd actively encourage kids to watch. None of this pandering horseshit Disney usually churns out. France and the UK never pull their punches when dealing with adult/teen themes and a multinational conglomerate can easily face the ire of a bunch of backwards fascists.
As a father to a nine years old girl I loved this film not what I was expecting but in a good way I really liked the way they dealt with alot of topics that some people may find unpleasant,I hope that my daughter is able to come to me and ask questions that she needs answers to I just hope that I can.also it was a great family film and kids need to find their individuality and yes parents are wrong sometimes but I would rather have a discord with my kids on an even stage than control them they are our future and more important than we realise but we loved that film it was great as are you thanks for another great video xx
I have two AFAB children and I just LOVED the movie! I even talked about periods with the older one (7yo) and said that the movie was groundbreaking because up until now this topic wasn't talked about or shown on movies without being the but of the joke and she replied: why if all women have periods? do people also avoid talking about beards? I think I'm on the right! ˆˆ
I am going to be honest, as hard as I cringed half the movie, I couldn't help but cry so much when watching it. 29:25 I was never really shamed by my grandmother for speaking out against my parents, but that was mostly because, much like Mei, I learned from a young age to obey and keep my parents happy. Up until I was 12 it was fine. Whether it was to keep my good grades or lower my head and shut up, nod and apologize if I had my room disorganized or I missed a school assignment or something. Instead of raking up trouble like my older sister did, I bent to what my parents wanted. But as I got older, I began to realize things about myself and the world that still to this day make me feel separated from my parents. First, my grades started dropping as I began battling depression, SH and ST, my ADHD (undiagnosed at the time) started worsening and my ASD (also undiagnosed until recently) just stayed unattended and ignored. I also realized a lot of things my parents said about sex didn't really matter to me, that I actually couldn't care less if someone was gay, followed by a painfully regrettable period of oversexualizing and objectifying MLM relationships that thankfully came to an end soon enough as I researched how it can damage actual people, then a few years of writing WLW stories for myself, a couple years more and realizing I was bisexual and then that I'm genderfluid. My parents are homophobic and transphobic. They are very conservative when it comes to sexuality. We never had "the talk" because even at age 12 I knew it was just not something I could actually talk to them about. I hid all my feelings because I was ashamed, I was also worried my pampered lifestyle would come crashing down. I still am. The difference between Mei and I is that I won't tell my parents. At least not as long as I financially depend on them. Then I will let them decide if they still want me around or not. I am currently diagnosed with chronic depression, social anxiety, ADHD and ASD, and am taking medication as well as attending therapy to work through it as I finish medical school. I love my parents. And if they accept me and love me afterwards, I will gladly keep in contact. But if they don't... it would be devastating, sure, but I will cut contact wit them, or at least go low contact. I am slowly getting tired of feeling unsafe and like that hug will be the last before they hate me. Of fearing that I will lose my family. But at least I won't have to hide who I am anymore. Twenty one years down, three to go.
Through this movie, i am more confident that im asexual. (Imagine lusting lmao) but honestly this movie made me see what libido and whatever is like for teenagers and i never really had the opportunity to compare my experience with my non attraction to a fictional teenagers attraction and i think its real neat.
Love that the movie talks about sexuality but doesn't sexualize, vilify or judge the kids. They're silly for sure, but in a adorable and funny way, not in a "girls are mean and dumb and care only for superficial stuff" way. It's refreshing.
A thing I enjoyed is that the girls have crushes and are fawning over guys. We all know girls and boys have their crushes but in media it usually is the boys that are shown having crushes, so to note that girls have crushes too is amazing.
@@iantaakalla8180 Idk, Hannah Montana and iCarly both had lots of tween/teen crushes and romance. And I think Girl Meets World has some tween/teen crushes/romance, too
@K M true but when girl crushes are shown they are only shown one of two ways. Either innocent and flowery for the protagonist or absolutely skanky for the antagonist. It draws a firm line on what's seen as "acceptable" for pubescent girls to feel and experience that isn't seen with boy crushes in media. Sexual shame in women starts damn early.
@@kaiyodei They don’t know or care about aroaces beyond the special episode and that would also be great to see proper aroace representation too.
@@kaiyodei Don't really understand what you're on about. When even the mainstream Heterosexuality and Allosexuality of women and teenage girls are demonised and made passive/subservient to the male gaze, what do you expect will happen to us (I'm demi)? Disney did accidental acesexual (not even aromantic) representation, not bc they respect or are interested in ppl who fall under that umbrella, but bc it has a profit incentive to pander to Christian conservatives. The message of that era can be interpreted in positive light and I'm not taking your fav couples or characters away, however it's consistently tieing our purpose and womanhood to hetero men under a sanitised lense.
I thought our goals is to liberate female sexualities (no matter allo or ace, gay, bi/pan or straight) and not fight for spotlight amongst eachother?
I don't get how some folks think Turning Red was unrelatable. Sure, certain aspects like periods aren't something I experience, but a movie about growing pains, strict parents and coming to terms with yourself along your friends backing you up seems like universal human experiences regardless of gender. Don't tell me boys never write fanfics or drew embarrassing stuff in their note books, right?
Girl to women stories aren't relatable according to most men. BUT boy to man stories are applicable to EVERYONE. It is also a Red Panda, not a fox. Just nit-picking. I was looking forward to this.
Also it normalizes periods, puberty. as harmless. And this this is relatable.
I feel like most of the reason that people don’t relate to this is b/c from the perspective of a first generation child. I love how they included that as part of the narrative b/c it makes the whole plot more relatable.
You're assuming empathy.
@@Xan1120 No part of it that's "unreliable" has to do with her having a first generation immigrant mother.
@@Gilded_Cage_Princess According to most men who insist in voicing their opinions loudly on the internet. That is not most men. Most men I know relate to it just fine. Most men I know is not a random sampling, but neither is the cacophony of voices online.
I find it highly distrubing that there are still so many people that convince themselves that "honoring your parents" is the same thing as "being obedient". It is egoistical or maybe just convenient from a pragmatic point of view, but most of all it is ridiculous.
Highly agree here. Yes, kids shouldn’t be downright disrespectful but parents need to allow their kids to be able to come to them and allow their kids to be a bit more free.
I grew up in an environment where existing to please your parents is the norm.... its exhausting.
@@goldfish8729 It's extremely exhausting. Parents seem to forget they were children once.
To be blunt a lot of issues with parents and kids, boils down to a failure of respect. and how it has to go BOTH ways
It's a sense of ownership!
Listen to the words parents use when talking about children that they raise
"Mine" "Your" "Our" etc...
Parents are the modern day slave masters
Another thing I noticed on the topic of "this movie is anti-family".
The movie depicts how the mother and grandmother DON'T really have a relationship, Ming Lee not even wanting to speak to her own mother on the phone.
In the end, Mei Lin and Ming Lee, while growing apart as people, the daughter starting to carve an identity for herself, still have a sincere relationship.
I saw this as implying that allowing for members of your family to express their true selves is the best way to actually keep a relationship with them.
On the other hand, doubling down on the control and stifling their identity is gonna put a real strain on the relationship, possibly causing the child to cut ties with their parents.
So, in a way, the movie is showing us that acceptance is the TRUE way of keeping families together, not control.
Exactly its about developing healthy boundaries and mutual respect. It's hard for both the child and the parents when their kids start going through puberty and wanting things like increased privacy and more independence.
These people are very short sighted if all they see is some tempory (like only really a month) disobedience in a otherwise very obedient child. The movie even starts out by saying that its important to honour both your family and yourself. But the thing is if you dont let your children develop independence in a healthy way they will either fail to thrive (staying at home dependent on parents in unhealthy ways) or aggressively separate themselves.
Neither version is a healthy dynamic as it involves an unhealthy relationship dynamic but at the same time the kid has been forced to have that dynamic. But by the end of the film it shows Meiling communicating with her mother and respecting each others time. Her mother accepts she wants time to herself and Mei accepts that she still needs to be respectful of her mothers time ie being on time for dinner.... Its about meeting in the middle and being able to communicate and compromise with each other.
Exactly this! I personally had a hell of a time when I was still a teen and living with my parents, but as I’ve become significantly more myself which is separate from them I’ve had a much healthier and closer relationship with them than I did when I was younger, because we have a much better understanding of each other, and yes, shockingly enough, respect for each other.
It's not anti family, it's just anti Authoritative parenting, which is a parenting style widely used to enforce the Patriarchy.
This move is painfully relatable in many Asian families. At least in my region, the concept of children honouring their parents is still the one and only way to be. We were taught to love, endure, forget and forgive anything our parents do, abuse included. If some of us grow up bitter and abusive, go have kids and pass on that trauma to them. It got to the point that my own sister is seriously afraid if her kid would grow up right if her childhood is too peaceful.
Kids deserve good discipline, healthy guidance, love and much more. They don't deserve to be seen as properties of their parents.
Do you mean authoritarian parenting?
I was literally hornier at 13 than I am now, and you're going to tell me that sexuality is an adult topic? Keeping kids ignorant about things they're currently experiencing has never ended well for anyone.
I thought I was horny but what I wanted was to escape my abusive situation and I was told only a boy could rescue me. I fetishized freedom, and it got me in a lot of trouble.
I think they would have been less horrified of horny.
I'm pretty sure I was both... as well as being non-binary and bi, although I didn't really know it yet. Though I had the bi bit figured out by the time I was 15. ;)
Exactly! Half the straight girls in my high school came back pregnant, the next semester! If kids do it, it's a kids' issue!
@@darlalathan6143 Yeah, we had next to no pregnancies in my school - there was exactly one in my whole graduating class. I'm guessing the reason is that we had comprehensive sex-ed, including the embarrassing bit about putting a condom on a banana... At least the numbers seem to point to it working! Then again, this was in the early 90's in Canada, so we can't expect any American schools in the 2020's to be nearly as sensible.
@@neuralmute 00's Canada for my high school. Same. We only had 1 pregnancy the 3 years I was there.
But then again, I went to an arts school where most of the student body was not straight.
seems like part of the problem with people not "getting" the movie is that they're looking for the message that makes kids more well-behaved, when the message seems to be more for parents to let their kids be their own people. the entire reason that teens rebel so strongly is because they aren't allowed to be their own person for so long, it all gets let out at once. pair that with puberty, and it just makes things more intense and confusing.
As someone with parents who were good (not perfect, but overall good) at letting me experiment with who I was and gave me age appropriate responsibility and freedom, I really didn't rebel. It's not because I was this amazing kid or anything, I just had no reason to. If you're given the ability to make your own decisions, you're actually more likely to take your parents' suggestions to heart, because you realize they're actually on your side.
@@normalgamergal yeah same! I did test boundaries not gonna lie, but I never outright rebelled. I'm very a very different person from my mother but she always let me be that person and she supported me through that. Even if she wasn't sure it was always the right thing it helped me be me and come to terms with my weird self. I'm really thankful to her for that.
@@normalgamergal me too. My mum even told me when I was like 14 that "hey, I wouldn't want you to get drunk at a party but I understand that you're young, you're curious, everyone else might be doing it and that's okay, I won't stop you." She even told me she'd be happy to buy me a drink because more than anything she preferred for my first experience with alcohol to be at home in a safe environment. I never took her up on her offer, and I never had a single drink until I turned 18.
Yeah, they look for "well behaved" not "complete people". Learning about sex and sexuality and how you feel about these things is deeply personal, and it helps to understand someone else's journey. What's the point in denying a natural part of yourself? Kids should be allowed to grow, and this should be considered growth. To me, rebellion happens when kids find outside perspectives that they resonate with, but their parents disapprove. It's them learning to not base themselves entirely on their parents, to be their own person. Rebellion would be pretty common if you're gay in a conservative family, or were attracted to a person of a different race, and your family is racist, or trans and your family is transphobic. However, these are considered "bad", but if we swap it in for "my family is full of doctors and I'm an artist", it's suddenly acceptable.
Exactly, and it's a good message not just for current parents, but also for kids who might become parents someday. It's better to teach early than too late. (Which also applies to all the complaints from parents that their kids are too young to be learning what periods are.)
Obnoxious? Disobedient? Did he even watch the movie? Mei is neither of those things She’s acting out because of her mother’s overbearing protection. She loves her parents and wants to please them, but is now becoming her own person and that created a conflict. You kinda need those to have a story.
He definitely didn't, he even said "I've been told" which, let's be real explains the reaction from so very many people to so very many things.
What he said wasn't even coherent.
The movie doesn't have a message, because the message is the opposite of "respect your parents".
Wow. Much hot take. Very journalism.
@@pepi7404 don't you know that the only message that is every worth listening to is to blindly follow the authoritarian demand of your paternity!? Come on, what are you, a sheep?/s
@@stillmagic714 I'm an anarchist. I abolished my parents and now I stalk the streets at night, looking for children to tell them about menstruation.
@@stillmagic714 its his way of saying "I haven't seen this film and yet I feel the need to criticize it."
Parents when Scar kills his own brother, and we see Simba beg his fathers lifeless corpse to wake up: This is fine.
Parents when Turning Red discusses puberty: No, no NO! This is TOO INNAPROPRIATE!
Let's not even mention Hunchback of notre damm
@@tonkababic9826 The entire character of Frollo ALONE makes Turning Red look tame in comparison.
How do you say lusting after a women to the point of killing her unless she marries you and keeping a hunchback locked up because you think a deformed person is a monster is acceptable but a girl shaking her booty and developing crushes isn’t?
@@iantaakalla8180 what's hilarious is that literally the only reason Frollo doesn't drown baby Quasimodo is because he thinks if he does he's gonna burn in hell. Frollo my guy, regardless of whether you drown baby Quasimodo you have a one-way ticket to the fiery depths of H-E double hockey sticks.
@@iantaakalla8180 oh and don't forget the smut drawing and the mother talking about the oh my god so shameful thing called a period ....
Turning Red:
Showing how Mother's and Daughter's find common ground with each other, talking about their feelings and trauma, apologizing for past mistakes and stuff and having a chill Dad around that encourages his daughter to be herself.
American Conservatives/Christians:
This Movie is clearly Anti-Family!
I never said that
Makes no sense. This movie is pro family
American Conservative Families are often the most dysfunctional.
My favorite part was Mei yelling "I am 13, deal with it". Partly because it's fricking hilarious, and mostly because that's the movie. Most kids going thru puberty are confused about their feelings and are trying to express them in one way or another, and when their parents won't let them, they rebel.
My point is that teenage rebellion doesn't come from some "corrupted evil" but from the inability to express thoughts, emotions, and interests :]
(I clearly remember drawing gay fanart at late hours and hiding it under my bed so my parents won't see it)
I remember having convos with my parents were I was like "seriously, sometimes I do stuff, and I'm internally cringing because I *know* how obnoxious it is, but I do it anyways, it's like watching a train wreck"
This movie actually shocked me a bit, being both gay and aromantic, didn't know young teens were that boy/girl crazed and haven't personally seen it, so i thought it was too much, but according to ppl i know with younger siblings it is the case o_o I think a lot of subconscious confusion came in later teen years cause I was always an odd duck, different from most others, there wasn't much diversity like there is now
I have a cringe drawing of a Hetalia OC pole dancing hiding somewhere deep in my pubescent drawing stash 😳🙊😂
Makes sense
@@kristenwakefiej3137 makes sense. That’s interesting
Disney itself IS the "helicopter mom". This is why nearly all of Disney's content that tries to address topics like racism or sexism feels so undercooked. We sorta accept and praise it because 'hey, it's Disney, what more can you expect', but compared to other movies, even other kids movies, it just falls short. And now we know why; the creators want to properly address these topics, but Disney won't let them. Too stuck in its traditionalist ways to let its content grow up and get with the times. So hey, maybe Turning Red is actually super meta commentary on Disney itself.
Somehow, they got away with a lot - a serious talk on periods, an embarrassing helicopter mom talking about pads and also acting like a Karen, fandom (specifically furries). I guess Disney was lax this time knowing trends.
Yeah, I was kind of shocked Disney even released this movie. I guess dumping it on Disney+ was their way of dumping it.
Disney a helicopter mom!? Apparently you never had one did you?
If Disney is the thing that is babysitting your kids think that says more about you then Disney.
A Helicopter parents is something kids can't just easily get away from or turn off.
Helicopter parents will:
Hover over you to make sure you're not doing anything they disapprove of,
Most likely choose your friends,
Tells you what to like, and what not to like,
Make it difficult to spend anytime with friends, if you can even find friend's to begin with, because really? Who wants to be friends with someone they can't do anything with?
They will tell you what you can watch,
What to believe yes I'm also talking about religion.
What they can wear,
What they can listen to,
And any other part of their lives that they control.
That is a helicopter parents, if this sounds like you, seems more like Disney is trying to liberate your kid(s), from your chains.
You can always turn off Disney, unfortunately not so easy to turn off parents. Especially when they gaslight their kids, play victim to their kids, or threaten them to kick them out or worse.
Parents thinks just because they have a kid that give them the right to control them, and try to mold them into a "mini me" version of yourself.
Your kids are individual people, a good parent would let them be themselves.
Unless they're a lil psycho that likes to kill animals. But for some reason parents doesn't care about that, only if their kid is apart of the LGBTQIA+
A good parent will show their kid unconditional love.
If I had a kid I'd show this movie.
I would make sure my kids know they can come talk to me, and I will not judge them, well unless they're Christians/Reich-wing Republican, ok that was redundant. I'll still love them but I will destroy any arguments they might have because mommy don't play nice, and mommy don't hold back, and Mommy's sarcasm and cut downs are on a nother level. Lol
But really a parent is there to protect and guide their kids to be the best versions of themselves. To encourage their goals and dreams, to let them know they're loved and they always have a safe place at home, in a world that just wants to see you dead.
As a Trans girl myself I'd make sure my kids know they're loved and protected.
And for theo's kids that had parents who discarded them, well I'll be your mom...ok maybe big sister, not to sure if I'm ready to be called mom yet? Lol
@@amehayami934 i think they meant disney is a helicopter mom to the writers and animators, since they cut a lot of stuff from movies (like priya's romantic interest in the goth girl, that got cut by disney even tho writers wanted to put it in)
Didn't Walt himself wanted to make more adult animated films after watching To Kill a Mockingbird but couldn't because of the family friendly image his company has gotten over the years?
Almost all of the disney movies with child-teen protagonist has some kind of "disobey parental figure" plot but noww when its about teen chinese girl in 2000 somehow it feels like more of a problem. Plus movie absolutely has a message of:"Communicate with your child and learn to heal your trauma not supress it(because it does no good). And also to value your friendships
FACTS. That is literally the majority of the disney princesses, but only now they have a problem.
They love hating on minorities by caring about other problems randomly because that is how they keep their racism PG.
Ironic that a bunch of white parents are claiming that Turning Red is "anti-family" and "anti-authority" when they literally complain about Asian parents being too strict, harsh, anti-individualism, anti-freedom, obsessed with conformity, and dictator-like on their kids (while also appropriating aspects of Asian cultures when it benefits them). [Wait 'til they find out how a lot of Asian parents view white parents, white families, and white kids.] Also, so fascinating that Mei and Penny Proud are both millennial teenage girls of color, yet Mei has real female friends while Penny only has fake female friends (basically showing how women and girls view female friendships versus how men and boys view female friendships). Apparently, genuine friendships between girls isn't considered valuable like genuine friendships between boys. 🙄
I wonder if it has to do with the framing too tho. A lot of disney stories happen in this bygone age with a lot of moral stuff we have decided are outdated, even many non radical conservatives, like arrange marriages. Also rebellion for disney princesses was done for the sake of marriage a lot when you think about it. There was this kind of protection that the kids are rebelling against some unreasonable figure. Turning red happens now and seems to be happening in a very very relatable environment, even if they don't say so. The kid is not rebelling against some undersea monarch the kid is rebelling against a parents like you. They have to grapple with the thought their innate disapproval of their daughter liking boys she CERTAINLY will never marry or loud music is unreasonable. Of course, this can just be another layer to it
But aren’t the kids usually framed as being wrong to disobey their parent(s)? I could be wrong but I feel like either the parents are framed as evil (Cinderella comes to mind) or the princess is framed as being wrong to disobey (The Little Mermaid comes to mind). In more recent films the parents aren’t framed as evil and the kids aren’t framed as being wrong to rebel.
Of course the other layer is that a movie someone loved as a child might be viewed very differently through the lens of being a parent.
It's rather sad that conservatives think this movie is controversial simply because it says that parents should also respect their children. Wanting the best for your kids is truly laudable, but if that starts to interfere with their development into adulthood, then you're doing a disservice to your child and doing potentially irreparable damage to your relationship with your child. In the end, Mei was still there for her parents, still respected them, she was just also taking the steps she needed to become an adult.
Exactly! Respecting and knowing yourself doesn't mean ignoring or disrespecting your family, and that's the nuance in this film that so many ignore by getting offended and clinging to their Bibles. That steadfast grasp they have to their beliefs in spite of the pain that's causing is what causes people to have to go their own way, not the "devil". When you loosen your grasp enough to let others grow, they'll come back to you stronger.
Furthermore, even after ALL THE DAMAGE MING CAUSED BY INTERFERING WITH HER CONCERT AND DESTROYING THE STADIUM, Mei is willing to help Ming pay it off - in a different story, that could be grounds for leaving your parent behind or othering that parent. But no. Mei respects Ming and her point of view and is willing to help pay off the damages with her mom despite the fact she is not the one ruining the stadium. In fact, she still wants to be in her life and their bond is stronger. Ming is being honored really heavily here by Mei; there is no excessive calling out or ruined family or lingering tensions. The family is safe and secure and yet the conservatives and Christians think this movie is anti-family.
Seriously, in 'Matilda' the narrator explicitly said 'Children could punish their parents... only when they deserved it of course.'
My parents who say they are conservative actually loved the movie
I’m confused at the messages my parents show off-
“… For those of us who feel physical attraction…” Oh my god, such a small little detail in your video, and while I’m not ace myself, I can just imagine everyone who IS and may not know what being asexual is reading this and going down a rabbithole, realizing that it’s completely fine to feel that way if that’s their normal state of being, and feeling relieved after years of feeling “wrong.” Sorry, I’ll keep watching cause you’re awesome, but I thought I’d share my excitement over this bit of casual and thoughtful inclusion
I'm ace and I can't begin to express how much that little detail meant to me.
It's almost like Jessie is "The Queen of Nuance". I will buy any merch from her with that listed. Also, Cis-Het male here. For someone who can include Ace people while still reminding me of may insane crush on Yvonne Craig from the 67 Batman... Jessie deserves all our parasocial hugs.
yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i appreciated that so much
Always means a lot to be seen. Personally didn't experience puberty like in the movie but I did struggle for a bit and force myself to read smut to see if I would eventually "get it." Yeah you know you're ace when your only thought during that stuff is "oh so that's how people have sex, interesting."
I'm ace and loved that detail also... so small, yet so significant for some people.
What annoys me is that "respect" has two completely different meanings
a; respect (the conservative definition) to respect someone you must bow down to them and do everything they say
b; respect someone as a human, basic respect that everyone deserve
Amen!
Definition A is simply "subservience".
brings to mind this tumblr post i read once, saying something along the lines of:
Respect seems to have 2 definitions, 1) respect of an authority figure, and 2) respect of a fellow human, so when certain people say "If you won't respect me, then I won't respect you," what they're saying is "if you won't respect me as an authority figure, I won't respect you as a person."
@@TickleTigger-xs2rp oh yeah, exactly
Democrats definition is you will do as we say or we will force you into compliance.
I'm surprised that no one has compared Inside Out and Turning Red.
Both movies are mainly about dealing with emotions and how it's terrible to keep them hidden. And Riley was also disobedient. But no one called out that part of the movie, but got mad about Joy being the "villain".
Yep I think some mental aspects are shown in the girls as well, as conflicting parts hyper Abbi is purple and quiet, conservative Priya is yellow, whereas serious Meilin is red to calm laid-back Miriam as green during the bleachers scene. Those complementary colours made me think of them as opposing and competing personalities in the friend group but also how adolescents struggle to balance those things within themselves.
riley: runs away from her home trying to go back to minnesota, stealing her mom’s credit card
people: yea sure
mei: “hey mom you’ve been overbearing and controlling all my life and i need you to stop”
people: shes so disobedient!!
Exactly! I feel like this movie is the next step after Inside Out in a way
This…this right here they wanna get on Mei for running to the concert she wanted and Reilly literally stole her moms credit card and almost ran away
And no one called Riley cringe because she's written by a dad and has male-approved hobbies. Not disparaging Inside Out; those bad Turning Red reviews are unwilling to empathize with different, more feminine teenage girls.
I’m particularly boggled by the parents who were apoplectic that Mei rebelled against her parents/authority figures.
Have… have they not seen Brave? Or Mulan? Or Luca? Or The Jungle Book (Bagheera was more of a parental figure, but still)? Or Cinderella? Or Tangled? Or Encanto? Or Finding Nemo? Or Ponyo? Or Pocahontas? Or Beauty and the Beast? Or The Incredibles? Or Coco? Or Soul?
I’m sure there are quite a few more, so feel free to add them (this was just off the top of my head)
Or The Little Mermaid?
How did you forget The Little Mermaid? That's the entire plot.
@@stellasdoesstuff great minds 😆
Damnit, how DID I forget that?!
That was possibly the first Disney movie I thought of that inspired me to comment this, and then I somehow forgot it as I started piecing together the list.
As a teenager, I absolutely adore this movie, and I was really surprised when all my friends said they hated it. In their opinion, mei-mei was annoying, she was too boy-crazy, and it was stupid that she wanted to go to a concert (this was amusing to me, since mei mei actually reminded me of several of them). This seemed to me like a lot of the stuff older conservative men were saying, I wonder if they actually thought that or were just trying to conform to other people's opinions.
When I was younger, I held a lot of internalized misogyny, and tended to say a lot of those kinds of things about "girl stuff". That's not to say your friends have the same issues, but it is a possibility. At the very least, most girls figure out that it doesn't matter how "pick me" they are, the kind of men they're trying to impress will never see them as an equal and they eventually grow out of it.
It's also perfectly okay to just not like the movie, of course. Nothing's for everyone.
@@normalgamergal Girls are "pick me" because a woman's social worth depends on that.
I was "pick me" when I was young, and I wasn't even really interested in men! 🏳️🌈
@@Donnagata1409 most pick me girls are straight and do it for male approval though..
I second NormalGamerGal, if I saw this movie at 12 I would have absolutely hated the main girls. I was in a "not like other girls" phase and typical teen movies annoyed the heck out of me. Now, at 19, I can actually look back and laugh at my younger self, who was more normal than I wanted to admit.
I think I would've had the same complaints if I'd seen Turning Red as a teenager. I was totally uninterested dating and everything adjacent in my teens, and I absolutely thought it was because I was mature and too enlightened to need outside approval of my looks (lol nope, it's because I was ace). I've got a bit more perspective in my thirties, and I'm really happy to see a new generation of writers show that a strong female lead doesn't have to be 'better at guy stuff', she can also have completely different experiences and goals.
There is one vital point that everyone seems to be missing about Ming - her "hypervigilance", "helicopter parenting style", "dragon mother persona" are all driven by how she was raised. For me, it made very good sense that Ming's red panda was so enormous. Ming grew up in a time where the difference between her family expectations of females was coming into direct conflict with the Western concept that women are people and should be free to express their true selves. As much as we try to change, when push comes to shove with our children, we tend to treat them the way that we were treated.
because we don't know any other way to raise them.
Agreed
There's a world of difference between "honor thy parents" and "obey thy parents". Like, I can respect my parents, be proud of many of the things they did (e.g. my mom using her legal skills to help AIDS patients when few others were willing to do so), think they did a lot of things right as parents, but there were lots of times when I or my sisters didn't do what they were telling us to do.
I was part of a Quiverfull and I can tell you they didn’t want an independent person. They wanted a live-in maid and breeding stock willing to be paired off for clout and not to sully themselves.
Also not all parents deserved to be honored
@@crazylizze98 yeah especially if they support genocide and slavery and the pro life movement then yup they do not deserve that respect but they demand it just cause they are older and do the bare minimum
As someone who grew up in a Chinese family, a large portion of things Meimei experienced in Turning Red was my experiences in puberty. I felt unnecessarily shameful about my own gender identity and sexual orientation without even knowing their existence since Chinese social norms are rather conservative that I didn't receive any sex ed. After I came to North America I was lucky enough that I got to know many accepting ppl who taught me things I needed to know so I could finally accept myself for who I am. It's really heartbreaking to see conservatism spreading everywhere in the world……
nah, it's not spreading. if anything, it's diminishing. the christian chokehold on the world is slowly being stamped out by the more and more increased/widened empathy with each new generation.
I think conservativism is more dying out, though very slowly.. It’s still got a grip on many countries unfortunately
thankfully, conservatism is dying because it cannot exist in well-educated societies because it requires fear mongering and misinformation to exist and education is becoming more and more accessible.
im african american, but by what my asian peers will tell me, they live in very strict households and tends to be a common thing in asian culture. but not only in asian culture also in other POC cultures like mine. like i was so scared to tell my parents some things bc its households like mine sex, drugs, puberty, liking boys, liking girls, liking both, mental illness is very taboo and hushed. good thing my parents are breaking generational curses(as they say) and letting me talk about those types of things bc you can’t be conseritive about something you’re gonna be exposed to anyway.
Same, growing quite over sheltered from both my parents and my special needs class (as I am on the ASD spectrum) which was honestly for the worse than the better. I also struggled with my sexual orientation as I had on both boys and girls when going through puberty though many people would assume my girl curshes "just as phase", though I say that's how I knew I was pan.
ironically I kind of had a compeht phase and was once infamous for being a rabid het fangirl when I first arrived on the internet as many of my fandoms liked to portray LGBT people in a predatory light which was upsetting for me. Still, I was eventually able to cope with it as I did watch some positive representations in shows like Sailor Moon and Steven Universe.
I am forever grateful that my Mom filled a drawer with every period product imaginable and put child-appropriate sex education books on my shelf long before I even entered puberty.
At the time, I didn’t want to talk about it with her and thought it was “gross”. But when I got my first period around age 11, I was endlessly thankful I had all the tools and resources to navigate it myself AND that I knew I could talk to my Mom about it when I was ready.
My step mom has a cupord of pads, advil and tons of other period products (she doesn't use tampons and I haven't gotten my period yet so when I do she'll let me make the choice to use tampons). She has never thought of puberty as shameful, and has taught me that it's just a natural thing that those assigned female at birth go through. Step mom's are always portrayed as evil but GOD DAMN I've won the step mom lottery
My mom was the same way. She always explained sex and puberty calmly and pragmatically. It’s trained me to do the same with my own kid. They knew what to do when the time came.
Lucky.. my parents never explained _anything_ to me and still refuse to acknowledge anything about sex while we talk, even though I'm 26 and about to get married, for fuck's sake. It's like they wanna pretend forever that sex doesn't exist.
@@Katyamuffin My heart goes out to you! I can’t even imagine how hard it would be to grow up with parents who shut it down like that
This is why a whole buttload of people read 'Tiger Mom' and took it as a strict instruction manual, rather than a cautionary tale, no matter how many rooftops the author shouted from, trying to correct the misconception.
And I love hearing people talk crap about a movie they clearly haven't seen themselves, but have only heard about thirdhand, through a sadistic telephone game of holy rolling Karens who don't understand that they literally ARE cancel culture.
My parents read that book and thought they hadn't been strict enough! Then they wanted me to laugh with them about ways they had abused me and how it "should" have been much worse.
@@mosasaurusrex1815 I'm so sorry. I know the pain too well, of having someone(s) who abused you suddenly decide, well after the fact, that there were "plenty of good times, too," and that things couldn't possibly have been all that bad, (because then they might have to actually think about themselves or their past/present actions in a negative light.)
And you're just left with your jaw on the floor, an unsaid list of dozens of legitimate reasons why they're wrong, and a big hole where your sense of familial trust used to be.
I remember seeing Reservoir Dogs, and being confused about all the talk of it being gory and glorifying violence. 1. The goriest scene with the ear cutting, the actual ear cutting happens off screen, it's purely psychological, and the blood is over the top in order to make it fake and stylized, so it's not realistic.
2. If you watch this film and it makes you want to be like them, there is something wrong with you. THEY ALL DIE!
@@NinjaMatt2201 "Context" is not a thing the outrage machine recognizes. A lone Karen (of any gender) catches their kid having watched the contraband media, demands to know the worst elements. And usually their thought processes are overwhelmed by outrage about five words in, so "cool guy cuts ear off" is all they need to spark their next crusade, to keep them feeling relevant and necessary, despite a growing mountain of evidence to the contrary.
Five Karens later, and the movie is now a bloodbath orgy of severed ears and imagined depravity.
Rinse and repeat.
@@NinjaMatt2201 I'm not saying you're wrong (because you're not) I just wanted to add my two cents regarding my experience with this film:
1. Quentin Tarantino managed to successfully compose the scene *so well* that I will - never - hear "Stuck In The Middle With You" without having my immediate first watch reaction of "HOLY GODS this sociopath is going to set that guy on FIRE!!!!!" / Seriously, never fails, if I hear it through someone's headphones or on a stereo somewhere in the neighborhood I'm right back it that moment. Kudos Quentin.
2. I'm not *quite* sure Mr. White actually dies, he's greviously injured yes but at that point the warehouse is surrounded by police so they *may* stabilize him (and orange) before booking White.
Just a thought/theory especially since otherwise they'd come back totally empty handed.
Watching this video, it makes me think that parents in conservative Christian environments aren't allowed to make mistakes. It makes me think about my mom, where when I try to talk about the things she did that hurt me, she freaks out. I literally can't talk to my mom about anything difficult without walking on eggshells. The overbearing, limiting idea of what families are didn't just hurt me, I think it hurt my parents, too.
Yes! They base their whole identify on being a perfect guardian which makes them incapable of improving. The deeply ingrained shame (and sometimes disgust) for "imperfection" or being wrong makes them outright deny anything that will challenge the status quo of what they assert (as right).
It takes a lot to break out of that...
Totally understand you. My mom pretend that My memories are wrong if i talked about something unconvenient to her. she even talked seriously about that fact that our memories are mostly wrong. Everything because on time i said that i remember her slapping My sister on the face. And the most recent one, the one that came out with this movie. She said that she remembers different the day of My first period 🙄 i was like "seriously mom You wanted to take me to the doctor"
Same here.
…well, someone just described my mom perfectly.
I can t show the slightest bit of emotion without it being seen as attitude I can't even push back on things my family is wrong about it try to stand up for myself it's so stupid
The "this movie is anti-family" criticism from conservative families baffled me. Mei expresses concern, when she decides to depart from family tradition and keep access to her panda, that this decision will make her less close to her mom. Her mom shares that concern. It's realistic, and the conversation is handled in a way that's kind to both characters. Sometimes change is hard because it includes losing something you value, as well as gaining something important.
How are periods and puberty in general "not appropriate for kids" when kids literally go through it? I got my period when I was like 11. And it would have been much less scary had I heard more about it before, instead of it being all hush hush.
I know right? I was like 12 I think and it was upsetting enough when I KNEW what was happening. I can't imagine having NO IDEA it was normal or what the hell was going on, that would have been so awful.
I'm a trans man. I got mine at 9, and I was in a training bra at 7.
My guess is that it’s too gross for most people to talk about, let alone depict in comfortable media. It’s kinda like how characters taking a dump or upchucking are rarely ever shown onscreen or described in literature. But yeah, if audiences are now okay with depicting stuff like farting in today’s media, you’d think there would be more ground being broken with stuff like addressing puberty and such. It’s just a bunch of double standards.
I suspect quite a good chunk of older adults aren't entirely aware of just how much earlier the younger generation is having periods. My mother and my aunt started menstruating at 14 and 17 respectively. All my female cousins (and myself) hit that milestone before we were even teenagers! Female puberty isn't a topic most grown-ups love to casually chat about, so I don't think it's much of a stretch to imagine some literally just don't know that pre-teens need pads 😂
Because a lot of conservatives are like Carry's mom.
Interesting that "relatability" has become such an important metric in movie reviews all of a sudden. I feel like it's just another way for people upholding the patriarchy to say, Stop putting non-white characters in my media, especially if they are teenage girls! Thanks Jessie for standing up for kids and for always centering marginalized voices.
I bet those same people didn't complain about lack of "relatability" when they saw The Batman - even though absolutely nobody can relate to being a billionaire, orphaned, nocturnal vigilante 😂
I just love how these people make relatability about solely the white cis hetero nt experience... How white, cis, hetero, nt of them to be able to live without acknowledging literally ANYONE ELSE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT
Relating to a living race car: No problem.
Relating to a teenage girl: Apparently impossible
Yes, I cannot relate to the experience of being a parent and having to leave my children forever to save my kind, but I still enjoyed Interstellar.
The funny thing is, it’s a 2000s teenage girl. Even if you were not a 2000s teenage girl, that alone should be relatable -talks about puberty, wanting to not be a squeaky-clean child upon teenagerhood and subsequently asserting your independence from your parent, the fun of seeing a concert and scrounging up money to go to the concert, the pain of having to put off your friends again and again, possibly joining the furry fandom, realizing the feature of yourself isn’t as shameful as you thought it was, and crushes although crushes aren’t universal. For parents, we have the good child wanting independence and raunchier interests, being well-meaning but overprotective and therefore leading to lashing out at your own child, being embarrassing, and if you as a parent is that extra, destroying a venue.
The only thing that is not relatable is having a panda spirit come out during teenagerhood but we as a culture have been indundated with magical stories and magical realism stories, so a panda guardian being passed down is not the most insane thing to have been seen and therefore the grounded parts can hit as nicely.
Turning Red is very relatable by every measure and I don’t know how a controversy formed over it.
Conservatives: "We can't let girls know about puberty! They need to feel gross and terrified and ashamed!"
"Why tho?"
"Shaaaaaame"
Not what they say 🙄
@@JoelEmmettMcGarrity No, it's not literally what they say, but everything they do and say leads to girls feeling ashamed, scared and disgusted over their own bodies. Conservatives are anti education and health because they think teaching about biology is "sexualizing children". This conservative "logic" leads to girls suffering and I PRAY some day they realize they are harming their children and learn they don't have to. Or teachers and doctors who bully girls for having painful cramps.
@@JoelEmmettMcGarrity
What do they say ?
Why did you delete your message @Ezekiel Renon.. That reply was honestly impressive with the amount of brainwash you were able to regurgitate. Lmao
@@JoelEmmettMcGarrity No, it's definitely what they say.
Seriously though, could we just have a moment for the dad in this movie? He’s such a kind, strong, and gentle character.
"Turning Red is bad because it teaches kids to rebel!"....that is literally the plot of virtually EVERY Disney movie. WTF? Why weren't parents up in arms about Moana, Mulan, Tangled, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Encanto, Frozen, Pocahontas, etcetc? I wonder if it is because Turning Red is set in the 'real world"?
Using this as a point of culture wars nonsense is just insidious. This movie gives voice to real frustrations that kids going through puberty have and I feel like I would have felt less alone seeing it at that age. More than that, it gives kids language to speak back when parents are unintentionally hurting them. It shows you can get into a fight with your parents and have that not be the end of the world, that they won't just stop loving you. It also gives parents a window into what their kids might be dealing with, and prompts open dialogs about some necessarily difficult topics.
Shutting that conversation down because it represents social impropriety will lead to exactly the kind of hurt, pain, and trauma that it is trying to get parents and their kids to avoid.
I saw a dude ranting about how "Hollywood has gone woke" citing this film in particular.
What in the world was even remotely "woke" about this film? It just talks about growing up as a girl.
I’m a grown woman and I watched this movie with my mom the other day. When Ming was a giant panda yelling in Mei’s tiny face, she and I looked at each other at the same time. I was like, “tell me that’s not how it feels when Grandma (her mom) yells at you” and she was like, “THANK you!” To this day my grandma’s “tough love” helicopter parenting still feels terrifying to us both
Makes sense
Words can't even describe how validating this take on the backlash and movie overall is. I commented somewhere else how I firmly believed a big reason people hated this film was due to sexism and how many things associated with the teen girl experience (shipping, fanfics, and swooning over male characters) are heavily mocked and/or frowned upon, and most replies to it thought I was looking too deep into things.
I agree for the most part, though there is some media popular with females that should be criticized (Twilight series, for example).
@@DrawciaGleam02 you know, I agree. With both of you actually. And I think Twilight was a bad example for anyone that was impressionable and willing to take everything at face value. Twilight has nothing of value to offer and can be seen as a ‘aged-up’ and dark, supernatural Disney film. Bella waited until her ‘Prince’ came and then threw everything away (even willing to risk her life) for this guy. Unhealthy messages there for anyone. Turning Red seems worth the watch ♥️ Glad it exists
@@DrawciaGleam02 Well yeah. No media is free from criticism.
@@DrawciaGleam02 The performative hate that Twilight got was far in disproportion to the amount of fair criticism given to it, and I say that as someone who was part of that performative hate train.
People aren't obligated to hate certain works of media. If it's not for you it's far better not to engage at all.
Makes sense
Conservatives: "Children should not be learning about periods, pads or puberty! That's for their parents to address when they are old enough."
Are they aware that kids have periods? Some of my friends were as young as 10 years old when they started menstruating. I cannot imagine how terrified I would have felt if I had to discover about periods the day I had my FIRST period 😭 I was brought up fully aware of what to expect. When I asked my mother what the box of tampons in the bathroom was, she told me. I wasn't taught to feel shame, fear or confusion - and why should anybody? Absolutely some infuriating opinions on this subject circulating on twitter 👀
I had to use pantiliners as a kid because I had issues with knowing when to use the washroom (because of my neurodivergence, and I was too big for pull-ups), so I'm glad I was a bit more familiar with it, but I wish it was more common to talk about whats okay and what isn't. I didn't realize I had a hormone imbalance and that nausea and chills are not supposed to be part of PMS, until I had to miss school regularly due to it. Other girls at school had to miss days, so I thought it was normal. I'm still figuring it out, but there are things that help thankfully. But yeah, there's not a lot of discussion out there for kids and teens.
Yeah I was 9 when I first got my period.. Happy that my mom never made it a shameful thing, I knew what was happening to me and just asked her for pads..
Conservatives seem to believe that their children are objects that they own, not people they are responsible for
In conservative households the mom quietly helps the girl through their menstrual cycle. Because it's not something "polite" people talk about in mixed company. It's "gross" and terrible woman stuff, so the men folks are kept blissfully unaware. It is a patriarchy. Not unlike sexuality, gender, race, income inequality, religion (or no religion), politics (except conservative politics 🙄) and anthropogenic global warming. Imho, they are insane.
@@masonguthrie1257 And what happens if you parents don't want to have that discussion? Or at least don't want to have it in a healthy way. If they instill you with so much shame you can't communicate when you need help?
As a parent: it is completely normal for, and good for their development, for kids to be rebellious. It's definitely a reality of being a parent, and a frustrating one at that, but when kids feel confident enough to rebel, that means they trust you to still love and support them. Also, kids are not our property, and they do not owe us anything.
I NEED MY PARENTS TO THINK LIKE THIS. You sound like a wonderful parent, please never change.
I wish more saw that kids aren’t robotic properties to control. It’s sad people think this and sad for The kids because I’m sure the parents think that being overly strict and overbearing is OK and actually good thing. Which it obviously isn’t but yeah.
It probably shouldn't, but reading things like this statement from a parent hits different - I always realize how much I internalized the expectation and entitlement of my parents and other authority figures. Would love for this stuff to heal.
Thank you for writing this, and for raising children with this mindset 💞
Thank you for being this kind of parent. My mum didn't give me any rules or guidance, so I had nothing to "rebel" against & have had to live life on hard mode by re-parenting myself. But... It would have been nice to have the best of both worlds. A reliable figure to steer me forward & the space to be myself.
What do you think of the stock PoC conservative excuse of “treating kids like property is just a part of our culture and if you hate it you’re just a spoiled white or overly westernized kid”
The internalized misogyny in that second posted review is just mind-boggling. My gradmother started menstruating at EIGHT, just a year older than the reviewer's own daughter (Also, they were waaaay further into the movie than 5 minutes if they got to the first transformation) . Got mine when I was a year younger than Meilin. The only reason my experience didn't play out like the first 5 minutes of Carrie (that timecode is correct)is because it was explained to me before when I was much younger by my mother.
The controversy reminds me of another parental-generated complaint of a Pixar film which was UP. A bunch of parents was annoyed that a "kid's film" brought up the issue of death and that they (the PARENTS) had to (ugh) explain it. Never mind the fact that these people signed up to bring a fresh new human life into the world and raise it in this world. Instructions are part of the job. I get it, it's hard, but that's the job you signed up for and if you're not rich enough to raise your kid in an isolated compound where you can control all info coming in and out, you're gonna have to answer the uncomfortable facts of life to those future human adults you brought into the world bring to you one day after school. Otherwise, you leave them clueless and bereft of coping skills in that same world. No thank you, we currently have enough of those currently wrecking this one.
One thing that kept getting me throughout this video is so much of the 'criticism' was based on evangelical Christian beliefs and Mei and her family are obviously not Christian? Like when that guy said she had a 'demon spirit' inside her, it just made me feel like they were saying the quiet part out loud with "all other religions are satanic and evil", a really worrying and hateful view that I feel like was not something you used to get away with explicitly saying.
Exactly, and that’s the Other shoe drop that people need to look out for! It’s really f’ed up when you realize the hate that is going towards this movie is incredibly Anti-Semitic as well as Racist! And all because these people are filtering the hate by using religion to disguise that hate.
The only good thing is that people in general now look out for these disguisings and filtrations of hatred and bigotry, so even scandals like this are as meaningful as useless things are.
Well, I mean pretty much _everything_ is satanic and evil outside of Christianity in their view. We have to remember that it is a view that prides black and white thinking and lack of compromise as strength. It is seen as character building to be rigidly intolerant of nearly all difference, and they hope their God will hand over to Satan an enormous amount of people who fail their internalised standards. Although of course they say your "sin" really pains them. Lol.
Yeah that is how they think i should know having grown up very conservatice every fantasy show was considered demonic or every religion that wasnt ours ect glad i left that behind but im still surrounded by them
I was thinking about this exactly, like why are you quoting and giving a bible dissertation about a Chinese-American family and Chinese-American characters? It makes absolutely no sense and it's laughable at how idiotically self-centered they are on their own faith and ideology to the point of missing the clear issue with what they're preaching.
"Why are they called 4-Town when there are five of them?"
*So an in-joke about the number 4 being associated with death in some Chinese cultures can be made at the climax of the film*
Ouch, didn't know that....
Ahhh I wondered why the number was unfortunate.
What people think the problem with Turning Red is: it goes too far in talking about teen sexuality!
the ACTUAL problem with Turning Red: it doesn't go far ENOUGH!
I mean, it is a Disney movie at the end of the day. I'm all for discussing and representing teen sexuality, but there is a limit, especially in a film like this.
@@kaiyodei wdym the exact opposite happens, many anime are borderline creepy/pedophilic by putting literal 5 year olds in skimpy clothes calling them 1000 year old dragons and target to unsatisfied miserable people and whenever it's criticised there's a whole army of people defending it calling it "japanese culture" (essentially racism as a bonus!)
Probably the most prevalent example is Sailor Moon Eternal showing literally underage characters in skimpy clothes, having a 10-year old girl be kissed by an adult (in romantic way), the little girl dreaming about having her mother's body because it's "sexy" (!!!) and there are hundreds of people that defend it as if their life depends on it
(Btw I haven't watched it, I've only seen a few scenes, read a summary and watched a very detailed review)
The moment anything slightly similar to that in western media it's immediately criticised and shamed to oblivion (for good reasons!)
the problem with turning red is that disney cant stop turning their non white protags into animals and its driving me crazy.
@@kaiyodei i mean yea in south america we have things about witches turning into birds.. no llamas tho lol. and idk about inuit people... with the totem thing...
i grew up loving brother bear and emperor's new groove etc before thinking about it, but its just that weird feeling, that when the main character is not white, they are made to spend a percentage of the movie as a goofy animal to be more palatable or something? idk
as i see it turning red is a net good for teen girls. but the animal thing is just a subject that keeps making me uncomfy
It's a movie. Unfortunately doesn't have as much time as, say, a TV series. There's only so much you can put in a 2-3 hour film.
I am a straight male (maybe bi honestly, but that's beside the point), but I tend to be more attracted to more aggressive and dominant women, and that's rather looked down upon because men are supposed to be the aggressors according to society. It's because of this that I'm super scared to express how I feel sexuality. For this movie, it's very refreshing to see a movie that doesn't look down upon displays of sexual attraction that aren't just "me man... me f*ck women... me go brrr".
As a trans man watching this movie let me analyze my Afab experiences without feeling judged or weird this movie was fantastic
There seems to be an underlying belief that blind obedience is necessary for the development of morality. There is an old philosophical debate about whether humans are inherently good but corrupted by society, or if they are inherently bad but civilized by society. Apparently this movie has reignited that feud.
I suspect that even if you got them to agree that kids can be naturally gay or trans, a christian fundamentalist would say "Love the sinner hate the sin: It is okay if they are gay as long as they don't act upon it." (Some of them feel uncomfortable with heterosexual people enjoying it too much also.) The concept of damnation implies it is better to live life sad and repressed than to risk God's wrath; thus a lot of suffering gets justified by a certain belief.
Both takes are stupid because clearly, some people are good but society brings out the worst in them, and some are bad but society pushes them to at least behave benevolently, or vice versa with good being encouraged to be better and bad pushed further toward malice, some aren't bad or good but indifferent and swayed either way, and some just tell society to eff off.
People need to learn to get over their discomfort and not care until it literally hurts others.
The notion of "original sin" has a lot to answer for. I've met a lot of otherwise decent christian people retain horrendously intolerant views, solely because God apparently condemns those inner expressions, so any claim that we should be accepting of them is "evil" and "earthly pride" and part of man's "sinful nature". Essentially, you must cast aside any kindness and compassion that isn't spiked with a kind of pitiful disgust when it come to gay, trans people, etc. It sad to see reason and love mutilated in service of an apparently "higher purpose".
@@neoqwerty Seriously. Bible extremists paints things super black and white which is just obviously not the whole story to anyone else but it goes against their core worldview so goodluck agreeing on anything...
People: *Upset about the movie talking about puberty*
The movie: *talks about trauma and how to deal with it, how a young kid experiences puberty, and how people that you know love you, can be your friends and not your family, because that is a thing that happens. Also how respecting your ancestors and culture is important. Plus, how the protag's mom hyperfixates on controlling her out of concern, specifically out of fear and love for her daughter.*
Also this is a great video to watch because I can disassociate from my bus driver trying to call me by my legal name
I'm trans anyway for context to know why I'm uncomfy-
@@kaiyodei it's about a lot of things
@@nukiradio felt like mostly first gay love tho
@@kaiyodei I thought it was about it his first friendship and he was being pretty clingy And to learn to let your friends be their own person apart from you and to have a life outside of that friendship. Which is very relatable to me because some people do not understand that I have a life outside of them. But I didn’t really see anything that was about him being gay? I’m a bit confused now LOL I don’t understand.😅😭
The scene where Mei’s drawings were found was my worst fear in middle/high school. I lived in fear of my mom finding my ‘sexy’ fanfiction. I didn’t breath a sigh of relief until I got my own laptop and didn’t have to type things up on the desktop in the living room lol.
I'm an adult in my thirties and was visiting my parents recently, and I switched my vpn on specifically so I could read fanfic on my phone without my parents finding out via their internet provider. It's awkward enough trying to talk about my work as an editor when one of my primary clients is an erotic romance publisher.
my hugest fear last years (2020-2021) was my family finding my "sexy" fanfictions written on paper.
i destroyed them and threw them away just recently.
With me it was not the fear she could find anything "sexy" but the fear she could read scenes with a lot of curse words in it (I used my writing a lot to express my anger when I was a teen) or scenes that showed worse version of herself. ( I always had a very diffiult relationship with her.)
The message I got was that children don't have to blindly respect their parents when their parents show little to no respect to their children
I'm glad Disney is touching on female puberty now, ironically they refused to dub Studio Ghibli's Only Yesterday over it mentioning periods, this was about two decades ago though.
Despite being a cis male, I could strongly relate to this movie as my parents were just as over protective as the mom in the movie but to make things worse, they were like that because of conservative Christianity. So I was around a lot of sexism and homophobia growing up as well as people demonizing sex/sexuality. Well, I guess one positive would be that it drove me out of religion though. I'm asexual but I never saw them hating on that but their hatred for gays, transgenders and even women trying to have the same rights as men reminded me too much of all of the racists being mad back during the civil rights era.
Also, that honouring your parents to an extreme degree can be toxic as this movie shows off. The ironic thing is that if a kid was raised by militant atheists but then became religious, these conservatives would suddenly support them rebelling and not honoring their parents.
you immediately lost me at “female puberty” (it deeply makes me uncomfortable and upsets me as a trans-masc non-binary person lol) thanks for acknowledging cis is a thing.
Man Jessi this is great. Sex education needs more support I think. In my first sex ed class in 4th grade I asked my teachers why menstal cycles are so irregular and painful and they said "just because" only to find I had PCOS and many more problems. I think you spoke about this issue perfectly.
Wow, that’s insane. Not professional should answer a serious question like ‘just because’ wow 😡
I wasn’t entirely aware how periods worked on the inside until senior year of high school, Biology class. I was 18 and my teacher explained about the shedding of the lining of the uterus and I yelled out loud, ‘WHAT!?’ I was furious I’ve never been told about what was happening in MY own body!
So many mixed messages back then! People automatically assumed I was having sex but not one person actually sat me down and told what sex was! So you’re telling me kids nowadays are still going through such BS?! How stagnant. We can do better people. Do better.
Nice comment 👍🏽
While this movie and its creators deserve as much applause as possible for the beautiful human story they created, more praise should be given to Pixar and its creatives as opposed to Disney or at least Disney corporate. Especially since Pixar employees have gone on record noting that Disney (sadly) cuts and trims out any noticeable LGBTQ+ content from Pixar movies. And said thing seems apparent in turning red with one of its characters at a certain party scene.
Can we talk about how amazing it is that Pixar has evolved so far beyond just being the “Middle-aged male anxieties as expressed by inanimate objects” studio in just under a decade?
Also can't forget how a lot of Tyler's scenes were cut out from the movie (which is probably why Mei forgiving Tyler in the movie seemed too quick). Disney loves removing LGBTQ+ content, so very likely most of his scenes wouldn't have been removed if Pixar portrayed Tyler as that lame trope of the cis straight guy that picks on the female protagonist because he's secretly in love with her (especially since that movie takes place in 2002). Luca might have had openly gay/bi/pan male protagonists if Disney wasn't so anti-LGBTQ+.
@@johnvinals7423 True pixar has evolved just in general, and i personally really love this new era of personalized story telling with Onward, Luca, and Turning Red. But i wouldnt say the lessons and stories of the past were only "middle aged anxieties". As with the new movies they are things that can and do relate to the human experience. And told through things that weren't always human.
@@medtle1 Interesting, i didnt really see Tyler as gay or bi. To me his character was more so meant to represent that even certain people in our lives that we dont care for have their own stories, lives and fears. Tyler (to me) was more so the "wealthy bully without anyone" archetype. I guess its possible to see him as queer coded, but the character i notice was more than likely Bi was Priya. Especially during her dance with the goth girl at Tyler's party.
The cuts were too obvious on that one. Which is a shame because it would have been great a young poc as being lgbtq+ in a major animated movie.
Darryl Jack - As soon as Tyler, in the concert scene, started screaming about how he loves one or more of the band members in 4*Town, I was like “yep, he’s gay.” (Or at least not straight.) I remember looking at boy bands like that (discreetly, because that’s a *girl* thing (gag)), sneaking looks at the cute boys. I’m glad he can scream about it so openly, because that was NOT me at the time.
The only "concern" I felt watching this movie is for poor Devin. He didn't know Meimei from Eve and her mother storms into the store and scares the pants off him and he didn't even do anything wrong. Poor guy.
Meimei didn't do anything wrong either, by the way.
(by the way, I love your sparkly rainbow top!)
damn you're very right! I will admit if I was a parent and saw my kid drawing/obsessing over an older person near to them, I would be Vigilant for sure >
Yeah I felt bad for him that would be so embarrassing and stressful for him as well. Like he don’t even know what’s happening.
We see him at the very end in the concert having the time of his life. So I assumed that people were completely done with Ming being overbearing and exaggerating everything so absolutely no one really cared.
I felt so bad for him in that scene, because that is one thing you absolutely do NOT accuse someone of until you have a damning evidence and/or a definitive answer. I might not be male, but if I was in that situation at Devon's age, I would be panicking and probably sobbing because NOTHING HAPPENED. Not to mention having some random kid thirsting after you is all kinds of uncomfortable because no one talks about how to handle it.
@@amethyst_cat9532 Oh, yes. I mean, you can see he is very uncomfortable, and confused when Ming comes in. We know he was ok in the end not just because of the concert scene, but also because he is seen still working the next day -when Mei rans past as a Red Panda and does the wolf whistle- so yeah, things worked out, but in that moment? POOR Guy.
I will say that The Twilight hate was partly because of the horrific relationship dynamics.
There were way worse relationship dynamics in media at the same time. We didn’t see the same scorn leveled at Batman for the Harley Quinn x Joker relationship. All things deserve criticism and abusive relationships are unquestionably bad, but so many people just jumped on that argument because they already hated Twilight as a popular thing for teenage girls
I'd also like to put forward that as bad as the relationship dynamics are a lot of them are meant to be a fantasy by and for women (specifically Edward/Bella/Jacob, doesn't apply to the baby imprinting lol) that a reader presumably wouldn't actually want in real life
@@birritan5479 The harley quinn x joker relationship is supposed to be seen as horrific and unhealthy, the relationships in twilight are supposed to be seen as healthy and romantic. I agree that some of the hate was due to the ludicrous hatred of whatever teen girls are into, but a lot of it, most of it even, was definitely due to the terrible writing. Your example does not support your argument.
@@morenicginiusthegreat4227We still got people who unironically shipped the Joker and Harley Quinn and even downplay the abuse. The first Suicide Squad movie is one example, as are people who compared themselves to the Joker and Harley Quinn.
The guy saying "reject what your parents say, reject what's right, go off in the woods and be some sort of WITCH" killed me, that sounds great, I aspire to be the the witch of the woods
i _am_ a witch of the woods, come join us my sister in witchery
(sister is an enby term in my very queer, very witchy friend group, i am not trying to misgender you lol)
I'm excited for this. Turning red was such a good movie and I can't believe people hate it. Most kids would love to know what happens to their body and it shouldn't be something to be shamed over.
This movie was excellent 2000s nostalgia and the first coming of age film I've seen that didn't seem to hate/scorn little girls and the things lots of little girls like
This!! It made me happy that no one shamed the girls for liking boybands because that's a silly girl thing to do. I was shamed for liking One Direction soooo much in middle school. The mom obviously doesn't want Mei to like the boyband, but that's because she is overprotective and a bit too serious lol, not because she thinks girls should be made fun of for having crushes.
The biggest thing that stood out to me was when they showed Tyler at the concert. It kinda solidified that hey, guys can like boybands too and there's nothing wrong with girls being obsessed with a fun boyband!
Nice. It’s pretty good
Came back to drop a hot take I dropped in a group chat I was in while inspired by this notifications:
Having children and refusing to educate them or let them be educated on one of the most dangerous bodily functions we can endure (reproduction) is at least parental neglect and possibly even sexual abuse.
Like if parents didn't let their kids learn language skills or learn what healthy food is we'd call it out as neglect and even abuse but for some reason this is considered a "choice"??
Not to mention shit like toxic shock syndrome *KILLS,* and that's not even a sexual thing that's just a period thing. No childbirth needed, just a tampon.
Also I'm sorry but aren't more socially conservative people who go on about sexual maturity and dealing with the consequences of you actions (especially sexual ones) REGARDLESS of how uncomfortable it makes you feel, even if it kills you??
They want us to go through the trauma of having kids against our will because of "parental and sexual responsibility" but then refuse to let anyone teach any kids anything about their own bodies because they're "made uncomfortable and uneasy" by it.
IMO: If you can have sex, especially sex that results in kids, you should be able to have healthy conversations about sex and especially with the kids that resulted from it.
And same thing with breastfeeding, like the only reason it's "weird" is because we made it "weird" and by making it "weird" you actually do harm to others to absolutely no benefit.
This is like eating your vegetables man, you just gotta do that shit sometimes even if you don't want to. (Which is again, some shit they'd tell everyone else.)
There's also other stuff like how this results from patriarchy and how women are usually the main perpetrators of these more "traditional" kinds of abuse, like genital mutilation or helping push girls into marriages, but this post is long enough as it is. (Same with homophobic shit about this movie too.)
Basically, people need grow tf up or at least not have/affect kids man (and if they don't have that option we need to give it to them) because this is unhealthy.
*(Hopefully something like this will be addressed in the video or something because I need to hear some people's thoughts on this man, conversations like these are honestly the most inspiring/stimulating.)*
[Content Warning: _sexual abuse_ ] Couldn't agree more, very well put! Another argument:
I just wanted to add the argument that many people make and I agree with: that we need to give kids the tools to have safe consensual sex (for all the reasons your comment perfectly describes!), but also the tools to determine when someone else is having nonconsensual sexual interactions with them...which unfortunately can happen to them long before they hit puberty - and start experiencing their own natural desires to have sex, etc.
I mean...if kids are never told what language to use to communicate things about their genitals, from basic terminology to descriptions of actions...then how can they communicate anything about it?
If they don't know that a person touching their genitals is not the same as that person touching another part of their body....then they are so much more vulnerable when it comes to being a victim of sexual abuse, unable to understand it, recognize it, and so much less able to stop it - like by starting with reporting it to a trusted adult. It's also critical that not only do adults give children the language they need, but also that they establish a list of adults who kids know they can talk to about this, who they know they can safely say _("This person has started touching my penis, etc.")_
and the adult will understand them because the adult already communicated that.
But unfortunately, informing children "what people can do to have sex with you," includes descriptions & terminology that can also be painted as "what to do with another person to have consensual sex."
At the end of the day, however...How can a person know what counts as non-consensual touching that is inappropriate and should be reported to a trusted adult, if they don't know what consent is? What counts as "inappropriate touching" or "sexual interactions?" etc.
I don't think it's a coincidence that sooo many people who were _sexually abused_ as a kid were very sheltered when it came to sex and even when it came to the basic terms of their body, and so on.
Sorry, IDK if that makes sense.
You deserve a medal 🏅. This was so well thought out.
Wait people are being homophobic about turning red?
👏 WELL SAID
Wonderful mini-essay, we literally decide what's weird
@@sorryifoldcomment8596 yeah, if you don't even know sex or sexuality exists then how can you know that sexual abuse or predators exist and whether or not you've been a victim of it/them.
I felt this movie portrayed puberty in a VERY tame and age appropriate way for young and older children, it definitely earned its PG rating. And the message was clear, it’s good to honor and respect your parents, but also remember to respect and honor yourself. As a child of immigrants myself I found this movie very relatable and it had a good message for children and parents alike. Not everyone gets that happy ending reconciliation that the characters got in the movie (I know I never got that with my parents). Children change as they grow up and both parent and child need to learn to compromise and respect each other as the relationship changes and evolves. Mei’s mom was also a good example of how NOT to act as a parent because it also showed the effect that type of helicopter parenting had on Mei.
This movie communicates a concept I’ve felt has been true for some time: The kids are alright, it’s the adults that need help. It’s why I think Encanto in particular was so great, and Turning Red is a direct follow-up to that story of generational trauma. I hope this is opening up to Disney telling more “adult” stories, and delivering lessons for the Disney adults out there who need to hear it.
And hopefully they can put more mainline lgbtqia+ representation now that it’s finally bubbled over within the company. One of my favorite parts of Turning Red is how they very obviously, but wordlessly, showed us that Priya, while clearly a play on Twi-hard fandom and still interested in 4town and the mini-mart attendant, was also interested in girls and clearly crushing on that goth character who vibed with her charades. And not only that, but her friends saw that and supported it. It was super cute.
Honestly. Some adults pretend kids are mini them in all ways but still not a real human! They're flexible and curious, they can easily learn and that's why we must protect them from bad influences!!!! But they're also just won't understand anything and be so confused!
Nice
doubtful, the boycott they're experimenting by the parental rights issue makes me suspect that the lgbt+ will be sidelined if not outright expelled from their productions once the owl house ends...
@@zanir2387 not true, Molly Mcgee has major LBTQ rep in an upcoming episodes, they are also having more rep.
1- I ain't surprised that Matt Welsh (A guy against teaching consent to children) hate a movie about children being independent person.
2- I love this movie (the animation, the realization, the message). I am really excited to see the next Domee Shi movie.
3- Great analysis and touching on a lot of interessing subject. I found kind of fascinating the accusation of the movie of being anti-parent.Mei wasn't happy, because she couldn't express yourself in the relationship with her mother. And an healthy relationship with anyone is base on being able to communicate honestly with the other one. So , I feel most of those types of critics doesn't understand the base of human relationship.
I think, that's also why the ending is pretty great. How we have a time span that happened but we didn''t see it, we see the outcome. How Mei and her mother started to have a better relationship and Mei is able to stand up to her mom and her mom accepts it, but still gives her rules to follow.
Im sorry WHAT exactly is his argument for not teaching kids consent????
@@papus615 Look at him reading the Book "C is for consent." He basically said that his children can't say no to him (like they can't refuse to hung a family member). He said consent is just being a brat.
@@somik-i3x So does he realize consent is taught to toddlers to help them not get molested?
@@papus615 yes I remember those school videos which honestly they taught too late they should start showing his videos and in kindergarten in my opinion. But anyways. They showed videos about touching your they would call it a “bikini area“ and to show what to do if I had to do is showing any harmful and dangerous predatory behavior. And they also talked about like consent, stranger danger, and other good to know stuff. Which was great! I almost forgot that until seeing this comment wow!!!
The whole argument of "kids are too young to understand sexuality/race/etc" is so weird to me because kids are too young to understand most things but that doesn't mean we can't teach them anything. We'd never argue that kids can't learn anything about history until they are old enough to understand and emotionally process genocide, or that they can't learn the alfabet before they're old enough to read classic literature. It's just not a valid argument at all. We start by teaching them aspects of any topic that are developmentally appropriate and build up from there, that's just how learning works in general...
It really is stupid. Kids learn everything through experience as they grow up and that's a major part of them growing up, like mentally!
It basically implies knowledge is bad, harmful which well... says a lot about people who complain about questioning authority and loosing control.
I hate the fact that people are sexualizing a normal body function. My mom didn’t tell me anything and in combination with my gender dysphoria i was really confused and ashamed of periods etc. Kids like I was would probably feel a lot of comfort at seeing a movie that normalizes those things. Repressing it all and not talking about it is really bad on your mental health
I didnt really know anything either
Something I really loved about the movie was how supportive of Priya's bisexuality her friends were. Considering it was set in 2002, it really warmed my heart.
What's ironic about claiming that the movie is anti-family because Mei decides to keep her panda spirit instead of obeying her parents and getting rid of it: the panda spirit was a gift given to the women of the family by a distant ancestor so they could protect themselves and their families. It was only after her family migrated to North America that they began hiding it. They were more than willing to give up a long-standing family tradition in order to better assimilate into a foreign culture. Personally, I find it understandable. While I'm not well-versed on the subject, I suspect this need to give up certain aspects of one's culture in order to fit into a new one, particularly one with rampant racism and prejudice. I'm just saying, Mei is in fact honoring her family by keeping the panda spirit instead of treating it like a shameful secret. She's just not doing it in the way her more immediate family wants her to.
Thank you for adding "for those of us who experience physical attraction", it was nice to have this conversation without being made to feel like I don't exist
Its disturbing to me how quickly certain people, who will remain as unnamed as their hair is unkempt, throw out the word grooming......over a movie mentioning puberty...a thing that happens. More and more I find myself asking....why EXACTLY do conservatives(who have never EVER used their strict hate filled rhetoric to hide things about themselves ever)not want kids understanding and accepting changes to their bodies...hmmmm
it is truly at best very suspicious and at worst delibarately malicious. the only way kids can protect themselves and recognise the red flags so they tell a trustworthy adult is if they learn the healthy way sexuality and relationships, of all types, work, i am thankful my mom made sure to give me sex ed at least once every year , each year adding more and more as i grew up and was ready to learn more aspects not only of sexuality but of the basic fanctions of the human body. thank you for this comment, i always wondered myself 🙂
A lot of these people are absolutely obsessed with sexuality, to the point that they see it everywhere. And more and more of them are being revealed as CSA groomers themselves. What better way to ensure a victim's compliance and silence than establishing unquestionable authority over them?
If a kid doesn't know what is happening to them is bad then they're less likely to tell anyone about it. so if a kid knows things pertaining to their body and what is good and bad to do with it then they're harder to take advantage of. it's why ACTUAL groomers and ped0s tend to gravitate towards positions within the christian religion, whether that be the role of pastor, priest, teacher, or utilizing the religion as a parent, it gives them an authority over information and for children information is really all you have to help yourself or defend yourself, as everything else is controlled by the people and environments around you. A child is less likely to tell on someone if they don't understand that what that person is doing is bad
absolutely. When I see someone jump to words like grooming/pedo while accusing others... I feel a deep distrust for them. Its a strange extreme to jump to and call others.
A lot of conservatives legit want girls to be completely sheltered so they can mold them into young brides. They legit want to groom young girls so that they'll marry the first man outside the family they interact with like child brides. It's nasty AF
Brilliant essay, Jessie! Turning Red has to be one of the most genuine depictions of puberty that I have seen on the big screen. It captured the awkwardness, joy and occasional pain of growing up. There were moments where I actually cringed, because it all felt too real at times from memories of geeking over movies with friends to feeling like I would never please my family. I adored the strong bond that Mei Lin shared with her friends and how they were her support.
I am disgusted telling young girls that they shouldn’t be disgusted in themselves and that it’s normal to not be a carbon copy of mommy and daddy! How am I supposed to give my future children a low sense of self worth.
But seriously I watched the movie and I fell in love with it also I don’t know how to edit my comment.
Speaking as an aroace person, this video was really enlightening about some things that I saw around me and didn't quite understand. I realize that wasn't the focus of the video, but it's nice to finally get (to pick the most specific thing, which I understood the least) why fictional crushes are a thing.
I saw your comment while watching this video and I want to second it. Also aroace, also got some sense of what attraction feels like through the movie.
I loved Turning Red because besides the ethnicity, that was such a wonderful depiction of me when I was 12/13. Liking boy bands (ah, 90s...), developing crushes, starting puberty, drawing the exact same way (that was honestly a little freaky how accurate that was) ... but also the clashing with controlling parents. There is no easy answer to that. And to those that drone on about disobeying parents, did they miss the part where the mother hasn't talked in ages to her own mother? Where she's terrified to answer the phone of the grandmother? Because surprise, that's what happens when there's too much take and not enough give.
@@kaiyodei its awesome how we can have so many different kinds of movies for all kinds of different people to relate to :) plus its fun to use active empathy to imagine someone else's experience in the world!
I'd say Disney is living proof of the last gasp of the Hays Code, even as it supposedly "died" at least half a century ago.
The other thing to mention here is that many in trying to force their rethoric of how the film is "evil" and demonic they are low-key being racist AND sexist because the story was penned by a Chinese-Canadian woman that used her ancestry and life story to create both her short film "BAO" and this movie. Often religion and spirituality from other cultures is villified as being "evil", "worshipping bad deities" and "horrible" by the Christian -Catholic mindset. The film has no shame in portraying THAT side of Chinese-culture which often scare the Christian community. It's why so many Christian parents and experts have denounced the film as being a bad influence because in addition to promoting safe exploration of self it shows so many elements of Asian-mythology that they become legit scared of it. So in the critic's whole mantra of "SAVE THE CHILDREN" they are showing their racist, sexist ways while preaching about "unity and compassion". Turning Red is making people show their "true beast* so yo speak.
What struck me the most about this movie is just how much honoring family and respecting parents was CENTRAL to the plot of the conflict - Mei is realizing she is different than the girl her mother wants her to be and is pushed into trying to figure out who she wants to be and how to be a version of herself that she can both live with and one she hopes her mother will still approve of. It's about learning to trust herself and listen to her own voice as shaped not just by her parents but her own life & desires. If this movie was about being cavalier or being disrespectful then she wouldn't have felt the need to conform and hide herself ever. She would have used the panda to always get everything she wants. This movie is a love letter to both family and to oneself.
Kids have a lot of expectations put onto them at an early age especially how they're viewed in society. At a school I worked at multiple teachers made fun of students for crying or bringing stuffed animals to school when these were elementary school kids. The way adults can never put themselves into a kids shoes and understand this period of their life is extremely confusing and having outlets like crying or having a stuffed animal really helps.
I bring a stuff animal with me whenever I got to the dentist or the doctors. I tell them that medical stuff makes me very very nervous and the stuffy is my medical buddy.
@@Excalibur-Sonic O ya stuffy crew!! I hope they keep you safe during any medical appointments!
I'm a legal adult, and I bring my plush to doctors xD. My long time dentist was pretty sweet about it, she knows my journey of surviving those visits!
@@crazydragy4233 we love the normalization of bringing our plushy pals to appointments!!!
The stigma around "childish" things, especially things that kids(even adults) use as comforts makes me really sad. Stuffed animals, cartoons, showing "childish" emotions, they can all help to comfort those going through a hard time.
I was honestly surprised that there was this much backlash. It struck me as a perfectly serviceable, if slightly hyperactive Pixar film. Are periods really controversial still in 2022?
Using the literal text of the "Don't Say Gay" bill, because puberty isn't "age appropriate" for preteens according to the Florida education curriculum, (even though periods don't relate to being gay at all) if a teacher teaches about periods (which will happen when one of the students is inconsolably upset about their spontaneously bleeding out of one of the most-sensitive parts of their body) then the teacher can be charged as a criminal and suspended/blacklisted from teaching.
@@onijester56 freedom of speech strikes again
I loved turning red, it was such a relatable movie to me, I appreciate how honest it was, with the periods and the drooling over boys, and just how raw it was with the realities of teenage hood. They even made the characters say “crap” multiple times. I appreciate this movie so much.
Conservatives: We will explain this stuff to our kids when we think it is time!
Everyone else: So never?
Conservatives: Correct.
(Several years later)
Conservatives: Why are our kids impregnating or getting pregnant at 16?
@Cassandra Tafoya jezuz that's horrid! Horrid that poor kid had to go through that and live with the consequence of some other human's cruelty. I would never say the baby shouldn't be taken care of now that its y'know a person, but the very fact that the parents paid to have her NOT abort is so insane. Overshadowed by the insanity of not putting her behind bars and getting their child help.
I hope he is in a place with love and support now.... What a horrid "childhood" to start life with.
Funnily enough, not talking to your kids about stuff was part of the conflict of the movie. Mei was 13 that's old enough to know given she was at the age where it could happen at any time. Funnily enough it mirrors pretty closely with a review I saw where a parent complained because they felt they needed to explain periods to their 13 year old son... who should already know about puberty and just because he wont get them doesn't mean he shouldn't learn about periods. Way too many grown men uncomfortable at the idea of them because they never got taught about them.
@Cassandra Tafoya very ""prolife"" of them
It was so refreshing to watch! I think the important factor really is that Turning Red is sexual, but not sexualizing. I felt thrown back into my tween self, understanding how they felt toward looking for freedom and boys - but I didn't feel like I'm supposed to be attracted to these boys like so many teen shows are trying to do with explicit sex scenes by adult actors playing underage characters. It's huge, it's nostalgic and sweet and funny and emotional but I didn't leave it feeling like I had missed some wild part of my tween-hood. It's just a really satisfying watch 😌
Btw, the least realistic part is people eating TimBits for breakfast 😂 As a Canadian, I was like "Cool, Tim Horton's! Oh wait, what? Why?"
I wish I'd had the strength to rebel against my conservative religious parents as a child, they kept me under their control and in the closet almost my whole life. Kids should absolutely be able to have a voice and to be true to themselves
No.Their mind are not matured enough and everything can't be in children's favour
@@saminamirza8683 I mean being honest to your parents about who you are isn’t everything.
Woo-hoo! I was hoping you were gonna talk about this movie!
It pisses me off that these conservatives have no respect for Mei and her families beliefs. It literally states blatantly in the movie that they worship and honor their ancestors rather than a diety. But they criticise Mei witn Christian values that Mei doesn't even follow!! That's so fucking ignorant and just straight up Christian surprremecy. Surprise! Not everyone experiences the world the same way!! Uhghh
Makes sense. It’s Christian supremacy and bigotry
I'm a parent and this movie has been watched MANY times already in our house! My husband thinks the metaphor is purely about periods and only periods, because he's not that deep, but he's fine with it. I adore Turning Red! It's awakening into sexuality and identity, it's evaluating ones own family values instead of just accepting them, and it's moving forward into an era that allows us to be honestly ourselves. This is exactly the sort of film I WANT my daughter to watch.
lmao I have a partner that also watched media with a rather surface level view, so when I go into more deeper areas they tend to be a bit confused like "??? I t was about WHAT?!"
I think its fine to be someone who enjoys things on that level honestly, even if I struggle wo stay in the shallow end 😂 We take turns on who gets to enjoy a movie more than the other this way!
I agree.
My toxic family hated the movie because it teaches kids how to “miss-behave.” And it’s inappropriate for mentioning periods but are the same ones who never educated me on what menstrual cycles were before I had mines nor how to properly be hygienic and scolded me for crying on not knowing what was happening to me 🙂
As a Chinese-American I have so much to say but my favourite comment from bad takes is “it’s fetishizing girl puberty!” and like, it’s an all-female Pixar team (creation and development) because they wanted to show a real, girl experience with no males changing it at any point. Clearly the commentator, and every other comment on “Christian reacts to Turning Red” has not seen actual atrocities on pornhub.
Biology, sexual health, and reproduction are only “awkward” because people were taught it was. My mom didn’t make it a big deal and told me at 8, and when my period came later, the nurse was like “omg you’re so brave” and I was like “lol nah this is normal” 😅
I actually called my mom after to tell her about the different pads in the scene because that was how she showed me them and I really loved that.
I'm the kind of an adult child who would really have needed to see a film like Turning Red as a kid. I was a very anxious kid, and I was ashamed of everything puberty entailed, because my assumption was always there was something wrong with me. At the same time, I had a relationship with my parents, which was tight enough for my psychiatrist to describe as symbiotic two decades later. I'm in my 40s now, and still in therapy, now knowing that I'm queer, autistic, and still struggling to have a life independent of my family. The kids' films I grew up with had a prince come and rescue the princess from a castle, and they lived happily ever after. How is that portraying family values? Stay at home with your parents, until a complete stranger shows up, kisses you once and takes you to another castle?
I felt I was watching myself as a kid, watching Turning Red, only, I never told my mom I turned into a cool red panda, because I was too ashamed to say it. I'm still under that bed, not quite knowing how to get out, and quite honestly, hearing these protectors of purity culture talk about how demonic the film is, as if they never went through puperty themselves, makes me sad. Despite Disney totally effing up the Florida thing, this film at least shows that someone in that corporation knows what it's like to be a kid, and they finally have the guts to show that.
Sorry for the rant. This just felt personal. 😀
I wonder how those same people going off about Turning Red feel about Encanto. It’s also about going against family hegemony and parental authority and the protagonist also defies the family’s matriarch, which is the right path for the family.
Fanfiction is love. Fanfiction is life. 34 years old and still reading it, still writing it. 💜💚💜💚💜
My boyfriend is 32 still reading and writing too 💜💜
I'm 20 and im still writing too 🥰
I'm 22 and I've been reading/writing it since I was 7 💕
@@teaqueque
Oh wow! Do you still have some of the fanfics you wrote during childhood?
@@DrawciaGleam02 I mean, I've found like loose papers with the first chapter or so handwritten before, so technically yes! They're currently in a box somewhere. It was mostly escapist self-insert and overpowered ocs, but I had a lot of fun with it as a kid! I didn't post a lot online and the few things I did aren't up anymore.
Disney: actively supports the Dont Say Gay bill
"Good" parents: this is fine
also Disney: Quietly releases a movie with allegory to periods and kids' first experiences of lust
"Good" parents: OMFG HOW DARE YOU SHOW THIS TO MY CHILD YOU MONSTER
When I was watching this with my dad, he complained that the party and concert scenes didn’t have adult’s supervising the children. Said it was too unrealistic. Of course, a movie about puberty that is represented by a red panda needed to be more realistic in terms of the presence of adults eventhough those scenes are focusing particularly on preteen interests and adding random adults will confuse the purpose
Even so Tyler's parents where at the house, it's his birthday after all. They just didn't need to be on scene supervising, since they're teenagers not little kids.
Heck our teacher would let us 13 year olds split up in groups by ourselves on field trips.
@@StarStoneWolf exactly! Even if they should have been supervised, its a cartoon. Why would they want to waste time making adult character models when they were trying to convey that this is a “kids” party. This movie is already exaggerated enough, really not much of a leap
"Ive been told it doesnt have a message" ah, so Matt there didnt even watch the damn movie, of course.
Turning Red is about a lot of things but for one it's about not repressing yourself-like...as Mei used her Panda more, it got stronger, but she ALSO had more control, enough to utilize it in a healthy way. Like a teen will hopefully learn how to properly balance their emotions with experience.
Also 'honoring your parents' isnt the same as 'blind obedience.' Ming was just wrong, Mei's aunties and grandma were wrong, and they never stopped to take Mei's feelings into account until it was almost too late. Sometimes elders are wrong and kids should have the autonomy to call this out
Exactly
AAAAA can't wait for this one!! so excited to see your opinion on Turning Red, I truly truly loved this movie and I'm so puzzled at the blatant hate towards it, which is really just fucking racism and misogyny clothed in 'criticism'.
I'm so glad my mum gave me the puberty talk fairly early. Not everything was handled well, but I wasn't one of the people who thought they were dying when their period arrived, and I'm glad for that.
This is coming from a girl who grew up in the 00-10s. I love how this this film captured so perfectly the imperfect elements of teenagehood. This film, even though it’s animated and there are giant pandas, it’s just so realistic. Puberty is tough, and this film tackles it so well. High school and friendships are portrayed so accurately in this movie, it doesn’t deserve the hate it gets.
The "controversy" over Turning Red makes me sad. This is a beautiful and real movie, and imminently relatable. As a parent, I had absolutely no issue watching this movie with my children, and was glad to do so. This movie's message is a good and important one, and one valuable to parents as well, to help is realize when we inadvertently stifle our children and fail to see the world through their eyes as we pass along generational trauma.
I started puberty in 3rd grade, ahead of many of my peers, some of whom were even a year or two older than me. It was mortifying and upsetting because no one told me about these things. No one thought they had to yet. Even for those who start puberty at more common ages (like 10 or 11), many of them are similarly uninformed. Even the most well-meaning of parents tend to procrastinate these discussions because they're awkward or embarrassing to have with their child. But if parents aren't doing it, then the argument that "I should decide when my child learns about it!" is null. Schools have to teach it because otherwise, nobody will.
I feel like I should watch this movie, the idea of young teen sexuality makes me so uncomfortable due to experiencing covert SA in childhood and adolescences and lack of age-appropriate, conversations around the subject as a kid/young teen, sort of reintegrating this aspect and re-parenting myself from this aspect is what we're working on in therapy. Jesse always somehow manages to speak on topics that are so timely for me :)
The reason why I was so happy with this movie was exactly the discussion of sexuality. It wasn't weird or gross or inappropriate (like a, say, cuties and similar films). This movie was the closest representation of my puberty I've seen so far. And though I don't relate to all of it (afab AAA battery and supercharged) I really felt it - the overbearing mother bit especially.
My daughters loves this movie ( I am more of an Encanto enjoyer with all the family trauma), She got the courage to ask me about periods and growing. We had a good talk about changes her body will go through and that I, her aunt, her cousins, will always be there to answer growing up questions for her and help her. We also talked about safe secrets to keep from daddy. The fact that parents are offended by this movie are the mother from Turning Red and can't see it. Parents, remember they are kids and its ok for them to know adult topics cause it makes it easier as they grow.
Despite being continually distracted by the fabulous sparkly rainbow top, there are so many good points. One great phrase is "When you raise a child, the goal is to end up with an adult." In order to do that, a parent has to let their children have some freedom and make their own mistakes. You can't shelter them for 18 years and expect them to be able to function in society. It's a hard thing to do, but parents need to let go.
Turning Red and She-Ra are 2 properties I'd actively encourage kids to watch. None of this pandering horseshit Disney usually churns out. France and the UK never pull their punches when dealing with adult/teen themes and a multinational conglomerate can easily face the ire of a bunch of backwards fascists.
As a father to a nine years old girl I loved this film not what I was expecting but in a good way I really liked the way they dealt with alot of topics that some people may find unpleasant,I hope that my daughter is able to come to me and ask questions that she needs answers to I just hope that I can.also it was a great family film and kids need to find their individuality and yes parents are wrong sometimes but I would rather have a discord with my kids on an even stage than control them they are our future and more important than we realise but we loved that film it was great as are you thanks for another great video xx
I have two AFAB children and I just LOVED the movie! I even talked about periods with the older one (7yo) and said that the movie was groundbreaking because up until now this topic wasn't talked about or shown on movies without being the but of the joke and she replied: why if all women have periods? do people also avoid talking about beards?
I think I'm on the right! ˆˆ
I am going to be honest, as hard as I cringed half the movie, I couldn't help but cry so much when watching it.
29:25 I was never really shamed by my grandmother for speaking out against my parents, but that was mostly because, much like Mei, I learned from a young age to obey and keep my parents happy. Up until I was 12 it was fine. Whether it was to keep my good grades or lower my head and shut up, nod and apologize if I had my room disorganized or I missed a school assignment or something. Instead of raking up trouble like my older sister did, I bent to what my parents wanted. But as I got older, I began to realize things about myself and the world that still to this day make me feel separated from my parents. First, my grades started dropping as I began battling depression, SH and ST, my ADHD (undiagnosed at the time) started worsening and my ASD (also undiagnosed until recently) just stayed unattended and ignored. I also realized a lot of things my parents said about sex didn't really matter to me, that I actually couldn't care less if someone was gay, followed by a painfully regrettable period of oversexualizing and objectifying MLM relationships that thankfully came to an end soon enough as I researched how it can damage actual people, then a few years of writing WLW stories for myself, a couple years more and realizing I was bisexual and then that I'm genderfluid.
My parents are homophobic and transphobic. They are very conservative when it comes to sexuality. We never had "the talk" because even at age 12 I knew it was just not something I could actually talk to them about. I hid all my feelings because I was ashamed, I was also worried my pampered lifestyle would come crashing down. I still am. The difference between Mei and I is that I won't tell my parents. At least not as long as I financially depend on them. Then I will let them decide if they still want me around or not.
I am currently diagnosed with chronic depression, social anxiety, ADHD and ASD, and am taking medication as well as attending therapy to work through it as I finish medical school. I love my parents. And if they accept me and love me afterwards, I will gladly keep in contact. But if they don't... it would be devastating, sure, but I will cut contact wit them, or at least go low contact. I am slowly getting tired of feeling unsafe and like that hug will be the last before they hate me. Of fearing that I will lose my family. But at least I won't have to hide who I am anymore. Twenty one years down, three to go.
Through this movie, i am more confident that im asexual. (Imagine lusting lmao) but honestly this movie made me see what libido and whatever is like for teenagers and i never really had the opportunity to compare my experience with my non attraction to a fictional teenagers attraction and i think its real neat.