I’m very concerned. There’s a movie that hit big this past weekend and it’s sending a horrible message about the proper way adults behave with each other. Our young people have to know this isn’t real, that in real-life this would be a bad relationship, and if someone tries to recruit them for something like this, they should run screaming for the exit.
We cannot glorify this kind of thing.
I’m speaking, of course, of the indoctrination of young people into the cult of glorified violence personified by Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Yes, we know Colin Firth is seductively attractive. And we know getting his approval sounds important in the movie. And we know that he offers the main character a lifestyle that young men (and at least one young woman) can only dream about.
But these impressionable young people have to learn: This is not real life.
This movie glorifies a relationship in which an impressionable young man is recruited into a lifestyle that is harmful to himself and others. In real life, they must know that it’s horrifying and scary to have to kill people. In real life, our young men must be taught that it’s unrealistic to expect that none of those bullets will hit you.
And, in real life, well, they have to be given the information about how harmful those weapons could be untrained hands.
I know ballistics experts who will testify exactly how unrealistic the gunplay is in Kingsman and how the way those bullets behave violates the laws of physics. There are real-life spies who will testify that this movie bears no relation to how spies operate in the real world.
We must get the word out and protect our youngsters from movies like this so they know what’s acceptable and what’s unacceptable.
What will happen if there actually is a suave, smart, resourceful secret agent out there who may actually try to involve our sons (and maybe our daughters?) in such an unequal mentor/student relationship?
What will happen if our young men fall into a relationship where they don’t feel comfortable saying “no” to killing people with umbrellas?
They’ll be corrupted and in danger.
We must stop this.
Who’s with me?
Sign my petition at amodestproposal.com and end this glorification!
Opening umbrellas indoors is always dangerous.
The same could be said for a most of the movies and books marketed to young adults now. It’s our job as parents to make sure they know the difference between movies and real life and what is appropriate. I really don’t get the inordinate concern for this particular film.
I only wish this had less swearing and violence so I could recommend it to some of the readers in my middle school library. I have so many boys that read the Alex Rider books that would love this movie if they could actually see it yet!
In case it’s not clear, this is satire. I wanted to make a point that everyone is rushing to “protect” our girls from the bad messages of 50 Shades (which is basically a fantasy that no one I know takes seriously) but no one’s concerned about the uber-violent male fantasy of Kingsman or movies like it. Abusive relationships are a serious problem. So is violence in America, witness the shootings this weekend. But I think 50 Shades bears as much relation to reality in relationships as Kingman does to real violence. Whether we should be more concerned about violent messages…I don’t have the answer to that. But I am concerned at the double-standard in which female fantasies in general are viewed in comparison to male fantasies.
The problem with the reasoning that 50 shades doesn’t resemble real relationships is that you’re wrong. Take away the money, the bad BDSM plotline (which isn’t even representative of a real BDSM relationship), and you have a female character that has extremely low self esteem and a male character that uses that and intimidates, coerces, and stalks. In fact a lot of women who have experienced domestic abuse see a very scary resemblance in 50 Shades to what they experienced in real life, which is why many women find it so startling that others think Christian Grey is something to want.
It’s easy to say “take away the money” but the money is part of the fantasy, just as Colin Firth and his umbrella and guns are part of the male fantasy. So why do we approach these two fantasies differently? If we allow that 50 Shades is harmful to society and teaches them wrong things about relationships, why don’t we allow that movies like Kingsman are harmful to society and teaches people the wrong thing about using violence to solve problems?
This is not to say I’m advocating censorship in either case but we need to look hard at why we approach one gendered fantasy different from another, when putting them in the real world can be equally harmful. Why is it this way? Why does the violence so prevalent in our movies said to be harmless when gun violence is a serious problem in America and yet the fantasy of a billionaire with bondage toys immediately pegged as the most dangerous thing ever for girls, at least according to my Facebook feed. Wouldn’t both be dangerous? Or neither? Or is the answer somewhere in between.
But until we see that we *are* approaching the fantasies differently along gendered lines, we can’t have the discussion.
I am very anti-gun but as I haven’t seen Kingsman (but I have read 50 Shades). I can’t compare. Perhaps when/if I see the movie we can discuss the topic further but my point was that you cannot discredit the reality that many women face abusive relationships like that depicted in 50 Shades. Whereas how many young men are recruited to a secret service? Now, if Kingsman were about gangs and a young man being recruited into a gang, that would be open to more discussion. Though Kingsman could be considered similar to recruitment for the military as well opening an even larger can of worms. I DO understand your thinking and there are double standards but 50 Shades IS a reality for many women.