Quote:
Originally Posted by Drolefille
Heh, I rarely manage to say things nicely, it seems. But it's kind of like the thread about what TV show you'd like to live in. All those past time periods really sucked for women, and when they got better for white women they still sucked for non-white women and men. Not that things are peachy keen now, but I really can't think of any other time period I'd actually want to live in and romanticizing it, whether through a movie or a TV show ignores a lot of the real issues.
With GWTW, and the romanticizing of the Old South, it pretends that everyone (usually just the person writing) was white, rich, and lived the life of luxury on a plantation sipping lemonade on the porch and going to society events. That was the experience of a tiny tiny number of people and it happened on the backs and pain of far too many to ignore.
A bit much for a GwtW thread? Maybe. But the movie's tied up in this selective memory all the way through.
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Were I one of my ancestors I'd be at best popping out babies on a tiny family farm, picking lice out of my one dress every night, and plowing the field every morning while the menfolk were shooting each other on the battlefield. No one we know of was sipping lemonade in our family tree. But it's a movie that a lot of people grew up on, and it's nice to watch. I still enjoy watching it, as long as I get my bathroom break. Almost any movie about a period in history is selective...I know when I watch a movie about the middle ages where the characters are chivalrous and beautiful that in reality everyone smelled like rotting road kill and women were essentially livestock. I still enjoy the movie. *Shrug*.