Despicable Me 2 #heterosexism #racism

[elle_white]

 Yesterday, I went to see Despicable Me 2, and honestly … I didn’t like it very much. As the trailer’s indicated, it was painfully heteronormative, with the kids needing a mother as well as a father in their lives. I went to see Lucy being awesome and forming a relationship with the girls. Sadly, there was little interaction between Lucy and the kids. She was more there to fill the role of mother than to have an actual relationship with Agnes, Edith and Margo. One of the early scenes of the film had Gru dress in drag. The woman he’d hired to play a fairy for Agnes’ birthday, pulled out at the last minute, so Gru had to “humiliate" himself and cross dress. This is treated as hilarious, and sets up that the family is missing a woman. *facepalm* Agnes and the other girls meet Lucy, Agnes thinks she’d be the perfect mother on seeing her, and then she becomes the girl’s mum at the end. And that’s it. I would’ve liked her to actually talk with the girls. She could have bonded with Agnes, Margo could have confided in her about boys and she could have discussed martial arts with Edith. There was so much potential there, movie! The girls were sidelined in this movie. 

But Lucy herself was kickass, goofy and adorable! She was the only thing I really liked about this film. 

There were three pocs in the film, and they were all portrayed in gross, stereotypical ways. Two of them were villains, and one was portrayed as the stereotypical “Latino lover." I was cringing throughout most of the movie.

In the first movie, the minions were mostly sweet and fun, but occasionally annoying. In this movie, they're mostly annoying but sometimes sweet and fun. 

I thought the first movie was flawed, but very sweet and charming. This was a rushed, offensive mess. Lucy was pretty much the only good point in this film. 

Comments

[elle_white]

I hated that the movie seemed to say it was unthinkable for Gru to stay a single parent. In the movie, he had issues with talking to women because he'd experienced bullying as a kid. And the kids, and the movie treat like something he has to get over! He has to get with woman because the girls need a mother.

You know what's always gotten to me about the "homosexuality is inappropriate to show to kids" mentality? There are children's programs that make references to death, child abuse and genocide (A:TLA comes to mind. These things were deemed okay for children. But two people of the same gender who love each other? That's just not proper for kids to see! Media can show harsh realities to kids, (and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing) but they can't show love in all its forms. That's pretty messed up when you think about it!

[fairy1234]

Uggggh, the fact that Gru is really put out of his comfort zone in this movie just because people can't grasp the concept of a single father makes me so mad.

There are children's programs that make references to death, child abuse and genocide.

YES, EXACTLY. That's a problem that I have as well with the media. I always see stuff on children's shows and movies that show these things especially death of a family member. But the minute we ask for queer couples in children's media, we're suddenly told that it's inappropriate and not safe for them to see. Even though there are children that are queer and/or have queer parents. Hell, sometimes there's straight up innuendo between hetero couples but that gets a pass because lol, it's funny to the adults.