There’s a movie coming out this week called The Fault in Our Stars. A brief synopsis is that it’s the story of a teenage girl (Hazel) with a terminal illness who meets a teenage boy (Augustus) at a support group who immediately takes a liking to her, despite the fact that Hazel feels insecure with herself due to her cancer and the fact that she has to always carry an oxygen tank around with her everywhere as a result. As their relationship blossoms, Hazel is reluctant to fully let Augustus into her world, because she feels that as she is terminally ill, she doesn’t want to burden anyone with the pain of her eventual death. Undeterred, Augustus pursues her heart, because pain is supposedly inevitable, and there’s no sense in trying to avoid it at the cost of living your life.
In other words, it’s a heartfelt romantic plot that is just about guaranteed to make the vast majority of viewers cry. It’s also based on a true story, which makes it all the more soulful and beautiful in a sense. But for all intents and purposes, it has the makings of a good movie that will undoubtedly make people feel sadness, but the overlaying message will be one that of happiness.
I read this article (which I refuse to share, because I loathed it that much) that basically stated that despite the fact that the terminally ill Hazel enters a relationship with Augustus, despite her initial attempts to keep him away, had he not succeeded in winning her over and she succeeded in deterring him outright, then without question, the Augustus was definitely undoubtedly a serial rapist murderer psychopath.
Because NO MEANS NO, and Augustus should not have overstepped his bounds and pursued her regardless, and essentially by pursuing her despite her pleas to not, and subsequently succeeding in winning her over, it kind of makes him a rapist. CLEARLY.
And then there’s a whole lot of rhetoric about the Santa Barbara massacre, and how Augustus was pretty much an Elliot Rodger, had he not succeeded in getting the girl, but it’s a good thing he did, because otherwise he would have made the logical next step and gone on a murderous rampage.
Basically, because an uber-feminist really wanted to spread her agenda, she took a beautiful heartfelt story of good, stuffed it full of straw men and other radical hypotheticals, and burned it like arson.
Despite the fact that I may or may not act like a chauvinistic pig in my writing and actions at times, when the day is over, I’m all for equal rights. Not just in gender, but in sexual orientation, race (seriously), age, and any other designation that’s often under debate. But I’ll be the first to opine that I think that there are times when I really feel like feminism tends to go a little overboard, even if this makes me sound like a woman-hating breeder.
However, I don’t say anything when people post things to Facebook that cries out inequality for women, Anita Sarkeesian videos, opinions that women need to unite against all the psychopathic lonely nerd virgins in the world, or anything like that. That’s their prerogative to post it, and if I don’t want to indulge, I don’t have to. Those are our rights.
But I got really upset reading this article, and I legitimately do feel regret for even clicking it in the first place. I cite a slow work day and needing to find anything to read to take my mind off of how slow time was moving, but in spite of the fact that it definitely distracted me from boredom, I’d give anything to say I didn’t read, much less see the existence of this piece of shit article.
Go after video game communities, sports talk forums, weight lifting message boards, or any place that reeks of abject chauvinism. Call out TV shows, literature, movies or any other media that actually does paint men in a poor light, or is oppressing women unfairly.
But to target a story about cancer patients, and the relationship that blooms between two youths given a bad hand in life, but finding the will and strength to solder on regardless? That’s just wrong. So very fucking wrong. Completely unnecessary, and way too grasping at straws, in a pitiful attempt to garner attention and the ever-essential clicks.
It’s stuff like this that really makes me feel jaded, and start to feel hatred towards things in the world.
This all disgusts me.
