Daniel Aegan

I’m so tired of these horrible incel takes on movies. I’m a middle aged dude who’s way more immature than other people my age, but I had no issue whatsoever with the latest Disney/Pixar movie Turning Red. To clarify, I’ve seen a handful of tweets and shared content about this movie full of anger and misplaced raged based on the subject matters. To clarify further, the subject matter is a thirteen year old girl who turns into a red panda. Think Teen Wolf if it were a tween drama.

This hot take I saw this morning stated that the panda was symbolic of the main character’s vagina, and the movie conditioned kids toward sex work since she sells photos and personal appearances in order to fund some boyband concert tickets. I’ve watched this movie, and I can say with all certainty ever certained that the “panda” is not symbolic for any kind of private parts. If anything, this change alludes to a girl’s transition into womanhood. Red panda = … You get the point. At least I hope so.

That being said, can we have any movie where the main character isn’t a straight white man that doesn’t get this treatment? This movie was fine. My kid and her friend with whom I watched it both loved it. Just because you can’t relate doesn’t make it a perverse narrative. I’ve recently spoken about the “this isn’t for you” phenomenon in my last blog post based on this same movie, but apparently this wasn’t enough. You can check it out here to catch up:

Daniel’s Journal #70 – Dealing with TIAMS and Its Victims

Here’s the thing about all this bullshit. If you’re a snowflake who’s easily offended by a movie meant to relate to young girls, then maybe skip movies like this. Maybe use that time to book a therapy session instead and try to find the root of what made you like this. If you’re seeing this movie as symbolism of girls’ privates and it puts your mind right to sex work, then most definitely do the therapy thing. Bro, you’ve got more issues than National Geographic.

This isn’t about Disney or Pixar or any production company being “woke” or pushing an agenda. It’s about your backwards-ass mindset that doesn’t allow you to take part in media that makes you feel things for people who aren’t you; people you’ve been conditioned to marginalize. Let’s say you wake up yourself to this conditioning at some point and you can see the world for the tapestry of deferences it is instead of viewing things from your glass house that smells like stale farts and ookie cookies.

That’s what pisses you off. If this movie was about a white boy who turned into a bear whenever he had a wet dream, you’d laud it as the best cartoon ever made. Granted, I may write that story now, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make. We could call it Turning Blue for reasons too gross to get into here.

But I digress.

It’s about time to wrap this up, so let me conclude by repeating something that no one who needs to hear will hear. I understand not liking things. There is plenty of media I don’t like. It’s not our place, however, to furrow our brows and try to make up disgusting reasons to hate a movie so adorably sweet that speaks to its target audience so well. There’s not doubt in my mind why my daughter and her friend liked it so much while I sat in the room with a meh expression. This wasn’t for me, and that’s OK. There is plenty of stuff that is for me, though, and I’m happy content like this is coming out more and more for people who feel like they don’t get plots in movies or storylines on TV shows to which they can relate. There are soooooo many reasons to not like Disney, but this isn’t one of them.

It’s a bad look, and no one wants incel culture. Pay attention to what’s being said about people who aren’t you in movies like Turning Red or any other media featuring women or people of color or those in the queer and trans community. It was never about the panda, a black Captain America, or queer characters on TV shows. It’s always been about your inability to accept that you share the world with people who aren’t you.

Daniel Aegan – 3/23/22