Elon Musk says he canceled his Netflix account — and urges his followers to as well

[PloverWing]

Sure, but what do you think about stuff being produced for children having gender bending sexuality. It's becoming more and more of a trend. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

So... I thought you were objecting to transgender stuff, but now it sounds like you're objecting to gay stuff instead. Is it both? Can you clarify?

My sense of age-appropriateness is the same for same-sex and opposite-sex relationships on screen.

- Two naked people in bed having sex? nope, not for kids.

- A teenager has a boyfriend/girlfriend? yeah, that's okay. Kids know about dating if they have older siblings.

- Holding hands? Saying nice things to each other? yeah, that's okay.

- On-screen kiss? that's going to make small kids go "ewwww, yuk!", so I wouldn't put it in a kids' program.

As to same-sex relationships being portrayed on screen, see my previous post about diversity of representation. Gay people exist in the world -- some kids' parents, or friends, or the kids themselves -- and I like seeing gay people portrayed on screen as having friends and adventures and so on. You can still tell your kids that you disagree with people having same-sex relationships, much as you could see a girl in a headscarf in a TV program and still tell your kids that you disagree with Muslim beliefs about God.

 

[7thKeeper]

Netflix has FISK. So no way am I cancelling.

I enjoy a lot of their Korean and Japanese content.

 

[BCP1928]

Per my previous post, it sounds like it's no so much that it's depicting any acts of that nature, but rather some of the underlying themes.

In the case of this show, one of the central themes is that the trans boy left home and cut off family ties due to them not being adequately supportive (hence the reason they're living in some sort of haunted amusement park to begin with)... At which point, their sidekick is a BIPOC autistic lesbian named Norma who has a crush on a Muslim girl. Throughout the show, Barney (trans boy) is also gay in addition, and has another boy who is the target of his crush.
(and no, that's not meant to be an over-the-top facetious exaggeration, that's actually the backdrop from what I'm reading)


Are those necessarily the themes that need to be present to that degree in shows intended for a Y7 audience?


I typically tend to look at it through the lens of a spectrum of
"show where a character happens to be LGBT" <-> "show where LGBT-related material seems to be a central theme and drives main storylines"


Based on the reviews I'm reading of the show (both the positive and negative ones), this show sounds like it could be a little more towards the latter.

Kids shows often feature characters whose lives are shaped by the fact that they are different in some way. It's a common theme.

 

[durangodawood]

Kids shows often feature characters whose lives are shaped by the fact that they are different in some way. It's a common theme.

Yeah the orphan / outcast kid(s) theme is perennial.

 

[seeking.IAM]

I prefer not to sign on with my email address to read the article. Can someone fill me in on the particular Netflix airing that is being talked about?

 

[Desk trauma]

I prefer not to sign on with my email address to read the article. Can someone fill me in on the particular Netflix airing that is being talked about?

Show has trans character, billionaire estranged from their trans child thinks you should cancel your Netflix account over it.

 

[PloverWing]

I prefer not to sign on with my email address to read the article. Can someone fill me in on the particular Netflix airing that is being talked about?

I also did not want to sign into Business Insider, but there's a Wikipedia article about the show: Dead End: Paranormal Park - Wikipedia

 

[durangodawood]

In the case of this show, one of the central themes is that the trans boy left home and cut off family ties due to them not being adequately supportive (hence the reason they're living in some sort of haunted amusement park to begin with)... At which point, their sidekick is a BIPOC autistic lesbian named Norma who has a crush on a Muslim girl. Throughout the show, Barney (trans boy) is also gay in addition, and has another boy who is the target of his crush.
(and no, that's not meant to be an over-the-top facetious exaggeration, that's actually the backdrop from what I'm reading)
....

I know. So much diversity that you almost think diversity is the point, which is annoying. I watch some of those youtubers culture-hawks who hate that sort of thing too. Like the black guy elf on Rings Of Power*. But its just not that important.

(*awful show all around - regardless of any diversity "issues")

 

[GoldenBoy89]

Per my previous post, it sounds like it's no so much that it's depicting any acts of that nature, but rather some of the underlying themes.

In the case of this show, one of the central themes is that the trans boy left home and cut off family ties due to them not being adequately supportive (hence the reason they're living in some sort of haunted amusement park to begin with)... At which point, their sidekick is a BIPOC autistic lesbian named Norma who has a crush on a Muslim girl. Throughout the show, Barney (trans boy) is also gay in addition, and has another boy who is the target of his crush.
(and no, that's not meant to be an over-the-top facetious exaggeration, that's actually the backdrop from what I'm reading)


Are those necessarily the themes that need to be present to that degree in shows intended for a Y7 audience?


I typically tend to look at it through the lens of a spectrum of
"show where a character happens to be LGBT" <-> "show where LGBT-related material seems to be a central theme and drives main storylines"


Based on the reviews I'm reading of the show (both the positive and negative ones), this show sounds like it could be a little more towards the latter.

It happens. I used to love Captain Planet when I was little not realizing it was just flat out preaching environmentalism to a young audience.

For what it’s worth, I’m terrible at recycling to this day so maybe preachy cartoons aren’t the most effective method of indoctrination.

 

[seeking.IAM]

I also did not want to sign into Business Insider, but there's a Wikipedia article about the show: Dead End: Paranormal Park - Wikipedia

Thank you.

 

[seeking.IAM]

Show has trans character, billionaire estranged from their trans child thinks you should cancel your Netflix account over it.

Thank you.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I typically look at it through the lens of "would this sort of thing raise a fuss if it was hetero white people behaving this exact way?"

I would say yes, any topic of sexuality in a show geared towards 2nd graders would probably draw some level of backlash regardless of orientation.

I see a stark contrast between, for example...

A show like Brooklyn Nine Nine, where Captain Holt is openly gay, it's acknowledged, but it's not central to the story.
vs.
"Here's an animated show for 2nd graders where 80% of the characters have to be something other than cis/straight, and getting away from your toxic family if they don't go along with what you want is the ideal approach"

 

[ThatRobGuy]

It happens. I used to love Captain Planet when I was little not realizing it was just flat out preaching environmentalism to a young audience.

For what it’s worth, I’m terrible at recycling to this day so maybe preachy cartoons aren’t the most effective method of indoctrination.

The key difference was that makers of Captain Planet weren't trying to hide the ball or "sneak" anything into a kids show.

They were pretty open about what their intent was... to get kids more in-line with environmental activism.

Barbara Pyle (a well-known environmental activist) made Captain Planet with the financial backing of Ted Turner.

Barbara Pyle - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

That's a little different than what happens with the kid's shows today...where it's the schtick of
"It's just total coincidence that the main characters are a gay & trans protagonist (whose parents are the bad guys for not being supportive), his gay love interest, his BIPOC neurodivergent lesbian sidekick who's in-love with a Muslim girl, and an androgenous demon named Courtney who is a fallen angel

...this is just a show about solving mysteries"

 

[iluvatar5150]

It happens. I used to love Captain Planet when I was little not realizing it was just flat out preaching environmentalism to a young audience.

For what it’s worth, I’m terrible at recycling to this day so maybe preachy cartoons aren’t the most effective method of indoctrination.

Don't sweat it. Recycling is largely a market-driven endeavor, and the market prices for many of those reclaimed materials are so low that they often wind up in a landfill anyways.

I would say yes, any topic of sexuality in a show geared towards 2nd graders would probably draw some level of backlash regardless of orientation.

And you would be wrong. Do you watch any kids movies? I do. I watch a lot of them. That list I put up before:

• Cinderella
• Snow White
• Sleeping Beauty
• Beauty and the Beast
• The Little Mermaid
• Lady and the Tramp
• Brave
• Frozen
• Tangled
• Up
• Wall-E

In every one of those, the characters' sexual orientations aren't merely ancillary characteristics; they're central to the story. Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel are saved from their evil families by their hetero love interests. Princess Aurora is saved from Maleficent's curse by her future husband (arranged marriage in some versions). Belle's falling in love with the Beast is what breaks the curse on him. Lady and the Tramp is about a good girl falling for a "bad boy" who turns out to defy everybody's poor opinion of him. Brave is about a Celtic princess rebelling against being forced into an arranged marriage. Frozen is about a teen princess ascending to the throne and having would-be villains try to seize control by marrying into the family. Up is about an elderly man grieving the loss of his wife. Wall-E is about an ostensibly male robot falling in love and pursuing an ostensibly female robot.

Elemental is another one I just thought of where hetero love interest play an important role in helping two characters of different "elements" (the proxy for ethnicities) bridge the gap between their two families and cultures.

 

[durangodawood]

I would say yes, any topic of sexuality in a show geared towards 2nd graders would probably draw some level of backlash regardless of orientation.

I see a stark contrast between, for example...

A show like Brooklyn Nine Nine, where Captain Holt is openly gay, it's acknowledged, but it's not central to the story.
vs.
"Here's an animated show for 2nd graders where 80% of the characters have to be something other than cis/straight, and getting away from your toxic family if they don't go along with what you want is the ideal approach"

Having a fantasy escape land from non understanding fam is a perennial theme even at this age level. If we have to boycott over this, say goodbye to a lot of formerly treasured stories. This is starting to feel like the "woke" impulse so many complain about.

As for sex orientation being important, see Illuvatar's list and comments above.

 

[RocksInMyHead]

I would say yes, any topic of sexuality in a show geared towards 2nd graders would probably draw some level of backlash regardless of orientation.

Except that, based on the plot summaries and the director's own comments about the show, it does not appear to be "geared towards 2nd graders" - the characters are all in their late teens and it covers things that the average 2nd grader would have zero interest in (like workplace dynamics, how to manage the transition from carefree childhood to responsible adulthood, living away from your parents for the first time, etc). This is clearly a show that was written for and targeted at teens and young adults (as further evidenced by the director stating that he felt it fit into the category of "Young Adult Animation"). Netflix rating it as "for ages 7 and up" (if that's actually accurate) could be reflective of the fact that the actual content isn't unsuitable for children (in the sense that it doesn't have sex or gratuitous violence), or it could simply be a categorization error - I don't know how Netflix does their ratings. I remember in the '90s, when anime was first starting to show up in American video rental stores, there were some things in the "kids" section that were absolutely NOT child-friendly. That was because the people categorizing videos saw animation and automatically assumed that it was a cartoon aimed at children.

Also, I'll note that this show has been on Netflix for three years - both seasons aired in 2022. The current wave of outrage is purely because an influential Twitter account (LibsOfTikTok) posted a clip from it.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I know. So much diversity that you almost think diversity is the point,

Okay, so then people should just acknowledge that rather than playing coy and pretending "what? it's just a show about solving mysteries that just so happens to have some non-straight non-sis characters, what's everyone so upset about?"

 

[ThatRobGuy]

And this is a problem because...?

If you don't like it, don't watch it. If you don't want your kids watching it, don't let them watch it. There were plenty of TV shows that I wasn't allowed to watch as a kid because my parents didn't approve of the content, but they weren't out there advocating that they be taken off the air. Not sure why this should be any different today.

I haven't suggested that anything be taken off the air.

Just pointing out that it's an indoctrination attempt, and people shouldn't bristle that fact when it's pointed out and act as if "it's just the other side being petty"

 

[durangodawood]

Okay, so then people should just acknowledge that rather than playing coy and pretending "what? it's just a show about solving mysteries that just so happens to have some non-straight non-sis characters, what's everyone so upset about?"

Ok. They should do that. Not that its important whether they do it or not. I mean, who cares.

I should say, Rings Of Power totally overdid it talking about how much its about diversity. It got a little absurd. So on second thought maybe people should just make their show without erecting billboards to explain it.

 

[iluvatar5150]

I should say, Rings Of Power totally overdid it talking about how much its about diversity. It got a little absurd.

They did? Was this in the marketing? Because I don't recall that from the show itself, at all.