Kareem Objects to 'Horton'

S

SeanFirst Name

New member
This tidbit is so...unique I thought I must share it with you all.

Apparently, basketball star Kareem Abdul Jabbar finds the recent Horton Hears a Who movie sexist.

Read his views in his blog.


M'kay. Discuss.


EDIT: Could a mod fix the typo in this thread's title, please? I missed the 'b' in 'objects'.
 
This comment made by parent pretty much sums up what I think about this:

He was just reading between the lines way too much. The thought of sexism in this movie never came to me until now. Sad thing is that a majority of the comments agree with Kareem.
 
I like Kareem, really I do, the man is cool. But this rant is a bit nuts. You got a bunch of girls and one son, of course you probably are going to focus on him moreso, especially if you're a dad. That's just how we are.
 
Kareem also needs to consider the fact that the Mayor of Whoville's wife and daughters had no equivalent in Dr. Suess' book; they were all created for the movie. JoJo was in the book, but he wasn't the Mayor's son, IIRC.
 
The fact that your only son is going to be the next in line in Mayor automatically should be reason enough to make you want to pay attention so he doesn't screw the job up.
 
So essentially you're admitting right here that you're sexist, since feminism is the belief that men and women should be equal.

Now, if you said you hate feminists, I could understand, seeing as some of them can be quite annoying and hypocritical, but that's a different issue.
 
Nope. I'm not. I believe men and women should have equal rights.

I'm talking more about the whole "women are better and smarter then men and they should ALWAYS be shown as smart, strong, and independent in TV and film or else it's SEXIST!!!" type of feminism that seems all too prominent in our society today.
 
My mom somewhat holds that belief. :sweat: I hate society. Soon kids will be shooting people because those people are gay...wait, that already happened. :shrug: Downward spiral.
 
I'm finally ready to post my 2 cents here:

I have nothing against Mr. Jabbar personally, nor have I ever heard any of his "politics" before, but I think he missed the mark here. I'm a strong advocate against gender unfairness in animation, and I found nothing sexist in the Mayor/JoJo plot at all. The plot of a son not wanting to follow in his father's footsteps by joining the family business but at the same time not wanting to hurt his dad's feelings is a fairly common and recognizable story; while it could have done with a daughter, it would've come of as a bit odd, as father/son conflict is more expected in these sorts of things, not to mention that it was probably felt that JoJo's part needed to be expanded upon, as he and the Mayor were the ones carried over from the book.

It was also necessary to render the mayoral position as a quasi-monarchy type situation, with only males being eligible to assume the mantle; after all, if anyone in the family could be Mayor, then the Mayor of Whoville could have just passed the torch onto one of his daughters, and the story would have been much shorter. The 'males only' bit was actually necessary to prolong JoJo's inner conflict.

The only thing I personally found in the slightest bit objectionable about the Horton movie was how they chose to redesign JoJo as a mopey emo kid with black hair and clothes. (Though I assume that was a way to contrast him against the 'bright colorful' characterizations of the rest of his family.)
 
That my stance on that subject as well, I support the theory of Feminism, but if you act extreme Feminist, which I dub with -nazi at the end. I won't listen to you, or take what you say to heart.

As for the topic, I knew he was crossing the line when he said that this movie is more wrong than most of the political stuff happening right now.:shrug: You just don't do that man. You just don't. As mentioned before the daughters were fillers, and if you focused on one daughter, you might as well focus on them all, since that would be neglecting your children if that happened, which is just as bad, if not badder than the movie's supposed sexism. Beside who actually have 97 kids? If I had 97 kids I would sure as hell go insane. If anything he should have focused more on child neglect, but that would have been more absured than what he ranting about.
 
You could at least spell it right.There is such a thing as going overboard (even with feminism) but without woman's sufferage and such we females would not have what we have today.Kareem has a point that some kids may be influenced by this movie,but in different ways.As a child I don't think it would've bothered me,but parents should explain the differences between what is acceptable and what is not.I can see where he's coming from and children need to be taught to discern right from wrong.

And discrimination toward anyone is wrong.
 
I have to disagree. As the years have gone on, tolerance as a whole has gone up. That's not to say there aren't problems with society now, but things aren't going downwards.

On-topic, I think that Kareem's overreacting. Just because a character happens to be male doesn't mean he can't be more important than any females in the cast.
 
I think 'Radical Feminism' is what Hiya is referring to. You know, the SCUM Manifesto and so forth. There's nothing wrong with normal feminism at all.

That said, the complaint that created this topic is more than a bit silly. Kareem is really reaching here.
 
I've got to say I didn't like how how that particular subplot unfolded in the movie. To put forth the idea of a mayor, a position normally chosen by election, and connecting it with a dynasty is just weird. If the book says 'Mayor', I think adding in all these rules associated with monarchy is just strange.
 
You know, I feel uncomfortable saying this...but that bit about the many daughters and one son (who is the heir apparent)...it bugged me a little when I saw the movie. But I thought it was part of the plot of the original book. See, I've never read Horton Hears A Who myself. My mom read it to me. So anyway, although that bit in the movie bugged me a little, I shrugged it off, figuring that when Dr. Seuss wrote that bit, he was echoing a certain sensibility prevalent at the time he wrote it. The news that the moviemakers, not Seuss, came up with the idea is a little offputting, I must admit.

But just the same, Kareem is waaaayyyyy overreacting. There are other female characters in the movie who more than make up for that one miniscule part of the plot. There's a goofy little girl in Horton's "class", for instance, and of course there's the uptight, overbearing kangaroo - who comes around in the end, and even more marvelous, is forgiven. Now how often does THAT happen in a cartoon? No comeuppance, just forgiveness. That was a terrific, truly heartwarming ending that beautifully finished the story about compassion Dr. Seuss - and the moviemakers - were trying to tell. And how on earth could that do any harm?

The guy needs a chill pill.
 
Back
Top