Note: SPOILERS AHEAD
The movie is about a young suburban couple in the 1950s, who dream of something beyond the tedium of their daily lives. Kate Winslet's character, April, is getting an absurd amount of hate on the forums. Because she yells at her husband instead of being properly grateful to him for...uh...being weak-willed. For cheating on her. For telling her to keep the child neither of them wanted. For putting his masculinity/power ahead of his partner's happiness. He's not the Antichrist, but he does suck quite a bit.April is a dreamer, but she is willing to work to change things. She suffered from what Betty Freidan called 'the problem with no name'.
If you've studied 1950s history, you'll know that this was virtual pandemic of severe depression among women (normally housewives). Hell, if I had to stare at a white Formica table and service some entitled douchebag for the rest of MY life, I might go off the deep end too. Suppression of a dream can really fuck with you. Yeah, I know---you have to be realistic too, but there is always some kind of balance to be found. That is something I truly believe. It is within all humans to find this balance. But these comments drive me bananas! My personal fave is the thread about why women and girls are so bitchy, only wanting what they can't have and being shallow and...(wait for it!)make the poor menz work for EVERYTHING.
Did you know guys are entitled to sex at all times? I didn't. Maybe that explains why I've been dumped twice. But yeesh, the level of misogyny present was horrifying. I kinda feel the need to shower after that experience. I know where I'M not going again! *shudder*
Oh yeah--people on this forum ask why April was so irrational. Why she wasn't grateful. I suspect that some people still have this pipe dream that people were DIFFERENT (read: cleaner, nicer, whiter) back then. They weren't! They were just like us, only with fewer options--and way more crippling social backlash if they tried to create their own.Which is essentially April's fate.
That's another thing--she tries to abort (abortion was still illegal then), which is something else the trollfolk seem to believe damns April. I honestly don't agree. First off, the insinuation that this desperate woman somehow deserved to die is sickening. This is why abortion is legal now--no, not because we want to kill teh preshus babeez---we want to save WOMEN. Because sure, their fetus might turn into the next Barack Obama. But my question is this--why does this same logic not apply to the woman in question? Could she be destined for greatness? Why is she worth less? That's one question I've never had answered to my satisfaction.
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