Monday, January 28, 2008

When Art Does Not Imitate Life


I have added a link to this post. It is a terrific op-ed piece by Jess DeBalzo who is a wonderful original family preservation activist. Like me, she is not afraid to call herself "anti-adoption."
http://www.opednews.com/articles/life_a_jessica__080128_a_horror_show_called.htm

Her review of the movie, "Juno" echoes my concerns about the impact that this film might have on our country and the young women who go to see it. It presents adoption as just the peachiest thing imaginable and the only alternative to abortion. How precious and how inaccurate! Showing the heroine keeping and raising her child would have been much more accurate and fair to the average single mother.


It makes me wonder who funded it and authorized the writing of the script. The anti-reproductive choice/pro-adoption, or, so-called, "Child Welfare" consortium seems to have a lot of influence and money to use to lobby and, I imagine, to make a film. Adoption is, as we have often stated in our groups, on our websites and in our blogs, a big-money business that uses young moms like breeding tools to fulfill the demand for healthy infants for the adoption mills.


Juno is played for laughs, but there is nothing laughable about losing your child to adoption. The aftermath, as it was portrayed in this piece of fantasy-fiction film, is so unrealistic as to leave me with my mouth open in profound shock. The grief that goes along with this "decision" is life-long and profound. The "decision" is often based on incomplete information and industry propaganda and "love-bombing" by wannabe adopters. On the whole, this movie is a slap in the face of mothers and adoptees who know how it really feels. The person who wrote this is either an adopter, not involved in adoption at all, or a mother in deep, deep denial.


If all it had taken for me to get past my losses was to have a boyfriend drop in with a guitar, then I wouldn't be on this blog today, would not have spent years searching for my children, would not have been blessed by my daughter spending years searching for me and would not be so adamantly working to prevent just what this movie unashamedly promotes. My feelings are echoed by thousands of mothers and adoptees and millions more, still in that "closet of shame."


Let's get real, Hollywood. You have insulted the intelligence of some very savvy people, here, and made a mockery of an American tragedy. What are you going to follow it up with? A movie about euthanizing senior citizens and babies born with birth defects? Jeez!!


The kids at the top are my great grandchildren and the one mugging for the camera, my Jantzen, would not be with us if my granddaughter and daughter had followed "Juno's" example. Thank God, they didn't. He keeps us laughing with delight and extreme love and he knows who his family IS.


4 comments:

Laurie (formerly known as Momseekingpeace) said...

Good post
I have not gone to see this movie and dont plan to...just the clips that portrayed how "funny" adoption is was enough for me.

Robin said...

Thanks, Laurie. I am thinking about writing a letter to the LA Times, protesting. I have already sent one to the Academy criticizing their poor taste in nominating this junk for an award.

Robin said...

3 CommentsClose this window Jump to comment form
Shadow said...
Robin...Meet the Author of Juno!

Former stripper behind Juno script
Posted Thu Jan 17, 2008 2:25pm AEDT
Updated Thu Jan 17, 2008 2:38pm AEDT


Juno has been described as "one of the brightest, funniest comedies of the year". (http://weblogs.variety.com)
A former stripper-turned-screenwriter is behind a critically-acclaimed comedy being tipped for success as Hollywood's annual awards season gets into full swing.

Diablo Cody has emerged as a serious contender for honours with her maiden script for Juno, which went on release in Australia today.

Cody, 29, shared the Best Original Screenplay award from the National Board of Review earlier this month and is now regarded as a near certainty for an Academy Award nomination.

Canadian director Jason Reitman's handling of Cody's script about an unwanted teenage pregnancy has been lavished with critical praise, described as "one of the brightest, funniest comedies of the year" by the movie review website rottentomatoes.com.

And while reviewers have showered praise on the film, Cody's colourful backstory is garnering almost as much attention.


Graphic writing

Born Brook Busey-Hunt, Cody graduated from college with a media studies degree and had secretarial and proof-reading jobs before entering "on a whim" an amateur stripping contest at a raunchy Minneapolis night spot.

She enjoyed the experience so much that she quit her day job and began full-time work as a stripper, before later blogging about her experiences in the skin-trade with great success.

It was her graphic online blog - "Pussyranch" - that got her noticed. Talent manager Mason Novick stumbled across her online musings by accident during an internet search.

"She was distinctively funny, and her tone was so great, and she's so current," Novick told Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview.

Nevertheless, Cody rebuffed Novick's first approaches, suspicious of the talent agent's intentions.

"Some random guy from LA is emailing me," she said.

"I'm not going to take the bait."

Eventually Novick's persistence paid off, ultimately resulting in Cody penning a best-selling memoir Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper.

While the book was in the pipeline, Novick persuaded her to come up with a screenplay. The result - a draft for Juno and a subsequent movie deal.

Director Reitman, best known for his witty 2006 debut Thank You For Smoking, has compared Cody's emergence to that of the cult film-maker Quentin Tarantino.

"When I think of the response to Diablo and her screenplay, the only person I can equate it to in recent history is Tarantino - that kind of overwhelming excitement about a fresh new voice," Reitman told an interviewer.


Upcoming projects

Cody's talent has already secured a further project - a horror-comedy titled Jennifer's Body. Meanwhile, Steven Spielberg has tapped her to pen TV comedy United States of Tara, about a woman with a personality disorder.

Although Cody has spoken regularly with Spielberg, she has yet to meet the legendary film-maker.

"I genuinely love his movies, I always have," she told the Los Angeles Times.

"I think ET may be the first movie I ever saw in the theatre."


Directing ambitions

Cody is also on record as saying she eventually wants to direct films, partly to redress the balance about how women are portrayed in mainstream movies.

"The attitude toward women in this industry is nauseating," she told The New York Times.

"There are all sorts of porcine executives who are uncomfortable with a woman doing anything subversive.

"They want the movie about the beautiful girl who trip and falls - the adorable klutz."

- Reuters

Robin said...

Awwww, is that what we were?...Adorable Klutzes? Funny but I thought we were young mothers.