The Right Message Or Wrong Message... You Decide

[mystery7]

While at the movies, I saw a new film trailer with the Rock in it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFW_UVu8sVQ

The Rock is showing a teenage boy that bouncing pecs will help you win the girl. I mean seeing the Rock doing that is hot but something isn't right here. In my mind, the Rock is telling him (and other teenage boys watching this film) that to win the girl's affection you need to have big beefy pecs to get her attention. It's like the Rock is telling everyone, go workout and get some muscles now.

Yes I know totally different than the usual conversations but what to do you think?

[visionsofruin]

I'll agree that its not responsible to teach boys that they need to be hulks to get the girl. My first two girl friends hated muscular guys and actually asked me to stop working out.
But I will admit that I laughed when I saw that part of the ad.

[Perados]

i would say who cares? How often do you see at cartoons like sponge bob a muscle guy flex at the beach with all the girls around or that muscles and body hair is masculin... For small kids i would say either is more funny for them then anything else. And if they are older they will understand they joke that it is...

[Ohme123]

Originally Posted by Perados

i would say who cares? How often do you see at cartoons like sponge bob a muscle guy flex at the beach with all the girls around or that muscles and body hair is masculin... For small kids i would say either is more funny for them then anything else. And if they are older they will understand they joke that it is...

I disagree. I think you'd be surprised about how even subtle things like this can influence young kids. Not that working out is a bad thing by any means (~i am on this site~) but the media basically patrols what it means to be "masculine" / "attractive" and I think that can be really damaging for a lot of kids.

[suma]

lighten up for goodness sake, in truth the whole scene was just an opportunity for the Rock to show some pec muscle, that sells in movies.

[suma]

lighten up ,geesh!!!
it's a cheap movie going for cheap laughs, oohs & ahhs
any opportunity to get the Rock to show some muscle is gonna sell.

[morhedron]

hate to point this out, but the whole scene is obviously being played for laughs. (try uttering the line, "pec pop of love," without laughing).

i also hate to point out that, almost without question, the guy will get the girl at the end WITHOUT getting all muscled up.

[ydt81]

Yea I'm a social justice junkie myself but you gotta choose your battles; sometimes a joke is just a joke haha. Save your energy for the big stuff-- after all, someone somewhere actually idolizes a character on Jersey Shore.

[Curiosity]

Originally Posted by ydt81

Yea I'm a social justice junkie myself but you gotta choose your battles; sometimes a joke is just a joke haha. Save your energy for the big stuff-- after all, someone somewhere actually idolizes a character on Jersey Shore.

And there we have the media sending the wrong message.

[Ohme123]

I mean this is really fine tbh, I was talking more in general

obviously the skinny dude'll get the girl

[tekuno]

It may not be a case which is worth fighting for, but it's definitely a "wrong message" moment. By having a character who is being played by someone rich and famous say this, the movie reinforces that there is nothing wrong with thinking and talking this way. It doesn't matter if the character turns out to be wrong by the end of the movie, every teenaged bully out there who watches this movie will see this as "hey, cool rich guys who get splashed around the media act like this, so I should too".

If you're skeptical, try replacing the statement with something offensive that contains an old racial epithet that's old enough to sound kind of weird. Suppose, for example, his character had said "she won't like you because you're a spic/gook/mick/kraut/sheeny". Would that be okay, even if the character turned out to be wrong? No. (Heck, that last one would almost certainly guarantee that the movie would never even reach distribution, considering how on top of things the Anti-Defamation League is.)

But is it worth bothering about? Probably not. American culture has a lot more to worry about than whether the latest piece of garbage thrown out by the MPAA is insulting; anyone smart enough to worry about this movie is probably not going to see it.

[dominicrue]

Wow you guys are taking this way too seriously. The whole reason the pec dance is funny is cause it shows contrast in what we'd normally consider good advice. No girl with a brain will fall in love with someone just because they can do a pec dance.

I think people feel like hollywood script writers have huge agendas in influencing people to do certain things. As hot as that idea might be, it's rarely true. or if it is, It doesn't work. Think of all the 80's tv shows that told you that smoking pot is bad and will make you do horrible things, like get arrested.

Now look at all the marijuana dispensaries that are in Colorado and California today.The number one goal for tv and movies are to sell things. Not teach people.

[ushersdick]

Yeah don't take this too seriously, tbh, The Rock looks hot. lol.

Obviously this isn't meant to be a public information film. That's tongue in cheek.

[Curiosity]

Not to mention it's thrown in there as a 3D gimick as well.

[mystery7]

Good to see that their are some different opinions here.

[Mdlftr]

,,,What also makes this funny is that the advice from the Rock to flex your pecs and win the girl is the opposite of most of the "older man imparts wisdom to young man" scenarios you see in literature and the movies.
This is more like something an older woman would tell a young girl on "getting her man" in a movie from the 1950s!


Instead of skills, it's looks that are important. This is patently a joke, since they need physical skills to stay alive on this island with all the dinosaurs and giant bees and other critters!

It's a funny joke and nothing bigger than that. BTW, the youth in the movie was in the earlier "Journey to the Center of the Earth" with Brendan Frasier, who is also in the "older beefcake" school.

Looks like a fun movie!

Mdlftr

[mario2007]

Really? You really have a problem with this?

[Rarity]

The media spreading messages that are hurtful to many folks' self-esteem/may be problematic?!!! NO WAAAAAAAAY! How new and exciting - I certainly never heard of the "media" doing something like that. BRB forcing myself to puke so I can be sickly-thin photoshoped girls in the Victoria Secret magazine.

Seriously though, this shouldn't be taken seriously. c wat i did thar

[mystery7]

I remember watching a video in photoshop class where they take a simple picture of a man's or woman's face and made it into a face you would see in a magazine ad or billboard. They know how to change the appearance for everyone in the media.