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Culture Tangent: A Film About Helpless Blind Women and "Love"

I just watched this short film.



But just because I'm putting it here doesn't mean I'm endorsing it. Did I think it was sweet? Sure. Did I cry? Of course I did. I'm pregnant. McDonalds Arches glowing radiantly in front of an epic sunset make me cry right now. The bar for that has been set exceptionally low.

But let me give you the cliff notes of what this 8-minute movie (which was almost certainly made by a man) is all about:

  • Woman cooks and cleans and does laundry for her husband, even though they both appear to have equally demanding full time jobs.
  • She insists she does this, because it's important his coworkers can tell from his crisp white shirts that his wife loves him. (GAAAAAG.)
  • He doesn't seem to put up much fuss about this.
  • Woman goes blind, and because she feels she can no longer serve her husband, feels unworthy of his love.
  • Woman appears to slowly learn to adapt and continue cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, and going to her demanding full time job.
  • BIG REVEAL: Turns out he's silently helping her to adapt by pre-sorting the laundry and following her to work every day, during which he condescendingly remarks that she insists on continuing to work, as if that's cute. 
  • He gives himself a big old pat on the back, "She will never know how much I do for her, and I never need her to know."  (Nevermind that he ALSO doesn't seem to notice how much she does for him.)
  •  Because that's what makes her feel like she's worth something in this world! How sweet! What a SELFLESS guy. What a romantic! What a love story! 
  • And what I think must be the sub-moral of this story, if you go blind and you're single, you're TOTALLY screwed and will never adapt, because disabilities mean you can't do anything by yourself anymore without dying.


I hope if I ever go blind, people will be as patronizing and self congratulatory as this guy is about continuing to love his super hot, hard-working, intelligent, and resilient blind wife. Because God knows without his help, she'd NEVER learn how to adapt on her own to continuing to serve her husband at all costs.

4.5 MILLION HITS and counting. 

I know, I KNOW, I watch The Bachelor. But you know what the difference is between The Bachelor and this? We all agree that those women are crazy and that whole scenario is culturally regressive, and we accept it as sort of a sick and twisted entertainment device. This is just straight-up misogyny dressed up as an artsy and culturally accepted perspective on love. DO BETTER AT LIFE, SHORT FILM SCENE.    





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